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2009

10 Expert Relationship Marketing Tips
Posted Dec 8th, 2009 By Mirna Bard in Social Media, Social Networking With | 4 Comments

More and more businesses are turning away from the “talking at” one-way advertising model and toward relationship marketing. This allows them to interact with their clients, which is definitely the direction that online marketing is taking these days. I’ve compiled some tips for those looking to connect and build deeper bonds with their clients.

1. Listen to your customers. This might seem obvious, but you’d be surprised how many companies forget it.

2. Build a reputation. If you’re a guru in your chosen area, people will trust you. This can be done via blogs, speaking engagements, etc.

3. Keep track of existing clients. Keeping a file with some basic information will allow you to relate to each client personally, ask about their kids, wish them a happy birthday, etc. The details make all the difference.

4. Let them know they are important. Giving regular customers a little bonus or a freebie is a great way to cement your relationship and let them know that you appreciate them.

5. Share personal facts. While you shouldn’t spill your guts over every little thing, letting your clients know you’re human is a great way to build a successful relationship marketing campaign.

6. Give them real value. When someone buys something from you, give them a little extra and they will never forget you. This could be as simple as a free ebook or coupon for a discount on their next purchase.

7. Stay in touch. Relationship marketing is about remaining in contact with your clients, so set up an email list that will enable you to let them know about anything new and just to touch base from time to time, particularly between projects to make sure that your services or products are always fresh in the client’s mind.

8. Ask questions. What better way to find out what your potential customers will buy than to simply ask? Do this via email or set up a poll that visitors to your site can take, then act on the results.

9. Remember the Golden Rule. The best thing you can do in marketing is remember that the customer is always right. Follow that and you will always have happy clients coming back to you.

10. Be flexible. This is something that can really help your business grow. When a client needs something that is slightly out of your usual services, why not see if you can accommodate them? It could be a whole new way to do business and you’ll gain more clients.

Relationship marketing does take more involvement than more traditional methods, but it is certainly worth it. You’ll find that it is quite effective and with the interactivity of today’s online marketing, people are looking for companies that are open and responsive.

What strategies are you using to build the connections with customers?
3 Reasons Big Companies Use YouTube
Posted Oct 18th, 2009 By Mirna Bard in Social Media, Social Networking, Video Marketing, Viral Marketing, YouTube With | 1 Comment

Video marketing is one of the faster growing types of social media. While text based apps like Twitter are thriving, people still love to watch videos online and YouTube is still the king of the video world, whether you like it or not. The main reason for this is simply sheer size. The site has millions of videos and hundreds of thousands of users. According to their fact sheet, about 10 hours of video is uploaded every minute!

The power of a video site this big is that you can use it to get your marketing video in front of not dozens, not hundreds, but tens of thousands of potential clients. Of course, it’s a bit of a job to make sure that many people actually see it, but once a video goes viral, its traffic will soar. This is one of the biggest reasons more and more large corporations are turning to the social video site to promote their companies. Why are they doing this? Here are the main reasons.

1. Exposure. With millions of viewers, YouTube offers a ripe arena for presenting information to the public. Since videos show up in Google searches, companies can set up their own videos and channels and have these appear in search results when they are properly tagged.

2. Interactivity. Social media is big with companies because it allows the clients and users to interact with the company, something that simply didn’t happen before. For those businesses that are embracing this new medium, their users are free to share their videos (in most cases) and comment on them, making it a medium that is far more approachable than an ad on television.

3. Price. Being able to produce videos on a relatively low budget and upload them to YouTube for free is something that any business can do. Though we are seeing a rise in the number of big corporations showing their videos and ads on video sites like YouTube, this is only recently because they are actually placing them there. For years, people would upload their favorite movie trailers, clips and television ads . . . but now the businesses responsible for these are realizing what a sweet deal free exposure is and are willingly adding their brands to the video site.

If you haven’t started in on video marketing, it’s definitely a good idea to look into it. After all, companies like Volvo, Universal Music, Lionsgate and Electronic Arts can’t be wrong with all their advertising dollars!

Are you using YouTube to ptomote your business? Please tell us about it.
Five Tips for Outsourcing Social Media
Posted Oct 14th, 2009 By Mirna Bard in Social Media, Social Networking With | 3 Comments

It’s no secret that social networking takes time. Much as you would like to be involved with social media, chances are you have your hands full with running your business. So how do you make sure that the social side of things is running smoothly if you aren’t handling it personally? Here are some tips to make sure it all goes well.

1. Have specific goals. You need to know where you’re going with this promotion. Whether you hire someone in house or outsource to a PR firm, it’s important to get everything down so everyone is on the same page. If you don’t know a lot about social media, talk to your networker and get some ideas as to where you should be going with it.

2. Create a persona. Even if the social networking will be done from a corporate account, consistency is key in getting followers and keeping them. It’s possible that more than one person will be handling the social media for your site, but even one person should know exactly how you want to be presented. Give them a good idea of what it is that you want people to think about when they interact with your persona online.

3. Choose the right people. There are a lot of people out there who claim to be social media gurus. In general, if they’re calling themselves gurus, stay far away! That aside, you’ll need to be careful who you select. Check into their background, find out how many companies they’ve worked with and how successful they’ve been. You may wish to talk to some of their other clients to find out if the firm is a good match for you.

4. Set up a landing page. When visitors through social media come to your business website, what do they see? Is it going to hold their attention for long? Many website visitors will click away within 15 seconds, so you need to have something on your site that will grab their attention and keep them around. There’s really no point in channeling targeted traffic if the site isn’t ready to convert them into paying customers.

5. Get regular reports. Social media isn’t something you can just set up and leave alone. It needs constant interaction and that is part of the reason why it’s so time consuming. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t know what is going on, though. In fact, the best thing you can do is talk to your social networking firm about getting regular updates from them so you know how close to your goals you’re getting.

When it comes to social media, you might not have time to do everything yourself. Outsourcing is a great alternative and if done the right way, with the right people, you’ll reap all the benefits and still be able to get work done.
5 Tips for SEO Video Marketing
Posted Oct 8th, 2009 By Mirna Bard in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media, Social Networking, Video Marketing, Viral Marketing With | 4 Comments

These days, video is really growing on the Internet. Where text was once the content of choice, that’s not necessarily true anymore. Video and audio are becoming extremely popular and the fact that more people have faster Internet now means that videos can be more complex and longer than the 30 second bites from before.

While video is an excellent way to show people what you do or promote your business, many don’t realize that videos can also boost traffic and increase SEO. Not sure how that works? Here are some tips for you.

1. Choose your video site carefully. There are a myriad of video sites out there, but the bigger ones will give you more Google juice. Search engine optimization is key, so YouTube is a good place to start since it is already huge with the search engines.

2. Make a meaningful video. While you can still gain traffic from a short, useless video, ideally you want something that will go viral. The more sites that pick up the video, the better. Humor is something that will always go over well and tends to get passed on, so if you can pull it off, this is a great way to go.

3. Use tags. All video sites will let you fill in tags to describe the video, so use your keyword phrases in this section. This will help them come up in relevant searches, as well.

4. Write a great description. This is what people will be looking at to decide if they want to watch your video or not. The description can have a main keyword phrase in it, but don’t overdo things. You’ll get the best results with subtlety.

5. Write a killer title. Your video title should be something that makes people sit up and pay attention, but still include your main keyword. Remember that this is one of the best places to boost SEO, always with the right title.

Video marketing isn’t new. How you use it for SEO is definitely a technique that is just starting to become popular, however. If you want to boost search engine rankings, you can start by creating some viral videos to drive links and traffic to your site.
7 Ways to Make StumbleUpon More Useful for Small Business
Posted Oct 5th, 2009 By Mirna Bard in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Bookmarking, Social Media, Social Networking, StumbleUpon With | 4 Comments

Of all the social media sites available, StumbleUpon is perhaps one of the most complex bookmarker available. It allows you to connect with others, message them, send links to friends, vote up and down and a myriad of other actions. If you are using SU for business promotion, chances are you’re missing out on a few of the better methods of using this handy tool.

1. Install the toolbar. If you really want to make good use of this social bookmarking site, you’ll definitely need the toolbar. It will let you rate and share the best websites as you find them, without having to log into StumbleUpon each time to mark a site. After all, let’s face it, you probably won’t bother to do.

2. Discover new sites. While giving sites thumbs up after someone else has already marked them, being the one to actually discover a webpage and give it the first review is good for two reasons. First of all, it puts your avatar at the top of the page as the one who discovered it. That means others who enjoy the site will want to click on you and find out what else you have found. The second reason is that StumbleUpon itself is on the lookout for those who are discovering numerous sites, so you will get a better status by providing quality content.

3. Deep link to your site. If you do link to your own blog or site, never go for the home page. Instead, make sure you link to a deeper internal page or specific blog post. This not only means you have a lot of options when it comes to stumbling, but you will boost SEO in a more natural way. Keep in mind that you should only stumble your own stuff once in a while. Most of the time you will be far better off giving someone else’s content thumbs up in exchange for them rating your pages.

4. Write a real profile description. Entirely too many people put an ad in place of their profile. Instead of frightening off potential followers, try being more realistic and personable. Tell a bit about yourself and then introduce what you do. This will work far better than a straight up ad.

5. Stumble posts that link back to you. If you are writing good, consistent content, chances are your URL will end up on a few other blogs, whether in context or a list post. The important thing is that it links back to your site, so stumbling that post will help you out, as well as the blogger who was nice enough to give a linkback.

6. Thank the person who discovered your site on SU. They’ll keep you in mind next time they’re looking for great content to stumble.

7. Build up that friends list. If you look for friends with similar interests, chances are much higher that they will want to help you out and link to your content or give it a thumbs up. It’s fairly easy to find friends because if you find a page that relates well to your business, you can simply look at who else liked the page and then add them as friends. You already know that they are interested in the same things and if you stumble their picks from time to time, they will start to notice you, as well.

Are you using StumbleUpon to its full potential? The social bookmarking site is one that offers a lot of value if you use it right, but so many people never realize how to maximize their use of it.

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