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7 Questions You Should Ask Your SEO Firm
Posted Jan 2nd, 2010 By Mirna Bard in Internet Marketing, Search Engine Marketing With | 3 Comments

SEO firms or consultants can be of great benefit to your business, but unfortunately, there are some frauds out there. You can’t just assume that someone is an expert in the field because he says he is. It’s up to you, the consumer, to take the time to do your due diligence, but the following questions can help you get a straight answer and figure out if the company is the right one for you.

Search engine optimization (SEO)

1. How long have you been in business? A company that has only just started might not be legit. That’s not to say that no new company is trustworthy, but you will want to know more about the people behind it and their experience with SEO before committing to them.

2. How is success measured? There needs to be a specific method of checking for success if you are going to hire someone to do your search engine optimization for you. Otherwise, there’s no telling if you are getting what you paid for.

3. What are some of your more successful campaigns? An SEO company that has been in business for a while should have some case studies of happy clients to show you. If they don’t, you might want to look elsewhere.

4. Can you share your general SEO process? This question needs to be asked because you don’t want spam tactics being used. A badly done SEO campaign can destroy your company’s online reputation and ruin your search engine rankings, so make sure the company isn’t using anything but white hat techniques.

5. Do you offer a guarantee? If the answer is yes, clarify, but be suspicious. It’s impossible for anyone to guarantee specific results when it comes to search engines, so if someone says they guarantee top spots, you should look elsewhere.

6. How will I know what you’re doing? Your SEO company should give you frequent updates on what they are doing. How frequent? That’s between you and your SEO firm . . . you should be able to request updates more often if you need them.

7. What is the long term plan? SEO isn’t just about optimizing your content and leaving it, a good strategy is ongoing. Check with the company to see what their long term plan is for your site.

Ask the right questions and you should be able to tell if the firm you are considering hiring is legit or not. What is your advice to selected an SEO firm?
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?
Social Advertising Best Practices Released by IAB
Posted May 25th, 2009 By Mirna Bard in Social Media, Social Networking With | No Comments

Last week, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) released a guide for social media best practices. The guide, available at their website (http://www.iab.net/socialads) covers both reasons to use social media as an advertising medium and base, as well as offering recommendations to define consumer permissions, protect the privacy of social media users and to help ensure advertising and data gathering transparency.

Defining Social Media Advertising

First up is a definition of a social media ad. The document defines this as:

“An online ad that incorporates user interactions that the consumer has agreed to display and be shared. The resulting ad displays these interactions along with the user’s persona (picture and/or name) within the ad content.”
This can include profile, social and interaction data and this type of ad is very frequently seen on sites like Facebook where a friend`s name might be used to catch the user`s attention and get them to sign up for a new application.

Protecting Privacy

Since social media is a medium that requires personal connections in order to function, it`s no surprise that privacy is an issue when it comes to ads that use data from social interactions. The IAB outlines what constitutes privacy in this setting, since it is an area that is not typically covered in the rules for regular online marketing.

It`s suggested that consumer data should only be incorporated into social ads if the person has already opted in and given permission for access to their profile data. Also, the consumer needs to know precisely which information is being used, how and what for. Transparency is the key here and is highly recommended in the social practices guide.

Other Guidelines

The IAB report also goes over the various types of social media ads and how they are used, including which personal data they would require. Another area that is looked at is how the advertiser should disclose their data usage and what is considered fair use.

For businesses interested in leveraging the power of social media in their marketing, this guide is a must read. It will give you an idea of how to go about things ethically and ensure you don`t run into problems with your ads.
Search Engine Marketing: Building Your Business Economically
Posted May 22nd, 2009 By Mirna Bard in Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) With | 1 Comment

One of the biggest advantages to promoting your business online, even if it`s a brick and mortar business, is the fact that it is affordable. You can literally spend tens of thousands of dollars for the same results that you`ll get for a fraction of the price online. Search engine marketing is one of the best methods of building your business without spending a fortune.

What is Search Engine Marketing?

Quite simply, search engines are always looking for relevant content to give their searchers and if you have optimized your business site or blog for your top keywords, then the search engines are will recognize you as an appropriate search result. The higher you are in the search results, the more people will see and click on your link.

Very few business owners have the time or energy, much less the know how to do their own search engine marketing, but that`s not an issue these days. Everything can be outsourced, from building your website to providing SEO content. An entire online marketing campaign can be worked up and executed by an expert in the field for far less than an offline endeavor would cost.

What does this mean for you? Search engine marketing is far too important to miss out on. It`s an affordable method of promotion for any business, no matter what the marketing budget. Without creating your site with search engines in mind, you are essentially dooming it to a life of hiding on page 55 of the search results, never to be found by those looking to buy your products and services.

Marketing to the search engines is something that can be done every time you add content to your site and over time it will pay off, particularly if you`ve chosen a knowledgeable expert to do the optimization for you.
3 “Must See” SEO Charts
Posted Feb 17th, 2009 By Mirna Bard in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) With | 1 Comment

We wanted to share what we think are great charts for anyone starting to dabble with SEO.

Two of the charts are posted on SEOBOOK, a great blog by Aaron Wall, one of the masters of search engine optimization (SEO). SEOBOOK offers online marketing strategy tips and search news.

The first chart is the SEO Flow Chart, which describes the basic SEO process. Since most people are more visual, we thought this would be a great image that explains what basic SEO entails in a nutshell.

The second chart is the SEO Process Chart. This chart is a very good reminder that SEO is not a magic or an overnight solution. It is an ongoing step-by-step process.

The third chart is the Search Engine Decoder posted on Search-This. This chart explains the relationship between all the major search engines and directories. If you click around on the decoder, it will show you which major search engines supply paid and organic search results to smaller engines. We get asked a lot if a web site should be submitted to all search engines. And, the answer is NO! This decoder explains why manual submissions are unnecessary.

We hope these charts have helped you clarify some SEO questions. Please leave your questions and comments. Tell us what you think…we would love to hear from you!

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