Message from Michelle

Greetings from beautiful St. Croix. I’m here for a week visiting my brother and for a little rest and relaxation before I begin promoting the launch of my new website.

Over the past few months, I’ve been sharing bits and pieces of the work that’s gone into rebranding my company and refining my services and message. Throughout the process, I’ve had to take a hard look at what my company stands for, whom I serve, and how we can better serve current and prospective clients. What I found is that after I got clear on the above, my message became crystal clear.

This issue of Your Business Marketing Solution offers three tips on authentically marketing your business. Customers and strategic partners alike enjoy being loyal to companies that are authentic through various marketing platforms, such as their company website, social media sites, and networking events. And people like doing business with a company they feel they can trust. Being authentic not only attracts your target audience to you, but it also makes doing business so much more fun and a whole lot easier.

Feature Article: Three Ways to Authentically Market Your Business

Building a successful business online requires effectively reaching potential clients through strategic and authentic marketing practices. And companies that utilize transparent practices are more successful than companies that shy away from expressing their brand personality and business practices.

Transparent practices are crucial if you want to build trust between potential clients and your brand. If you hide your brand personality, if your message is inflated or muddled in industry jargon, or if the message is too focused on the company, it will be difficult to reach a large range of potential clients and strategic partners.

The key is to get real. Take some time and evaluate your business mission and what your company stands for. Take a look at where you aren’t being as authentic as you could be, then rework your message to reflect the personality and the message you want to communicate.

Here are three result-driven ways to authentically market your business:

Tip of the Month

According to eMarketer.com, small-to midsized businesses are spending quite a bit of their marketing dollars online. In 2008, $6.8 billion dollars was spent on online advertising by small businesses, and by 2013, an estimated $7.4 billion will be spent on online advertising by small businesses.

Building a successful business online requires effectively reaching potential clients through strategic and authentic marketing practices. And companies that utilize transparent practices are more successful than companies that shy away from expressing their brand personality and business practices.

Transparent practices are crucial if you want to build trust between potential clients and your brand. If you hide your brand personality, if your message is inflated or muddled in industry jargon, or if the message is too focused on the company, it will be difficult to reach a large range of potential clients and strategic partners.

The key is to get real. Take some time and evaluate your business mission and what your company stands for. Take a look at where you aren’t being as authentic as you could be, then rework your message to reflect the personality and the message you want to communicate.

Here are three result-driven ways to authentically market your business:

• Share your brand story and your company’s personality on your website. Don’t make your potential customers feel out of the loop or intimidated when they visit your website. A website that lacks a clear, authentic message and unique company personality will weaken the connection between the visitor and your brand image. A site with a transparent About Us page is a powerful tool that facilitates a strong connection. Not only do potential clients like to see whom they’re doing business with, they also like to see an authentic brand story and the personality of the company.

• Become transparent on social media sites. Social media sites are the perfect places to reach a high concentration of potential customers and strategic partners and to integrate your company into the online community. They are an informal way to market your business and places where you can truly let your personality and brand image shine through in a fun and interactive way.

Offering behind-the-scenes information, sneak peeks, photos, videos, and recent news about your business on these social media sites provides potential customers with a clear understanding of your brand image and your practices. It also gives prospects a sense of the personalities behind the business.

• Share yourself and your company at networking events. A networking event is the perfect place to meet referral partners, strategic partners, and potential clients. Your goal at a networking event is to be remembered—in a positive way—by a handful of people with whom you speak. Don’t be afraid to let your personality shine through when discussing business. This transparency is the key to showing others that your business practices and brand image are authentic. Allow potential customers and strategic partners to build a strong connection between you as a person and your brand name. When you are remembered, your business will be remembered.

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Message from Michelle

Overwhelmed. It happens to all business owners at one time or another.

With technology moving faster than it takes me to make a pot of coffee (I have a Bunn–brews delicious coffee in three minutes or less), feeling overwhelmed is hard to avoid. You try your best to stay on top of the newest avenues to market your company online. But as hard as you try, you can’t seem to stay abreast of the latest and greatest ways to get your message across the Internet and reach prospects.

You are not alone.

In my business, it’s my job to know what’s going on in the World Wide Web. My team and I constantly surf the Internet for the newest technology, changes in SEO, and the latest applications for social media sites. And guess what? As much as we research, we’re often overwhelmed.

This issue of Your Business Marketing Solution, I decided to share with you five new ways to use social media sites to stay ahead of the competition, optimize your marketing efforts, and increase your company’s online exposure. The article provides you with a brief summary of each new application, so you don’t have to go searching for it.

Feature Article

5 New Ways to Market Your Business Online

One of the best ways to market your company online is through social media sites. Although it can be time consuming, learning the ins and outs of social media sites is extremely important if you want to stay up-to-date with your online marketing efforts.

Unless you’re a social media guru, you might have to search vigorously for the location of applications, and you might spend hours finding new changes. Often, trial and error is the only avenue to figure out the proper ways to use these sites. The hours begin to add up, and by the time you finally figured out how to navigate and use a social media site, new applications and formats have been added. So, it’s back to the drawing board…

Before you get discouraged…keep reading. There’s hope. Save yourself time and effort searching for new social media site updates and applications. Here are five new ways to use social media sites to stay ahead of the competition, optimize marketing efforts, and increase online exposure:

1. Google Friend Connect API: In March, Google launched the Google Friend Connect API (GFC), which works the same way many social media sites do. GFC is an excellent tool for companies to use on their blog to drive targeted site traffic and grow a successful business online. The application offers entertaining social features that engage visitors, allowing them to interact, sign into your blog as a member, and invite their friends from other social media sites to become a member. All of GFC’s features permit you to build your own niche-oriented online community centered around your blog. This community will consist of people interested in your industry expertise and business. To more easily view the social activities occurring on your site, add the Google social bar to your blog. Go here to get started.
2. YouTube’s Collaborative Annotations: On February 20, 2009, YouTube introduced an updated version of its collaborative annotations application. The update allows friends to create speech bubbles, notes, and spotlights on your videos. This tool works to stimulate conversation among viewers and allows you to receive feedback about the message of your video from viewers, colleagues, and friends. And it enables the audience to inform you about positive and negative elements of your video. Go here to get started.
3. Yahoo’s Rich Ads in Search: Providing advertisers with similar benefits to banner ads, Yahoo’s Rich Ads in Search add a whole new visual element to search engine results. This new search layout incorporates video and images into the search engine results next to the company name, as opposed to a simple hyperlink. Yahoo’s Rich Ads in Search allows viewers to become more engaged in the search process and allows visitors to easily find what they’re looking for. Go here to get started.
4. Speeqe: Similar to Twitter, Speeqe allows you to send updated messages to friends and co-workers. The difference between the two lies in the length and immediacy of the conversation. Speeqe provides visitors with personalized, instant chat rooms, where they can invite others to join a discussion. This social media tool is an excellent way to have an immediate and fulfilling conversation without being restricted by word count. Twitter, on the other hand, only allows you to send messages no longer than 140 characters per message. Go here to get started.
5. Google’s Rich-Media / Video Ad Templates: Advertisers looking to engage viewers in the buying process greatly benefit from using Google’s new ad templates. These templates allow advertisers to display numerous products across one ad, enabling them to sell several products at once. Even better, you can attach a URL to each product, which means you could virtually have three landing pages as opposed to one. This will increase site traffic and online exposure. The new Google templates also allow you to place video in the ad for an even more interactive user experience. Google can also track what viewers scrolled their mouse over, and how long they watched the video for. Go here to get started.

Tip of the Month

MarketingSherpa reports that more than 90% of companies see their presence on social media sites as helping build their brand reputation and awareness.

Message from Michelle

It’s fashion week here in Charleston, and I’m having a blast each evening watching runway shows with friends, colleagues, and clients. To see more photos from Fashion Week, visit my blog.

Along with the busy social schedule, there’s a lot happening in the office. I’m excited to announce my client Hills of Africa has launched their new website. I had the pleasure of working closely with owners Meredith Hill and Sandy Salle to write optimized web copy for the site. And our PR efforts for Daniel Island Mortgage came to fruition with owner Gary Harwyn being on the local evening news twice last week, and a number of publications around the state have followed.

In other exciting news, I’m busy preparing for a free teleseminar I’m holding on March 31, 2009, with style expert Lee Heyward on 4 Ways to Perfect Your Business Image…Right Now.  This call holds a special place for me as I’ve been working to refine my business image and rebrand my company. We now have a new name, a new logo, and the new website is soon to follow.

Working on the business-image call sparked this issue’s feature article on why now is the time to invest in your business image and brand. First impressions are everything, especially on the Internet where you have seconds to grab viewers’ attention. But having the right image on the web is important now more than ever during this economic slump.

Feature Article

Relationship Marketing During a Recession

During economic slowdowns, companies have a tendency to scale back marketing spending. We think our behavior is perfectly logical: money is tight, be tight with money. However, research shows that a downturn creates opportunity to accelerate growth faster than your competitors. This means right now–this week, this month, this year–is the best time to invest in your business and in your business image.

Consumers and companies alike are still spending, but they are focusing on getting the most out of every dollar spent and on demonstrating their marketing’s impact on revenue.

Whether a corporation or a single mom, buyers are thinking twice about whom they do business with. They are spending more time researching their options–looking for the best value for their dollar and the right company to hire or product to buy. They’re looking for value. And the business image that you portray–from your website to your Facebook page–needs to represent this.

McGraw-Hill did a study of businesses during the 1981-82 recession, and companies that maintained their advertising levels had a 275 percent increase in sales, while those that didn’t had increases of only 19 percent.

During the 1990-1991 recession years, Management Review asked American Marketing Association member firms about spending during the recession. The study showed that 15 percent reported greatly decreased ad budgets, while advertising was somewhat cut by 29 percent. But most firms that raised their marketing budgets enjoyed gains in market share. Management Review concluded that firms that increased their budgets and took on new people were twice as likely to pick up market share.

So what does this have to do with perfecting your business image?

Now more than ever, relationships between customers and brands are critical. Relationship marketing has surged to the top of effective marketing campaigns as a means to keep an appropriate level of market share and customer loyalty. And your marketing, especially online, helps to foster and maintain consumer-brand relationships.

If you don’t put effort into your marketing message, your website and blog, and all your marketing materials for that matter, what does that tell potential clients and companies you do business with about how you conduct business, how you see and value your business, and how it connects with others?

It sounds harsh, but make the wrong impression and you might break that customer - brand loyalty.

Tip of the Month

Findings from the Aberdeen Group’s recently published report, “The ROI on Social Media Marketing,” found that 63 percent of companies surveyed planned to increase their social media marketing budgets in 2009.

To read the article, click here.

Message from Michelle

Spring is here in lovely Charleston. It’s 80 and sunny, and I’m looking forward to taking my dog to the Battery for a stroll after work today.

Spring is all about newness. A fresh start. As many of you know from previous issues, I am taking big steps to grow my business–rebranding my company, investing in a new website, and trying out new ways to market online. In order to do so, I’m willingly adapting to the changes in the marketplace.

Change can be extremely scary, and it’s easy to fall into a pit of stress and worry when you feel you’re being forced to change. But I’ve learned it’s all a matter of perspective.

It’s not about the change itself. It’s about your actions in response to the change. Change can have many positive impacts on your business and everyday work interactions.

If you are struggling to grow your business, stressed about sales, and worried about the future of your company, then it’s time to start doing things a new way. This issue of Your Business Marketing Solution offers 12 ways to promote your company online and drive targeted traffic to your website. If you haven’t begun doing so, I urge you to read over the list and see where you can start trying new ways to grow your business.

Feature Article:

12 Ways to Drive Targeted Traffic to Your Website

1. Blog for Business: Blogging for business is free and is an excellent way to attract thousands of potential customers to your website, increase your search engine rankings, and boost company credibility. Regularly posting a blog also builds loyal readership and attracts more people to your website.

2. Commenting on Blogs: Posting comments on blogs, forums, and discussion boards related to your target market and industry is a great way to increase site traffic. Use these platforms to post comments, get consumer feedback, and search for industry updates. Posting relevant and helpful comments increases your credibility and lures more readers to your website. After every comment, include a link to your blog or website to increase targeted traffic.

3. Socialize Online: Social media sites effectively integrate your business into the online community and help give your company result-driven online exposure. They’re a great place to post inbound links to your website and are a way to express industry expertise. Social media sites allow you to post recent news, company events, company information, discussion questions, and other useful tools used for building solid online relationships.

4. Bookmark your Business: Bookmarking your online articles, blogs, and website in specific categories on a social bookmarking site, such as Digg, allows you to reach out to your target market. These sites permit you to share web content with others and allows them to vote on it. If this content becomes popular among viewers, it will be voted to the front page of the bookmarking site and be viewed by thousands of potential clients.

5. Utilize RSS Feed: RSS feed allows you to reach subscribers interested in what your company has to offer. RSS feed is similar to emails since they’re both sent to subscribers, providing them with updated information. RSS feed makes it easy for subscribers to be alerted immediately and allows them to click on the link to your website. Using email together with RSS feed will increase your client base and increase site traffic.

6. Post Articles: Online article directories allow you to place niche-oriented articles into specific categories, targeted at your specific market. For example, if your real estate company writes an article for ezinearticles.com, and submits it under the real estate category, you’ll receive viewers who are specifically searching for your articles.

7. Record Podcasts: The vocal and interactive aspects of audio podcasts are usually more enticing and entertaining than simply reading articles and information from a computer screen. Podcasts are free, and can be used to help people through a step-by-step process, share knowledge fast and effectively, or entertain. According to Pew Internet and American Life Project, about 19% of internet users say they’ve downloaded a podcast.

8. Host Teleclasses: Signing up for teleclasses benefits customers because they’re free and provide useful and informative tips. Customers will associate the information they receive from your teleclasses with your company’s success and dedication to the industry. Customers will be more likely to trust your business operations and products / services, making the buying decision a simple one. The benefits from teleclasses are increased sales, more referrals, a rise in customer loyalty, and increased site traffic.

9. Post Video: Placing videos and audio on YouTube is a great way to get your company online exposure and drive traffic to your website. Video provides a personal connection to customers and allows you to show them how certain services are done, how you work, how the company works, how your product works, and so much more. Developing a video for YouTube benefits your company tremendously.

10. Publish Free Reports and Ezines: Sharing free tips and information about your industry through free reports and ezines can benefit consumers’ lives, helping them become better educated, solve a problem, or change their future actions. Providing well-researched and helpful information to consumers builds customers’ trust in your company, making them more likely to purchase your products / services.

11. Send out Press Releases: Bring your brand name to life with a well-crafted press release. If your business has remained at a steady rate for years now, the right press release can gain your company credibility in the industry, recognition, and overall exposure. These results lead to company growth and incredible success.

12. Place / Swap Ads with Other Ezines In Your Niche: Seek out other ezines in your niche whose publishers might be interested in swapping ads. In addition to, or instead of swapping ads, you could also purchase ad space in an ezine in your niche that has a large circulation. If you pay to place an ad, for the best results, run it for a minimum of three consecutive issues.

Tip of the Month

According to eMarketer.com, 41% of U.S. internet users—79.5 million people—visited social network sites at the very least once a month. eMarketer predicts that by the year 2013, the percentage of internet users visiting social media sites will rise from 41% to 52%, with 93.9 million of those users ages 18 and over.

Message from Michelle

Last week, I spent most of my time discussing basic SEO techniques. My Online Business Marketing Bootcamp crew learned the steps needed to optimize their websites and increase web rankings. On Thursday, my special teleseminar guest, web designer Nina Menezes, and I talked about how a website design can affect SEO, and I spent hours during the week incorporating my web copy optimization speech into my upcoming panel discussion on The New Generation of Online Marketing.

As I thought about what to write for this issue of Your Business Marketing Solution, it seemed logical to write on optimizing a website. As a web copy writer, I see too many companies making the mistake of neglecting search engine optimization, even as they’re having a new website built. If you want to rank high on the search engines and be found by visitors searching for your product or service, then you cannot ignore SEO.

Feature Article:

Be Found on the Web: Five Steps to Optimize Your Website

You can have a beautiful website with a clear business message. You can have a growing email list and an ezine that people love to read. But if you aren’t working to up your search engine rankings, all your hard work won’t get you found on the internet.

If you want to grow your online presence and compete on the world wide web, it is imperative to optimize your website. It isn’t hard. And you don’t have to be tech savvy. All you need is the understanding of how it works and the tools to know how to do it.

Here are five key steps to organically optimize your website:

Step One: Determine key phrases or keywords that potential website visitors will type into a search engine to find you. Remember, your target phrases must describe what your web page is about. One of the best ways to determine your target keywords is to ask people how they would search for you. Ask your current clients, colleagues, friends, and family. You can also use one of the many keyword tools.

Step Two: Analyze your competition. In the world of SEO, your competition isn’t who you might think it is because you’re working on a page level, not the entire site. The best way to determine competition using the same keywords as you, is to get on Google or Yahoo and type in your keywords and phrases. See what comes up and make note of the competition. Click on all the links on the first search engine result page and make a note of where and how that site uses their keywords.

Step Three: Incorporate keywords and phrases into your web copy. Make sure your copy reads organically, or naturally. If it reads as if keywords have been stuffed into every single sentence, you need to rewrite it. Overstuffing won’t help you motivate visitors to call you or buy from you. And it might get you into trouble with the search engines and hurt your rankings. Also, including your main key phrases and keywords in the title of your page and in subheads helps with SEO.

Step Four: Get those links! Search engines love links. You’ve probably heard the term backlinks. Backlinks are external links from other web sites and blogs that link to the site in question. The more like-minded, quality sites that link to you, the more the search engine thinks your site keywords are important and will rank the keywords higher. In a nutshell, links are vital to your website if you want to rank high in the search engines. Search engines place a higher value on one-way links as opposed to reciprocal links.

Step Five: List your website on directories. Directory listings are vital to your online visibility and should be a top priority for your online marketing strategy. Directory submissions provide inbound links to your site. These links help your search engine rankings. The more inbound links you have, the better your placement in the search engines. Submitting your link to relevant directories is a great way to maximize your SEO efforts.

Tip of the Month

According to a recent report, Generations Online in 2009, released by Pew Internet & American Life Project, internet users ages 33-44 continue to lead in online shopping, with 80% of this group buying products online, compared with 71% of internet users ages 18-32. Interest in online shopping is significantly lower among the youngest and oldest groups; 38% of online teens buy products online, as [email protected] 56% of internet users ages 64-72 and 47% of internet users age 73 and older.

The report is free and downloadable at https://www.pewinternet.org/

Michelle Recommends

Join our new Facebook group and follow The Path to Online Business Success.

Are you ready to nurture your company into a successful online business? If so, check out our Facebook group, The Path to Online Business Success.

This group is for businesses eager to grow their company online. If you are struggling with growing your online presence, getting traffic to your website, and converting site visitors into paying customers, then this group is perfect for you. Here’s what you get when you join The Path to Online Business Success:

• Invitations to free teleseminars where you can hear expert advice–from SEO to website design.
• Industry news, case studies, and updates.
• The Weekly Seed - a tip or stat once a week to help you grow your business online.
• Instant access to a network of companies and the opportunity for discussion.

**If you have an event or a teleseminar you would like to promote, feel free to contact the administrator. So what are you waiting for? Isn’t it time you grew your company online?

Are you ready to nurture your company into a successful online business? If so, check out our Facebook group,

The Path to Online Business Success.

This group is for businesses eager to grow their company online. If you are struggling with growing your online presence, getting traffic to your website, and converting site visitors into paying customers, then this group is perfect for you. Here’s what you get when you join The Path to Online Business Success:

• Invitations to free teleseminars where you can hear expert advice—from SEO to website design.

• Industry news, case studies, and updates.

• The Weekly Seed – a tip or stat once a week to help you grow your business online.

• Instant access to a network of companies and the opportunity for discussion.

**If you have an event or a teleseminar you would like to promote on The Path to Online Business Success, feel free to contact the administrator. So what are you waiting for? Isn’t it time you grew your company online?

Design a website that is clear and easy to use, and decrease your chances of customers leaving based on difficult navigation. You’re less likely to have customers leave your site when it provides clear navigation and a result-driven layout. Don’t leave website traffic to chance; do your research on effective website design and layout.

The main goal of your company’s website is to get your target client to take action. Before designing the website layout, decide what action you want your client to take. This action could be to call you for a consultation, apply for your services, purchase your product, make a donation, or join your cause. Make the action obvious on your website. This is where result-driven copy comes into play.

Copy works with design to help facilitate easy navigation through the site. You want visitors to be able to investigate your services / products easily on your website, which means links, contact information, the newsletter subscription box, and the company’s blog should be easy to find. It’s important to have well-written web copy to motivate viewers to move about the site.

For example, a travel agency wants clients to call for more information on booking a trip to Italy. This means, there should be a Contact Us tab on your tool bar, your phone number should be in plain sight, and your call to action on your homepage should motivate visitors to call your agency today. Placing your contact information in several spots decreases the chances of a client moving on to your competitor’s website. If your website navigation is confusing, visitors won’t take action because they won’t know how to find the button to contact you.

Many businesses lose their customers due to poorly designed navigation. Easy navigation is crucial. Eliminating any ambiguity about where to look for information within a site is important.

The four main things to remember about navigation: Make it simple. Make it fast. Make it clear. Make it work.

Are you concerned about how customers perceive your brand image online? Perhaps your website currently isn’t a strong branding tool for you. If not, it should be.

Many businesses find that their message isn’t clear, effective, and targeted to their correct market. It can be extremely difficult for businesses to project an accurate message, encompassing a combination of their company’s products, beliefs, mission, and goals. The message is a mixture of several key elements, including effectively placing keywords to increase SEO, which makes the task of projecting company image quite precise and complicated.

Crafting your brand image online is an extremely important client attraction tool. With a result-driven business message, your targeted website visitors will understand the language and tone of the web copy, and the client will feel a stronger connection to your brand. Once this bond is established, the customers will be more inclined to take action and purchase from you.

The customer wants to feel compatible with all your company stands for. For example, if your brand image is high-end, a high-end client will be attracted and comfortable with this image and, in turn, will want to buy from you.

Since fashioning a company message online is both complex and important, it would be highly beneficial for your company to hire a professional copywriter.

A professional copywriter:
· Interviews the company to pull out key elements vital to the business message.
· Recognizes the company image and puts this image into the written word—the message.
· Creates well-crafted copy that speaks the language of the target market.
· Strategically places keywords to increase SEO.
· Facilitates a connection between the brand image and the client through the use of a creative tone in the copy.

If you’re uncomfortable with the message you’re sending potential customers online, it’s time to change this message and solidify a strong brand image.