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Marketing Small Business With Video
This post is about using video to help you Market your Small Business Online. I’m qualified to talk on this subject because I’ve been using video for about 10 years at this point to market my wholesale business and specific merchandise in particular.
What are the benefits of using video for a small business like yours?
There are a lot of benefits to marketing your business with the help of video. I won’t mention them all on this blog post because the list would just be too long. Here are some of the highlights.
First of all, it’s super easy. Technology today makes it easy. If you have a smartphone, you have a video studio in your hand or in your pocket at almost all times. If you have a tablet or a laptop computer you have a video cam built in. A good quality webcam can be purchased for less than $30 and can be attached to any computer built in 2010 or later.
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YouTube for Marketing Your Small Business
Marketing your business on YouTube is free. It’s free to create your own broadcasting channel on the internet for the world to access. In your small business, the chances are you’re not really worried about communicating with the whole world, you just want to communicate with the local area that you serve or a certain demographic who may be interested in the products or Services you sell. What a gift!
By having a video posted on YouTube you are placing high-quality video content on the world’s second most important search engine. Yes, YouTube is the number to search engine behind Google. So many people today turn to YouTube so they can watch and listen to information rather than read it.
Good Marketing Requires Informational Videos, NOT Commercial Ads!
Good video marketing on YouTube means delivering value in the form of information, not commercials. People don’t tune in to YouTube to watch commercials. They tune in to either be entertained or informed. Unless you’re a magician, a singer, a comedian or offering some other form of sensational entertainment, stick with giving people want: to get answers to their questions. They want to know how to do something or otherwise scratch an itch to satisfy some curiosity or need to know.
YouTube Is Easy to Use
A YouTube video is easily embedded on any typical website without special skills. So you create a video, uploaded to YouTube, and grab a short piece of code which is readily available on your YouTube video and then paste it into a certain spot in the back end of your website. Again, it’s very easy to do and if you can’t or don’t want to do it it’s easy to find someone who can, it only takes a couple of seconds. Another good reason to create video is to have content for your social media posts. All you need to do is write a couple of sentences on a social media post and copy and paste a link right into the post and now your Facebook fans can read your post and watch your video.
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Online video is a gift that keeps on giving. It never goes away. If the video is good and people like it, they will watch it all the way through. When people watch your video all the way through YouTube recognizes this as valuable content. If people are watching it all the way through it naturally means people are getting something good from it. Google and YouTube are the same company. Their objective is to provide the best content results on the web. Therefore, if your video is popular it will become even more popular because people are watching it.
Making Viral Videos
You’ve probably heard the term viral video but you don’t need to create videos which go viral to be successful with video for your own small business. In the past 10 years I have accumulated approximately 1 million video views across all my videos on the Mazer Wholesale YouTube channel. Considering some videos get a million plays within a couple of days sometimes that doesn’t seem like much but 1 million video plays has resulted in helping me make tremendous numbers of sales totaling at least several hundred thousand dollars and maybe even more. Almost everyday people actually subscribe to the mazerwholesale YouTube channel. That means every time I make a video and post it on the mazerwholesale YouTube channel all of those 700 plus people are getting a an email from YouTube saying mazerwholesale just posted a new video. I am building an audience.
I have only just begun creating content for The Small Business University YouTube channel. I am determined to create value enough for small business owners all over the world to enjoy the content I share and eventually start subscribing to this channel. I hope you do. Thank you for watching this. There will be lots more to come. There are lots more valuable aspects to sharing your expertise and your products and services on YouTube and on your website. You are welcome to contact me personally anytime. The phone number is 866-799-2825 and I welcome you also too like our Facebook fan page which is small business you org
I’m Andrew Mazer founder of small business you and I’m passionate about helping small business owners succeed. Thank you so much for watching my videos and reading the blogs.
July, 2017 Marketing Ideas Calendar
The Marketing Ideas Calendar is provided to help you come of with ideas to make your business communications unique so you can stand out from the crowd. Challenge yourself to use some of these in your email marketing, social media posts, and in-house promotions. The more you differentiate from your competitors, the more you’ll stand out, and the more chatter there will be about your business. This can only help when you deliver in good humor and good taste.
July’s Holidays, 2017
World Watercolor Month
National Anti-Boredom Month
National Baked Bean Month
National Cell Phone Courtesy Month
National Culinary Arts Month
National Grilling Month
National Horseradish Month
National Hot Dog Month
National Ice Cream Month
National Independent Retailer Month
National July Belongs to Blueberries Month
National Picnic Month
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Weekly Holidays
July 3 -9
Be Nice to Jersey Week
July 4 -10
Nude Recreation Week
July 10-16
National Farriers Week
Everybody Deserves a Massage Week
Week of Major League All-Star Baseball Game
July 17-21
Captive Nations Week
National Zoo Keeper Week
National Parenting Gifted Children Week
July 24-28
National Moth Week
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Daily Holidays
7/1/2017 National Postal Worker Day / National Creative Ice Cream Flavors Day
7/2/2017 World UFO Day
7/3/2017 National Fried Clam Day
7/4/2017 Independence Day (USA) / National Barbecued Spareribs Day
7/5/2017 National Apple Turnover Day
7/6/2017 National Fried Chicken Day
7/7/2017 National Strawberry Sundae Day / World Chocolate Day
7/8/2017 National Chocolate with Almonds Day
7/9/2017 National Sugar Cookie Day
7/10/2017 National Pina Colada Day
7/11/2017 All American Pet Photo Day / National 7-Eleven Day
7/12/2017 National Simplicity Day
7/13/2017 Rock Worldwide Day / National French Fry Day
7/14/2017 Collector Car Appreciation Day
7/15/2017 National Give Something Away Day / National Pet Fire Safety Day
7/16/2017 National Ice Cream Day
7/17/2017 World Emoji Day / World Day for International Justice
7/18/2017 National Sour Candy Day / National Caviar Day
7/19/2017 National Daiquiri Day
7/20/2017 Get to Know Your Customers Day
7/21/2017 No Makeup Day / National Junk Food Day
7/22/2017 National Hammock Day
7/23/2017 National Parent’s Day / National Hot Dog Day
7/24/2017 National Tequila Day / National Cousins Day
7/25/2017 National Merry-Go-Round Day / National Hot Fudge Sundae Day
7/26/2017 National Aunts and Uncles Day
7/27/2017 National Scotch Day
7/28/2017 National System Administrator Appreciation Day / National Talk in an Elevator Day
7/29/2017 National Chicken Wing Day / National Dance Day
7/30/2017 International Day of Friendship / National Father-in-Law Day
7/31/2017 National Raspberry Cake Day / National Mutt Day
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Online Marketing Tools and Tips
In this post I’m going to describe 4 tools that I use frequently to help me create content for my website. These actually capture my voice, video, and create written content all at the same time. Talking to the camera to describe or demonstrate products and services is a great way to reach potential customers and establish trust and expertise. It adds excellent website content at the same time.
Make sure you read the blog post below because it contains some extra content not included in the video.
Tips for Making Online Video Tutorials
I do a lot of video tutorials to talk about my products and services and also to give helpful information as I’m doing right now.
The video-capture software I use when I’m at my desk and talking into the webcam is called Zoom. You can check it out at Zoom.us. It’s GREAT and it’s free! (I imagine there are some extra bells and whistles you can pay for if you need them but so far, I’ve been loving the free version.) With Zoom, you can hold online group meetings or do what I do and simply capture myself speaking to my webcam.
Good Webcam Recommendation
Speaking of webcams I have an external webcam which I use called Logitech HD 720P. It works very well and even though I have a special lighting available, I don’t even use it because this webcam along with the natural lighting in my office, I fell, is sufficient. It’s only in the $30-$40 range and it’s better than the one that’s built into my laptop. It also has a very decent microphone.
Good Microphone Recommendation
Although my webcam has a decent microphone, I already have a high-quality external microphone to recommend, and that’s my next tool to talk about. It’s called the Blue Yeti. The Blue Yeti is a high quality desk top microphone which I learned about from studying other online marketing experts. It costs between $120-$150. It does make a significant difference when you have good quality audio to accompany your video.
I’m sure you’ve seen plenty of amateur videos on YouTube (most are, and that’s fine, so are mine) and sometimes the audio is awful and it’s terribly distracting. Audio quality is super important in video so if you’re going to use it to talk about your products and services as I do, decent audio quality is really important.
You don’t have to invest a lot of money to produce some really good quality information and deliver it with class online.
Free Voice to Text Technology
And the next tooltip I have for you is Voice-To-Text and it’s how I created the majority of this article. I just spoke into my Blue Yeti microphone while having a Google app called VoiceNote II Speech to Text.
Voice-to-text software used to be very expensive, but no more. This app is great. All you need to do is use Google Chrome web browser and it comes free with a bunch of other terrific apps. Just activate the app and start talking.
I plug in my high quality Blue Yeti microphone and I’m off to the races just talking to the mic on the topic of my choice and by the time I’m done I’ve got several hundred words worth of information. Then I copy and paste right into a blog post on my website.
How to Sell More Products or Services With Your Website
I’ve acquired 1000’s of customers and sold millions of dollars worth of products and services using this technique. Watch the video but also read the article. The article contains additional information not mentioned in the video.
Is your website a 24-hour a day sales representative acquiring new leads, new customers and real sales? In order to sell your products or services to new customers who never previously knew of the existence of your business, you need to learn:
How to Get Your Business and Your Website Discovered Online
The video on this page describes how I sold 4000 pieces of some obscure item which is been on my website for over 7 years without ever having sold a single one before this particular sale. (In fact, I don’t even have a single one in stock. I sold it first, THEN I purchased it from our vendor.) I sell a lot of stuff this way.
The point is, whatever you sell, whether you sell physical products or whether you sell services there are people looking for it online at some point in time. Here I’m going to give you a few tips on
How to get your website, describing your products or services visible on the search engines when someone is looking for them.
Here’s the method I use to sell more products and services for my business and for my clients’ businesses:
- Make a web page for every single thing starting with the most important, and most profitable products or services. Since you can’t do this all at once at the flip of a switch you might as well go in priority order. I asked the following questions:
- What are the products or Services you like to sell or deliver the most?
- What are the most profitable products or Services you like to provide the most? In most cases they are the same but not necessarily. It doesn’t matter.
This is just our starting point. We start with the highest priorities and then continue to the lesser priorities. The personal mini fan is a perfect example. It’s not a “hot” item so it was very low on the list to get on our website. It DID, however, end up on the site and therefore, I sold 4000 pieces at a handsome profit.
About 7 years ago, I or someone in my company invested about 10 minutes to post this item. That 10 minutes cost about $5.00. Not another dime or a minute of time was invested in marketing that item again. The return…about $1000 in net profit. The customer uses this item as part if a kit and will very likely come back and purchase it again in the future.
A FREE Consultation on This Strategy is Available. All you need to do is ask! CLICK HERE or Call: 1-866-799-2825
Good Search Engine Optimization Technique
Don’t neglect this very good search engine optimization technique because you were too cheap or too lazy to do it. I’m demonstrating the power of this method with a cheap and obscure item. The products and services you supply are likely in higher demand and worth a lot more. I can not emphasize this enough: Every item and every service should have its own page dedicated to describing it in complete detail.
For advice on how to implement this strategy in your own business, all you need to do is call Small Business U at: 866-799-2825 or CLICK HERE.
The ability to market your business online in this way is truly a gift. Why do I say this? Because when someone is looking for a product or service like the ones you sell, they are actively in the decision-making process and when they land on your website and they see exactly what they’re looking for your chances of converting a sale are very, very good.
The old Yellow Pages used to do a good job this way. If you spent a few hundred dollars a month you could get a small ad in the phone book under your specific category and when people were looking for a business, a product, or a service like yours and they dialed your number you had the same situation… a potential customer in the decision-making process. This is someone who is 80% sold in advance. But as you know, that old phone book has been replaced by the internet. And to the extent to which you invest time effort or money (or all of the above), your chances of moving up in the search and being seen by potential customers is increased. Drastically increased.
A Well Optimized Page Will Deliver More Customers
Have you ever noticed that you don’t always land on a company’s home page when you visit a website from a search you have done on Google? You will often land on a specific page of the website. That is the page which most matches the criteria of your search. This is why I recommend optimizing every single product or service with a dedicated page your website.
For advice on how to implement this strategy in your own business, all you need to do is call Small Business U at: 866-799-2825
A FREE Consultation on This Strategy is Available. All you need to do is ask! CLICK HERE or Call: 1-866-799-2825
Is Your Website Not Getting Enough Traffic?
Whatever you make do or sell their people looking for it online. If the search engines aren’t displaying your website when people are looking for a business or product like yours, it’s unlikely you’re going to get new customers unless you pay for advertising (and that’s sooo 20th century, dude).
Possibly the Biggest Search Engine Optimization Mistake
In the video on this page, I describe one of the biggest and surest SEO mistakes that’ll get your website blacklisted by Google. Because I don’t script my videos, I sometimes don’t tell the whole story so this blog post fills in the gaps. (And, if you haven’t picked up on it, this is also my way of creating Search Engine Optimized content.)
In Preparation for a Meeting with a Local Business Owner
I’ve written this post because I recently met a local business through one of the business-to-business networking sites. It may have been Linkedin or a new one called Alignable. He looks like he may be a good referral source since we probably serve similar types of clients but in a non-competitive way. As a search engine optimization professional, prior to our meeting, I took a close look at the business’s website to see if there’s any way I can provide some advice and value to the business owner in the meeting.
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Major SEO Flaw
This company’s website is very clean and nice looking but I found a major flaw which could have a seriously detrimental impact on the SEO of the website.
I took a look at the SERVICES page which has listed a lot of services and all those services were hyperlinked to website pages describing those particular services. This is a technique I use myself and for my clients and so I was really impressed. HOWEVER, when I clicked on one the links and read the content, it seemed very generic. Something was missing…so I investigated.
Free SEO Tool Discovers Plagiarized or Duplicate Content
There’s a free SEO tool which checks website content for original or plagiarized content. The tool is demonstrated in the video on this page. The results: the tool showed 75% of the content was plagiarized, meaning it was copied and pasted from another website.
Most business owners leave it to their website developer to do the content creation for their website. Many businesses, especially professional services business, join a membership where they get monthly marketing done FOR them. The problem is, the content is the same as dozens (or hundreds, or even thousands) of other similar businesses around the country.
Getting content for your ink & paper or email newsletter in this way is fine. But it’s a definite NO-NO for website content.
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Duplicate Content Will Never Get Ranked in the Search
Google and the other search engines utilize incredibly smart robots which record and index content on billions of websites. Original content is rewarded and duplicate content is not. The pages on a website containing content from other websites are not likely to show up on search results. Therefore, the magic of landing new customers as a result of them finding you online are seriously diminished.
As a business owner, you should make sure whomever is populating your website pages with content is using original content.
Marketing Ideas Calendar for June 2017
For your convenience, Small Business U. provides this marketing idea starter calendar each month. Don’t miss a month! SUBSCRIBE and get a calendar like this delivered to your inbox every month.
Use the contents of this calendar to deliver unique offers, promotions, and social media messages. Consistency in marketing is not an option…it’s a necessity!
Marketing Ideas for June 2017
Monthly Holidays
African-American Music Appreciation Month
Aquarium Month
National Accordion Awareness Month
National Adopt a Cat Month
National Fresh Fruit and Vegetables Month
National Candy Month
National Camping Month
National Country Cooking Month
National Dairy Month
National Great Outdoors Month
National Iced Tea Month
National Papaya Month
National Soul Food Month
Rose Month
Turkey Lovers Month
Weekly Holidays
June 4 – 10
National Business Etiquette Week
National Headache Awareness Week
Pet Appreciation Week
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June 12 – 18
Men’s Health Week
June 18 – 24
Animal Rights Awareness Week
Old Time Fiddlers Week
Universal Fathers Week
Fish are Friends, Not Food! Week
June 22 – 25
Watermelon Seed Spitting Week
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June 23 – 25
Water Ski Weekend
Daily Holidays
6/1/2017 International Children’s Day / National Say Something Nice Day
6/2/2017 National Rocky Road Day / National Leave The Office Early Day
6/3/2017 National Repeat Day / National Trails Day
6/4/2017 National Cheese Day /National Cancer Survivor’s Day
6/5/2017 World Environment Day
6/6/2017 National Higher Education Day / National Yo-yo Day
6/7/2017 National Chocolate Ice Cream Day / National VCR Day
6/8/2017 National Best Friends Day
6/9/2017 National Donald Duck Day
6/10/2017 National Iced Tea Day / National Rosé Day
6/11/2017 National Making Life Beautiful Day / National Corn on the Cob Day
6/12/2017 National Loving Day / National Jerky Day
6/13/2017 National Weed Your Garden Day
6/14/2017 World Blood Donor Day / National Flag Day
6/15/2017 Nature Photography Day
6/16/2017 National Fudge Day / National Flip Flop Day
6/17/2017 National Eat Your Vegetables Day / National Stewart’s Root Beer Day
6/18/2017 National Go Fishing Day / Father’s Day
6/19/2017 National Martini Day
6/20/2017 American Eagle Day / National Go On A Hike with a Geek Day
6/21/2017 World Music Day / Summer Begins
6/22/2017 National Onion Rings Day
6/23/2017 National Take Your Dog to Work Day
6/24/2017 National Pralines Day
6/25/2017 National Strawberry Parfait Day
6/26/2017 National Beauticians Day
6/27/2017 National Sunglasses Day
6/28/2017 National Paul Bunyan Day
6/29/2017 National Camera Day / National Bomb Pop Day
6/30/2017 Social Media Day / National Meteor Watch Day
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Getting Your Web Pages on Top Search Results
Advice for Business Owners About Getting Your Business to Show Up Online
Top search results means more visitors to your website, and that means increasing your chances of getting a lead and making a sale. As a business owner, you already know how important it is for your business to be discovered online. But for emphasis, I’m going to spell it out for you:
- The customers who find your business online are usually in the process of making a decision to BUY NOW or very soon.
- The customers who find your business online are often NEW customers.
For these 2 reasons, you should be motivated to invest time and attention understand what it takes to push your website to the top of the search results pages. Want help getting your business discovered by new customers online? CLICK HERE.
How to Achieve High Search Ranking-For Business Owners
This post is written for business owners because it’s important you have a basic understanding of how Search Engine Optimization (SEO) works. Attaining page 1, 2 or 3 positions in the search results is going to make a difference in how many people visit your website and contact you. When your website (or specific pages of your website) display on the 1st page (2nd or 3rd is okay too) of search results, this is considered high ranking on the search results pages (also known as SERPS).
It’s unlikely people will dig deep into the search results to find what they’re looking for. They don’t have to. The search engines do good job providing enough relevant options on the first 2-3 pages of search results to satisfy most any query…and you want YOUR business to be there.
Why you should understand the basics of SEO
The fundamentals of search engine optimization are simple to understand. After reading this article, you’ll be better equipped to make good decisions and understand how to get your website moving higher in the searches.
What Determines Which Pages Get Selected For Top of Search Results?
Web pages which rank highly contain content which is relevant to what people are searching for. Not just any content-valuable content. The search engines know when a site has relevant and valuable content. They rely on several markers:
- The words on the web page are important. When the words on a web page are a close match with the words someone has typed into a search, that web page has a higher chance of showing up in the search results.
- The popularity of a page are important. Google knows when a web page is being seen by your website visitors. Visits to your website and specific pages of your site further signal Google as to the relevance of the content you’re providing.
- The more time people spend on a page and the more pages a visitor consumes is yet another marker which tells the search engines your content is relevant.
Web pages with little value aren’t going to rank highly in search results. For example, you can get the most amazing free publicity if Oprah Winfrey loves your book and invites you for an interview, but if your book sucks or if the subject matter isn’t a topic of interest, you’re not going to get the call from Oprah. Likewise, you can’t expect the reward of high-ranking web pages if the content is of little or no use to people.
There are a few more factors which play a role in SEO, but these 3 elements are fundamental. You can understand them and you can implement them.
This is a dessert menu for the fictitious SBU Bakery. On paper, this is realistically about the best you can do with a menu. Online, each menu item can have its own page and delivery unlimited details about each dessert. These individual pages can include images, video too! Adding a web page for all 20 items on this dessert menu would add value to the customer experience, and thus, will add value to the business. Do YOU have a web page for all your products or services? This is a serious investment in your business.
How the Relevance of Website Content Affects Search Engine Optimization
Website content is simply the words and the images on a web page. Content may also include audio or video. Why do people visit a web page? Because they’re in active pursuit of information.
The Blueberry Pie example: https://smallbusinessu.org/the-best-blueberry-near-me/
As a demonstration of how to get a web page to rank highly in the search results, we built a web page to dominate the search for “the best blueberry pie” so it would show in the search results in regions of Southern New Jersey and Philadelphia, PA. If you were to search for “the best blueberry pie” and then use a location such as Philadelphia, South Jersey, Cherry Hill, Hammonton, or any of a number of other location-based terms, this web page will often have a position on the 1st page of search results. The reason: because it the content of the web page is a close match to the words (search terms) used in the search query.
More Content Provides More Chances to Get Your Business Discovered Online
A website should be like a magazine publication which continually comes out with new content. A website is never “finished.” For the purposes of this article, let’s stay on the subject of food.
If Small Business U. were in the business of making and selling blueberry pie, surely we would be in the business of selling other pies and maybe muffins, cupcakes and other baked goods. The natural process of posting the menu of items on a website would be to have a page called something like: Baked Goods. On this page would be a list of items or categories of the baked goods.
Unlike a printed menu, on a website, we can go much deeper into detail with every menu item. (Please keep in mind, this goes for any product or service you sell, not just food items.) As we have already demonstrated with the blueberry pie page, the same can be done any product or service. Adding photos and detailed descriptions will not only build you a bigger and better website, this information will also be helpful to your potential customers.
Fuel for social media content
Wish you had more social media content? This strategy also give you fuel for your social media posts. If the Small Business U. Bakery had 20 items on the pie & pastry menu, each item would have a post on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Every time the menu changed or when we added a special seasonal item, these would also be featured on social media. People love images, and they respond with likes, shares and comments. But even more important, many of the people who see these posts would click the link and visit the website where they could read the entire description, watch the video, and maybe even give us their contact information in return for a coupon. Wow!…THAT’S a lot of marketing!
Now this is completing the cycle of content and traffic giving the search engines the markers they’re looking for to pump your search results up, up & up.
If you want to get MY input on how THIS strategy could work for YOUR business, give me a shout at 1-866-799-2825 or fill out the simple form below.
Social Media Advice-Be a Good Friend-Be a Good Neighbor
This not a lesson on social media marketing strategy. Rather, it’s a heartfelt, personal message to my friends, fellow Americans, fellow humans.
I’m compelled today to beseech everyone to quell your instinct to lash out, insult, use profanity, or otherwise hold anger, and hatred for those with whom you may disagree with or hold opposing values and views. These feelings are destructive to YOURSELF, OURSELVES, and to the fabric of our friendships. (We ARE friends, aren’t we?)
What Would Mr. Rogers Do?
Mr. Rogers would never suggest we harbor ill will for those with whom we disagree. He would have us transcend the urge to think up our next harsh response to a politically-charged post. Profanity and insults?…nothing good can come of it. Neither the deliverer nor the recipient gains. I contend the deliverer suffers the worst of it.
Do you find yourself capturing soundbites from the news so you can regurgitate them on Facebook? Hey, it’s okay to have your opinions and stand firm on your values, but it’s often at the expense of squaring off with your Facebook “friends” and there’s so much more productive, positive, inspiring, and hopeful things to share.
Yes, Mr. Rogers Would Suggest We Share
Share. Don’t fight. Don’t curse. A lot of us were friends in grade school. Politics were the same then as they are now. Not much different. There were these political parties with drastically opposite views and values. There was corruption. There were lies. Abuse of power, injustice, bigotry racism…these are a part of the human condition since the beginning of time. Mr. Rogers wouldn’t suggest bickering about it, you think? What would Mr. Rogers do?
Progress Can Be Made in a Healthy Debate
A debate doesn’t include slinging insults, name-calling, or profanity. STOP IT! It’s useless. It doesn’t further your cause, your hopes, it doesn’t move ANYONE to your way of thinking. You may gain support from a few who share your views, but what has been gained? Nothing. If these things fuel your ego, I suggest some introspection. (I admit my occasional guilt-sans the insults and profanity.)
Let’s ALL be friends again.
We’re not here to fight it out on every value we hold. We’re not here to pick a fight at every opportunity, are we? Standing up for what you believe in is a fine virtue. But there’s a time, and a place, and ways to do it far more appropriate than can spill impulsively from the fingertips to the interwebs.
Resist the urge to blurt out curse words and insults. “Think before you speak.” That was always sound advice. Choose to “think before you type” before you approach the social networks.
Let us know what you like and don’t like. Tell us what you agree with and what you don’t. Tell us why! And if you share, remember this: you’re sharing in a public arena and YOU HAVE INVITED US IN! If you don’t want our response or you don’t want to deal with responses which conflict with your values or expectations, perhaps you should be writing in a journal or diary instead of the ether where it’s fair game for everyone.
I care about my friends, regardless of their politics. I don’t expect to change your views but I do hope to influence you to be positive and friendly. Think about Mr. Rogers and what he would advise us to do before you post or respond to posts.
How to Get a Business Discovered Online
Want to build website pages which get seen and visited by new customers? Follow this recipe and study the posts and pages on this website. Need a pro to do it for you? CLICK HERE.
The web is where your customers are so: whatever you make, do, or sell, there’s somebody looking for it online. If there’s not, you probably better look for something else to make, do, or sell! So if you want people to find you and your business online, there are lots of ways to do it. At the core, you’re going to have to build a website and provide useful, purposeful content.
How to Use Website Content So People Can Find Your Business and Products
The words, sentences, images, and the structure is what makes up the content of your web pages and website. When a website contains information which matches what people are searching for, it will often rise to the top of the search. Getting the “click” is your big opportunity to land a new customer.
What do you sell? Whether you sell physical products, services, or even advice as a consultant or a coach may do, you’ve got something to sell. These are products. Each and every product you sell should be thoroughly explained AND demonstrated on its own page on your website.
If you need more clarity or help with this, feel free to contact us. CLICK HERE for help with website content marketing.
Most businesses don’t go very deep into detail about every product or service on their website. Why? Because it takes time, effort, and work. Also because they don’t understand this very important strategy called Search Engine Optimization which I’m teaching here in this post.
The Perfect Web Page to Get All Your Products & Services Noticed By Your Potential Customers
Making the perfect web page to get your products and services discovered is simply demonstrated right here on this page. Follow this model. You found this page in your search of the question you typed into the search, haven’t you?
Website content which is helpful to your human audience, written naturally and formatted for easy reading is also content which is rich with keywords which gets the attention of the search engines. This is the fuel which makes your content, your website show up in the searches. Thus, you get traffic to your website and the opportunity for gaining customers.
Use the Language Your Customers Use to Get Your Business Found Online
When the words and sentences on your website closely match the language people are using in their search, the more likely your website will rise to the top search results.
The more you tell, the more you sell. This is the wisdom of writers of sales copy for at least the past 100 years. There are people looking for very specific information. The more specific and the more detail you provide (the more you tell), the more likely your message is going to answer the question people are asking when they inquire in an online search.
Want some help making your website a better customer acquisition machine? CLICK HERE
A Search Engine Optimization Demonstration
In a demonstration of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), I created a post and published it on September 30, 2016. In this post, I talked about The Best Blueberry Pie as if this company (Small Business University, LLC.) and this website were making and selling blueberry pie. Even though we are NOT making blueberry pie, nor are we selling it, that post is ranking very highly in many individual towns in South Jersey, and Philadelphia. (We are, however, eating blueberry pie but we’re not attempting to get ranked in the search engines for it.)
Although there may not be thousands of people every day in search of “the best blueberry pie in South Jersey,” if a restaurant or a diner were to thoroughly describe their desserts, include a photo, and tell where people come from to consume these desserts, they could imitate this strategy and surely land a few extra customers over the course of time.
Even if the restaurant didn’t land new customers on the chance they were having an uncontrollable urge for a certain dessert or dish, if the web pages showcasing each menu item were helpful to the customers, this is still a worthwhile endeavor. Serving the customers well is always going to be a payoff.
Building a continuingly growing and expanding website filled with all this detail, certainly catches the attention of the search engines and increases its chances of higher positions on the search results.
This post is designed for 3 things:
- To provide a model for getting your business, your products and your services to rank high in the search results when potential customers are online and searching for what you’re selling.
- For making OUR website show up in the search when people are looking for online marketing and search engine optimization tips.
- For demonstrating OUR expertise because even if we teach you how to do this, in all likelihood, most won’t make it the priority it should be…and therefore, you will feel comfortable and confident in hiring us to do it for you.
This is my best advice:
- Give every product and service it’s own page on your website. Use 350 or more words and at least one image.
- Do a bit of keyword research. You need to understand and use the terminology of the customers, not necessarily the words used within your industry.
- Focus on the most important 3 keywords and phrases using the page title, H1, H2 & H3 tags to separate and organize your text while also emphasizing your keywords.
We’re here to help.
Don’t Forget Pinterest – It’s Good For Business
Want to get more visitors to your website? Of course you do! You'll be surprised at how healthy Pinterest can be for your website and your business. Why do I use the term, "healthy?" Because not only does more traffic to your website translate into more potential sales, but it also has a positive effect on search engine optimization.
I wrote a post and published a video a couple days ago about advice for Facebook marketing with a Business Fan Page. It was inspired by a video I watched describing a combination of 5 facts and tips on the topic plus a couple of extras I thought should be included. Like Facebook, Pinterest is also considered a social media platform, but it's quite different.
Today, while breezing through Google Analytics for my wholesale website, www.mazerwholesale.com, I took a look at how social media impacts visits to my website. I think my findings will be valuable to you because you can-
Generate More Website Traffic With Pinterest
Pinterest generates traffic to your website because it's part search engine, part directory, and part social media. If you use the tool properly, people who are interested in what you do, make, or sell will end up on your website.
Adding content to your Pinterest account is easy. In the real world, it's akin to adding a photograph to a bulletin board with a push pin combined with orderliness of a photo album. So, on Pinterest, you add a "Pins" to a "Board". Here's an example: Let's say you're in the Boutique Clothing business. You would have 4 boards for clothing organized for each season and then clothing appropriate for each season "pinned" (posted) on its respective board.
Then you would have additional boards for Casual Wear, boards for Handbags and Wallets, and boards for new fashion styles as well as classic fashion styles. Each item pinned to a board can be linked back to its page on your website. This effectively drives more people to your website. Now, your website has a chance to do its job to bring this new visitor closer to engaging you with a phone call, clicking on your coupon or some other offer.
Is Pinterest right for your business? Probably is! CONTACT ANDREW MAZER for a FREE Pinterest Marketing Consultation. 1-866-799-2825
You don't have to do it all! I have not personally uploaded any posts (pins) to Pinterest in at least 2 years. After I learned how to do it properly (for driving traffic to my website), I taught one of my assistants how to do it for me. (That's what business owners do, right?)
As company which sells tangible products, my wholesale website is filled with 1000’s of images representing each item. Pinterest is an image-centric website and each image represents an opportunity for content on my Pinterest pages.
Why I Recommend Pinterest
We backed off of adding content to our Pinterest boards more than a year ago. When I visit Google Analytics to look at traffic trends to my website, I STILL see Pinterest as the #1 social media referral source of traffic to the site. Organic Facebook, Twitter and Instagram content is short-lived as potential marketing material, but Pinterest content lasts and lasts. This is why I emphasize this is a worthwhile investment in time and effort.
In the past month, almost 8300 people visited my Pinterest content and 111 people engaged it. A number of new people started following Mazer Wholesale on Pinterest which means they'll get a notification in their email when we add new pins. Many others have "shared" some of our pins with people they thought would be interested. This is very strong marketing. (See the Mazer Wholessale Pinterest page, CLICK HERE)
Now, I’m not bragging about the numbers, nor do I proclaim to be a social media marketing maven, but this is a real eye-opener especially considering we’ve made zero effort on the platform for such a long period of time. This truly makes me feel a little foolish and I intend to immediately reengage with this media without delay.
You Can Use Pinterest to Market Your Business Too
Wondering how your business can leverage Pinterest? Trust me, you can. This article is not a tutorial on how to use Pinterest. It IS about opening your eyes to this platform as a real and beneficial driver of traffic and potential customers to your website.
If you’re not savvy to the Pinterest platform, I strongly suggest you take a half hour or an hour to peruse it or contact me to brainstorm some ideas on how it may be valuable to your business.
It may be difficult for you to imagine how your business can leverage this marketing weapon. If so, I invite you to comment on this post here, or better yet, on the Small Business U Facebook page where we could also get some feedback from others with experience with marketing on Pinterest.