Want More Traction from Your Facebook Ads? See These 5 Tips!

Want More Traction from Your Facebook Ads? See These 5 Tips!

Facebook ads have grown into a powerful tool for the average marketer, enabling them to reach vast numbers of people they might otherwise not have had the budget or ability to find. It can also be very cost effective if you know a bit about how to manage your campaigns, making it an extremely viable option when compared to Google Adwords and other PPC platforms.
Imagine having the ability to dial in a highly targeted audience based upon interests and behaviors and have your ads up and running, bringing you new leads and sales within hours. That can happen, but you need some knowledge to make it happen. Here are 5 tips that will help guide the way!

5 Best Practices for Your Facebook Ads

Become a targeting master - The single most effective way to be successful with Facebook Ads is to become a whiz at creating targeted audiences for your ads. This is actually not as fearsome as it sounds, as Facebook gives you a number of great tools to help, particularly one called Audience Insights. Utilize these to drill down and create the prefect audience for your offers.
Utilize only the Mobile and Desktop ads - Right side ads have their place but are trickier to try and get a positive return on your investment. Besides, newsfeed ads and mobile are the place to be, as more than fifty percent of all Facebook traffic originates on a mobile device.
Use Dayparting and segment your ads - Taking advantage of the dayparting feature in Facebook, where you can ensure your ads are only shown at times most advantageous to your audience, only makes sense. Likewise, be sure to segment your audiences for easy re-use later on.
Use original, compelling images - Do not use imagery that has been seen by everyone on Facebook dozens of time. Create your own images, and make them stick out, as a terrific image can do all the heavy lifting for your ad!
Investigate lookalike audiences - Facebook's ability to create a "lookalike" audience based upon your fans, email list, and other factors is a goldmine waiting to be found. Use this before your competition does!

Want more customers and more revenue go here for a site audit valued at $297. go here now

See these 5 Tips for More Google Love

See these 5 Tips for More Google Love

While a lot of people think content marketing as the darling of the search engines at present, there is another aspect to ranking your pages well, and that lies on the technical side of things.
Draw back the curtain and you'll find that Google is especially concerned with a number of geeky factors. Get these wrong, and you'll be left scratching your head wondering why all your superb content isn't ranking well.
Let's have a look at a 5 ways you can better optimize your pages to be more Google-friendly.

5 Ways to optimize your web pages technically

Page speed - You may have heard the latest human attention span statistic; that we now are transfixed a mere 8 seconds, one second less than a Goldfish. Thus it should not be a surprise that Google will not rank your site well if it loads slowly, as people will see this as a poor user experience, or perhaps not go there at all!

Internal links - Google likes to see a good internal linking plan, one that provides users with useful links to relevant pages within and outside of the site. This also plays a role in passing Pagerank. Also, don't make the mistake of having multiple navigation menus. Use one, together with a sitemap and a link back to your home page from each page.

Clean up your Schema - Schema.org is the agreed upon Web language for search engines to best understand what your pages are all about. Your webmaster can help you ensure that your pages are Schema compliant.

Use HTML elements - A significant part of how your page will be ranked is determined by the use of certain HTML elements that indicate what your content is about. This includes the use of H1-H4 tags, meta data and image optimization, among others.

Keywords you wish to rank for - This is your chance to tell Google in no uncertain terms what your page is about, and hopefully be ranked for these terms. You'll need to make sure they are found in all the places Google is looking for them, such as title tags, titles, description, the body of your content and links.

Want more customers and more revenue go here for a site audit valued at $297. go here now

Learning How to Market Your Small Business

Learning How to Market Your Small Business

You've done all the initial steps when it comes to getting your business online. You've got a website, signed up with a hosting account, and maybe even learned how to accept money.
But what about marketing? Have you figured out exactly how you can begin marketing your small business effectively and affordably? Often this is left for last, and unfortunately it's probably the most important piece.
When you're first starting out, you need to watch your pennies! Let's look at some first steps when it comes to starting to market your business online.

5 First steps to small business online marketing

Begin with a Blog - A blog is an excellent way to start building an online following for your small business. You can go a long way toward branding yourself and gaining the trust of people by being both available and knowledgeable.

Learn how to use social media - This is where your audience is spending time these days. If you wish to connect with them, you'll have to learn how to use it effectively.

Keep a watchful eye on your online reputation - It's wise to set up Google alerts so that you're notified anytime there is a mention of your name or company online. This makes it a lot easier to reply to issues or problems, resolving them before they become large.

Begin building an email list - The top thing successful online marketers say when asked if they could do one thing differently, is that they wished they'd started building an email list from Day One. Don't be one of those guys.

Make use of online directories - Get your business listed in all the major online directories for small businesses, such as Yelp, Google My Business, Merchant Circle and others. One very important must-do on this is to make sure that your NAP info, (name, address, phone) is consistent over all of these sites. Make it easy for people to find you!

Don't forget November 29

Check Out These 7 Copywriting Tips to Make Your Web Copy Sing!

Check Out These 7 Copywriting Tips to Make Your Web Copy Sing!

Copy makes the Web go round, and great copy will take you from seldom read and acted upon to superstar status in terms of traffic and sales. This truism, along with the fact that Google prizes and rewards great content that readers share will make your content marketing dreams come true.
But what are the elements of great copywriting that will get us to this point? What precepts and tips will get our content to rise above and be noticed? Here are 7 copywriting tips to both help your content connect with readers, but also to get noticed near and far.

7 Copywriting tips that can make your content sing!

1. Tell a great story - Everyone loves a good story, and if you can spin one while accomplishing your sales aims you'll be a rockstar. Tugging at emotions and empathy are wonderful tools to employ here.
2. Focus on benefits - The primary thing you need to remember about your readers is that they need to know what's in it for them. They really don't care what number of features your product or service has; they want to know how it will make their life better.
3. Make it valuable all by itself - If your reader comes away with the feeling that they've already received a ton of value simply by reading your content, you've got them just where you want them.
4. Use questions to get to Yes - Getting your readers to agree with you puts them in the frame of mind to say Yes, as they're already doing so by agreeing with you. This makes it a far shorter leap to conversion when the time comes.
5. Get emotional - Connecting with your readers with emotion is a great way to get them on your side. This one is powerful, and if you can learn how to inject emotion in your copywriting, you'll be able to write your own ticket.
6. Write longer content - Currently the pages that are found on Page One of Google are running over 2,000 words. Longer, in-depth pieces that provide value and insight are what the readers want, and what Google wants to rank well.
7. Get social - Make sure you are using social media to promote your content. Encourage your readers to share on their social channels, as you never know who may have some awesome connections that will help your incredible content go wide.

Don't Overlook the Importance of your Welcome Emails

Don't overlook the importance of your welcome emails

We all get them, welcome emails. But are you up to speed on how best to create your own for your subscribers?
What elements are necessary to not only welcome them, but also highlight what they can expect and what you have to offer them during their time with you?
Here are 7 ways you can optimize your welcome emails to set the stage for a long lasting, profitable relationship.

7 Tips for crafting welcome emails

1. Send out immediately - Send these out immediately. Don't wait to batch send your welcome emails. A study by Experian found that welcome emails sent out individually rather than by batch were opened 10X more! Show you care about them signing up.
2. Use a working email address - Using a no-reply email address will only do one thing for you: give you a no-response customer. People are going to want to email you. Don't make it hard.
3. Split-test your welcome email subject lines - This is very easy to do, and can make a big difference in your open rates. Wouldn't you want to do this for a possible 15-20 percent increase in opens?
4. Encourage social media - Exhort your readers to follow you on social media, and make it easy for them by installing links and/or buttons on your email template.
5. Personalize - It's always best if you're trying to develop some sort of customer relationship with your subscribers that you personalize the emails if at all possible. This of course means you'll need to collect names.
6. Perhaps offer an incentive - Many times companies choose to include an incentive to start the relationship off on the right foot. Maybe a percent off coupon?
7. Make sure to optimize for mobile - Since about half of all emails are now opened on a mobile device, it would be a good idea to make sure you are using a responsive design so that your emails can be opened anywhere.

How the Right Words and Phrases Can Close More Deals

How the Right Words and Phrases Can Close More Deals for You

Words matter, and nowhere is that more evident than when it comes to the words you prefer to close your sales with. Often a single word or phrase can kill the deal, and you're left holding the bag. (Literally!)
The words we select to create our sales messages need to create a mindset that is conducive to persuading the prospect to click the purchase button. There is a great deal of thought that has gone into the science of conversion, and the psychology behind it is really quite interesting.
That's why it's imperative to ensure we are making the most of this opportunity. Let's examine some words and phrases that can get more conversions for you.

5 Types of phrases that sell

Assumptive close -- "So where can we ship your product?" Assuming the prospect couldn't possibly pass on this puts them in a mindset that is thinking of implementing rather than continuing to think about the pros and cons. Works wonderfully whenever the prospect is favorably inclined to purchase.

Asking directly for the sale -- Often times it's best to take the direct approach. If you've managed to make a good case for your product and have answered all the negatives you can imagine, just be bold, (not pushy!) and simply ask for the sale.

Fear of loss close -- No one wants to miss out on something that will truly help them, and this close works best when the cost of not buying is greater than the cost of the item. Fear works wonders, particularly when the market is competitive.

Have a friendly close -- Being personable and friendly in your close, such as "Would you like me to help you get going with this?" casts you and your products in a friendly, helpful light, and thus lowers defenses and resistance several notches.

Use and alternative close -- If you are in the position of having several choices for them, help them decide by offering them a choice, whether or not they're at that point yet. "So after examining both Product A and Product B to determine which fits your needs better, which one would you like to order?"

Are You Committing Any of These Social Media Blunders?

Are You Committing Any of These Social Media Blunders?

You probably think it's enough to be involved with social media at all, but let me be the one to break it to you: there are some grievous errors you might be making with your social media marketing that will not only cost you followers, but hurt your brand long term.
Social media is amazing in its ability to extend your reach beyond what you might generate on your own, but that is also the same way that it could hurt you. Let's check out 5 mistakes you might be making that will hurt.

1. 5 Social media marketing mistakes to avoidNot being visual - These days people are all about wanting to view, not read. So whether you have a video, cool image or unique infographic, rest assured that your visual content will be read more, engaged with more ,and ultimately be acted upon much more. Just sayin'…
2. Constantly selling - Put yourself in their shoes: do you like to have sales messages in your face all the time? No. Neither does your audience. Try to make your sales pitches no more than 20 percent of your content at most.
3. Making negative comments disappear - This is a big no-no. If people determine that you are managing your social media in this fashion, they'll not trust you at all. It just looks like the complainer was right, and you're trying to hide it. Preferably use this as a chance to demonstrate awesome customer service!
4. Don't buy likes and fans - Even though this appears at first glance to be an easy way to pump up the volume on your social media, in reality it will have the opposite effect. The social networks won't like it, and any real fans or followers you have will see right through it.
5. Don't use LikeBait - LikeBait, as its name implies, is the act of bating people to like your post or page by crafting a controversial or otherwise titillating headline to get people to click or like. The problem is, there is usually not real or relevant content behind the headline. Facebook hates this too, and is changing their algorithm to exclude it. Don't be that guy.

How to Optimize Your Blog Posts for SEO

How to Optimize Your Blog Posts for SEO

If you're writing consistent blog posts someone by now has surely told you that you should make sure you optimize them for SEO.
What?
I get it. Most writers aren't up to date on what it takes to properly optimize for the search engines. In fact, most SEOs aren't either, but that's another blog post.
The fact is that optimizing your blog posts will help them find a wider audience, and rank better in the search engines, particularly Google. But how to do that? Here are 5 tips that can help your blog posts enter the blogosphere ready for action.

5 Blog post optimization tips

1. Target specific keywords - Primary among your tasks is to determine what keywords you are targeting. Like it or not, writing to be found in the search engines mandates that you give them a clear road map to where you'd like to be found. Pick one primary keyword and several other secondary for each post, and make sure they are in the title, first sentence or two, and then when needed throughout your post. DO NOT go overboard and stuff your post; it won't help and WILL hurt!

2. Make your content fun to read - Readers online typically scan a page, so it's your job to make them pause. The best ways to do this are by using lots of headlines, visuals and videos. Don't pound them with long stretches of text, or they're out of here!

3. Entice with compelling headlines - Remember that people love to skim? A good way to slow them down a bit is by inserting a headline that either raises a question or makes a claim that they have to find out about.

4. Enable social sharing - Be sure your blog is linked up to your social media channels, and that your buttons are prominently displayed on each post. These days it is a social world, and you want to extend your reach as far as possible.

5. Are you using responsive design? - Since more than half of all blog posts are now first read on a mobile device, you must make certain yours are displaying properly. Responsive design will make sure that you will be seen clearly across any platform.

Need help with your SEO