Tag: Web Renovators

Here’s Why You Need to be Sending Email Newsletters (and a Few Tips)

Here’s Why You Need to be Sending Email Newsletters (and a Few Tips) by Larry Alton.  Available from <http://revenews.com/e-mail/heres-need-sending-email-newsletters-tips/>. [Sept 14, 2016]

If you’re like thousands of other marketers, you’re fully invested in social media and conversion funnels. However, you probably haven’t thought twice about email marketing, and newsletters in particular.

You may want to rethink this oversight, or you’ll deal with consequences down the road.

The Value of Email Newsletters

For many, the thought of an email newsletter conjures up archaic images of marketing campaigns of the late 1990s and early 2000s. However, just as everything else has evolved, so has the newsletter. Modern newsletters – also known as e-newsletters – are powerful and highly effective. Here are a few specific reasons you need to be using them:

  • Nurtures relationships. One of the best things about an email newsletter is that it allows you to nurture existing relationships and reinitiate contact with old customers who have been cold for months (or even years). While some subscribers will send your email straight to the trash bin, most will at least give it a cursory look. This gives you the opportunity to catch their eye.
  • Drives targeted traffic. When you segment your email list and send highly relevant content to subscribers, you have an opportunity to drive targeted traffic to landing pages, product pages, videos, articles, and other resources that benefit your brand. There are very few other channels that allow you to do this.
  • Enhances monetization. Finally, don’t forget about revenue. If your email newsletter is sent to a large subscriber base – and you enjoy high open and click-through rates – you may be able to sell ad space and create an additional stream of revenue.

It doesn’t matter your industry or specific goals – an email newsletter can help you engage customers in meaningful ways.

A Few Handy Tips and Tricks

Exactly how do you execute an effective email newsletter? Let’s highlight a few handy tips and tricks:

  • Nail the design. You absolutely have to use a professional design for your emails. You can either hire a professional or use a template. The latter is typically more cost-effective. As Green Residential notes, “There are thousands of options available online for download, whether you’re inclined to pay for them or not. It might be worth it to pay for a good template and give your newsletter a more polished look.”
  • Subject lines are crucial. When a newsletter or promotional email comes into an inbox, the headline is often one of the deciding factors in whether or not it’ll be opened. This is why you have to focus on creating strong headlines that grab the recipient’s attention. Since most emails are being opened on mobile devices these days – 40 percent to be exact – short and sweet headlines are preferred.
  • Balance the content. While you may want to use your newsletter as just another promotional tool for your brand, put yourself in the shoes of your subscribers. They would much rather read informative/educational content. When developing your newsletters, limit promotional material to just 10-15 percent of the total content distribution. It’ll be much more powerful this way and you’ll experience less attrition.

There’s a lot of creative freedom with email newsletters, but these tips and tricks have helped thousands of other businesses enjoy success. Try them and see what you think.

Leverage the Value of Email

Email marketing should be a staple in your digital marketing mix. While it doesn’t get as much publicity as social media and landing page design, it’s equally important. Make sure you’re leveraging the value of email newsletters moving forward and you’ll reap the rewards of engaged customers.

Here’s Why You Need to be Sending Email Newsletters (and a Few Tips) by Larry Alton.  Available from <http://revenews.com/e-mail/heres-need-sending-email-newsletters-tips/>. [Sept 14, 2016]

6 Hot Tips to Rock Your Social Media Results

6 Hot Tips to Rock Your Social Media Results by Susan Friesen.  Available from <http://www.business2community.com/social-media/6-hot-tips-rock-social-media-results-01652421#qdIUIqDaww1PLbmV.97>. [Sept 12, 2016]

Social media is a powerful way to build a following, turn prospects into leads, and drive sales.

One of the biggest complaints I hear is that business owners are investing lots of time in social media and not seeing the returns on those efforts

If you aren’t getting the social media results you are looking for, perhaps it’s time to look at new tactics.

If you are ready to get more out of your social media marketing, here’s 6 techniques to try:

  1. Use Facebook Live. Video marketing is a powerful addition to your marketing mix. But live video is shown to keep users watching for 3 times longer than a recorded video.Fans love the feeling of listening to what you have to share in the moment. Try answering questions and providing tips while live.Other ways to use Facebook Live is to broadcast an update when you are networking or attending events. Or share a Facebook live update on any launches coming down the pipe.
  2. Offer Opt-In Gifts to Grow Your Marketing List. People can’t resist getting a checklist, blueprint, app, or white paper that offers valuable information.When you give value first, it goes a long way to building trust and rapport with your followers. Plus, this allows you to capture your social media leads into your email marketing list.Give them something they can’t refuse and send them to a landing page to sign up. That way you can keep in contact via email sharing additional offers and information in a drip campaign.
  3. Invite People to Take Action. Be strategic with your calls to action to get the most out of your social media efforts.In addition to sharing a mix of posts, be sure to offer ways your fans can dive deeper with you. This can include a free consultation, special offers and discount deals, webinars, participation in your Facebook group, and more.
  4. Build Your Fan Base Organically. Never hire someone from Fiverr who can add 10,000 fans for a fee. This is a bad idea on many levels.Instead, find groups with people in your target audience. Be helpful. Start real conversations. Invite them to join your social media page or group.Don’t be afraid to reach out with private messaging to respond to questions they have or share resources or advice.

    So don’t buy followers. It’s about quality of followers, not quantity. It’s better to have 1000 raving fans you have attracted, than to have 10,000 fans who don’t really know you or have investment in the connection.

  5. Offer a Mix of Post Content. People love variety. Be creative and provide a variety of content formats including how-to articles, videos, graphics, and infographics.An ideal content marketing strategy is to always keep your target market in mind and post what you think they will best want to receive from you.
  6. Post at the Ideal Time for Best Exposure. Timing is everything. If you share an incredible post, you want to ensure the most people possible can see it!There are many social media tools to help you see the best times to post content to reach the biggest audience. This may vary from platform to platform. 

    So don’t guess when you can use analytic tools with reports that help you identify the ideal time to post.

Social media is evolving and growing fast. There is a lot of opportunity get leads, drive sales, and build a following but you have to get creative. You can’t just rely on the old tactics you have used in the past; you need to implement new techniques and tools if you want to stay ahead of the competition.

6 Hot Tips to Rock Your Social Media Results by Susan Friesen.  Available from <http://www.business2community.com/social-media/6-hot-tips-rock-social-media-results-01652421#qdIUIqDaww1PLbmV.97>. [Sept 12, 2016]

3 Tips to Optimize Your Website Performance

3 Tips to Optimize Your Website Performance by davidc.  Available from <http://www.groundreport.com/3-tips-optimize-website-performance/>. [Sept 10, 2016]

A smart business owner knows the importance of monitoring performance even for the best of websites. Of course, building a website has to start with implementing solid design and business principles that will encompass, among other things:

  • Easy navigation.
  • Defining your target audience.
  • Focusing on high-quality content.
  • Using great images, videos and a variety of content.
  • Load time and so on.

But once a perfect website has been created, a business owner must also spend time on monitoring and optimizing its performance. Here are the top 3 tips to achieve this goal:

  • Image control,
  • Multi-channel and device optimization and
  • Meta data.

Image control

Good websites often have lots of images or visually appealing content. These images could pertain to their products, services, key events and so on. There are a few important things that you must keep in mind when it comes to optimizing your website performance.

Use lazy loading

If your website is image-heavy, try out the ‘lazy loading’ method. Simply put, this method defers or delays loading content. This does not mean slowing down; on the contrary, it speeds up the page loading process. So when someone lands on your website, he or she does not have to go through a waiting time when ALL your images are being downloaded. Instead, your website will display only thumbnails of the images and the visitor can choose to click on a particular image to open it up for greater detail.

Right size

Resizing an image to make it fit into your website specifications can be done in many ways but the thing to avoid is to do it the HTML way. Use an image editor tool to resize the images and then upload the same. You also need to preserve the quality of the images. There are many formats of images out there and it is advisable for you to read up on these resources and then optimize image size.

Multi-channel and device optimization

Your website has to be optimized for multiple channels and multiple devices. One way to go is responsive web design but you will also need to bring in your search engine optimization strategy for this component of performance.

Multi-channel performance

Every social media platform out there has a specific set of parameters. These platforms will also differ in terms of keyword usage, image guidelines and so on. It therefore makes sense for your website to be supportive of optimization for:

  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram and so on.

Multiple devices

Your images and content should be ‘elastic’ or ‘fluid’ which means that they flow and take the form of the device on which they are being viewed. Responsive web design will give your website high marks simply because more and more people are turning to the use of smartphones, tablets and other handheld devices to interact with online information. So when your website renders flawlessly on any device, it gets more ‘marks’ for its actions.

Caching systems

This is a useful system simply because it minimizes the need to connect to your site time and again. When your website has to connect to your database time and again to create the same content, you are slowing down the engagement with visitors. So you can reduce server processing considerably with caching systems.

Some of the things for you to consider are:

  • Database caching.
  • Browser cache.
  • Great CDN systems and so on.

There are quite a few plug-ins for various CMS platforms that will allow you to up the performance of your website rather significantly.

Meta Data

Meta descriptions and Title Tags are critical. The one word you should keep in mind for the same is ‘Unique’.

Meta description

The HTML attribute that you use to explain the content of a web page should be spot on. The main purpose of Meta Description is to get the visitors from the google to click the link of your website. A well-optimized website will have meta descriptions that are:

  • Keyword enriched but not keyword-stuffed.
  • Around 140-160 characters long.
  • Fabulous to showcase a preview of what the visitor can expect on your webpage.
  • Compelling – they should draw the visitor into your website itself.
  • It should have structured content and also it must match the content.
  • It should be unique and must contain focus keyword.

Title Tags

These Title Tags show up in search engine pages, external websites and in a browser as well. Here again, accuracy and relevance are critical elements. The Title Tags have to point to your content. They help in:

  • Enhancing user experience.
  • SEO.
  • Pointing a visitor to relevant content.
  • Making your website look good in search engine results pages.

Meta keywords

More often than not, meta keywords are not part of search engine rankings. But if your website uses them, then ensure that they are chosen wisely and formatted correctly. Use a good online tool to generate the list of possible keywords. Format these keywords correctly and eliminate all spelling errors! Long-tail keywords have become rather popular today so you should include this in your website as well.

3 Tips to Optimize Your Website Performance by davidc.  Available from <http://www.groundreport.com/3-tips-optimize-website-performance/>. [Sept 10, 2016]

5 Tips To Write SEO Friendly Content That Ranks Well In Google Searching

5 Tips To Write SEO Friendly Content That Ranks Well In Google Searching by Kerry Creaswood.  Available from <http://www.promotionworld.com/se/articles/article/160914-5-tips-write-seo-friendly-content-ranks-well-google-searching> [Sept 14, 2016]

If you’re in the business of content marketing, then one the main goals is to use content to draw more visitors to your site. Now, social media is obviously a good way to do this, particularly if you’re starting out. What you should always be thinking about as well, however, is Search Engine Optimization.

For, if you can make certain that your page ranks well in some of thekeywords that are important to your industry, you’ll be able to get a constant stream of traffic coming to your website without you having to pay a cent for any of them. Now, obviously that’s a fantastic position to be in.

The only problem is that ‘ranking well’ in this case means appearing very high up in the search results. After all,research finds that the first position gets 33% of the attention, while the first page gets 95% of the clicks. And as you don’t want to be competing for scraps, that means you have to get yourself in there. How do you do that?

Start with the right keywords

The first step is to make certain you’re actually pursuing the right keywords in your industry. This means doing some research, in something like Google Adwords.

Alternatively, start by looking at what your competition is trying to rank for. Note that if you pursue this strategy, don’t try to rank for the exact same words, however, particularly if your competition is already established. Instead, think about ranking for slight variations thereof in which they don’t rank quite as highly.

Also, consider choosing long tail keywords when your first starting out. These are longer phrases (known aslong tailed keywords) that delve into your topic more precisely. Why choose these? Two reasons:

  • First off, though there is less traffic, the competition isn’t as fierce either, meaning you’ll be in a better position to rank well. And that means you’ll need to do less work to get the lion’s share.
  • Secondly, when people are typing longer queries into search engines, they generally already know what they’re looking for. This means that a far higher percentage of those visitors will ultimately convert – which is really what you’re after.

Use Latent Semantic Indexing

In the past, it used to be the case that if you put the keyword into a piece of text many times, you’d be more likely to rank well. Then Google realized that people hated reading the same phrase over and over again. And so they developed a system where their algorithm has started to come to understand semantics.

What this means is that as long as you write texts that is semantically related (walnuts and peanuts, knitting and wool, toys and Lego) then their algorithm will pick up on that and decide that your text is actually relevant.

Therefore, don’t keyword stuff. This will actually get you penalized by Google (as well as your visitors who will think you’re a simpleton who can’t write well). Instead, use Latent Semantic Indexing, create more naturally flowing text and still appear as relevant according to the Google algorithm.

Longer texts are better texts

At least, according to Google they are, as longer texts are more likely to actually contain the information that people are looking for and therefore are likely to be more authoritative. For this reason, skip the 500-word blurbs of yesteryear, and instead focus on in-depth texts that actually get to the heart of matters and explore the ins and outs of an issue (basically anywhere around 1500 you’re starting to look good).

If you do this, then all things being equal, you’ll outrank the shorter pages. And that is obviously what you’re after.

The first ten words (or less)

You’ve got to have a great headline. This is what first draws people to click on your site. And Google counts how many people click on sites as one of the metrics of whether you’re actually what people are looking for.

For that reason, you’ve got to write killer headlines. Do note, that we’re slowly coming to understand the practice of headline writing, so don’t just start trying out random things to see what they do. Instead, check out some of the stuff other people have concluded, based upon the analysis of millions of headlines and what people click on. That way you’re going to give yourself a real step up.

That doesn’t mean you always have to follow their advice. Sometimes you can try something new. But at least now you’ll have a base line to compare it to (and you’ll probably find that it compares poorly).

Also, remember to make sure your headline contains the keywords, as the headline is an important place for Google to look for the keywords that you’re trying to rank for.

Content is key

And last, but not least, make sure your content rocks, because if people don’t stick around, then what’s the point? Google understands this as well and will rank you more poorly if they find that you’re not keeping your audience, as they’ll assume – probably correctly – that this isn’t actually what people are looking for.

For that reason, make sure you pay attention to the content writing hacks and really make your content sing, by writing it concisely, engagingly and without too much fluff or meander. Your audience will appreciate this and you’ll be rewarded by Google ranking you more highly and giving you a bigger share of the click pie.

Last words

To a big extent, ranking well on Google is about giving your audience what they want – a trend that is likely to continue into the future. So make certain that you’re always looking at your site not just in terms what Google wants but in terms of what your audience wants. If you can keep doing that, you should find that you climb naturally in the Google rankings until you’re able to compete with the big boys.

And raking in the big  bucks.

5 Tips To Write SEO Friendly Content That Ranks Well In Google Searching by Kerry Creaswood.  Available from <http://www.promotionworld.com/se/articles/article/160914-5-tips-write-seo-friendly-content-ranks-well-google-searching> [Sept 14, 2016]

9 Quick SEO Copywriting Tips Every Online Business Should Know

9 Quick SEO Copywriting Tips Every Online Business Should Know by Jerry Low.  Available from <http://www.business.com/seo-marketing/9-quick-seo-copywriting-tips-every-online-business-should-know/>. [September 15, 2016]

Writing content, or copywriting, is as much an art form as it is a skill. While you want to engage readers with snappy imagery, it’s also important that you publish content that is packed with elements that will help you improve your website’s ranking.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and these three letters are responsible for a world of stress and confusion among online businesses, especially those who don’t have a tech guru on staff.

Whether writing for your website, blog, or social media page, there are some basic fundamentals which will help you improve your search engine rankings, boost your website traffic, and generate more leads.

Here are nine SEO copywriting tips that will help your online business excel in every area possible.

1. Know Your Audience

There is a lot of content published online. On WordPress alone, there are 58.3 million new posts published each month and more than 409 million readers. As an SEO copywriter or publisher, the first thing that you need to know is that not all of these are your readers. In fact, just a small fraction of them are, and it’s important that you spend some time identifying your particular audience.

What are the demographics of your audience? What primary problem is your audience trying to solve? Can you leverage trending topics and recent customer experiences to come up with interesting writing topics? Tell your readers a story, inspire them, and make solving their problems simple.

2. Invest in Your Title

While your content should be legible and engaging, your title really needs to “pop” and entice people to click. Believe it or not, this could have an effect on your search engine rankings. Rand Fishkin from Moz did a study a few years ago on the impact of queries and clicks on search rankings. He asked people on social media to search for a particular term and click on a specific result that was ranked #7. Within a few hours, the result had moved up to #1.

So, how do you garner attention for your title? Make sure that it is short and to the point. People tend to be drawn to lists (the top 10, 3 reasons, 5 benefits, etc.). Posing questions in a title also works well. Consider using emotional triggers in your title by stating a benefit. Power words and controversy have also been known to get attention and clicks.

3. Include Keywords in Your Title

As you come up with your winning title, you’ll want to make sure that you’re including your main keyword in your title and title tag for your page. Google’s ranking factors tend to fluctuate but there is a list of 200 ranking factors for a web page, and this element is one of them. Where you place your keywords in your title tag also makes a difference. According to Moz, the optimal format for a title is to have the keywords at the beginning. They even have a fantastic title emulator tool. This brief SEO studywas also done that confirms the importance of keyword placement in titles.

4. Incorporate LSI Keywords

LSI keywords are “Latent Semantic Indexing” keywords. These are terms that are not semantically related to your primary search term, but that have similar meanings. They can be synonyms but aren’t limited to these as it can be based on trends as well. For example “virtual reality” is now considered an LSI keyword for the search term “Oculus Rift.” If you were to look this up a few years ago, this wouldn’t have been the case. As this can be a real brain-teaser for some, there are some online LSI keyword generators that can be extremely helpful in this process.

5. Structure Your Writing

The content of your post could be explosive and well-written, but if it’s unorganized and difficult to view, you’ll lose readers fast. Graphic design is now a useful element in content publishing as the look and feel of the piece matters almost as much as the substance. To accomplish a winning structure, keep paragraphs and sections short. Smaller blocks of text are easier for readers to digest and appear friendlier.

Also, consider using numbered or bulleted lists within your content. Don’t make your entire piece a bulleted list. This is too much. Rather, break up content into distinct sections. Finally, use subheads to segment and break up content when it’s appropriate. Another great way to break up content and make it more readable is with the use of images.

6. Use Images

Human beings are visual by nature, and most of us are drawn to eye-catching images on a content page. When images are used, they should be relevant to the content and optimized for SEO.

Images can be optimized by adding alt text, captions, file names, and by reducing file size so that they load quicker. Images found on Google Image search can often bring additional visitors to your website. According to Search Engine Watch, you can gain this extra traffic and improve your rankings by takingthese simple image optimization steps.

7. Ignore Keyword Density

The number of times that a keyword, or keyword phrase, is used on a web page used to be incredibly important to copywriters and online publishers. Paying too much attention to this metric today could be a mistake. If keyword density is too high, Google may impose a penalty for stuffing. As most marketers will tell you after years of research, keyword density hasn’t been proven to be a ranking factor, so it’s best to ignore this in copywriting. A better focus is the creation of interesting, readable content that captures the focus of your visitors, making them want to take some desired action.

8. Link to Trusted Sites

Despite what happened with the flood of spammy sites and link building scams several years ago, links in content are not bad. In fact, the proper use of backlinks can be beneficial to your search engine rankings. This is accomplished in two ways.

Add a few internal links to other relevant pages on your website. Another way to link in content for SEO is through external links to trusted sites. If you quote a study or other industry authority in your content, provide a link to that content using relevant anchor text. This not only provides readers with references, but it also helps your site rank better when you link to credible sites. Reboot Online conducted this very extensive experiment in early 2016, which proves that outgoing links to trusted sites improve search engine rankings.

9. Include Trending Topics in Your Writing

Readers are ready to click on and read content that is relevant to what is “hot” in the world right now. While you may wish to avoid controversial topics such as politics and religion, there are a host of other trending topics that you can incorporate into your writing. If you have a particular keyword that you wish to focus on, you can set up a Google Alert with email notifications for fresh news stories. Other helpful sources of trending news include Buzzfeed Trends, Reddit list, Hashtags, and Google Trends.

Writing for SEO takes planning and skill. While the content needs to be captivating and relevant to your audience’s interests, it must also be structured in such a way that it’s both visually appealing and will rank well in the search engines. Exceptional content will lead your visitors to share more on social media and bring more traffic to your website, which is good news for your business and your bottom line.

9 Quick SEO Copywriting Tips Every Online Business Should Know by Jerry Low.  Available from <http://www.business.com/seo-marketing/9-quick-seo-copywriting-tips-every-online-business-should-know/>. [September 15, 2016]