by Nevin on April 30, 2012
Have your heard of these 5 “local” search engines?
Many “local” businesses tend to focus on getting listed on Google Maps and Google Places, simply because it’s relatively easy to get listed on these sites and doing so usually produces results. However, there are other local search engines you should know about in order to reach your customers: Twitter Search, Facebook Search, FourSquare Search, LinkedIn Company Search, and Pinterest. Read more here to get more details about each.
Why your email subscribers are your most loyal customers
According to one marketing writer, of all the customers you have, people who subscribe to your email list are probably your best customer. Why is this? Generally speaking, email marketing is “permission-based”; your customers have indicated that they want you contact them with offers (along with highly valuable and relevant information). Email subscribers also tend to open and click on links, which is important when you;re trying to sell a product or a service. To learn more about why email subscribers make loyal customers, read more here. Bonus link: 7 clever email campaigns that get customers buying again
How to turn your business into a referral-generating machine
For local businesses, why can referrals seem so hard to generate? According to the Globe and Mail, there’s an art to generating referrals: you need to be systematic in your approach. Here’s a step-by-step process to follow each week. Read more here. Bonus link: Ten simple ways to generate leads on Twitter
Google’s Mobile Playbook Aims To Educate, Simplify Mobile For “Busy Executives”
Something that should be of great interest to local business: earlier this week Google launched its “Mobile Playbook,” a simple but comprehensive guide that explains what ”mobile” is and why anyone hoping to sell anything to anybody needs to embrace the channel asap. Google’s document is full of data and case studies that illustrate why it’s so important to have a mobile strategy, website and/or app. Read more here.
Content strategist Nevin Thompson “curates” a weekly collection of online marketing links for JumpStart Web, a Victoria online marketing agency specializing in local search marketing.
by Nevin on April 16, 2012
15 things customers hate about your website
Why do so many websites feature elements that visitors (that is, potential customers) absolutely hate? Poor user experience can cause high page abandonment rates, low visitor-to-lead conversion rates, poor organic search listing positions, and a bad reputation. Here’s a list of the 15 most annoying things on websites, sort of a guide for what not to do when designing your website. Read more here.
5 highly effective landing page tips
It’s safe to say that many local businesses are still way behind in their landing page improvement efforts (a landing page is a single web page that appears in response to clicking on an advertisement. The landing page will usually display directed sales copy that is a logical extension of the advertisement or link). This can lead to lost sales opportunities, which no one wants! To help you out, here are 5 highly effective landing page tips. Read more here.
Learn better email marketing for local businesses
Local businesses often can exploit their closer relationships with customers and ability to quickly take advantage of trends to beat out big box retailers, who traditionally dominate online marketing. However, local businesses often forget to implement simple, strategic tool such as email marketing, that can help them increase sales. Read more here.
How to create a great content strategy for an established website
Establishing a comprehensive content strategy for existing pages on your website is a key piece of the search engine optimization (SEO) puzzle, especially considering Google’s ongoing Panda quality updates. But what is “content strategy”? And how do you implement it on your business’ established website? Read more here.
Quick tips for marketing on mobile devices (video)
Mobile will take over local search and online marketing for local businesses within the next year or two. While mobile may seem confusing for local businesses, it’s an effective, powerful, and actually simple way to connect with customers and boost sales on a limited budget. Here are a few tips on how to seamlessly move content into a mobile environment. Read more here.
Nevin Thompson prepares a weekly feast of links for JumpStart Web, Victoria’s leaders in web marketing for local businesses.
by Nevin on April 9, 2012
What businesses benefit most from creating mobile websites?
Thanks to the continued and sustained exploding growth in consumer adoption of tablets and smartphones, there is an uptick in “mobile first, desktop second” business strategies. Are there certain types of companies that can benefit more than others by retooling for mobile? According to this article, consumer-facing businesses stand to gain the most direct and immediately measurable benefits from going mobile. Read more here.
Video boosts brand engagement, site visits
Users not only click on more ads with video or rich media, but also tend to visit brand sites long after seeing the associated ad. Read more here.
What is “Content Curation”? And how can it help your marketing?
Content curation is about collecting and grouping relevant information together in a cohesive and manageable package. Not only can it help bring visitors to your business’ website time and time again, these same visitors will be more inclined to share your website with others, which makes for great marketing. Read more here.
Insights and tips for marketers about how brands use Facebook Timeline
A new eye tracking study by SimpleUsability highlights a number of challenges and opportunities for businesses using Facebook as a marketing channel. The result is 5 Facebook timeline brand page user insights to help grow your business. Read more here.
How to use email to re-engage sleepy subscribers
What if there was something you could do to re-engage subscribers who actually are still interested in your company, but have just suffered a case of inbox overload? Learn why people disengage from email, and how to bring them back on board (and hopefully back to buying your products). Read more here.
Nevin Thompson works as a content strategist with JumpStartWeb, which has recently achieved a lot of success with mobile websites in Victoria.
by Nevin on February 6, 2012
Mobile SEO growing in importance as web economy set to double by 2016
A recent sudy indicates that by 2016, there will be 3 billion Internet users around the world, and the global Internet economy will reach $4.2 trillion. Mobile devices such as smart phones will account for about 80% of all broadband connections. From an SEO perspective, this means that all businesses need to get to work optimising their sites for mobile users.
Bonus link: U.S. Mobile Ad Spending Forecast to Exceed $2.6 Billion in 2012
6 Different Emails Every Marketer Should Consider Sending
Should you nurture your subscribers with weekly newsletters? Are dedicated sends better at optimizing your sales and marketing funnel? What about email digests? These are all valid questions that marketing professionals should consider when selecting the right format to meet their email marketing goals. This blog post discusses the different types of email marketing communication and their respective advantages and disadvantages.
Valentine’s Day 2012 Ideas for Marketers
For marketers looking to take advantage of the holiday, Google and Microsoft adCenter have provided several ideas based on what users are already searching for. Learn more about the top products on Valentine’s Day, and an optimization checklist for your campaign. Click here to read more.
Five marketing questions to ask to grow your business in 2012
Asking yourself key marketing questions can help decide what programs and strategies worked, what didn’t, and what changes you need to make in 2012. Here are five questions to ask.
Why, and how, you should collect customer data
It’s argued that a customer database and purchase history is a must-have for every small business. It’s well-known that it is a lot more effective to sell to the customers you already have than to find new ones. But if you don’t know who they are, how to reach them or what they have already bought and like, you will just have to wait. – and hope. And that’s no way to grow a business. Not only will leveraging customer info support sales every day of the year, but your customer database will be a valuable asset when you sell your business. Read more here.
JumpStartWeb publishes Monday Marketing Madness each week to discuss mobile SEO and other online marketing topics.
