“Boring!”  It’s the nemesis of all content writers and it threatens to creep into your newsletters.  As soon as boring content shows its face, you can kiss the inbox goodbye and start staking out real estate in the recycle bin.  What to do?  Follow these eleven tips to keep your subscribers engaged from the headline all the way to the fine print.

1.     Tantalize with a fabulous headline.
Ask a question, promise a list of tips, or offer free industry-related advice. If your headline is a lemon, your readers won’t take the time to read further.

2.     Write about what you know.
Fill your newsletter content with the things you consider yourself to be an expert on rather than falling back on someone else’s content.

3.     Choose current hot topics from your industry.
Follow blogs and stay up to date on new product releases, industry changes, and questions people are currently asking. Position yourself as an expert on current topics through your newsletter.

4.     Let your personality shine through.
Be conversational, humorous, witty, and even sarcastic if it comes naturally to you, all with the goal of building a relationship with your readers.

5.     Include lifestyle content that relates to what you do.
Show your subscribers how to apply your information to their daily lives. For instance, if you sell dog training videos, write a newsletter with tips on house training a new puppy.

6.     Narrow your focus.
Choose a goal for your newsletter and stick with it. Are you promoting your blog, sending industry updates, or offering tips? Let your subscribers know what to expect up front.

7.     Match your writing style to the personality of your company.
Is your company trendy and upbeat or do you present a more reserved, professional face to your audience? A law firm newsletter should sound different from a newsletter for a trendy salon and spa.

8.     Encourage subscribers to respond.
Include a feedback form or email address in each newsletter and make a point of replying to any feedback you receive.

9.     Include relevant images and graphics.
Well-chosen images and graphics can pique interest before the subscriber has started reading. Images should relate in a substantive way to your content rather than being generic stock photos.

10.  Break content into manageable chunks.
Bullet points, subheadings, numbers, and space between paragraphs can all make your content look less intimidating by making it easier to skim. Lengthy paragraphs tend to turn people away.

11.  Include customer feedback in your content.
Testimonials, customer Q&As, and stories are all great ways to bring your subscribers into the conversation.

By incorporating these 11 tips as you write newsletter content, you can banish droopy eyelids from your subscribers. Keep your content concise, informative, and interesting, and you’ll guarantee an engaged audience.

We’ve all gotten those receipts from big box stores encouraging us to fill out an online survey for a chance to win a $5,000 gift card. But how many of us have actually taken the time to fill one out? I’m guessing not many. The chances of winning are too slim to have much motivational power. But the fault isn’t with the survey idea itself. You can use surveys to find out what makes your target audience tick and you don’t have to give away $5,000 to do it. Here’s how:

Re-Think Your Incentives
Nobody sits around looking for surveys to fill out; you’ve got to make it worth their while. And while a huge prize for one lucky winner sounds cool, the truth is that smaller incentives offered to every respondent can generate more survey completions. If you own a restaurant, give away a free milkshake for every survey turned in. If you own a retail store or online business, offer a 10% discount, a free consultation, or a coupon code.

Ask the Right Questions
It’s easy to gather information about demographics and shopping behavior. But getting a look inside the heads of your customers can be a little trickier. The key is in asking questions that require more than a yes or no answer. Some potentially revealing questions include:

• Who would you shop with if our company didn’t exist?
  This is a great way to find out who your competitors are. You may be surprised at the answers you receive.
• How did you hear about us first?
  Find out which marketing methods generate the most business—Facebook, email, print advertising, direct mail or something else. Then use that information to determine where additional efforts should be concentrated.
• How have we made your life easier or better?
  Find out if you are accomplishing your business goals and if your UVP is actually impacting your target audience the way you intend it to.
• Why did you decide to buy from us?
  This question can help you dig a little deeper into the factors that motivate your target audience, even more so than asking how they heard about you.

Promote Your Survey
Once you have designed a survey that asks the right questions and offers the right incentives, promote it everywhere you can. Use your Facebook page, blog, Twitter account, email subscriber list, website, and any other online marketing avenues like Circulo Marketing available to you. The more responses you receive, the better you’ll understand what motivates the majority of your customers.

Surveys provide an excellent avenue for looking into the minds of your best customers. By offering the right incentives, asking the right questions, and promoting your survey as much as possible, you’ll gain valuable information that can help you take your business to the next level.

The Holidays bring a lot of people to the shopping cart both virtually and through retail stores. There is no time like December to ramp up social media marketing and attract new subscribers and well… “Likes!”  So let’s unwrap Eight tips on attracting more Facebook Likes to your company’s page for Christmas!

1.  Leverage the store-front advantage! Incentivize your customers to check-in for discounts; if they’re willing to drive to your store, they’re willing to check-in!

2.  Post exclusive information or offers that will spark excitement and encourage subscribers to share the offerings.

3.  Words are great; however fans and prospective fans are twice as likely to engage with pictures, links and video content over text.

4.  Everyone likes cheap and free however, people like one thing a little bit more, competition! If the radio station can do it, so can your business. Create unique and engaging competitions every once in a while to attract new customers and more importantly, generate repeat visits to your page and website.

5.  Respond to posts and feedback though sentences that sound like they actually came from a real person, not a robot. Remember, there should always be time to communicate with your followers and clients, they are the first priority.

6.  Use links and keywords to help optimize your content so it’s seen by more friends of existing subscribers.

7.  Don’t just post, sponsor and promote the message.  Organic Facebook page visits are only a measurement of the contact with existing followers, so go viral and make money with videos!  About 80 percent of consumers say they are more likely to try a new product or service based on a suggestion from a friend through social media.

8.  Witty, funny and fresh content wins!  Don’t be shy when posting; get those creative juices flowing to maintain existing subscribers and draw new fan interest.

So just remember to engage, promote and respond to your fans quickly and your business will see the the “Likes” a-flowing this Holiday season!

We are among the last generation to know the noun, “Yellow Pages.” All search happens on the internet (so I guess the new phrase is, yellowpages.com). And thanks to search engines like Google, Yahoo! and Bing, we know where we rank among competitors in the elusive race to land on the first page of organic results.

91 percent of adult internet users go to the web to find information over local seo services, products and making proper SEO more important than ever. That stat is hopefully not surprising to anyone; the web is and has been the go-to to find anything, with half of all searches performed on a mobile device (as mentioned in a previous post on the top reasons you should have a mobile site).

Site optimization and contextual link building is mandatory in the competitive, cluttered online marketplace; it is no longer optional to have an effective SEO strategy.

If you as the people at web hosting houston, they will tell you that there are some things about SEO that will never change; by integrating fundamental tactics combined with the updated and advanced techniques to optimize your site, you will garner organic traffic, naturally increase your rankings over time, gain credibility and help your target audience find you with ease.

I’m going to assume that SEO is not in your short list of talents. If it is, you’re awesome. If not, it is important to know where your talents stop and others’ begin. But finding an SEO partner can be a scary, unknown territory giving the keys to your site to another company. So where do you start? A Google search? (of course!) Maybe a hashtag inquiry on Twitter? What you get is an overwhelming number of sites and individuals claiming they will get you a number one ranking; it can feel like picking a needle in a haystack.

Be aware that quick-fix, short-sighted techniques that raise clients’ hopes only ultimately penalize their websites. At a time when Google is becoming more proactive about combating underhanded SEO tactics, you must adhere strictly to white-hat strategies that comply with all search engines’ terms of use – the best interest for your site and SEO results.

Now here are a few things to do and avoid on your SEO partner search:

SEO Don’ts:

Don’t – hire a techy caveman who never steps out of his office, or sleeps

Don’t– think SEO is a mysterious Divinci Code that no one can crack. It’s an algorithm, not an urban myth

Don’t – expect an instant number-one ranking (that’s like expecting to appear on Oprah immediately after launching a business)

Don’t – be afraid to ask questions, a true SEO guru who is passionate about their work will be more than happy to teach others about their process and how the algorithms work

SEO Dos:

Do – your own research on keywords and phrases that are important to you and your company

Do – take note of your key competitors, aspects of their site and rankings

Do– Create content – You can optimize blog posts on your own with tags, keywords and phrases, linking and social sharing

Do– Trash any fluff articles filled with key words or any cluttering on your home page with filler copy in a weak attempt to increase your rank, and do NOT hire someone that condones this

Do – your homework; SEO experts like many self-proclaimed “experts” are a dime a dozen; sort through the clutter and learn how they handle their clients, reporting and strategy. Identify the best SEO strategy and true expert that fits with your business model
So that’s the short list that will hopefully direct you to be informed and be introduced to a trustworthy partner, maybe even us.

Check out the following guest posting service reviews to find out the key features each outreach service has to offer.

Some solid advice for those just starting off is; get yourself involved locally with the business that are already doing what you are aiming for. I have a young nephew that got himself a poorly paid internship at YEAH! Local, I am so proud of him for this, he will learn real time knowledge, which is priceless in the development of a professional. Want to know more about SEO or other online tactics like Google Pay-Per-Click, link building, content creation and monthly reporting? Give me a call or shoot me an email, would love to help out where I can.

Cheers,
Amy
amy@hmgcreative.com

Almost everyone who uses the internet has interacted with affiliate marketing in some way, though you might not have realized it. Affiliate marketing enables merchants to partner with a third party, or affiliate, to promote their products and services. It seems like a match made in heaven: the merchant gets free advertising, and the affiliate makes a commission on each sales. And in many ways, it is a perfect set-up. But before you jump in with both feet, make sure you’re making an informed decision.

The Good: A Beneficial Partnership

Both merchants and affiliates can reap huge benefits from an affiliate marketing program. Amazon, one of the largest affiliate marketers in the world, has more than a million affiliates happily making money from their ads. Let’s take a look at the pros for both parties:

• Merchant Benefits: Free ad space, broader audience, greater brand exposure, and—did I mention?—free ad space. Merchants benefit from placing their ads on a wide variety of website types, reaching a much broader audience than they otherwise could—all for free (mostly—see below).
• Affiliate Benefits: Cash, cash, and cash. Affiliates can make money at home, at work, on the golf course, or on the beach. Just by devoting a small square of their website to advertising.

The Bad: A Risky Proposition

Just as both sides can benefit from affiliate marketing, both sides assume some risk as well. Don’t assume that affiliate marketing is all a bed of roses. Grit your teeth and take a look at the cons:

• Merchant Cons: False advertising and commission costs. An unscrupulous affiliate can use shady methods to promote your advertisement, causing significant damage to your brand’s reputation. Merchants can also take a hit in the commission department, especially if the advertisements require significant investment of time and resources to create and maintain.
• Affiliate Cons: No cash, low cash, stolen cash. Fraudulent merchants may end the affiliate program without warning and refuse to pay what they promised. They might also hook affiliates into the program by promising high commission rates and paying less than promised. Finally, affiliates face the risk of getting hacked and having their commissions stolen.

The Ugly: Schemers and Scammers

Because affiliate marketing offers potentially high dividends, it has become a target for nefarious internet bandits. Schemes and scams abound, but if you do your homework and know the risk, you can still benefit greatly from entering into an affiliate marketing agreement.

While affiliate marketing does carry risks, the potential for earning money and gaining exposure far outweigh the negatives. The key is to know as much as you can about the company you’re dealing with and talk to people who have dealt with them before in order to avoid the scammers.

Are you currently an affiliate marketer or a merchant who offers an affilate program?  If so, please share your tips and experiences with us below.

Mobile marketing has received a lot of press lately, so much so that some short-sighted marketers have loftily proclaimed email marketing to be dead. But before you send flowers, stop and check the pulse of your email marketing campaign. It may be much more alive than you think.

Is Texting Messaging the New Email?

I’ll admit it. I don’t have a smartphone. I was the last of my friends to get a cell phone of any kind. And at the end of the day, I still prefer sitting down at my computer to texting. I realize I’m not the typical consumer (there are now more people using smart phones than basic cell phones and texting is the most popular use of phones of any kind), but think about it for a minute. If you don’t have a smart phone and you receive a text with a link or URL in it, how likely are you to go find a computer and type that URL in so you can shop? Not very. That means that for the 41% of people who still use basic cell phones, your marketing message was wasted.

Which One Is Better?

Although it’s a natural question, it’s really not the right one to be asking. Don’t think of email and texting as being in competition with one another. Think of them as being partners on the same team, with different jobs.

• Email Marketing: Your Online Powerhouse

Email marketing lets people click on a link immediately, visit your full website, and take action. There are no usability problems and no worries about whether the subscriber has a phone with web browsing capabilities. People can visit social media pages, interact with your call to action, browse your website, and make a purchase using a coupon much more easily via email. You can see a wide variety of affiliate marketing apps to choose from.

• Mobile Marketing: Your On-the-Go Solution

Mobile marketing, on the other hand, is perfect for quick, on-the-go messages. People tend to check their phones more when they’re out and about, and texting is the communication medium of choice for those situations. Use white label SMS reseller messaging for appointment reminders, quick alerts, interactive messages, and instant access.

Which Basket Gets Your Eggs?

Dividing your marketing efforts between texting and email marketing is a smart move, but how do you know which basket gets the most eggs? You’ll need to observe your audience, learn how they typically interact with your content, and invest the most resources in the medium that promises the greatest return.

Both texting and email bring benefit to the marketing table: determining which one is best for you is simply a matter of determining objectives, knowing what each tool can do, and using the right one for the job.

A site with no visitors is not profitable at all. If your phone isn’t ringing from internet leads, you need to start doing something different to drive traffic to your online store front. One key strategy that targets potential customers during their decision-making process is Google Ad Words.

For those who have yet to discover this type of campaigning, Google AdWords is a pay-per-click advertising program by Google. With AdWords, businesses can promote their website’s products and services on Google’s search results in the “sponsored links” sections. As always, quality copy and relevant keyword buys will give you a competitive edge over your competitors. With AdWords, unlike traditional advertising, you can set your budgets and change your campaigns in real-time; there are no commitments or spending requirements of any kind.

The Benefits of Google Pay-Per-Click:

• Control your budget and overall costs. Set your daily budget and the amount you’re willing to pay for a click, and you only pay when someone clicks on your ad.
• Advertise where you want. Target your ads to potential customers around the world, or only to those in your town, region or country.
• No risk. There’s no minimum term or commitment and if you ever need to change the level of spending you can increase or decrease your budgets with peace of mind.
• Targeting. You choose your industry-specific keywords to target your customers and can know your exact ROI and how to better tailor your campaigns for the future.

Not sure how to start or manage a campaign? Let us do it for you.

We at HMG Creative keep a close eye on all our clients’ PPC campaigns to ensure their business is seen by all the right people; we will set up your account, keywords, regions, daily budgets and performance. Account management of your Google PPC is affordable and just makes “Adsense.”

AdWords Services:

• Research profitable keywords and compile exhaustive negative keyword lists
• Build campaigns with proper keyword structure and organization
• Develop and manage effective Display Network campaigns
• Optimize account settings based on budget, geo-targeting and account analysis
• Improve quality scores with click-through-rates, landing page and keywords bid management
• Eliminate wasted spending and work towards constant ROI improvements
• Write and manage ad copy and split testing
• Conversion tracking, reporting and analysis

So what’s it cost?

Due to the competitive, real-time nature of PPC, it’s necessary to monitor, strategize and make changes on an ongoing basis to achieve the best results. For this service, our pricing is month-to-month and varies depending on the complexity of the campaigns as you can view below:

Special Offers:

Commit to a full year and we will waive the Set Up Fee for your PPC campaign and receive your first $100 of ad spend is on us.

Commit to 6 months and we will include your first $100 of ad spend will be free.

Go ahead, attract new leads and get the phone ringing by picking up yours.

Amy Kauffman
858-255-0027

LinkedIn is the go-to website for most B2B marketers when it comes to networking and expanding their client base. But is it really the best place to get the job done? According to some studies, Facebook offers just as much if not more opportunity to reach your professional audience. Let’s take a look at how the two sites stack up side by side.

Facebook Pros and Cons

The social media giant clearly leads the field in terms of B2C marketing. But how about that professional audience you’re trying to reach?

• Pro: Facebook’s huge user base means that more professionals are on Facebook than on LinkedIn in terms of total numbers. Those professionals don’t turn off their business acumen when they’re on Facebook, so you can still market effectively through the broader platform.
• Pro: Facebook allows direct marketing through Facebook ads, meaning you’re no longer dependent on buyer engagement in order to reach potential customers.
• Con: Facebook posts may or may not appear on your fans’ walls, depending on their level of engagement with your brand.
• Con: Marketing efforts must compete with non-professional posts. Music videos, cute puppies, and pithy quotes are all clamoring for the attention of your potential buyers. Your posts have to be good enough to earn a viewing amongst all the ruckus.

LinkedIn Pros and Cons

Most professionals rely heavily on LinkedIn for job seeking, hiring, and networking. But is it an effective way to market to business professionals?

• Pro: Professionals tend to gather at LinkedIn. Nearly 60% of B2B marketers are on LinkedIn, meaning you’ll reach more professionals there at any given time than you will on any other social network. You can also count on your target audience checking in pretty regularly, with most users active between noon and 3 p.m.
• Pro: It’s easy to network with serious professionals, view their profiles, and connect with the movers and shakers in any industry. Profiles contain lots of rich data that proves invaluable in your marketing and networking efforts.
• Con: Total number of users, number of minutes spent on the site and number of high-level professionals fall far below the same stats on Facebook.
• Con: Most people don’t think of LinkedIn as a marketing platform. Instead, they typically use it for job seeking and networking with others in the industry. That doesn’t make it a deal-breaker, but it is something to consider.

LinkedIn has established itself as a valuable tool for business professionals, but that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily the best tool for every job. It’s important to consider which social media platforms offer the best opportunities for marketing to your business clients and then choose the one that makes the most sense for your business.

Twitter and Facebook have been well-established as the twin pillars of social media for what amounts to eons in the rapidly evolving technological world. Now, after an epic Google Buzz fail, Google has launched their newest attempt to run with the big dogs: Google+. The questions being asked by many businesses include “Do I really need a third networking site? Will it be a good investment in the long term? Does anybody actually use Google+?” Let’s address these questions one at a time.

Do I Really Need a Third Networking Site?

“Need” is a relevant term, but Google+ does offer some unique features that Facebook and Twitter don’t:

• Circles—Circles allow you to categorize all your contacts into groups. You can share posts with all your contacts or you can cater your content to those within a particular circle.
• Hangouts—Hangouts are like video chat on steroids. They allow you to chat with up to nine other Google+ users, even those who aren’t currently connected to you (a great feature for brand exposure). Hangouts are ideal for webinars, group discussions, and question/answer sessions.
• Google Indexing Benefits—Google is the search engine king, and you can bet they will integrate Google+ into their indexing algorithms. For the best exposure, you have to play the game their way.
• Saved Searches—Type a keyword into the search feature and find all content relevant to your brand or another topic of interest. These searches can be saved and displayed in your sidebar to keep you up-to-date on all the latest conversations.

Will Google+ Be a Good Investment in the Long Term?

To date, Google+ remains significantly smaller than Facebook. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. On Facebook, you’re competing with a huge conglomeration of events, photos, updates, and more; Google+ tends to be more informational, meaning that you can get your message out to the people who really want to hear what you have to say. It’s also a good bet that Google+ will eventually be integrated with all of Google’s other offerings: Google Places, search, images, and more. All of which makes it a good investment for businesses.

Does Anybody Actually Use Google+?

So far, 90 million users have accounts with Google+. And because every gmail user automatically gets an account, you can expect that number to grow. Sixty percent of those users log in every single day (compared to just 50% who log into Twitter every day), and eighty percent log in once a week.

Google+ is a growing network whose ultimate reach has yet to be established. Its unique features make it a good investment for businesses as social media becomes increasingly integrated into the daily lives of average people. Should you invest? You bet.

In nature, “nurturing” anti inflammatory supplements always implies a particular relationship between the nurturer and the nuturee: the party with more knowledge/experience/information/power shares those qualities with the party possessing less, with the goal of bringing about positive change. Appropriately, “lead nurturing” in the email marketing world refers to the educational relationship you create with subscribers, with the goal of persuading them to act. When you get it right, you’ll not only get more customers to say yes, you’ll also build a core of loyal clients who throw their business your way again and again.

Basics of Lead Nurturing

Lead nurturing isn’t just sending emails once a week. It involves providing relevant, useful information to the subscriber about the offer you want him to accept. And it requires planning.

• Create a target audience persona. Your email list includes a variety of personality and customer types, but in order to create the most effective email campaign, you’ll need to choose one target persona to focus on. Create each email with that personality in mind. What motivates them? What information do they need? What questions do they want answered? Focus on building a relationship with your target audience in order to earn their loyalty.
• Determine a consistent email frequency and sequence. Every new lead on your list should receive the same emails in the same order and at the same frequency. Each new message should have a specific goal and call to action. Frequency should be no less than once a week; every five to six days works well in most cases.
• Create content. Each email should contain helpful, actionable, and educational content. Be creative. Try videos, FAQs, surveys, special reports and other formats to get the most important information about your company and your offer into the hands of your subscribers. Emails should build on each other, creating forward momentum and culminating with your ultimate call to action.
• Use offer-based opt-ins. Provide an incentive for opting in to your email list that is related to your ultimate offer. If you’re selling a weight loss e-book, for instance, your opt-in offer could be a free report detailing seven secrets to reducing the risk of Type II diabetes.
• Use autorepsonders. Autoresponders ensure that each new lead gets the same emails at the same frequency. It’s the smartest way to keep your email campaign ducks in a row.

Securing Action With Lead Nurturing

Once your campaign is up and running, keep a close eye on your analytics and your banner stands. Monitor which links are being clicked, how many subscribers convert, how many new leads you get, and where those leads are coming from. Tweak your campaign based on subscriber behavior.

Persuading your target audience to say yes begins with a strong lead nurturing campaign designed to educate and build relationships. Strong content, effective planning, and a solid approach to email creation and distribution will create a loyal audience that wants what you have to offer.