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.

With more than 100 million registered users, LinkedIn is the number one professional networking website online today. As the popular site becomes more commonly referenced as a hiring and promotion resource, businesses should be familiar with how LinkedIn can help build their brands and increase company awareness. Ready to get started? Let’s dive in.

Flesh Out Your Profile

The most important thing you can do to boost visibility on LinkedIn is to flesh your profile out as much as possible. Make sure profile completion is at 100% and be sure to include as many skills and experiences as possible in order to increase your likelihood of showing up in search results.

Create a Company Page

LinkedIn’s Company Page feature helps you network with other businesses, gets you listed with Google’s search engine, and creates a platform for you to promote company news and services. Your company page includes information such as a company description, specialties, logos, Twitter and RSS feeds, company news, career opportunities, and more. Fill out each section of your company profile as completely as possible to boost visibility and attract page views.

Build Credibility with Groups and Answers

These two features are essential for building brand awareness. Let’s take a closer look at how they can boost your credibility:

• Groups—By joining a LinkedIn group or starting your own group, you can connect with others in your field or with potential customers. Taking an active part in group discussions also demonstrates expertise in your field. If you’re starting your own group, be sure the headline communicates clearly what the group’s purpose is in order to attract the right types of contacts.
• Answers—The Answers section enables you to provide input on questions relative to your field, thereby demonstrating your knowledge of the subject matter and increasing the relevance of your comments throughout the site. Posting on other members’ questions also increases your visibility and can establish you as a credible, thinking leader within your field.

Promote Your Company Profile

Once you have established your brand within LinkedIn itself, you can begin promoting your company profile on other venues. Invite followers with a button placed on your website, blog, email communications, and other points of contact.

Ultimately, the best advice I can offer regarding LinkedIn is this: keep it current. By making sure your profile remains up to date and that you’re interacting regularly, you can ensure that you stay visible to the people you want to reach.

How do you define a great email campaign? Effective copy, concise subject line, clear call-to-action, sure. But putting hours of effort into an email campaign means nothing if you don’t see results. A successful campaign boils down to your brand understanding how to meet (and exceed) the expectations of your audience.

I, like most of us, am subscribed to numerous newsletters for a wide variety of reasons. Some for aggregated news purposes, business tips, daily deals or retail companies that offer value. I think we all know our favorites by the excitement we get seeing the new email freshly unopened in our inbox. This for marketers is a dream come true; these loyal subscribers are the pulse of the messages they create and move the needle for what’s to come.

A company recently caught my attention and now goes into a short list of brands that I not only enjoy watching, but admire their email campaigns and overall integrated marketing.

One night, killing some time before dinner I walked around downtown San Diego and went into the Goorin Bros. hat shop. The store pulled us in and almost back in time as we tried on hats reminiscent of the 1960s, old derby days that radiated class. It was so fun spending time in the store that on my way out I wrote my name in a book to be added to their newsletter list.

A few days later I received my first email from the Goorin Bros. and I was able to open it on my phone without a hitch. I thought the email looked very clean, sharp and with closer notice to this and emails to come, I was continually impressed with the beautiful, thoughtful design, clear messaging and access to information.

Continue…

Stop.  Step back and take a look at your business, not from your point of view, but from the eyes of the consumer.  We all get wrapped up in the day-to-day operations of our business and it’s easy to overlook our appearance from the outside.  With a wealth of information at our fingertips, the first impression of a company is most often derived from its website as a person searches for a particular product or service.  As we know, first impressions are critical.  So take a moment to pull up your website and ask yourself the following questions (keep your customer in mind when doing so):  Can you find your website in a Google search for your product or service?  Is the site visually appealing?  Is the content up to date?  Can you find the information you are looking for and is it easy to navigate?  Does the overall design and layout look modern?  Compared to other sites for competing companies, would your online storefront win the business?

If your answer to any of the above questions is “no”, then perhaps it’s time to rethink your online strategy and consider a website redesign.  An out of date website can give an impression that the core of your business is outdated as well.  If you walked into a dental clinic sporting wood panel walls, orange shag carpet and an office manager on a rotary phone, would you feel comfortable asking for a root canal?  Ok, so nobody in his or her right mind would ever ask for a root canal!  My point is that this could be the best dentist around, but you would never know based on the first impression from walking into the office.  Take a moment and ask yourself this:  How do you want your business to be perceived and does your website give off this perception?

Aesthetic appeal is important and pertains to the artistic design and layout of your website.  Overall, this will have the most impact on the first impression of your business.  Studies have shown that little things such as a color scheme or font choice can have a psychological impact on one’s perception.  The layout for graphic elements and information is also important and should flow in a way that coincides with the natural tendencies our eyes have in scanning a page.  Believe it or not, there are hot spots where eyes tend to gravitate on websites and this needs to be taken into consideration. More information on eye movement patterns as it relates to web design can be found here.

Functionality and user experience of a site is also extremely important.  How many times have you searched for information on a particular site, gave up and moved on?  Information needs to be logically organized so the average person can easily navigate in its search.  Keep it simple and remember that often times, less is more.   Too many pages, especially if not properly organized, can confuse and frustrate people to the point that they continue their search elsewhere.

Speaking of searching, if people can’t find your site when searching for your product or service, you’re missing out on potential new business.  Designing a site with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in mind and having a strategy in doing so is crucial.  Social media integration, blogging and updating your site on a regular basis with current information will improve a site’s SEO, thus making it easier to find during a search.  In the SEO world, remember that content is king.  Also, being able to measure traffic and results is a must; if Google Analytics hasn’t been integrated, it needs to be.

Now that you’ve had a chance to think about a few things concerning your company’s website, ask yourself one more question:  If someone is searching online for your product or service, who’s going to get the call; you or the competition?  If it’s not you, then it’s time for an upgrade.

Give us a call today and ask about our special for May!  For more information contact, Rob Ridgeway, at 512-994-4429 or rob@hmgcreative.com

Six months ago, if you had mentioned Dollar Shave Club to a room of people, you would have gotten all blank stares (even though the company has been around since June of last year). Today, there are over 4.5 million people who would nod their heads and smile. 4.5 million YouTube views. In just a few weeks. How did they do it?

A viral video incorporates strong planning, careful execution, and a little bit of luck. Fortunately for those of us who have never won the lottery, the strong planning and careful execution part carries a little more weight than the luck part. Can you design a video and guarantee that it will go viral? Maybe not, but by incorporating these lessons from Dollar Shave Club, you can at least ensure that it earns the right to be seen and shared.

Don’t Take Yourself Too Seriously

Humor is something Dollar Shave Club does really well. Seriously. There’s hardly a straight line in the entire video. But they’re not just cracking jokes either. Some of the humor is obvious and some is a little more under the radar, but all of it works together to communicate the vital information you need to know about the company. And it leaves you with that “You’ve gotta see this!” feeling.

Create a Unified Approach

Take a long look at your existing website and craft your video so that it supports your current marketing strategy. When you visit the Dollar Shave Club site, every element hangs together and sends the same vibes you received in the video. Your website visitors shouldn’t wonder whether you’re the same company as the one that produced the video they loved.

Put the Most Important Stuff First

In the first ten seconds, we know what Dollar Shave Club does, how much it costs, and what the quality of the product is. We get our questions answered: How can they afford it and are the razors any good? ( personally I enjoy the best straight razor from my barber and I don’t think that is going to change) If we decide to stop viewing (which we won’t, because their fabulous style holds our attention) we still have everything we need to know to pique our interest and entice us over to the website.

Put a Face On Your Company

Even if you don’t have the marketing background and camera-ease that Dollar Shave Club’s founder, Mike Dubin does, it still helps viewers connect with your company when you put a face behind the name. Make the story human and people will relate to it. Certainly not everyone wants that fresh clean shaved look. In the same theme you can do like http://beardcareshop.com/philips-Norelco-beard-trimmer-series-7200/ and make beard trimming and care sexy and attainable. Or any idea you may have can go viral, you simply have to work hard.

Creating videos people love begins with understanding how to communicate a message they can relate to and want to share. After that, who knows? You just might win the lottery.