Important Online Business Information
Are you interested in starting an online business? By trading online you can save time and money, reduce your overheads and reach a much wider market. And you make it easier for your customers to do business with you.
You also need the right business tools to help you achieve your goals in your online marketing business.
The importance of a Content Marketing Strategy
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The Importance of a Content Marketing Strategy
With audiences becoming more and more oblivious to disruption tactics from advertisers, developing a Content marketing strategy is becoming increasingly important to businesses.
What is a Content Marketing Strategy?
More and more buyers venture online to research products and services before making the final decision to purchase. By having a solid content marketing strategy in place and creating and publishing original, high quality content, your business will be positioned to help the buyer move through the buying cycle, answering common questions, overcoming objections and providing the buyer with the social proof needed to become a business partner.
What Effect can content Marketing Strategy have on your Business?
Raises Your Profile
By producing top quality content that stimulates your audience, you increase the chances of your content being shared across the internet. The more times the content is shared, the more links will be attributed to your content - thus raising your profile both in the eyes of the search engines and potential customers.
Humanizes your Brand
Sharing thoughts and ideas about your business and brand for all to see changes the whole dynamic of the business relationship. The reader becomes a part of something bigger. They become a member of a community. If we work on the principle that people buy people first and that businesses and opportunities are built by people, then having a community of readers can only be good for business.
Positioning
Not all businesses have a content marketing strategy in place. By being one of the first to really take a tactical approach to how, where and what content you publish, you can command the prime spots where your audience is likely to be and begin building a community before others have the chance to compete.
In order to position yourself as the leader in your niche and develop a winning content marketing strategy take a look at are my 6 tips below:
1. Commit to it: A content marketing campaign will require an investment of time and or money. You need to be fully committed to producing fresh and relevant content on a regular basis .
2. Set a Schedule: Create an editorial calendar for your content and stick to it. Let your community know when you will be publishing, that way you will be held accountable.
3. Promotion rules: Just creating the content is not good enough. When you produce content it needs to be shared and promoted to all the places where your audience will find it. Use Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus to help spread the message.
4. Diversify your content: How does your audience consume information? Is it through videos, eBooks, special reports, blog posts or audio forums? Content marketing gives you the opportunity to publish in multiple formats and get in front of more and more customers. So utilise each and every one.
5. Make it link worthy: I will say it again, at the heart of any good content marketing strategy is quality content. The higher the standard of the content the more chance you have of gaining backlinks and social proof raising the profile of your brand. Produce content that can provide value tomorrow and for years to come.
6. Test and Track: The success of any strategy comes down to the ability of testing, tracking and the tweaking the results. If something is not producing the results you expect then tweak it slightly and try again. There is little point distributing content that looks good to you but is not valued by your target audience.
Content marketing is here to stay - the sooner you can get your small business on board the better. Results won’t happen overnight but if you persist and produce high quality content your brand awareness will increase and you will slowly and surely build an engaged community for your business.
Building Online Commuities - Why You Need to Start!
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Building Online Communities – Why You Need to Start
There is a saying: “on this shrunken globe; men can no longer live as strangers.” That's very true. If you are running an online business, or any business for that matter, you should be fostering as many relationships as you can to propel your business forward. Spend time building online communities and getting to know fellow business professionals, you may meet some great people and find business opportunities at the same time.
You may not know it yet, building online communities is one of the best ways to explode traffic to your blog or website. It's one of the most cost-effective and practical ways to increase your profits. By spending time learning about others and sharing opinions, you could double or even triple your blog readership overnight.
If you're marketing online alone, you don't have leverage. You only have the efforts of one person to count on - yourself. But if you are part of a community that works together, that multiplies your marketing power. Of course not everyone in the community will be equal in terms of their exposure, however don’t forget that all businesses start small and grow over time, and with the help of a community the same is true.
Not only will this mean that your blog content is being promoted to more and more eyeballs on the internet, it means that you can use the time you were spending on marketing your business, improving other facets of your business such as lead capturing, nurturing and sales while your brand is working for you.
Lastly, tap into the information of other Internet marketers in the community through networking. Find out what is working for them; find out what their goals are and if there is any alignment with your plans that could perhaps be the basis for a joint venture of some variety. Know what's going on in the market place and what people are talking about. I'm not saying make it a prime activity, but it should be something on your to-do list every week.
Tips for Building Online Communities
Take an interest. Listen and learn before you jump in with both feet. No one likes a loud mouth! When you provide an experience that relates to something the community is passionate about, they’ll share with their community and spread your brand message.
One for All and All for One. Building online communities lets other business owners feel like they are part of a larger group that respects one another. It’s all about being equal – there is no place for hierarchy. Every human being has a psychological need to be part of a larger group that allows them to feel welcomed.
Welcome feedback. Every small business owner wants to be bigger and better and the best way to do that is by listening carefully to feedback by its customers and community. By getting feedback, comments on blogs, tweets on twitter or whatever social signal it maybe, it shows that you are engaging your audience and that proof can act as spark for other people to open up dialogue.
Reciprocity – If a member of the community takes their time to share their expertise or give you feedback, then acknowledge the feedback and when the time is right return the favor. I am not saying be contrived and see it as giving to receive but it is about community not about you.
What are your opinions on building online communities? Do you think they work? Have you tried one? Are you in one? Do you recommend one? Leave your comments below to let me know and then tweet the post out to your following including @James_Debono in the tweet so I can see your contribution. I look forward to learning from your experience.
FREE Online Business Training from iBrand Boost
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Laura Wilson free Online Business Training
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iBrand Boost free Online Business Training
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Framework for Online Branding
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Starting Your Own Internet Business Could Be Life Changing!
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Starting Your Own Internet Business Can Become reality!
For many people, cutting out the endless meetings, the daily commute and taking control of their own 9-5 is a distant dream. However, over the last few years more and more people have been “breaking free” of the corporate life. You may even have been thinking about starting your own internet business, but always put it off because no one makes money from home on the internet - or do they?
Well, here is some news for you: recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the number of home-based businesses in the U.S. exceeds 18.3 million. People are making money and enriching their lives and you can too by starting your own internet business.
Reasons for Starting Your Own Internet Business
One of the main reasons that people give for wanting to set up a business from home is to spend more time with family. A home business allows family members to be involved, Husbands and wives can help each other with different parts of the business and children have the opportunity to see their parents working and running a business. Working for yourself at home means no commuting and no boss, so you have much greater freedom with your time. Many home-based entrepreneurs find that flexibility around their daily routine helps them to be more productive.
With greater productivity often comes greater workload. The benefit of being a home-based entrepreneur is that you are not boxed into one job and given a label identifying you as a Sales Person, Team Leader, Finance Manager, or Administrative Assistant. You’ll find that you become all things for your business. You are free to learn what you can and can’t do and your goals become much more achievable as you benefit from massive personal growth. More importantly, you can vary your activities regularly to keep you from getting bored.
It’s often said that nobody ever got rich working for someone else and for many people, yourself included, by starting your own internet business the dream is to create long term wealth. By starting your business from home, you have a low cost platform to plough all your extra money back into driving a profit from your business. You save money on travel and renting a separate business space and the time saved travelling can be put back into to earning money.
Internet based businesses allow people who have been frequently shut out of the job market, for instance homemakers, students, retirees, and the disabled amongst others, to create new income opportunities for themselves. When you are self-employed your earning potential is directly proportional to your performance, so the incentive is there for you to push yourself harder and create the income you’ve always wanted.
What Will You Need When Starting Your Own Internet Business?
The internet is a vital part of what makes a business successful these days. Whether you have had businesses for 40 years or this is your first venture, the keys to the best internet businesses are the same:
A Good Idea: Have something to offer that people have an appetite for, and if you can find a niche market your chances of success are better.
Hard Work: Forget the “four hour work week” theory. If you want to make a success of starting your own internet business you will have to push yourself harder than any boss ever could. If you put in the effort and persevere through the many ups and downs, you will come up trumps.
Prepare for Success: One of the most telling characteristics of an entrepreneur that reaches the highest levels of success is that if you believe that you will succeed, then you have a much better chance of doing so. Believe in yourself and go about your plans with steely determination. Together with your good ideas and hard work, your confidence will be rewarded.
As more people are becoming frustrated with the “old” style of working 9-5 from an office, there are now more options and ways to make money online allowing you to do something different. Starting your own internet business could be the key to your own personal freedom.
Search Plus Your World is Important
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What is “Search, Plus Your World”?
Last week Google released its latest changes to their search algorithm called “Search, Plus Your World”. Essentially the changes mean that now the search results presented on Google will be even more tailored to each and every individual.
The important thing to remember is Google’s business model and their mission, which is to provide the searcher with the most qualified results.
Why do they want to do that? Well it’s quite simple - if they provide the search user with search results that do not meet the user’s expectations, then the user will move to another search engine such as Yahoo or Bing. If the searcher then finds those results are better suited, then next time they are looking for an answer they will bypass Google and go elsewhere.
Now of course Google don’t want this. Google wants you to use its plethora of services: Google docs, YouTube, Gmail etc, because if users switch to another search engine then they will start to lose advertising revenue. This is important because advertising revenue is Google’s largest income stream.
So what Do the Latest Changes Mean?
If you combine this change with the Panda update of last year and Google’s social media strategy Google+, then I think the underlying theme is that you have to create unique quality content that adds real value to your community on a regular basis.
Why Have The Changes Been Made?
Google are aiming to provide each individual user with a unique search experience. Yes, I did say that, a unique search experience. They will do that by taking the organic search results that are gathered by the Google search algorithm and combining that with results shared, reviewed and liked by people in your online community – it could be friends, family or work associates however you categorise them.
So for example you want to book a holiday, you go to Google and type in “cheap holiday to Mexico.” In the search results come all the usual airlines, holiday and travel companies but also there is a review from one of your friends.
The review says that they just came back from Mexico they had a great time, the resort was superb and it was really great value.
Now when you see that review, because you already know and perhaps trust that person who has made that review, you will be more inclined to be influenced by their experience than other reviews from other holiday companies.
The same theory applies for any content on the internet. If you write an article or a blog post on small business marketing tips that gets shared by “Bob” on Google+, and somebody in Bob’s following then does a search for small business marketing tips, then your post is likely to appear in the search results because their friend Bob has already recommended it. To make it really personal, there may even be a picture of Bob or a little logo by the side in the search results. It is all about Social proof (Watch the official Google video below).
As you can see it is a pretty important and significant update.
As a small business owner what should you do?
The previous strategy was to get a website or blog, optimize content for relevant search criteria, get some back links and then convert the traffic on the back end. This process will not change, however just churning out content and syndicating it to social media sites will no longer be good enough. You need to make sure that you practice the following:
Create top quality content
Deliver incredible value with your content.
Motivate people to engage with your content. (Like, share, comment)
Position yourself as an authority in your niche
Listen to your customers and other people in your niche.
Comment and share on what is meaningful to you with your community.
Providing incredible value, listening to your community and being meaningful to others will help build your brand and position you as an expert in your field. One thing that is certain is that in an age where the mass of messages multiplies daily, only a small number really matter. Google know this, and that is why they have made the changes.
If you want your business and brand to have sustainable profit and your messages to influence others, then you need to make sure your message is the one that matters.
I Help Brand and Market Experts
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This past week, I revealed my early plans about launching a subscription site for educators interested in making effective, successful blogs, websites, and online businesses. As each day passes, my excitement only intensifies as I can't wait to begin sharing my expertise in education, social media, and website design to help my colleagues amplify their voices and share their expertise.
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