Show up naturally in the top search results: The natural results are the real results for a search, not the ads. It's free, but comes with several caveats, mostly being, it takes time, sometimes months, with a lot of work, for search engine optimization (SEO) to really start working. It’s worth taking the time to build up a high ranking with natural search. Google’s search algorithm works off relevance and authority, and basically explains how sites are ranked in results. There’s a bunch of ways to get to the top of the search listings, most of it has to do with keyword rich headings and content that is consistently updated and fresh, shared, and has various links (inbound links) from other sites online. The more inbound links to various pages of your site and more keyword rich content equals higher search result rankings. The other type of search is a branded, natural search; which is the search for a company name. Ex: “Best Buy” is a branded search, while “Laptop computers” is unbranded. There shouldn’t be any issues with showing up in the top of the results with a branded search. And if you are creating a lot of compelling content you’ll show up in the top of unbranded natural searches before you know it.
Compelling content: (web site, blog, YouTube, social media and so on) Helpful, how-to’s, interesting, cool, viral (worth sharing), top ten lists. Be educational, both with basic helpful tips and in how your business works. See http://www.crutchfield.com/App/Tab/Learn.aspx to see some helpful content Crutchfield provides to customers. Whole Foods Market (http://blog.wholefoodsmarket.com/) is an excellent example of what an awesome blog looks like. Most experts recommend using the url blog.yoursite.com or yoursite.com/blog as the address to your blog, but, if you are just starting out with a blog it’s okay to use a free one like Wordpress.com or BlogSpot. Whatever platform you are using, blogs, Youtube, social media; do not push out a sales message, it’s more about being informative and helpful. I've repeated this several times, it's so you will remember. Nothing wrong with promoting the business, but that’s secondary to sharing. If you ever have trouble coming up with content ideas, pick a buyer segment that you are presenting to. For example, a cell phone repair and retailer might write the top ten iphone tech tweaks for an advanced user and helpful hints for a beginner. When you start a blog or make videos, it’s about demonstrating thought leadership, illustrating that you know what you’re doing. The results of an active web presence is a lot of content, a better search ranking, and some new customers. It’s also good to refer someone to a blog post or video you made about something that is a common issue, “Oh, I made a video on how to set up your email with the iphone, here’s the link.” All of the content you put out also helps target ideal customers. Remember, everyone is not your ideal customer. You should build an ideal customer profile like the FBI does with serial killers. It sounds a bit crazy, but you really should understand who your ideal customer is. John Jantsch talks a lot about this topic in The Referral Engine.
Social Media Contests: Contests or sweepstakes? With sweepstakes, a name is randomly chosen, while contests involve some sort of competition or challenge for a prize. Social media is natural for contests since it’s basically an instrument of interaction. You have an attentive audience once you’ve built up a fan base. Get a bunch of people to “Like” your Facebook and be an active contributor/updater to avoid launching a contest to a dormant audience. Some quick tips: Make an Event page on Facebook, put a promo page on your site, blog, mention the contest in your weekly e-mail newsletter, Twitter it and alert your in store customers of the contest to help promote. It’s always best to try and keep the contests simple. Contests can range from an ongoing trivia or puzzle based contest where answers could be found on your blog or web site or just be general industry related knowledge or a one time challenge where people have to submit a photo or video related to your product or service and the best one is chosen by the fans (more interaction). The prize should be linked to your business, a sampling of your products or services.
| Greathouse of Marketing Blog
Our brainstorm blog... ArchivesMarch 2011 CategoriesAll |
RSS Feed