Social Media and Other Online Platforms: A Balance of Branding and Sales

admin    Social Media Marketing     Balance, Branding, Media, Online, Platforms, Sales., Social

Social Media and Other Online Platforms: A Balance of Branding and Sales

The 1980s are remembered for developments in business and technology, particularly computing. Remember your first big, clunky computer?  The 1990s are remembered for advances in technology, particularly the growth of the internet and online business. Wow, how things have grown! If the 2000s are to be remembered for anything (although it is still too early to tell) it will be for developments in communication and online communities – particularly the incredible power of social media.

Social media gives major brands and companies some serious power and clout, but it is rarely used as it should be. Commitments to quality are often let down and overlooked; and opportunities for branding, direct sales, or indirect marketing are often passed over without thought. These missed opportunities cost businesses, so preventing them from slipping away is essential for operating a smooth business.

Social Media for Branding:

A dollar unearned is a dollar lost. Businesses are often theorizing on the value of social media for their branding efforts, but few take action and put their foot down when they should. Billions of dollars are being left on the table, particularly as major brands move onto social media services, and the value of a social media-friendly brand still is not being recognized.

An experiment is always worth more than inaction. Discussion on social media’s branding abilities will only take companies so far. With the low cost of social media efforts, an experiment with social media branding can generate huge returns, all with a relatively minimal level of risk.

Social Media for Search Engine Optimization:

SEO consultancy (and in-house efforts) was once the domain of spammy content and low quality link generation efforts. Low-cost websites were set up, poorly planned information was thrown at them indiscriminately, and marketers shot out as many links as possible. Despite being somewhat effective, the old world of SEO is packed with inefficient models and outright unethical business models.

However, social media has given SEO a new life. The old “SEO is spam” cliché is no more, thanks to the developments of social media. Each new social media asset is another opportunity for high quality outbound linking, and every social media conversation is another opportunity to spread links that actually add value.

With Twitter tweets and You Tube videos appearing in Google’s standard search results, the divide between search and social media is likely to become even smaller. Marketers accustomed to spam-style SEO tactics are in for a new surprise, while businesses that depend on high-quality social media receive a well-deserved SEO boost.

Social Media for Sales:

Social media is not a good sales platform, but it is a good resource for generating future sales. The sales process is made up of many parts, and generating prospects is one of the most important. Marketers that were once dependent on direct lead generation have a new platform available to them, particularly in open social media platforms like Twitter or MySpace.

The greatest news is that social media is still in its infancy. Businesses that are built on lead-based sales models have nothing but good news to look forward to. As social media develops further, sales models will be refined, micro-networks offering great sales potential will grow greater, and marketers can look forward to a platform that is refined, sales-friendly, and willing to be marketed to.

Find More Social Media Optimization Articles

Professional and Emotional Balance in Your Website Copywriting

admin    Web Marketing     Balance, Copywriting, Emotional, Professional, website

Professional and Emotional Balance in Your Website Copywriting

Professionalism and emotions are very critical in writing that is sales targeted. It is true that most writers know about this but the challenge usually comes when they try to balance the two. Needless to say, without the right balance, the desired goals cannot be met.

The clients would normally buy from emotions. They would consult their emotions before they make a decision. They would also love to see some professionalism in your writing so that they can tell whether you are sure of what you are telling them or not.

So then, we need to look at the best ways you can manage to balance these two critical aspects of your sales writing to achieve results.

Justify the purpose

Professionalism is manifested in the way you approach your readers. For instance, they need to get a justification why they need to continue reading your article and probably take the desired action. You have to handle this issue with a lot of precaution because this will help the readers make a decision.

In your attempt to justify the reasons for reading and action, you would need to incorporate the right emotions. In deed, you need to incorporate the emotions of love and fear so that you convince your readers that the actions they are about to take are the right ones and no mistakes.

Descriptions more

This is one aspect of your writing that you can take to maintain the balance. You know, a professional would always give information and this would be done in a descriptive manner. At the same time, your emotions are elicited better when you give the details.

The readers would find better reasons to keep reading or to look at the site when you give them a clear description of what they would anticipate and probably how they would benefit. This is when you would use the information and emotions would lead you to get the right words for the description.

The other best way you can do this is by trying to ensure that your writing is showing the reader how they can do it or why they should do it. The writing should not be telling them but at least showing them. You would agree that descriptions are the best way to do this.

So, when you need copywriting services, you need to be sure that whoever you are contracting to provide the services is aware of the relevance of the balance. In order that you do not go wrong, you should be looking for the services from a professional copywriting agency.

The agency would have professionals who know the essence of balancing professionalism and emotions and would probably be experienced in writing professional website copy. If you are sure you have your targets that you would want to meet, you will choose to go about this issue just this direction.

Blackberry Curve 8900 Javelin: Keep the Balance Between Work and Play

admin    8615     8900, Balance, Between, Blackberry, Curve, Javelin, Keep, Play, Work

Blackberry Curve 8900 Javelin: Keep the Balance Between Work and Play

The BlackBerry 8900 Curve smartphone comes with impressive 2.4 “display a captivating window and a full QWERTY keyboard makes it easy to communicate with one or two-thumb typing. Targeted at business users BlackBerry javelin provides Internet access and calls that you have everything you need to follow up on work. You have all the features you need and want at your fingertips with the flexibility and freedom to manage your busy life and to have some fun along the road.

The new BlackBerry Curve 8900 is a smartphone with a touch of elegance. The pixel display this mobile phone is amazing. The screen is 480 x 360 pixels and offers many of the parties to all their communications needs. With the BlackBerry Curve 8900 Javelin, you can access tons of features including video, images, text and do not forget those maps, but you will also have tons more features for this phone.

The phone offers a 3.2 megapixel camera, a 2.4-inch screen with 480 x 360 resolution, a microSD slot supporting up to 16GB, WiFi and GPS. Equipped with Wi-Fi connectivity for high-speed browsing and downloading ‘curve’ lets you search through Google or access social networking sites like Facebook at any time. Javelin BlackBerry Curve also includes a media player with a standard 3.5 mm jack so users can listen to your music through your own headphones instead of those provided.

The small size of the BlackBerry allows you to just slip in your pocket and forget about it until you need to use it. The phone is not much weight at all. Gone are the days when we had cell phones that were heavy and hard to put up.

The BlackBerry Curve 8900 provides GPS satellite navigation technology with BlackBerry Maps to find routes, attractions and travel planning, while in motion, with built-in GPS and the ability to BlackBerry Maps you text-based step by-step directions to help you find out where and how to get to where it needs to be. The phone measures the dimensions 109 x 60 x 13.5mm. The battery of the BlackBerry 8900 is a lightweight, weighing only 110g.

Persuasive Copywriting and Keyword Density – Balance Works Wonders

admin    Web Marketing     Balance, Copywriting, Density, Keyword, Persuasive, Wonders, Works

Persuasive Copywriting and Keyword Density – Balance Works Wonders

A major issue in copy writing is finding a workable balance between writing persuasive copy and keeping the keyword density to a minimum. Keywords are like spice, too little and the dish is bland, too much and dish is not pleasant. It’s the job of the copywriter to find a balance in their writing that is just right for the reader and client alike.

How Overusing Keywords is Counterproductive and Could Potentially Fatal to Your Message

Keywords are necessary in optimization but should not be overused. Overusing keywords causes copy to become more like spam, and search engines think so too. Copywriters must know to be persuasive but not overbearing. At the same time, the job of the copywriter is to get the point across. The easiest way to do this is through keywords. The reason for this is that the keyword is usually the word that suggests to the reader exactly what it is the copywriter is trying to say.

Overusing a keyword can make the copy almost unreadable and may scare potential readers away. True professionals know that to keep a reader’s attention, the copy should be legible and clear. Also, these days, people that go online have become extremely sensitive to anything that may potentially be spam. Scaring them away with the overuse of keywords is counterproductive and goes against everything that copywriting is for.

Suggestions for Keyword Placement in Copywriting

When writing copy, there are some things to keep in mind in regards to keywords and keyword density:
•    Keywords should appear natural. If the keyword is just thrown into the text and shouldn’t be there, it will look artificial to the reader. Place keywords where they would normally appear. A keyword should not appear out of place. This will turn the reader off to what they are reading and possibly cause them to leave the page.
•    Do not force keyword placements. If the keyword is relevant to the content then it will naturally come into the writing.
•    Don’t sacrifice subject for sake of the keyword. The subject or niche of the writing should be sufficient to support the appearance of the keyword. Keywords should be added to support the subject; the subject should not be there to support keyword placements.
•    A normal keyword density is somewhere between the 3% to 5% range. This is not a hard fact, just a general suggestion. The density can be higher as long as the writing does not suffer from it.

Being mindful of keyword usage will not only make the copy more easily readable, it will also keep it natural and therefore more persuasive to readers. Not everyone can achieve this important balance. This is why there are professional copywriting agencies and companies that utilize the talents of people that can write competent copy and achieve that balance.

How to Maintain Balance Between Keyword Density and Persuasiveness

admin    Web Marketing     Balance, Between, Density, Keyword, Maintain, Persuasiveness

How to Maintain Balance Between Keyword Density and Persuasiveness

Among copywriters, the main concern in writing web copy that is optimized for the search engines is striking a balance between keyword density and persuasiveness. Novice writers who are beginning to write SEO web copies inevitably find themselves falling on their chairs laughing at copy that might succeed at pleasing the search engines but, at the very least, falls flat at compelling readers.

If you are a beginning SEO copywriter, here are some tips to help you get started.

• Read Good SEO copy

Greenhorns often have the arrogance to believe that they can become brilliant writers just by the sheer force of writing diligence alone. Too often they forget that to be a very good writer, a writer must pay his dues by reading other writers who have come before him. This is true for whatever type of writing you are into, and even more true for SEO copy writing. SEO copy writing is not rocket science but there is a formula to it, and this formula is something that you can only “get” and “feel” by reading.

• Just Write It

Your job as a copy writer is to weave words into a cohesive and compelling whole. Don’t let keyword density requirements get in the way of good copy. Don’t constrict your flow of ideas. Research on your topic then writes.

• Read Your Copy

When you are done writing your copy, read it. There will definitely be some places where you can insert those keywords. Mark them on your Word processor. Better yet, edit and replace those words with your keywords as you go along. For example, if your keyword is “Chanel leather bag”, you can edit all references to “bags” and replace them with “Chanel leather bag”.

• Update Yourself On The Keyword Density That Is Relevant

The algorithms of the search engines can and do change. The good thing is that current changes place less weight on keyword density. This is good news for copy writers, because they no longer have to worry about reaching a high level of keyword density. From 7%, keyword density requirements have fallen to 3% to 5%. Don’t stretch yourself and write towards a keyword density beyond this range.

• Use Synonyms And Expert Verbiage

When a keyword is very easy to use (like the keyword “handyman”), the challenge actually shifts – from one of increasing density to keeping the keyword density to the level of “sensible”. What you can is to find synonyms and expert verbiage and use them in your copy instead of the actual keyword you’re trying to rank for.

You can use a keyword’s thesaurus synonym or Google synonym. To search for a Google synonym, type in the tilde (~) character then your keyword in the search engine’s search bar.

In all, there are no shortcuts to becoming adept at maintaining a balance between keyword density and persuasiveness, just as there are no shortcuts to becoming a good copywriter. But with consistent reading and writing efforts, the novice writer who falls from his chair laughing will eventually get there.

Search Engine Marketing – Getting the Balance Right

admin    Google Optimization     Balance, Engine, Getting, marketing, right, Search

Getting the Balance Right

Ever since the infamous Florida update in Google the corporate world has concentrated on pushing its marketing budget into paid search largely ignoring natural search as a driver for visitors. This situation was forced on them in the outset as Florida kicked most of the bad practice employed by the corporate world in their lazy SEO campaigns and thus their sites lost all profile in Google searches.Prior to Florida, the lions share of visitors were shuttled in to these sites via Google and there was an almost lemming like philosophy that things would never change. The problem was rooted in a complete lack of understanding by marketing directors who were quite happy to throw money at easy to buy link campaigns and incestuous micro site relationships.

When Florida hit, it was like a ‘Virtual Hurricane’ lashing the corporate Internet world, and when it subsided Florida had swept much of this world clean away leaving the big company stat programmes and log files ‘flat-lining’.Huge retail operations lost their complete natural search profile and it sparked a ‘gold rush’ to buy supplemental traffic whilst somebody figured out what the hell had happened. As the weeks passed the marketing directors realised they had been complacent and offered themselves like sacrificial lambs to the Search Engine Optimisation industry in a bid to rekindle their organic search traffic.

Mis-Selling

What happened next was comparable to the miss-selling of pensions in the late 80’s, everyone who had heard the word optimisation was suddenly an expert and hundreds of unscrupulous agencies milked the corporate world for all its worth without delivering any chance of regaining their natural listings.After a few months a number of agencies who had concentrated in ‘paid search’ cornered the market and were able to give marketing directors some level of comfort on their ROI. As time went by natural search became a subject to overlook by the respective marketing departments and as the paranoia grew so did the myth that it was impossible to generate quality natural search profile. As the industry changed many of the ‘bandwagoners’ populating the SEO industry died as they could not fulfil their promises, this was because Google evolved further and became even better at nailing bad practice. Some scratched out a living in paid search and gradually pushed up the bid prices. In the end medium sized businesses started on the paid search route and prices for generic terms continued to rise and in many cases doubled and trebled. Click fraud became rife as medium size businesses fought for the middle ground and paid search started to become abused as a process.

Landing Page Algorithm

To counter this Google released a new type of algorithm, this one targeted the paid search market to ensure that the user experience was improved and stringent penalties were applied to Adwords campaigns that delivered poor landing pages for visitors arriving through the adverts. Whilst all this mayhem was going on, a small number of optimisation agencies grasped what was needed to establish a website in Google and get it featured ethically in natural search. These agencies learnt to unravel complex dynamic e-commerce websites and make them search engine friendly. Gradually their work started to pay dividends as these new Google compliant websites gained both profile and publicity. Before long corporate directors started to ask questions about why their company sites are failing in natural search as they could see some of their competitors were now being successful. Add this to the ongoing paid search issues and a gradual understanding that their paid search campaigns were only targeting a small market sector and the industry had turned a full circle. It is increasingly understood now that the right blend is a good natural profile and the use of paid search as a tactical marketing tool rather complete dependency solely on paid search as the driver of search engine traffic.

Search Marketing

As the wheel of optimisation starts its next revolution there are now real opportunities for marketing directors to ensure they hand pick their Search Marketing agency from the small crop of established ethical companies. These companies will provide a service that will ensure the balance is right and this time round there will be no excuses. Any corporate company selling on the Internet must address the natural search verses paid search balance and select an agency that can deliver on both fronts.

need a website? want to be #1 on Google? visit our florida web design company homepage

Title: Professional Web Design and Web Marketing in Ireland – the Striking Balance

admin    Web Marketing     Balance, design, Ireland, marketing, Professional, Striking, Title

What is required to make a website sell is not web design alone but continuous promotion, thorough planning, and web marketing. A selling website must have immense traffic, continuous visits and increase in sales volume. In technical aspects, the website must appear top ranked when searched. And this is required in the fundamental structure of layout and how clean the code is for the search engine crawlers to follow.  Always, good foundation pays its course in a long term. Some companies spend their budget on redistributing the whole thing, go through countless modifications, hiring different hands believing that the more beautiful it has become, the more customers it would draw. Below are some issues many companies face.

1. Online experience – bold issue. This is especially true for the newly graduates. They lack the psychological viewpoints of buying habits. For example, what internet users aged ranging between 18-25 tend to purchase and when? How many times do users revisit the site before making their first purchase, and so on.

2. Unclear/Ambiguous objective – A combination of lack of online experience, objectives become unclear or ambiguous.

3. Perspective about customers – overlooking potentials of the internet users. In marketing school we are taught to lower the sales in a specific group. But this kind of thinking overlooks the current situation. Most of the internet users are willing to pay and are more opened to variant categories of products at variant prices.

4. Pressure on deadline – Most teams are faced with time factor. Because there are factors to be considered, rushing into producing a website can only deliver an average final piece.

5. No testing and Quality Control (QC) – as a consequence to the pressure on deadline and many other factors mentioned, the final product might not deliver up to standard or even contain bugs.

6. Bad sales copy – content is the king. No matter how your pretty the website looks.  If the content does not contain interesting or intriguing information, customers won’t buy. On the contradiction, if the content induces curiosity and interesting, chance is that people tend to keep revisiting again over and over. 

7. No budget – This is a big problem with many small business owners. When there is no money to afford professional web design and marketing consultants, they turn to lower bidders with no potential and inexperienced team. 

8. Bad communication – poor channel with no contingency plans. The communication channel does not reach concerned personnel when the message needs be delivered. So to cope with lack of communication, each section commences with his own responsible piece. The final product isn’t flexible and hard to fix.

Most of the problems mentioned here, webbed together can create big complexity. For a classic example, the project manager doesn’t understand the technical aspects of creating a website and thus no potential requirements made. The team would wind up fixing the requirements back and forth. It is always better to consider paying more and have a team that would willingly do their job properly than stuck up with  continuous looping.

need a website? want to be #1 on Google? visit our website design company homepage