Weekly Round up of links – Facebook Timeline Edition

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Welcome to this week’s edition of the New Customer Workshop newsletter.

As always, I appreciate the time you spend with me each week. I hope that the content I’m sharing helps you in some way.

If you have any suggestions for topics you would like me to either research or write about I would love to hear from you. All you need to do is add a comment to the bottom of this post. I read every suggestion and try to respond to as many as possible.

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Chris Brogan’s blog has an article published about remembering that it’s people, not the medium (i.e., Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest) that you need to focus on.

http://www.chrisbrogan.com/never-fall-in-love-with-the-medium

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Facebook made a huge announcement last week about a change to the way Pages are setup. No longer is there the ability to have a default landing tab. The loss of the landing tab has marketers in quite a tizzy.

The article at StandingDog.com helps you make sense of it.
http://www.standingdog.com/blog/timeline-for-pages-no-default-landing-tab/

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I published a video last week showing you how to setup your own Facebook page using the free tools developed by ShortStack. While my timing was a little poor the folks at ShortStack posted an article on their blog describing how to use their tools within the new Facebook Page timeline.

http://www.shortstack.com/2012/02/the-times-they-are-a-changin-timeline-and-the-default-landing-tab/

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If you had a the choice between gaining a new customer or getting more business from an existing customer which would you prefer to do? That’s the question we explore in this article at the New Customer Workshop.

http://www.newcustomerworkshop.com/warning-relying-on-your-customers-will-cost-you-thousands-in-lost-income-each-year

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Hyponitize Your Readers with A Strong Call to Action

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I’ve mentioned before how important it is to have a clear call to action on your website.

What are calls to action you say? They are the words you use convince your readers to take specific actions on your site. Some examples might be:

  • Join Now
  • Sign up
  • Start Today
  • Get started
  • Rock my world
  • Press the Red Button
  • Take the Blue Pill
You want your website to be able to close a sale and your calls to action are the smooth talking salesman that’s going to do it for you. Knowing you need a strong call to action and writing them are different.

The folks at HubSpot have posted some tips to help you write a strong call to action which I summarize here.

  1. Begin with Subjects & Verbs
  2. Include Numbers
  3. Use Adverbs Sparingly
  4. Keep it short
  5. Make the language less technical and more practical

I encourage you to read the full article for more information on each of those points.

Take a look at your website. Do you have a strong call to action? If you’re not sure, enter to win a free website checkup where I help you uncover the right actions for your readers to take on your site.

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Win a Free Website Checkup!

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Is your small business website getting the traffic and attention that it deserves? Do you think you have problems with your website but can’t quite put your finger on it? If so, you might need a website checkup.

Getting an independent party to look over your site is a good idea. It helps identify the things you are doing right and some areas that you can improve upon.

When I offer website checkups I look at the following areas:

  • How easy it is to navigate your site?
  • Do you have clear calls to action?
  • How you can change your site to help improve rankings on Google and other search engines?
  • Are you using a content management system like WordPress? I’ll look to see if it is properly configured.
  • Are you a local business? Is your website structured to help your customers find you?

How To Enter!

This month, I’m offering for one lucky winner a free website critique. In order to enter follow these two simple steps:

  1. Like the New Customer Workshop Facebook page
  2. Write a comment below explaining what you think are the problems with your website.

Be sure to include a valid email address and the name of your website so that I can contact you if you are a winner.

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How to Create A Custom Facebook Landing Page in 10 Minutes

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Every day millions of people log into Facebook to share stories, and communicate with friends.

Pages are a feature of Facebook that allows brands to connect and engage with the Facebook community. They are used to connect with your existing customers and also get new customers.

If you have a Facebook page today you may notice that when people connect to your Page they land on the Facebook Wall. This is the default landing page.

In this post, I’m going to show you how to spice up your Facebook page by using a tool called Short Stack. With Short Stack you can customize your Facebook page with contests, sweepstakes, videos, custom forms and more.

The video tutorial below shows you how I created my Facebook “Welcome” page. The page asks users that visit my Facebook page to click on the Like button. When they click on the Like button the page changes and displays content from this website.

What did you think of the tutorial? Did it give you any ideas for how you can customize your Facebook Fan Page? Let me know in the comments!

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Great Social Media and Email Marketing Articles You Don’t Want To Miss

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I came across some great articles on social media and internet marketing that I’m sharing here. My favorite of the week is this first one from HubSpot.

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Social Media is a great way to drive traffic to your business. However, not all social media channels are created equal. Look at how LinkedIn stacks up against Facebook and Twitter.

http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/30030/LinkedIn-277-More-Effective-for-Lead-Generation-Than-Facebook-Twitter-New-Data.aspx

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Are you making this mistake with your social media marketing strategy?

http://www.openforum.com/articles/the-wrong-way-to-market-social-media

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RIM, the maker’s of Blackberry went from a market leader to a market loser. Here are 7 marketing lessons you can learn from their failures.

http://mashable.com/2012/02/10/marketing-lessons-rim-blackberry

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Checkout how this online shoe retailer increased their email mailing list signups.

http://www.22michaels.com/2012/02/email-marketing.html

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Are you looking to increase the number of people clicking on your Tweets? Check out this article then.

http://www.getelastic.com/6-tips-for-improving-twitter-link-click-through-rate/

That’s it for this weeks edition. Enjoy your week.

If you want to talk about any of these articles please submit a comment.

 

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6 Spectacular Internet Marketing Articles

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Here are six awesome articles that will help your small business marketing efforts. Check them out.

There is a hot new social networking service called Pinterest which is helping boost sales for small retailers. This infographic shows you by the numbers the impact it is having on business.

http://monetate.com/infographic/is-pinterest-the-next-social-commerce-game-changer/#axzz1lJgZTLxb

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Social Media Marketing has a great return on investment. BzzAgent has discovered that about 61% of brand advocates would buy products up to one year after social media campaign has expired. This proves that social media marketing and two way communication lasts longer than ordinary one marketing blasts from yesteryear.

You can read more about it here:
http://inblurbs.com/blog/studies-prove-social-media-marketing-lasts-longer/

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Some great common sense advice on how to get your local business website exposure on Google.

http://www.portent.com/blog/search-engine-optimization/3-easy-local-seo-tactics-that-will-raise-your-rankings-today.htm

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Do you want to spend more time interacting with your customers and less time Tweeting and managing Facebook posts? It’s easy if you follow my latest tutorial found below.

http://www.newcustomerworkshop.com/how-to-effectively-post-content-to-twitter-and-facebook

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A social business will engage an entire company from the CEO to the assistants. This article talks about ways you can get everyone in your organization on board.

http://mashable.com/2012/02/01/business-more-social/

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Are you customers opening your email messages? If not you might have some problems writing subject lines. Learn some tips on writing great subject lines in the post below.

http://www.openforum.com/articles/9-ways-to-write-great-e-mail-subject-lines

Have you read any great internet marketing articles online this week? Please share them in the comments.

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How To Effectively Post Content To Twitter and Facebook

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The key to an effective presence on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter is to consistently post new content. The key to getting that content read is to post it at the proper time. Unless you know the best time to post the only thing you can do is post all the time.

There is a solution to this.

I just published this video tutorial that describes Buffer. An web application that allows you to schedule posts to Twitter and Facebook. When scheduled, Buffer takes the guess work out of the best time to publish the posts.

Using Buffer and following my Twitter posting strategy you will be able to keep your Twitter feed topped off without spending all of your time doing it.

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NCW Ep 3 – What VisitBucksPA Can Teach Us About Social Media Marketing

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In this episode I talk to Paul Bencivengo, Marketing & Communications Director for Visit Bucks County (@VisitBucksPA), the official tourism promotion agency for Bucks County PA. Visit Bucks County is doing a great job leveraging social media platforms like Foursquare, Facebook, Twitter and new channels like Pinterest to reach their audience. 

Paul and I discuss how you can leverage some of these platforms when planning your digital marketing strategy for your small business.

You can download your episode of the New Customer Workshop by clicking here.

If you have iTunes you can subscribe to the podcast by clicking here.

After listening to the podcast I’d love you to share your thoughts in the comments. How does your small business use Twitter and Facebook? Have you tried Pinterest yet?

Are you a small business owner knocking it out of the park with digital marketing and want to share your story? Contact me.

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5 Shocking Reasons Why Traditional Marketing is Dead

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We talk a lot about the value of building great content to attract your customers. It’s not just lip service. There really is no better way for small businesses on a tight budget to compete with larger corporations.

This infographic from Hubspot  illustrates the shift from traditional marketing to inbound marketing.

Consumers have turned against traditional marketing, just check out these stats:

  1. 2/3 Americans are on the FTC Do Not Call List
  2. 8% of consumers prefer internet advertisements as the best source of product information
  3. 41% believe search engine ads are a good source of product information
  4. 86% mute the TV, change the channel or skip ads
  5. 75% of people don’t believe advertisements

If you want your business to succeed you have to become a trusted source of information for your customers. They will reward you by talking about you.

  • 90% of people believe brand recommendations from their friends.
  • 70% of people believe consumer opinions
  • 86% of online retailers have a Facebook fan page
  • American Eagle added a Like to products on their site and consumers spent 57% more money.

Ecommerce Inbound Marketing vs Outbound Marketing - Infographic
Ecommerce Marketing Software – All-In-One Inbound Marketing Software

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Don’t Be an Email D-Bag

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I’m sorry for the harsh title but frankly, I’m miffed. Why am I so miffed?

Time Inc.

A few years ago I subscribed to This Old House Magazine and decided that I wanted to receive emails from them. In May of this year I decided to unsubscribe to their emails. I clicked the unsubscribe link in the footer of the email to opt out of all emails from them. Cased closed right?

Nope.

I’m still receiving the occasional This Old House email and now, too I’m also getting emails from other Time Inc. properties. The most recent was Money magazine asking me to come back.

Sorry, Money, never ever received your magazine, never subscribed to your email and now, never will.

Just because big companies are doing it doesn’t mean you should. Here’s how you can avoid being an e-mail d-bag.

Obey their unsubscribe requests

If someone asks to get off your list, take them off the list. Don’t ever, ever, never send them another email.

Don’t add your subscribers to secondary lists

Or, if you do, make really sure that you are clear about it and that your unsubscribe will remove them from all the lists.

Use a real email service provider.

Don’t send emails from Outlook on your personal machine. If you want to run a list use someone like Aweber or MailChimp. They take care of the heavy lifting and email management so you don’t have too.

Understand CAN-SPAM

The CAN-SPAM act was enacted in 2003 and 2008. This law applies to all comercial emails.

The law basically in lawyer jargon asks you not to be a jerk when you send emails. Specifically it covers:

  • Send your e-mail to permission-based lists only.
  • Provide a way for your list subscribers to opt out permanently.
  • Keep your opt-out process simple and don’t charge money or ask for additional information to opt out.
  • Don’t pay people or give them incentives to forward your e-mails.
  • Make sure your e-mail includes your physical address (a PO Box is okay)
  • Don’t mislead your audience with your From line or e-mail address.
  • Make sure your e-mail Subject line is honest about your content.
  • Make sure your e-mail clearly states that the e-mail is a solicitation unless you have affirmative consent.
  • Learn the law before sending any commercial e-mail; use an attorney.

If you take some of this advice you are going to make your customers much happier. Don’t worry so much about the ones that unsubscribe to your email list. If you have engaged them in other ways they’ll come back.

If you try to send them an email after they’ve unsubscribed to your list. Don’t be surprised if they do what I’m about to do to Time Inc.

Click Report Spam

Do you have any examples of email d-bags? Let me know in the comments.

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