Simple Online Marketing Strategies and Opportunities

Are you missing simple opportunities to promote your business online?

When you’re working for yourself or running your own business, the lines between your personal and professional life start to blur. You are no longer “on the clock” or “off the clock” because you own the clock. And you want it to tick.

When you work for someone else, there isn’t much motivation to put a link to the company website in your personal email signature. Lots of people who use Facebook and Twitter don’t even list their place of employment. And all kinds of forums are buzzing with workers who want to banter about anything and everything… except work.

Employed workers don’t promote their employers for a number of reasons. First of all, they may not be allowed to, legally. For the average worker, marketing and bringing in business is not part of their job description. Many workers won’t see any benefits from such efforts, anyway. Most would rather not think about work when they’re off the clock.

When these folks leave the cubicle behind for good and set up their own shops, old habits are hard to break. But think about it: now that you’re running your own business, you should seize every opportunity to let people know about the products and services you offer.

Online Marketing Strategies

There are two types of online marketing strategies. The first type is a concrete plan. You’re going to set up a website, publish a newsletter, and launch an email marketing campaign. That’s a clear, comprehensive plan. The other type of online marketing involves an open-minded awareness in which you are able to identify and take advantage of opportunities when they arise. When you’re filling out a form and it asks for your website, do you leave it blank because the form has nothing to do with your business directly? Well, that could be a missed opportunity.

Let’s say you have a Facebook account, which you use primarily to connect with friends and family. You post photos of your kids and pets, play games, and take polls and quizzes. This has nothing to do with business, right?

Wrong. Let’s say your second cousin twice removed lands on your Facebook page and notices that you work as a translator. Maybe she already knew this was your profession and forgot, or maybe she had no idea. The point is, she notices and as it happens, her company is trying to land a foreign-language client. Instead of hitting the yellow pages, she hits you up and you land a pretty decent gig.

You don’t have to wallpaper your life with your business information, but when there’s a space for business, you should use it, even if that space is one that you would normally associate with your personal life.

Signatures

Naturally, you have a website and an email account that uses your website domain. It’s just more professional when the emails you send to clients come from @yourbusiness.com rather than hotmail, gmail, or yahoo. Certainly, you’ve put a professional signature on your business email. Even workers in big companies are required to use such signatures. But what about your personal email account? Just about every email application includes a feature that lets you set up a signature. In that signature, you can put your name, a logo, and a link. So do it. Add a little reminder to let people know you’re in business and you’re available.

Social Media

I’m always surprised when I see business owners who don’t list their businesses in their social media profiles. If you’re using Facebook (or any social media) for friends and family only, why should you mention your business? Your friends and family already know what you do, and they know how to reach you. But that doesn’t mean they’re actively or constantly thinking about your services. When I first started my business, a couple of my acquaintances hired professionals who offered services similar to mine — because they didn’t yet know that I had gone into business for myself. If I’d been quicker getting my profiles up to date with my business information, maybe they would have. Including your business in your personal profiles will keep your business fresh in people’s minds, plus it’s a quick and easy way for folks to grab your link and send it to professionals in their greater network.

Forums

Lots of people use forums, or discussion boards, to engage with other people online. Most forums focus on particular interests — gaming, the arts, science, politics, spirituality. There are forums for every subject under the sun. People gather in these online communities to exchange ideas and information and to share their interests. As a forum member, you set up an account with a profile, which is much like a social media profile. And like an email account, you can usually set up a signature on your forum profile too. This will place your signature on all messages that you send and post in the forum. If you’re in a knitting forum and your profession is restoring antique cars, you may not want to be overt, but it doesn’t hurt to put the name of your website (with a link) just below your name.

All Business All the Time

The idea behind online marketing strategies is to make it as easy as possible for anyone to find you online. Marketing strives to pull people to your business so you don’t have to do as much pushing (selling). And that means using the simple opportunities that arise as well as implementing a comprehensive marketing plan. All three of these simple online marketing strategies (email signatures, social media profiles, and forums) have one thing in common: they each harness existing opportunities to promote your business.

Online Marketing Strategies

Scribizzy works with small business that want to establish an effective online presence. We can help with your online marketing strategies and other marketing collateral, including your website. To learn more, visit our web content services page.

An Inside Look at the Website Copywriting Process

I’ve already touched on the basics of website copywriting. Now, I’d like to present a more elaborate explanation of exactly what website copywriting entails.

Why should I do such a thing?

For starters, I think it’s only fair that my clients understand what I do for them, what they’re paying me for, and how I treat their project.

Also, I’m discomforted by the idea that some small businesses are paying for website copy that’s thrown together in a matter of minutes. That gives me the shudders. If you hire someone to write your copy and pay a fair rate, you deserve quality service. You deserve someone who will put time, effort, and energy into your project.

I’m a methodical person, and I use methodology to my advantage in the services that I provide. Over time, I’ve developed a process that allows me to tackle website copywriting projects in a way that is both efficient and effective. Basically, I follow a series of steps, but they are flexible and allow room for creative thinking and word play. I find that using this process makes the work flow more smoothly while simultaneously making it more fun. Yep, I love what I do.

Because I know which steps I need to take and the order in which I need to take them, I can focus on creating quality content instead of worrying about how I’m going to get it done.

Here’s how I do it:

Step One: Understand the Project

The first step in any website copywriting project is simple: understand the clients’ needs. I need to know where the copy will be published, whether there are any space limitations, and if I should be using any keywords for SEO. I also need to establish the desired call to action. In other words, when website visitors read the copy, what should it encourage them to do next?

Step Two: Get to Know the Client’s Business

I can’t write a single word until I have a good, thorough understanding of my client’s business. It’s not enough to know that they sell carburetors. I need to know what kind of carburetors they sell, whom they are sold to, how much they are sold for, and whether or not they offer carburetor installation or just the actual carburetors. I also like to know how the business got started, who runs it, and their mission and philosophy.

Step Three: Collect and Review Materials

Before I start writing, I usually collect all my information into a single file. Sometimes it’s just a Word document filled with notes, links, and other tidbits that I’ve copied and pasted from email communications with my client. Just before I start composing, I like to go over everything so it’s fresh in my mind, and so I’m ready to write the outline.

Step Four: Outline

I love outlines. Some writers refuse to outline, and that’s okay too. But an outline usually only takes a few minutes and provides a road map for the rest of the project, which means I can travel through it quickly without losing my way or getting off track. Basically, it allows me to complete the work much faster, and this is a saving that I can pass to my customers.

Step Five: Draft Copy

The outline is like a skeleton. When I start drafting, it’s much like filling in the skeleton — putting meat and muscle on the bones. This is where I get creative and have fun choosing the perfect language, images, and style to properly convey my clients’ message. This where I get to tell their story. It’s also the most challenging and time consuming step, but so very rewarding.

Step Six: Revise, Edit, Repeat

In order to let the light of creativity shine while I’m composing the rough draft, I cannot get hung up on technical details. If I’m worrying about commas and apostrophes or spelling and grammar, I cannot keep my attention focused on crafting sentences that compel website visitors. So, once the draft is done, I go through it several times to clean it up and make sure it’s technically correct.

Step Seven: Polish

Here’s a little writer’s trick: After you have revised your copy, let it sit for a few hours, preferably overnight. Then, come back with fresh eyes and give it a final polish. Inevitably, you will find some unnecessary word that can be cut, some gap that needs to be filled with a catchy adjective, or even an empty space where a comma should be. Polishing leads to website copywriting that sparkles and shines!

Step Eight: The Send-Off

Once the copy is buffed to perfection, it’s ready to get sent off to the client. This is always a good feeling, the delivery.

Step Nine: Revisions

Everybody has personal preferences, and I’m no mind reader. Sometimes, in the initial project plan, a small but important detail gets left out. Like including a phone number in the website copy. Or using a special phrase (a tagline or slogan, perhaps) in the text. Maybe I used a word that rubs the client the wrong way. We all have our language peeves, and small business owners are no exception. I always invite clients to request a round of revisions to the final copy. This is usually a quick process and involves going through and changing a few words or adding a line or two. Most of the time, revisions aren’t necessary at all, but I still like to give everyone the option.

That’s it. My entire process. It might sound long and tedious with all those predetermined steps, but it’s a clean and proven way to provide the very best copy possible.

Website Copywriting

Are you doing business online? Want to hire a professional for your website copywriting? Please visit Scribizzy’s Website Copywriting page or get a quote online.

An Introduction to Doing Business Online

Many of my clients do business offline. And by offline, I mean they do all of their business in the three-dimensional world that exists far from the computer and way beyond the internet.

Some of them are new business owners who are just starting out and want to make sure they establish an effective online presence. Others have been in business for years and are finally ready to harness the Internet to expand their customer reach and product or service offerings. Many want nothing more than to update their website with current information, a fresh design, and compelling copy. A few would prefer to keep it entirely offline, but they know better.

Since Scribizzy’s primary service has been website copywriting, these spirited entrepreneurs usually hire me to write a few pages of copy, and as we work through the project, various comments and questions arise about doing business online.

• Do you think this logo looks outdated? What do you think of this tagline I came up with?
• I just had my site redesigned. Any feedback is welcome!
• Is the site missing anything? Are there pages I should add, remove, or change?
• Should I have a products or services page even if I don’t sell my services online?
• What? You mean there’s a way I can sell my wares on the web to thousands more customers?

Funny thing about the web. It’s relatively new. Folks who’ve been in business for twenty years got started before the business website was commonplace. People who are becoming entrepreneurs in their retirement or starting up a small business because they lost their jobs in the down economy may not have any knowledge about the web, website design, or online marketing. They may not even know how to use the internet beyond checking their email, connecting with old friends on Facebook, and shopping on eBay or Amazon.

So, some of these entrepreneurs know very little about online marketing. Most know just enough to be dangerous. But just about every single one of them knows that in this day and age, doing business online is imperative. Even if your website is nothing more than a few pages with basic details about your shop or office.

Getting Started

No matter what you sell or where you sell it, establishing an online presence starts with a website. Your website should clearly communicate your offerings and explain how your products or services will benefit customers. It should include a way for visitors to visit, contact, or order from you, so they can become paying customers.

You also want them to become loyal customers, so your site should espouse outstanding customer service, competitive pricing, and a friendly, positive atmosphere. Loyalty can also come from establishing brand recognition. Make sure your business has a clear, identifiable logo. A tagline or slogan will help make your brand recognizable as will your business’s tone, color scheme, and the general impression it makes.

When visitors come to your website, how does it make them feel? Safe or scared? Confident or confused? Weak or strong? Welcome? Comfortable? Does the information on your site speak to your target audience in language that they understand? Does it include all the details they’re looking for about your industry of field of expertise, products, services, pricing, location, or hours of operation?

Doing Business Online vs. Offline

If your business operates entirely offline, you still need an online presence. People will conduct localized searches for your products and services, and you want them to be able to find you! If you have existing customers, they’ll expect to be able to check your website to grab your phone number, find out your hours of operation, or obtain directions to your location.

You might be planning or already running a business that operates entirely online. Maybe you sell information products and communicate exclusively through email. Perhaps you run a consulting business and your rates depend on the project or the client’s needs. You might even have a blog or some type of website that doesn’t sell anything at all (yet). You need to determine what information is relevant to your visitors — people who you will be dealing with entirely online.

Want the best of both worlds? Lots of businesses are combining online and offline offerings, keeping their local and loyal customers happy while reaching out to millions more potential buyers. If you own a cafe, you can sell recipes online. If you are a handyman, you can make recommendations for do-it-yourself repairs and earn income from affiliate sales by promoting your favorite tools and supplies on your site. If you run a consignment shop, you can take photos of your wares and sell them with e-commerce technology.

For just about every business in the world, there is a way to expand beyond merely having an online presence and start actively, profitably doing business online.

Get Serious About Doing Business Online

Scribizzy offers services for entrepreneurs and small businesses that want to establish a successful online presence, grow their offerings, and expand their customer reach.

Learn more about our web content services and get a quote online.

Happy New Year from Scribizzy!

We have said goodbye to 2009 and stepped into a fresh year and decade, one in which I hope you will all enjoy great success and bountiful prosperity.

The beginning of a new year is a time of reflection and planning, especially for entrepreneurs and small businesses. We all have to close out the last fiscal year (balance those books and file those taxes!) and open the new year with our plans for the future. Hopefully, those include growing our businesses and strengthening our online presence.

This year, Scribizzy will launch a number of new services, including website design, to make it easier and more convenient for our clients to get set up on the web without having to hire multiple service providers. Small business owners have enough to do without having to run around finding one person to write copy, another to create a website design, and then coordinate and manage online marketing projects.

So, my top goal for this year is to provide flexible and affordable website design solutions for small businesses and independent professionals and offer these services in conjunction with Scribizzy’s existing website copywriting, management, and marketing services. Our website design services will range from cost-efficient turnkey solutions to fully customized websites. These service offerings are in development and will launch officially in the coming months, along with WordPress theme customization (for bloggers). In the meantime, if you need a website design, we can always put together a quote and a project plan just for you, so go ahead and use this handy form to tell us about your project.

Once again, I wish all of you the very best in your business and personal endeavors. Let 2010 be a year of peace, prosperity and goodwill.

Sincerely,
Melissa Donovan

How to Assess Your Website Performance from the Front End

We’ve already taken a brief look at back-end website performance assessments. Today, we’ll examine the front end of a website and discuss how to test and assess its performance.

Websites are comprised of code, text, images, and other media. Visitors view the website through a browser, and the code tells the browser how to display the site’s content.

The code says “Put the logo up at the top. Below that, place a navigation menu. Over on the side, let’s display some links. And right in the middle, let’s put a big block of text.” The back end of your website is all that raw stuff from which your site is made — the stuff that your website developer manages for you.

The front end, however, is the side of your site that is publicly accessible. When you open a browser (such as Firefox, Safari, Google Chrome, or Internet Explorer) and visit a website, what you’re seeing is the front end.

For metrics, we track website performance from the back end. How many visitors come to the site? Where do they come from? How long do they stay? This information helps us understand how the site is being used and whether it’s successfully selling our products and services.

Website Performance from a User’s Perspective

Front-end website performance assessment looks at a website from a user’s perspective. Also known as quality-assurance (QA) testing, these types of assessments provide feedback that will help you keep your site friendly and functional so visitors will be more likely to stick around and soak up your content, products, and services.

Here are a few questions that are answered by looking at website performance from a user’s perspective:

• How does the site look across different platforms and browsers?
• Are any links or images broken?
• Is the site user-friendly and easy to navigate?
• Does the site clearly communicate its purpose?
• Is the content presentable and relevant?

QA Testing

Cross-platform and cross-browser testing involves viewing the site from different operating systems and browsers. The two most common types of platforms are Mac and PC. There are several popular browsers in use today and your site should be thoroughly checked through each browser and platform combination.

Broken Links and Images

For your website to be fully functional, you have to identify broken links and images, and then fix them. Broken links can be hard to catch, especially if your site has a lot of written content and external links. You have no control over external links — if someone moves a page or changes the content on another website, your link to that URL becomes faulty. You have more control over the images that are displayed on your site. Users have a better experience with your website when all links and images are fully functional.

Functionality

User friendliness and a navigable structure are essential. If you site is difficult to use, visitors will quickly click away in search of friendlier pastures. Make sure it’s easy for users to get around the site with a clearly labeled navigation menu. Also, ensure that the site displays properly and that everything works as it should — for example, make sure that all videos play and contact forms work and issue confirmations.

Clarity

It’s tempting to use clever language on a website, but this can confuse visitors. Nothing scares off a potential customer faster than cryptic sales messages that they can’t decipher or vague offerings that they don’t understand. Be especially conscious of using internal or industry-specific jargon. If you’re a web designer, you probably want to talk freely about FTP, HTML, stylesheets, and flash animation, but if your visitors already know all that stuff, do you really think they need your services?

Content

Your site’s content should be easy to access and relevant to the site’s overall purpose. Every word, image, video, and link should be working toward a common goal. That goal might be to get more subscribers to your blog or newsletter. Perhaps you’re trying to sell products using e-commerce. Maybe you want visitors to pick up the phone and give you a call. Whatever your goals are, the content should be directly related to achieving them.

When to Assess Your Site

Your first quality-assurance review should take place after the design is done but before the site launches. You should also do a careful website performance assessment after any major redesign. Whenever you update, add, or change the content, a quick check is in order to make sure it looks good and works properly.

You should also think about doing an annual assessment of both front-end and back-end website performance. It’s too easy to notice a broken link and think, “I’ll take care of that later,” only to completely forget. After all, you’re a busy entrepreneur. If you schedule regular reviews, you’ll be more likely to catch problems and get them fixed.

Scribizzy offers a full suite of website performance reports and assessments. Ready to clean up your site? Get a quote online.

An Introduction to Website Performance Monitoring and Assessment

Most small business owners and independent professionals invest considerably in their websites. They pay good money for design and content, and in return, they expect the site to perform well.

But what does that mean? How do we measure website performance? And what are the benefits of website performance monitoring and assessment?

Some website owners track their statistics obsessively. They log in to their statistic tools several times a day to see how many visitors they’re getting. We’ve come to think of website performance purely in terms of traffic. How many hits? How many pageviews? Then we go out and try to increase these numbers, forgetting that a proper assessment is far more involved.

Website Performance Monitoring Tools

There are a vast number of website performance monitoring tools available. Your website hosting company may provide a statistics tracking tool as part of your hosting package, and if not, there are plenty of options to choose from. Some of these tools require payment while others are absolutely free.

My favorite statistics tool is Google Analytics, and it happens to be one of the free options. It offers plenty of detailed information that you can use to understand how your website is performing.

Google Analytics uses your Google account, so if you have Gmail or use Google Reader, then you’ll already be logged in, which makes for fast and easy access. Plus, if you use Adwords or any of Google’s webmaster services, everything is nicely connected and easy to use.

Basic Statistics

At the most basic level, you want to have an idea of how many people are visiting your site on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. Additionally, you should know what the visitors are doing while they’re on your site. How many pages are they viewing? How much time are they spending on your website?

Below is a list of datum that Google Analytics and most other statistics tools provide so you can assess your website performance:

Visits is the number of times your website was visited in a given period of time (most statistics tools allow you to specify a time period). This is also sometimes referred to as the number of hits your site is getting.

Absolute Unique Visits provides you with the number of unique visitors to your site. One person might visit your site five times in a week. This statistic tells you how many visitors you had instead of how many total visits.

Pageviews indicates how many pages on your site were viewed. One visitor might have looked at five pages, so comparing the number of pageviews to the number of visitors can help you determine how much content the users are experiencing.

Time on Site shows how much time visitors spent on your website. This number is averaged to show you how much time each visitor spent perusing the site. Keep in mind that visitors might have your site open in their browsers when they’re not actively exploring your site, so this data has the potential to be misleading, however, it is worth noting.

Bounce Rate tells you the percentage of visitors who “bounced” away from your site immediately. If your bounce rate is high, that means visitors are not sticking around to check out your content. If it’s low, that means folks who visit your site are exploring it in more depth.

All of these statistics help you gain a basic understanding of your website performance. But knowing how many visitors are coming to your site may not be very helpful in a true website performance assessment. To get a better perspective, you’ll need to dig deeper and ask relevant questions.

Asking Questions

Before you engage in any kind of website performance assessment, your first step should be to identify your website’s primary purpose. The purpose may very well be to attract as many visitors as possible, in which case the basic statistics could tell you almost everything you need to know.

However, most businesses are concerned with another primary goal: turning a profit. So, the real question is not how many visitors are coming to your site, but how is your website performance contributing to the overall growth of your business and revenue? Are the visitors who are finding their way to your site looking for what you offer? When they get to your site, are they responding to your call to action (clicking on a link, subscribing, or making a purchase)?

Let’s say you’re a makeup artist who provides services for bridal parties. In your bio, you’ve stated “I started learning how to apply makeup when I was nine years old. My mom was a beautician and she always let me experiment with her cosmetics.”

One day, you check your statistics and are thrilled to discover that your site is getting over 1000 visitors per day. You sit back, thinking that business is going to boom any minute now. But what if out of those 1000 visitors, 999 were searching for “how to apply makeup?” Those folks weren’t looking for your services, and it’s doubtful they need your services at all.

Advanced Statistics

Digging deeper into your statistics will help you assess your website performance in a meaningful way that contributes to your business and online success, and this means going beyond the basic number of visitors or number of pages those visitors are viewing on your site.

Let’s look at some of the more advanced statistics that you can use to assess your site’s performance:

Traffic Sources: How are people finding your site? Are they entering your URL into their browsers? Are they using a search engine? Are they clicking on a link from some other site? Understanding the channels through which visitors are arriving is essential, especially if you plan on growing your traffic.

Traffic source information will not only tell you how visitors are arriving at your site, it will specify which sites are sending traffic your way. You can also learn which search engines send you the most visitors. Then, you can leverage this information to your advantage during future development and expansions to your site.

Keywords is one of the most important statistics because it shows you which keyword searches are generating traffic to your site. Why is this so important? Because this data tells you whether search engine users who are landing on your site are a match to your business offerings.

Going back to our example of a bridal makeup artist who is gaining most of her website traffic from the phrase “how to apply makeup,” one would assume that folks searching for “how to apply makeup” are not looking for a makeup artist, but are probably looking for articles or tutorials that deal with application of cosmetics. Instead, our makeup artist should work at gaining traffic that is more targeted to her service offerings.

Content gives you an in-depth look at which pages on your site are most (and least) popular. You can extract an ordered list that shows your most-viewed and least-viewed pages. If your goal is to lead the majority of visitors to your sales pages, then this information can tell you whether you are reaching that goal.

Top Landing Pages shows you which pages are the point of entry for visitors. There’s a good chance most visitors are landing on your home page, but you might want to make some adjustments if visitors are instead landing on a less desirable page (especially if they’re then quickly clicking off-site).

Top Exit Pages gives you the same information, but focuses on which pages visitors are looking at when they decide to leave your site. Perhaps you’ve got a link that’s driving visitors (and perspective customers) elsewhere.

There are additional statistics that you might want to look at. For example, let’s say you’re planning to redesign your website and want to use some advanced technology in the new design. It would be helpful to know which operating systems and browsers your visitors are using so you can figure out whether those visitors will have access to your flashy new site (or whether it will crash their computers).

Assessing Website Performance

When you are assessing your website performance, it’s essential to first identify your website’s core objective. Then, ask thoughtful questions about which statistics will provide you with the data you need to properly assess whether your website is fulfilling its purpose.

Once you know what basic data to collect, you can use that data to draw conclusions about how your website is performing. You can also use this information to make decisions about how to move forward with your website, especially if you’re planning to expand or redesign your site.

Once you know which information is pertinent to your objectives, you can conduct regular website performance monitoring. This will help you stay abreast of how your website is performing in the online marketplace.

Don’t have time to monitor your website performance? Need help putting together a detailed assessment? Scribizzy offers a number of website performance reports and assessments, and they are all designed specifically to help you make smart decisions about the future of your website so you can increase your success on the web. Get a quote online!

Scribizzy’s Fresh Look and New Web Content Services

Keeping your website up-to-date is essential for doing business online and succeeding. So, every year or two, a redesign is in order. This helps keep the website fresh, and it promotes good maintenance because a redesign is an excellent opportunity to review and revitalize your site’s content.

Scribizzy’s new design takes a slightly more minimalist approach than the previous design. I wanted something slicker and sleeker. The Executive Theme by StudioPress was a perfect fit, and I’m excited to announce that Scribizzy’s newly customized design is already featured in the StudioPress showcase.

I’m a big advocate for using WordPress in website design and management. When your site sits atop the WordPress platform, you can focus on design and content, letting WordPress take care of all the functionality and data organization.

StudioPress offers the very best in premium themes using the cleanest code I’ve seen and a wide selection of designs that can be tweaked so your site looks and feels exactly the way you want it to.

WordPress Theme Customization

In just a few weeks, Scribizzy will officially launch WordPress theme customization services, and these services will include full customization for all StudioPress themes. The good news? I’ll charge the same to customize these premium themes as any other themes.

I’m still working out the details for packaging and pricing WordPress theme customization, but if you’re interested in getting a website set up using WordPress and are interested in hiring me to do it, you can use this handy form to get a quote online.

WordPress theme customization isn’t the only new new addition to Scribizzy’s web content services.

Hire a Blog Coach

Have you ever thought about adding a blog to your website? Business blogging has countless benefits that will enhance and strengthen your online presence. My new blog coach program will be completely customized to your goals and skill level. You won’t have to waste countless hours sifting through information online or reading through books looking for the exact steps you need to take to make your blog a smashing success. I will work with you one-on-one to guide you through the steps from basic customization to writing and promoting blog posts. The entire program is driven by your specific goals for your blog (and if you’re not sure what goals to set, I can certainly help you with that).

Visit the Blog Services page to learn more.

Tips for Doing Business Online

In conjunction with the fresh design and new web content services, stay tuned for a new series of blog posts with tips for doing business online. I’ll talk about how to assess your website performance, offer ideas for web content development and website design tips. Plus, there will be feature articles on website copywriting and search engine optimization (SEO). I’ll also be posting updates about the new services, including details about WordPress theme customization and the blog coach program.

Make sure you don’t miss future updates by subscribing!

Building Brand Recognition with Online Marketing Strategies

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Branding and marketing professionals understand the power of image. Think about the Apple logo, the Nike swoosh, and Starbuck’s emblem. These symbols are burned into our minds and they immediately trigger brand recognition as well as the feelings and attitudes we hold individually or collectively toward the companies and products that they represent.

We’re used to seeing logos and image-based branding on business cards, television and print ads, and product packaging. However, there is no medium more powerful for propelling brand recognition than the internet.

In today’s technology-driven world, online marketing strategies are the foremost method for promoting your company’s brand. That means building brand recognition by depicting your logo and maintaining a consistent image along with a clear message.

The core of your image is your company’s logo. The first and most obvious placement for this image is on your website. Next, create an email signature that includes your business’s logo. What comes after that?

As you travel the information superhighway as a representative of your business, whether it’s a one-person entrepreneurship or a vast enterprise, there are countless opportunities for displaying an image – that key symbol that identifies your brand. And the more you display that image, the more familiar and recognizable it will become to your associates, competitors, and customers.

Social Media Outreach

Sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and MySpace provide ample opportunities for logo display and online marketing strategies. Some social media experts make a living using these platforms to promote businesses on the web. Many small business owners and independent professionals sign up for these social media networks but forget to harness the outreach they provide. Embed your brand into your Twitter background (don’t forget to include your website address). Use your logo as your Facebook picture. List your site on your LinkedIn profile.

Two Ways to Build Your Brand on Blogs

There are two ways to build your brand on blogs. First, launch your own blog and incorporate your company image in posts, images, feed footers, or email subscriptions. Be careful not to overdo it, though. Next, use your image when you visit other blogs. You can do this easily by using Gravatar, which automatically inserts your image beside comments you leave on other blogs.

Promote Yourself in Forums

Forums are an ideal way to connect with others in your industry, including prospective customers. This is a more subtle form of online marketing, but through connections, you can develop a functional network that will lead to more business. Most forums allow users to to create a signature, and many, like blogs, use avatars, images associated with your profile that appear alongside each message you post.

Commit to Online Marketing Strategies

The key to building brand recognition lies in identifying opportunities as they arise and then seizing them. Keep a copy of your logo handy and use it in situations where you are asked to upload and display images online. Always insert your company name, tagline (or slogan), and website address (URL) in signatures and profiles that you use around the internet. That way, you’ll be able to propel your online marketing strategies at a moment’s notice.

Tip: Try creating a folder with all the information (don’t forget your elevator pitch and company bio) and storing it on your desktop for easy access! Be prepared at all times, and keep copies of your logo in traveling media like a memory key or stored in your inbox, so you can access and use it anytime, from anywhere.

Start finding those opportunities now by looking for innovative places on the web where you can display your brand. Go through all your online profiles and cyber haunts and make sure you’re promoting your business appropriately!

How do you incorporate your business brand to expand your online marketing strategies?

SEO School

The Introduction to SEO explained how search engine optimization (SEO) can increase traffic to your website. But how does one implement SEO? How do you know which keywords to use, and what do you need to do with those keywords to increase your rank on search engine results pages (SERPs) and draw more traffic to your site?

And if you’re thinking about hiring an SEO consultant, how do you begin to understand what you’re paying them to do?

In short, how do you learn SEO?

If you want to learn about search engine optimization, you can spend weeks or even months perusing the Internet, gathering free information. Eventually, you’ll pick up enough knowledge to launch your own SEO campaign.

Or, you could just buy a copy of SEO School, spend a couple of hours reading, and then launch your SEO campaign. With the information in this ebook, you can optimize your website and see real results – in both your keyword ranking and your overall traffic.

In less than a month, I was able to apply the information I learned in SEO School and test it on one of my websites. And what I found out was that it works. Plus, I was able to learn SEO quickly and easily!

Learn SEO

Over the last few years, I studied SEO at a distance. I paid attention to articles and blog posts that covered SEO, and I had a basic understanding of how SEO worked. From everything I gathered, it was a complex, convoluted field – one in which there were no guarantees and in which the rules were constantly changing.

Last summer when Naomi Dunford of Itty Biz launched her ebook SEO School, I was intrigued enough to buy it right away. The price was right (about half the cost of most other SEO books), and I knew Naomi’s writing style was witty and obscenely engaging, so it was sure to be an informative and entertaining read.

After breezing through the entire ebook in just a couple of hours, I knew one thing for certain: I was going to learn SEO and then optimize my websites.

The thing about SEO is that it’s not that difficult. It’s just extremely time consuming – though even the amount of time you spend depends on the number of keywords you’re optimizing for and how competitive the keyword field is.

SEO School: Enroll Today

SEO School is a perfect introduction for people who want to learn SEO basics and who want the nitty gritty details on how to actually optimize a site. It’s ideal for website managers who want to start optimizing, and it’s a fantastic resource for small business owners who are thinking about hiring an SEO professional but want to understand what’s involved in the process of search engine optimization before they shell out the cash.

The book kicks off with a basic introduction to SEO, and explains how search engines work and what their motives and goals are (remember, search engines are businesses too!). Next, there is a discussion about selecting keywords based on a variety of factors, such as search frequency, competition, and how well a given keyword relates to your site.

About halfway into the book, you’ll start learning exactly how to tweak your site’s code and content to gain higher search engine rankings. You’ll also learn about off-site optimization. There’s even a section just for bloggers.

Naomi’s style matches her blog, so if you’re an Itty Biz reader, this book will delight you. And if you’re not an Itty Biz reader, then head over there and subscribe right now to get some of the best online marketing tips around. However, if you are a puritan, beware – Naomi is liberal with language and her blog posts as well as her ebook are peppered with words that could get a child’s mouth washed out with soap, which is part of what makes it such a blast to read.

Case Study

I launched my own SEO campaign after reading SEO School, and the results were impressive. For the purpose of this case study, I will share my results for two keywords. Keep in mind that I was in the early, testing phase. My approach was to optimize a few pages and see what would happen. Once I could assess the test results, then I would be prepared to launch a full-scale campaign.

The main thing I wanted to know was: does SEO work? If I learn SEO and then optimize, will I actually see an increase in my rankings and my traffic? The answer was yes, and my full-scale campaign is now underway.

The case study below outlines the steps I took to determine whether SEO School would pay off.

Case Study

The site I was working with was over a year old and had almost 200 pages of content when I started. I decided to optimize the archives rather than create fresh content.

Keyword #1

I found that a keyword that generated almost 30,000 searches per month had sent 23 visitors to my site in 2008. I couldn’t even find my site in the first 200 search results on Google, so it was no wonder that I was getting such a small fraction of the search engine traffic.

After optimizing one page in December, my site leaped to position #130, and almost immediately, I noticed a spike in traffic. Over the next few weeks, I optimized four more pages on the site for the same keyword. Each time I optimized, I noted the current rank and followed up a few days later.

In less than a month, I had optimized five short pages and increased my rank from practically off the chart to page four. At the time this case study was written, my site was at position 32, so it’s still climbing – and I’m not done optimizing. I probably spent 15-20 minutes proofreading, editing, and optimizing each page.

Keyword #2

As it turns out, the second keyword occurred organically. In SEO, there is something called a long-tail keyword. There are plenty of different definitions of long tail keywords. For the purpose of this study, the keyword that started generating traffic wasn’t one I optimized for at all. In fact, it was a combination of two other keywords I had optimized for.

For example, let’s say you optimized for the keywords “red” and “shirt,” and then found you were gaining traffic for the keyword phrase “red shirt.” Well, that’s what happened with my site.

The long-tail keyword that started drawing traffic gets between 3000 and 5000 searches per month. That’s not a lot, but if you ranked for several such keywords, you would see a nice spike in traffic. Also, keywords with lower search frequency are good for cutting your SEO teeth and learning the ropes.

In 2008, I received a grand total of 23 hits for this keyword phrase – that’s over the course of a whole year. After optimizing about five pages for portions of the keyword phrase, I received 182 hits from the keyword phrase in January alone. In a single month, I had increased my traffic for just one keyword phrase over 700% of what it had been during the course of an entire year.

I can’t wait to see what my stats show in February.

Summary

If you want to learn SEO on your own, Scribizzy recommends SEO School by Naomi Dunford of IttyBiz. This SEO book is a quick and easy read, and it will give you all the basics of SEO plus the actual steps you need to take to optimize your site.

Buyer beware: SEO School may contain language that is not suitable for children. But it’s really fun to read.

Want to optimize your website? Check out Scribizzy’s SEO services, including SEO copywriting, or just go ahead and get a quote online.

Web Content Development Step One: Brainstorming

Have you ever heard of the five Ps?

Proper planning prevents poor performance.

This saying is simple and easy to remember, and it conveys an important message: The best results come from a well-laid plan. That’s what smart web content development is all about — proper planning.

If done right, a good content development plan will ensure a stellar performance, one in which your website plays the starring role. This all starts with a blueprint, a map that you can follow to take your website from concept to completion.

Every good plan kicks off with a brainstorming session.

We’ve already explored the basics of web content development. The very first step in developing web content is to establish the concept for your website. In this step, you brainstorm all of your options. Later, you’ll develop a streamlined list of content that you will build and launch over time. This becomes your plan.

In the picture above, you can see a man working at a board laden with sticky notes. This is a great way to brainstorm. However, a few large sheets of paper will serve just as well. In any case, you need to set up a workspace where you can jot down all your ideas and notes.

Make sure you have your computer handy too. As you build your list of possibilities for web content development, you’ll need to conduct research at almost every step. Keep this in mind as you go through the rest of this list — for example, if you’re not sure what all your social media options are, you’ll want to conduct a search.

Web Content Development Brainstorming Tips

1. List your core web content — this includes your website and its most essential pages (Home, About, Products or Services, and a Contact page). This content should contain information that is absolutely necessary to communicate your offer and message to the online community. Don’t forget that images, video, and links are content too!
2. Create a list of additional pages that could benefit your website. These could be articles, sales pages, or individual products and services pages. Remember that you’re in the conceptual phase, so write down anything and everything that comes to mind.
3. Remember that web content is any content you own on the web. This goes beyond your website and expands into countless opportunities for online exposure, such as social media. While your content may exist in various places on the web, its core purpose is to drive traffic to your site. Brainstorm beyond your website.
4. List social media sites. What kind of content will you need to set up a presence on those sites? For example, if you set up a Twitter account, you’ll probably want a custom background and maybe even a few pages of potential tweets to kick-start your Twitter campaign.
5. In a sense, your website advertises your products and services. To drive traffic and potential customers to your site, you’ll have to advertise the site itself. That means listing your website in directories, posting ads, or buying advertising space on other websites. You might want to try a Google AdWords campaign as a way to drive traffic and customers to your site. Compile a list of online advertising channels that you’d like to explore.
6. Check out the competition. Visit sites that offer goods and services similar to your own and check out their web content. This is an excellent way to get ideas. You can also conduct reverse searches to find out how your competitors are getting inbound links.
7. Conduct searches. Use Google to see what’s buzzing in your industry. Try a wide range of search terms, including terms related to your industry, products, and services. You could spend hours doing this, possibly all of eternity. Keep track of the search terms you enter in search engines and make notes about anything interesting that comes up. Read the articles, check out the images, and visit sites that are related to your own. They don’t have to be competitors; be sure to look for sites that offer products and services that complement rather than compete with your offerings.
8. Take your search to social media. Here’s where you’ll really see what’s buzzing. Want to get your finger on the pulse of the universal water cooler? Just take a look at Twitter’s trending topics. Enter your most condensed search terms in social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to see how folks are treating your subject matter and what they’re saying about it. Tip: Don’t forget to search YouTube (you’ll find some really interesting stuff there).

More Brainstorming Tips

Here are a few bonus tips that deal with any type of brainstorming session:

• Start with your primary objective. Whether you’re selling widgets or trying to build a readership for your newsletter, know what your main goals are. Let every aspect of your content development contribute toward achieving those goals. I recommend writing this objective in big, bold letters and keep it visible during your brainstorming sessions. If you have more than one goal, then identify your core goal and note lesser goals as well.
• You can always add to your list. Keep your brainstorming materials accessible (or transfer them into a computer file) so you can add to them whenever that light bulb goes off in your head (and trust me, this will happen). You also may want to revisit your ideas later, which is another good reason to keep your brainstorm on file.
• Remember that brainstorming and research can take time. You might need to spend several hours or days on this phase. If you put a lot of sweat into brainstorming, conceptualizing, and planning, then all the other phases of your web content development will go smoothly.

Next Steps

Once you’ve got a massive list of ideas for web content, your next step is to prioritize, eliminate, and explore further. If you’ve done your legwork, then you should have a good idea which content should be developed first. You will also have some ideas that don’t look like a good fit for your specific business offerings. Finally, there will be some ideas that are unclear or require further research.

Keep working at your list, refining it until a concrete plan starts to emerge. You can always get started building your web content before your plan is completely finalized. For example, you may be trying to figure out just how much you can squeeze into your budget in a single year and aren’t sure if you can do social media sites and an ad campaign. But you know you need to get those core pages on your website underway. Multi-task, and if you’re too busy, then try delegating or hiring out some of the work.

Web Content Development

Web content development can be a lot of fun for creative types who like to plan and brainstorm. If you’re internet savvy, brainstorming will come a lot easier. If you’re not very familiar with the many marketing outlets available on the web, you might need to spend a lot of time researching — to get a list of possible sites where you’ll feature your content and then to hone that list down targeting only those that are a good match for your business offerings.

If web content development doesn’t sound like fun to you, then you can always hire a professional. Scribizzy offers web content development services and can help you put together a comprehensive plan for the future of your website. We can also help you execute that plan! Find out more by getting a quote online.