Image Credit: beadmobile via Flickr
This is a guest post by Bridie Jenner of Bridie’s Typing Services.
At the beginning of the year, I could have written everything I knew about marketing on the back of a postage stamp. But with the help of MarketingHQ’s free email tips, business discussion forums and my research I ended the year well and truly educated.
Here are three of the most important marketing lessons I learned:
Social Media Is the Place to Be
Love it or loathe it, social media – that’s Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn etc. – are THE place to promote your business and, more importantly, network.
If you haven’t already, make sure your business has a Facebook fan page and a Twitter account, and create your personal profile on LinkedIn.
Then tweet regularly – include your latest news, blog posts and some interesting articles you may have found and interact. Chat with the people you follow, “retweet” interesting or amusing tweets and always thank people if they retweet something you posted.
Keep your Facebook page and LinkedIn profile up to date, again you can share your latest news and blog posts and interact with your followers. Update your Facebook page two or three times a week and, if someone has posted a comment, reply. Log into LinkedIn several times during the course of the week and take part in discussion groups.
Benefits: You increase your business network, make some great contacts (and friends) along the way and, if your tweets are interesting or informative, “retweets” will increase your brand awareness across the globe.
Write a Blog
I thought blogs were all about boring people keeping an online diary about the dreary events in their lives. How wrong was I?
Writing a blog is a fantastic way to not only promote your business but to add content to your website – and when it comes to search engine optimisation, content is very definitely king.
Try and keep your blog specific to your niche if you can. I find it hard to come up with weekly topics purely about typing and transcribing, so I also include posts about social media, marketing and other small business-related topics. Also, make sure that your posts contain your most important keywords (more about that in a moment) in their titles as well as within the post itself.
If you find it difficult to come up with posts, hate writing or just don’t have time there are companies that will do the job for you at a reasonable cost. When I started I purchased four blog posts which gave me some great inspiration and allowed me some time to come up with my content without the stress of a looming deadline.
Tip: If writing doesn’t come naturally or, like me, you haven’t done any in a very long time, start a personal blog and write about anything and everything that interests you. It gets the creative juices flowing and helps you find “your voice”.
Optimise your website
After a couple of lame efforts I ordered a bespoke website design and invested in a copywriter to give me some keyword-rich content for the main pages.
Then I realised that having a great looking site is only half the battle – you could have the most amazing website in the world, but if it’s not optimised then only a handful of people are ever going to see it.
First I purchased “Search Engine Optimisation for Dummies” which takes you step by step through the process with great tips and ideas along the way, all in plain English which even a technophobe could understand.
Then, through Chris’ recommendation, I purchased Market Samurai. It makes finding keyword phrases to target incredibly easy, compares your site against the top 10 (or more if you prefer) ranked sites, clearly shows you how well optimised your pages are and you can check your rank to see how you’re doing. You can also use it to find keyword-rich content, which is a great tool if you want to quickly post some content whilst you plan your blog.
Tip: Ditch “Home” – make sure your home page has a keyword-rich title to instantly increase your optimisation (and if you don’t believe me, Google “Home” and see how many results you get!).
Implement these simple ideas today and see how quickly your business benefits.
Bridie Jenner has more than 20 years of experience in secretarial and administration positions and runs her own business Bridie’s Typing Services. Since its establishment in 2003 she has served many clients from a range of industries by providing them with top quality audio transcriptions and copy typing. Born and raised in the UK she relocated to Bunbury, Western Australia in 2005 with her family.
Chris Dale
Chris Dale is the founder and managing director of MarketingHQ. He loves to help businesses of all sizes get more out of their marketing – and by more he means more sales! Find out more about him here or feel free to connect with him on Twitter and Facebook.
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