7 Quick and Easy Ways To Improve Your Marketing

If you're in charge of inbound marketing for your business, you know the definition of "overwhelming". In order to continually engage potential leads, you run yourself ragged updating landing pages, sending out email marketing messages, writing eBooks, "SEO'ing" your existing content, and more. With all these responsibilities on your plate, it's imperative that you are efficient at your job. Here are 7 quick and easy ways you can improve your marketing strategy in little to no time.

Link To Internal Content/Offers - When you're busy creating new content, don't forget that internal linking is not only a huge SEO strategy, but it's also a way to take advantage of an interested lead. If your lead is reading an article that they find intriguing, and you have other content that's relevant or you have an offer that's relevant, link to it! For example, if you have a blog post about "Facebook SEO Strategies" and you happened to have written an eBook about that same topic, highlight the words "Facebook SEO" in your blog post and link to your eBook. Just be sure not to mislead your reader by linking to something that's not relevant at all. It establishes a "spammy" appearance and can create a feeling of distrust.

Get Interactive - Being social is just a part of business, and any good inbound marketer will have several social platforms to keep up with, whether it's Facebook, a blog, Twitter, a forum, etc. Take a minute out of your day to respond to comments left on these platforms. The whole point of having a social platform is to promote a feeling of interactivity between the customers/fans and the business.

Call-To-Action - It's amazing how often a call-to-action is left off of content. You should literally have on one each and every piece of content you put out. Go through your existing content and make sure you have some sort call-to-action. If you don't, add one. It can be something as simple as "opt-in to our newsletter to receive special discounts" or "click here to get your free eBook".

Reword Your Content - This is especially true for blogs and or page titles. Any good SEO firm will tell you that your meta titles are not only extremely important for indexing, but they are also important for traffic. You can't get leads without traffic, and you can't get traffic if your blog posts or page titles are boring. Take a minute to go through a couple pages/blog posts to make sure the titles are enticing.

Share - You've got all this great information to give people, so share it! If you're a marketer and you're not sharing your content via social networks and other outlets (i.e. press releases), well... it's time for a new job.

Button Up - Make sure your call-to-action buttons are not boring. Do they need a little more life? Studies have shown less people click on buttons that are titled "Submit" than any other button. If you have "Submit" buttons, change them to something more relevant or more exciting. Make sure it's something that seems noncommittal; otherwise people will be less likely to click on it. For example, "Submit" seems official, whereas "Get Your Discounts Now" does not.

Get Bold- Go through any landing pages or sales pages (including your website's home page) to see if it passes the blink test. What's the blink test? A lead should be able to look at your website and within the amount of time it takes them to blink; they should be able to get the gist of what your site offers and whether it's relevant to them. Go through and bold or italicize words/phrases that can sum up your business' offer and value quickly.

Visual Media in the Post-Penguin Web

Following Google's Penguin Update in April, many sites were greatly affected in the SERPs and have since struggled to regain their former rankings. Strong content and link quality have become more important than ever before, so webmasters have sought website SEO services as a way to restructure their online presence.

One of the strategies any good SEO service will suggest in an SEO campaign post-Penguin will be one which relies upon a combination of text-based, and visual content.

Long gone are the days when SEO could be achieved solely by stuffing keywords onto pages of questionable value or simply editing metatags. In the post-Penguin web, Content Marketing and Social Media become the most effective media for creating SERPs-friendly content.

Post-Penguin, any effective SEO strategy must leverage visual media in conjunction with more traditional methodologies. With the introduction of blended search results, combined with an emphasis on content that is shared via social media, any strategy that does not effectively make use of video and photo content, is destined to fail.

While traditional, text-based content has had long-standing authority in the SERPs, alternative content is now increasing in value to online marketers. Rich content such as video and photos are now finding more prevalence within universal search and the number of webmasters, marketers and business owners generating such content is increasing, as well.

The Value of Video

Video content providers such as YouTube, Vimeo and DailyMotion are all indexed by search engines and some content on those video sharing sites is even visible within universal search results. These videos appear in "Video Packs" which are ranked by using video SEO techniques. Titles, descriptions and keywords are important factors in determining the ranking viability and authority of video content within result pages. Going forward, video is expected to play an even larger role in Internet marketing campaigns as it continues to rise in popularity amongst Web users.

Photos in the SERPs

There is also an enhanced presence of photos in search results. Image ALT tags and relevant text on the page help to determine the ranking of photo content in "Image Packs", which are displayed on the SERP pages in a similar fashion as Video Packs. As with videos, images are likely to have greater visibility within search results in the months ahead.

For Internet marketers, this alternative content helps to supplement text and links and helps to create a rich, engaging page. As with traditional content, video and images must be original and relevant to hold real value within SEO campaigns, but they are certainly a crucial factor in building page authority post-Penguin.

Are Your Social Media Expectations Unrealistic?

Humans have always had a desire to socialize; the herd mentality. In the Bible, as soon as the world repopulated after the flood, they gathered together to build the Tower of Babel (Genesis, chapter 11). So it's no wonder social media took off! And, soon businesses realized they could speak to the masses directly and started social media marketing. But, are your social media expectations unrealistic?

When I speak to business owners, they don't totally understand the value and importance of social media; but they know they need it because it's all the buzz. So they figure they'll get someone that uses Facebook in the office and he or she is their NEW social media expert!

When they learn it's not working, they want to hire a pro for $500 a month and can't figure out why they can't find anybody. Finally, they get upset because their e-mail is not overloaded with prospects who want their product, one month into their new strategy. Sounds familiar?

So let's look at some key points: the value and importance of social media and what are realistic expectations.

The Importance and Value

In a study conducted in 2009 by Eric Qualman, author of Socialnomics, it was learned that 76% of Internet users trust more what their peers have to say in social media about a brand than what advertising or Internet searches say; only 14% gave Google and advertising prominence. What this means for you is your public will go to Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or sites like Yelp and Delicious to find out about your product or service. The question is, what will they find?

Will they find nothing, except the few people that may give their opinion based on what they've heard or read from your competition? Or, will they find people who have read some of YOUR blogs, interacted with YOUR representative and saw the replies YOU posted to other's inquiries? More importantly, will they find your information intriguing enough to follow your blog?

You see your blog will allow you to share your expertise, build credibility and trust, and get them to like you. Quite frankly, people buy from people they like and your blog shortens the sales cycle, because you don't have to tell them what you know and are good at - they already know.

Plus, you can provide customer service in plain view, eliminating other inquiries because they already saw the answer and, more importantly, that YOU CARE AND ARE RESPONSIVE! What value do you place on THAT type of PR?

Realistic Expectations

If you think you can take just anyone that knows the tools but not the strategies and tactics, and trust them with the image, positioning and brand of your company in social media, then you probably think that buying Microsoft Publisher gives you an in-house advertising department.

You want someone who is a GOOD writer that can capture your voice and essence, and can learn your business. You see, you will direct your message, but the social media professional will project it with impact, but personably. After all, people come to social media to be entertained, informed and helped. This cannot be done with automation!

You see, social media is part science and part art. The science is not ONLY knowing the technology, but understanding marketing strategies and tactics. The art part is being able to communicate it well and knowing which old-school tactics are not applicable to this new medium. This takes time to develop and a good social media professional is worth the investment - whether in house or outsourced.

Finally, unlike traditional marketing, just because "social media marketing" has "marketing" in it, it's not measured the same way. Understand that social media is about engaging people, building a relationship and fostering followers that trust you. Now let me ask you this, if you just met someone and in no time they reached for your wallet, would you trust them? But a person that you came to know may propose something and you would be amenable only because you trust and like them. The same applies to social media.

Understand that the consumer took charge! No longer is it a one-way monologue through marketing and advertising that is isolated to the one person reading the newspaper. Oh No! There are millions and they speak to each other. If they don't like your approach, they will make it known.

And, let's not forget the other values of reduced customer service cost, the shortened sales cycle, the positive PR and YOU having editorial control of your message. No watering down by some editor behind a desk at a newspaper who may have an agenda or limited column space. No sir, you post your message completely and submit it to article banks, indexing directories and through interactions with your public.

So really evaluate your strategy, look at your budget and make the proper accommodations and ensure that you are well represented. After all, the days of the 6:00 O'clock news with 24 hours to react are long gone. We live in real time and you want to make sure your message is ON TARGET!