Blog on my Friend!

Blog on my friend! As I tell anyone who will listen - Content is King! Read HubSpot's "2013 State of Inbound Marketing" (Inbound is the content your potential customers search for and find). Here are some eye opening stats:

> 34% of all th...e leads generated in 2013 come from inbound marketing sources

> In 2013, 41% of marketers confirm inbound produces measurable ROI, and a staggering
82% of marketers who blog see positive ROI for their inbound marketing.

> WOW - Traditional advertising and PPC (Pay Per Click) will deliver the least amount of leads this year - just 6%

> Inbound marketers double the average site conversion rate of non-inbound marketers, from 6% to 12% total

> 43% of marketers generated a customer via their blog this
year, though the blog requires roughly 9% of marketers’ time


http://cdn2.hubspot.net/hub/53/file-30889984-pdf/2013_StateofInboundMarketing_FullReport.pdf

Design Email for Mobile!

According to Knotice, in the last half of 2012, 41% of all emails were opened on a mobile device (phones and/or tablets) which is an increase of 14% from early 2012 numbers of 36% and a full 50% increase over the same time last year.

At this rate they predict by the end of this year more people will open email on their mobile device than on their desktop!
Make sure you messages are optimized for mobile. View emails and email newsletters on mobile deviced before sending them out.

http://www.knotice.com/reports/Knotice_Mobile_Email_Opens_Report_SECONDHalf2012.pdf

Good Reputations Sell

Studies used to say a happy customer tells 2-3 people but an unhappy one tells 8-10. But in this age of social networks – you can add a zero or maybe even two to end of those numbers. Online reputation monitoring matters. It often is the o...nly discernible way for a potential customer to differentiate between calling you or your closest competitor for a quote. Customers don’t have to be savvy internet detectives to research your company online. Often just searching for your business category will pop up your company high in the search results because monsters like Google Places (discussed last time), BBB and Yelp tend to pop to the top and display lists of companies along with star ratings and comments.

Of course no business can't please every customer every time and sometimes bad things happen to good organizations. You may be right, they may be completely off base, there may be no room in the middle. What is there to do? One client I have simply has a policy of ‘The customer is always right even if they wrong…especially if they post something bad.’ No fighting, no messy back and forth – just toss money at the problem, fix it and make them happy.

Not all companies and CEOs will want to do that and some situations just can’t be fixed. So what do you do with an awful review in that case? First do the math. If the bad review might reach 100 or a 1000 people online - have four of your happy customers post positive reviews that will ‘out-reach’ the bad one. Not only will the four good reviews boost your average “star” rating but they will now be on top of the bad one and will make people think about the motives behind that bad one when and if they ever get down to it.

Don’t wait for a bad review to start the process. Make soliciting positive reviews an active utensil in your marketing toolbox. Not because of the potential bad rating – but because good reviews simply lead to more sales which will lead to more good reviews. Ask every satisfied customer you conclude business with to help you grow by posting a positive review. Most won’t but some will. By the way – you can spend thousands a year on companies that will help manage your online reputation – and this is exactly what they do

Google Place - The First and Most Important Thing Your Busines Can Do Online

If you want to get seen online, if you want to tap into the masses who are searching for businesses like yours - the very first step is to set up, claim, or check on, your Google Place. A free Google Place is the single best thing any business can do to make sure they are listed and searchable on the web. Setting it up is fast and free and enables you to define your business to Google and its users which account for 67% of all searches (according to comScore Sept 2012).

When you set up your Google Place you’ll tell the world what you do, what your hours are, your location, how you get paid and much more. You’ll tell Google searchers what categories you do business in and what geographic territory to cover. Your Google Place will literally “put you on the map”. When someone does a search of “your category of business” you’ll be found and a pin will show up on the Google Map. Your pin will be the same size as your very largest competitor – leveling the playing field.

To set up your Google Place, or to claim your business, visit the link below and follow the instructions. Not just anyone can claim a business – Google will verify your listing by calling you with a short code to enter or if that becomes an issue they can also mail you a post card with the code. Once you enter it you’ll be able to update the listing, add pictures, link to other web locations, create promotions and much more.

This is also the same place where customers can post reviews – good and bad - more about that in my next post.

http://www.google.com/local/add/analyticsSplashPage?pli=1

Google Place - Taylor Made Communications, LLC