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Writing your business blog – from a New Hampshire point of view

If you’re a NH business professional and have a business blog, today you’ll get a fresh perspective about what you should blog about from an experienced Portsmouth, NH media consultant.

Today’s post is reprinted with permission from Grace Duke, founder of Saving Grace Media. Grace is an advertising expert, specializing in helping businesses with their media planning and buying options.

So without further delay… compliments of Grace Duke…

I love helping small businesses set up their social media programs. Recently, I worked with two completely different types of companies, and while their individual markets are totally unrelated, their approach to marketing themselves through social media is similar.

Facebook, twitter and the like are good tools, but the real value is in the blog. Through your businesses blog you can communicating directly to your many audiences — customers or clients, prospective customers, past customers, aquaintances, employees and yes even competitors! This communication should be ongoing, honest and open to feedback.

There are hundreds of books and thousands of on-line posts on how to write a blog, but it all boils down to a few key factors, the most important of which is to honestly give of yourself. Your blog is all about providing information for your readers. Your blog is not the place to sell your company, quite the contrary! It is for giving your readers helpful hints, advise, or otherwise sharing your knowledge about your business and interests.

So think about your audiences, what information do you have that would interest them? Are you an Executive Coach? Then infomation about management techniques, or trends in business would be of interest to your audience. Are you a Cosmetologist? Then your audience might be interested in skin care tips or news about the dangerous chemicals in everyday health and beauty products. A restaurant owner? How about nutrition tips, interesting recipies, or even have some of your staff write short pieces on activities they enjoy outside of work. The ideas are endless if you approach your blog from the point of view of your readers.

What are your thoughts?

Grace can be reached by phone at 603-315-4942 and her website is www.savinggracemedia.com.

To get more traffic to your website with search engine optimization (SEO), or more persuasive web copy, to get help using your website and mail marketing to get your message your prospects, easily and affordably, or to learn about my direct response web copywriting services, e-mail me or call me at 603-686-5140.

And if you need offline direct response marketing copy and advice, go to www.crestviewmarketing.com

Merrill Clark
Web, SEO, and Direct Response Copywriter

Engaging your online prospects – automatically

Written by Merrill in Online Marketing

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It seems to me that many consumers prefer to learn more about a company, product, or service on their own, without talking to a person, before they decide on their next move.

I’m certainly one of them, and maybe you are, too. My goal is to get as much information as possible about something before I talk with a consultant or salesperson.

And the easiest way to do that?

By getting the information from various websites.

So make sure your website and web copy provides enough good information that your target market is looking for.

The hardest part is striking a balance of enough information – but not so much information that your visitor will never contact you for more help.

That’s where good site navigation and web copy for each page is important. Provide enough information so your visitors know that you understand the reason they’re on your site to begin with, and you’ll have a much better chance of them contacting you for further help.

And a good web copywriter that can write page content persuading your visitors to contact you is worth their weight in gold.

What are your thoughts?

To get more traffic to your website with search engine optimization (SEO), to get help using your website and mail marketing to get your message your prospects, easily and affordably, or to learn about my direct response web copywriting services, e-mail me or call me at 603-686-5140.

And if you need offline direct response marketing copy and advice, go to www.crestviewmarketing.com

Merrill Clark
Web, SEO, and Direct Response Copywriter

NH business owners Google search rankings may soon disappear

Written by Merrill in Online Marketing

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If you are a New Hampshire sales or business professional and have a website that depends on getting traffic from Google, then you should start paying close attention to Google’s newest search engine technology overhaul.

According to Google, their new technology, codenamed “Caffeine” is a process that will let them increase indexing speed, accuracy, relevance, and comprehensiveness of the search results displayed.

Search results generated by Caffeine could change how your company ranks in its search results, and if your business has a website that depends heavily on Google-generated traffic, this is potentially a very big deal.

What this means to you is that you need to pay attention and be aware of these up-coming changes because you may need to make changes to your search engine optimization strategy to protect your current rankings.

On the other hand, Caffeine may improve your ranking, but at this point it’s unclear and just too early to know if your website will be affected or not.

But one thing’s for sure…I’m sure there will be plenty of fly-by-night SEO experts selling their services to website owners, so to protect yourself, make sure you discuss any web strategy and SEO changes with your trusted web advisor.

I’d like to hear your comments…

And if you need offline direct response marketing copy and advice, go to www.crestviewmarketing.com

To your website’s success!

Merrill Clark
Website and Direct Response Copywriter

7 simple ways to promote your website offline

Written by Merrill in Online Marketing

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Today’s tip about promoting your website is for some reason, often overlooked.

But it’s an easy, effective, and inexpensive way to promote your company’s website.

There’s no rocket science here, plus it might appear to some as counter-intuitive, seeing that your site is online and you want to use online techniques to promote it.

I’m talking about using simple, old fashioned, offline ways to promote your website.

So here are the 7 easy ways – all you have to do is make sure your website URL is printed on all of your printed material. (Okay…8 really)

Business cards
Customer invoices
Customer estimates & quotes
Handouts & flyers
Brochures
Postcards
Space ads
Letterhead

Like I said…this ain’t rocket science, but many people still don’t take advantage of these simple ideas.

Here are a couple of examples:

If you’re a retail store with good floor traffic and many transactions, you’re website’s URL should be printed on your invoices. You could then drive customers to your site with a statement like “Visit www.ourcompany.com for special online discounts!”

Or if you’re a CPA and sending out postcards to prospective clients, you could put on the postcard: “To discover 9 ways to save business taxes before the end of the year, visit www.cpa.123” Then, on your site, have a way to capture your visitor’s contact information and automatically send them their report.

How easy is that?

I’d like to hear your comments…

If you want to take maximum advantage of your website and mail marketing to get your message out to your prospects, easily and affordably, or you want to learn about my direct response web copywriting services, e-mail me or call me at 603-686-5140.

And if you need offline direct response marketing copy and advice, go to www.crestviewmarketing.com

To your website’s success!

Merrill Clark
Website and Direct Response Copywriter

Get more traffic to your website using social networking

Written by Merrill in Online Marketing

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Are you one of the bazillions of people using social network sites such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or MySpace?

And if you are – are you using them effectively to get new business?

I’m not talking about flooding your followers and networks with one sales pitch after another, but instead building real relationships with people that might be interested in your products or services.

Think about the term “social networking” for a second…Hmm…It includes the word “networking”.

And what do you think about when you hear that word? (no – not computer networking)

Personally, I think of it as meeting a bunch of other business or sales professionals in a public setting to learn more about each other and how to help each other.

In essence – networking is building personal and professional relationships that will benefit all involved.

You know how annoying it is when someone introduces themselves, slips you their business card, and goes on for 20 looong minutes about themselves and how great they are, when all you want to do is find the quickest exit.

Because all they’re concerned with is themselves, they turn everyone off, and in the process, won’t see a lick of benefit from the people they just alienated.

Social networking uses the same principle.

Use them to build trust and relationships, not to blatantly promote yourself every time you open your mouth (er…keyboard).

But as an example – you can and should use them to link to blog posts or articles your followers would benefit from.

Plus you can link to your website or blog in the profiles you can set up on each site. That’s the smart way to get more traffic to your site.

Don’t use them to tell people what you had for lunch, because they really don’t give a crap, but do use it to let your personality and your knowledge shine through. After all…people like to buy from people they like and trust.

Regularly give and ultimately…you’ll receive.

So pick the sites that include your target market and start building relationships by interacting with them.

Treat them just like you would if you’re face to face with them at a networking event and don’t be afraid link to your blog posts or landing pages. Just do it sparingly, and when it will benefit your audience the most.

There are a ton of topics I could write about regarding all the different sites and how to fully take advantage of them, but I just wanted to give you one simple idea you can use immediately.

Plus, there are many good books written on social networking and media, even ones written specifically for each site. All you have to do is visit Amazon or your local bookstore.

I’d like to hear your thoughts…

If you’ve always wanted to take advantage of email marketing to get your message out to your prospects, easily and affordably, or you want to learn about my direct response web copywriting services, e-mail me or call me at 603-686-5140.

And if you need offline direct response marketing copy and advice, go to www.crestviewmarketing.com

To your website’s success!

Merrill Clark
Website and Direct Response Copywriter

How one N.H. business owner used email marketing to reduce his quarterly marketing costs by $8,000

Written by Merrill in Online Marketing

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Contacting your prospects and clients using email marketing is arguably the most cost-effective way for any business…and it works!

It doesn’t matter if you’re on a shoestring budget – or you have a million dollar marketing budget – using email marketing blasts is just plain smart.

And what makes it better is you don’t even have to have a website (even though I didn’t know why you wouldn’t have one) to market with email. Of course, if you do have a website, it’s a no-brainer to integrate email marketing and list building into it.

Here’s an actual example of a recent client (ABC Inc):

ABC Inc is a local shoe retailer that primarily advertised in print, and they get a ton of traffic in their stores because of it.

But the printing and mailing were costing them a small fortune.

After meeting with them, I found they’d also been manually collecting names and email addresses at the checkout registers – over 2,000 in all entered in a spreadsheet – but didn’t know if they could do anything useful with them.

In addition to that, because of website problems, they didn’t want to get involved with integrating any type of email program – yet.

So I set up a simple program for them that any business can follow.

In a nutshell, we set up an autoresponder email management account at constant Contact and uploaded their email addresses to the Constant Contact site.

From there, we wrote a series of follow-up emails to be sent automatically at pre-defined intervals, including thank you emails, special promo emails, up-sells, new product info, and holiday specials.

As more people provided their emails, they simply added them to the list once a week, and the rest is taken care of. They were even able to segment the list into groups (dress shoes, boots, sports, etc) so they could send laser-focused impromptu messages to specific buyers.

How cool is that?

The fees incurred with this program including strategy, implementation, and copywriting fees for the emails, and the low monthly fees ($30/mth) for Constant Contact. After one quarter, they saved over $8,000 in print and postage.

What’s next for them? Well…The best part is when their website is ready, it’s going to be a piece of cake to integrate the email marketing into it using a sign-up form, and it will be completely automatic.

I’d like to hear your thoughts…

And if you need offline direct response marketing copy and advice, go to www.crestviewmarketing.com

To your website’s success!

Merrill Clark
Website and Direct Response Copywriter

Get more free website traffic with a blog

Written by Merrill in Online Marketing

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It’s been proven that search engines, especially Google, love good blogs.

Now I’m not talking just any blog, but blogs that contain great content, with relevant keywords sprinkled throughout the headline, the copy, and the post’s title tag.

And they like it when your blog is updated on a regular basis (at least once a week), but not so much when it’s only updated once every 2 months.

It’s because they like fresh content that their searchers are looking for.

The more you blog, the more content pages you create, each with a specific set of keywords, which gives them more of your pages to index, ultimately moving you up in the search engines results.

Just be careful not to stuff your keywords everywhere so much that they sound unnatural. Plus, Google doesn’t like keyword stuffing.

That being said, you still must include keywords – just remember you are writing for people first, not computers.

And keep each blog post to one idea or topic only.

Blog regularly, and before you know it, you’ll have a hundred or more specific blog posts that will get noticed by the Googles of the world, and they will give you traffic.

But also keep in mind, unless your site is already well indexed and established on their radar, good search results don’t happen overnight. These sites can get new posts indexed and give traffic in as little as an hour, but newer sites could take several months to get regularly noticed.

So start blogging away, build up your content and site reputation, and the traffic will come.

I’d like to hear your thoughts…

To get more information about keyword strategy, SEO, the selling benefits of powerful copy, about this post, web/online advice, or about my direct response web copywriting services, e-mail me or call me at 603-686-5140.

And if you need offline direct response marketing copy and advice, go to www.crestviewmarketing.com

To your website’s success!

Merrill Clark
Website and Direct Response Copywriter

Discover why a cluttered website makes people leave

Written by Merrill in Online Marketing

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Regardless of whether your website visitors come from a search engine query, a referral source, or by directly typing it in, they are there for a reason.

And once they are on your site, how much time they spend on it and if they take your desired action depends on how difficult it is for them to take that next step.

There are many web pages (way too many) that are so unorganized and have so many links, buttons, pictures, doo dads, and fancy stuff all over the place – it’s no wonder the visitors get frustrated from the complication and just leave – without doing anything.

And guess what happens then? Yep, you guessed it – they never come back, ever!

Simple and organized is a good thing (KISS)

To minimize the chances of potential customers leaving your site before they do whatever it is you want ‘em to, clean it up.

You’ve heard it before – KISS – keep it simple stupid

Now, not to imply stupidness (if that’s a real word), but a well organized site, with a simple layout, and intuitive navigation will go a long way to help your visitors find what they’re looking for and act on your call-to-action.

Ditch the fancy schmancy bells and whistles that do nothing except to distract and frustrate your visitors.

When there’s too much clutter, nobody can find anything!

So clean up your act today, (of course, I’m talking about your website) and your visitors will thank you by staying longer and becoming customers.

I’d like to hear your thoughts…

And if you need offline direct response marketing copy and advice, go to www.crestviewmarketing.com

To your website’s success!

Merrill Clark
Website and Direct Response Copywriter

Create an online profile that’s compelling and easy to duplicate

Written by Merrill in Online Marketing

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Chances are, if you’re on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn, you’ve been asked to fill out a short profile (sometimes called a bio).

The purpose of these profiles is to tell the reader a little bit about yourself, like your areas of expertise, experience, and your hobbies.

I mean…they aren’t called social networking sites for nothing.

They’re for networking and building relationships with people you might have otherwise never met. Of course, this is a topic that could (actually has) filled a book.

Plus, they’re not the only sites that ask you for a profile, either. There’s:

http://www.google.com/local/add Google Local Business Center
http://www.local.com/
http://listings.yellowpages.com/
http://www.google.com/profiles (here you can create a “personal” Google profile)

And there are a bazillion others!

One common way to get traffic to your website is by getting links to it from other well-known and respected sites such as these. And the way to get them is to include the URL of your site in your online profiles on each of them.

But with so many sites, you could spend some serious time going to each site and typing in your profile. And each one of ‘em has a different way to create your profile, and each one has different maximum lengths on the total characters you can use.

Boy have I got a tip for you!

…that will help you create these important profiles on as many sites as you want in a fraction of the time.

First of all: Spend some time to create a powerful profile that’s about 150 characters long. Most of these sites will accept that length, some may be a little shorter, and some will give you more room, but 150 is a good start.

Once you have that done – when you go to each site you want to sign up for, all you have to do is copy and paste your 150 character profile instead of typing it, and add the other details it asks for. Believe me, it’s a heck of a lot easier to copy and paste than it is to type ‘em again and again on each site.

If it needs to be shorter or a bit longer, just tweak it a little to get the result you want.

This approach will probably save you 10 minutes per site, not to mention your profile will display a consistent message across the Internet.

So what are your thoughts?

I’d like to know.

And if you need offline direct response marketing copy and advice, go to www.crestviewmarketing.com

To your website’s success!

Merrill Clark
Website and Direct Response Copywriter

Using testimonials to increase conversion on your website

Written by Merrill in Online Marketing

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Recently I shot an e-mail to a client asking for some specific information I needed for his website, including some customer testimonials.

Here’s the response I got:

“I don’t have any written testimonials. Since you’re writing my website, doesn’t using testimonials defeat the purpose of the site?”

And here’s my answer:

“Testimonials are considered a “proof” element in sales copy. Consider it like a verbal referral – where the “referrer” is the proof to the person they are referring to. Also, when they’re in writing, they’re even more powerful. (Especially when you get permission to use them in your sales copy).

You see, people like to see proof that others have had a great experience and results with whatever product or service they’re reading about. Often, reading a powerful testimonial will be their deciding factor to do business with you or not.

So – go get those customer testimonials in writing – the more the merrier!

So what are your thoughts?

I’d like to know.

To get more information about keyword strategy, SEO, the selling benefits of powerful copy, about this post, web/online advice, or about my direct response web copywriting services, e-mail me or call me at 603-686-5140.

And if you need offline direct response marketing copy and advice, go to www.crestviewmarketing.com

To your website’s success!

Merrill Clark
Website and Direct Response Copywriter

Web and SEO copywriting with rock-solid New Hampshire values

Category Archives: Online Marketing