Why Your Online Reputation Matters

It doesn't matter what type of business you have these days - it can be online or offline, large or small. You must manage your online reputation. Here's why your online reputation matters.

Most People Will "Google You" before Buying

You know you do it, so of course, most others do it too. If you want information on a business or product, you search on Google to see if you can find it. You don't care if it's a local business or not - you go to Google, type in the name, and then you read the reviews and other information about that business.

People Buy from Those They Trust

Finding good information during the searching process helps build a feeling of trust in your customer. If instead, they find bad information, poor ratings, or other things about you or your business that is negative, they may choose a competitor - even if they can't find information on that competitor.

Good Reputation Gives a Competitive Advantage

The aim is to build such a good reputation that when someone searches for your name, a search term, or your product or industry, you appear in the searches in a healthy way without controversy. In this way, you'll have an advantage over your competitors who either don't exist online or have a bad reputation online.

Nothing Is a Secret Anymore

One thing you have to accept about our new technological world is that nothing is secret anymore. You can't be anonymous online if you expect to make an impact on your business. Instead, you need to be yourself taking control of your reputation by making an appearance on discussion boards, blogs, podcasts, YouTube videos, and more. Even if you have one negative event, you can ensure that the positive outweighs the negative if you make a concerted effort.

Unscrupulous Competitors May Attempt to Trash You

By keeping an eye on and working to improve your online reputation, when and if a competitor tries to trash you, you'll be ready. Believe it or not, some very misinformed and bad people will actively seek to trash you online. How you respond makes all the difference.

Every Action You Take for Better or Worse Affects It

One thing you have to know about being online and running an online business is that everything you do will be analyzed and scrutinized by everyone. It's imperative that before you post that picture of you hanging off the ceiling at that convention that you consider how it will impact your future. Before you spout off to a rude customer on social media, consider how you can turn it around in a way that is positive because even if you're ultimately right, how you respond matters.

Your online reputation builds brand awareness. Branding is important for small businesses as well as large companies. If you have a limited budget, smart branding is perhaps the most inexpensive business tool you can create. To learn more about how to make your business stand out, download my free checklist, Branding For Small Businesses at https://jonallo.com/branding

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Jon_Allo/1079948

3 Steps to a Full-Time Income Online

Everyone wants to make money online. But few know how to do it effectively. Let's talk about the best ways to create income online.

The first step is to pick a highly profitable niche topic. The more competitive, the better your chances of making money. I know this is the opposite of what experts will tell you. But the fact is, you need people to buy your products to make affiliate commissions with your affiliate marketing business.

Once you have the right market in mind, you'll need to create a sales funnel around that target audience. You can use BuilderAll to do just that. But use whatever sales funnel creator you find most effective.

The third thing you'll need to do is create an opt-in page. This is a page where you will collect people's email addresses. Then you can follow-up with these people over time.

I suggest you write 30 emails to follow-up with them and educate them on why they should purchase your product or affiliate offer.

Now that you have that in place, you'll want to find highly targeted website traffic. The best traffic is search engine-based. Meaning that people are literally searching for the information in Bing or Google.

To get that type of traffic you'll need to create content. This content can either be in video format or written format. I like to do both.

For articles, make sure they are 400 words or more. For videos, make sure they are 5 minutes or more.

Once you have the sales funnel created, the follow-up series of emails in place, and the traffic going to your opt-in page, you'll start to see some conversions. I typically see about 1-5 percent sales conversion.

So out of 100 clicks or website visitors, you should expect 1 to 5 sales for your information product or affiliate offer.

If you can get those results with an average customer value of $100 or more, you will succeed with digital marketing online. It's just a matter of scaling up your efforts and keeping track of your results.

As you can see, it's not that complicated to earn a full-time income online using information marketing or affiliate marketing. The trick is to have everything in place to do the "selling and telling" for you. So you don't have to literally explain your product or service to every single person who visits your website.

Want to start your dream business for $1 buck?

If so, watch my free video here and I'll show you the best online business you can start this year. I'll also give you all my marketing materials and sales funnels for you to jumpstart your business fast and finally see profitable results online.:-)

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/AJ_Simon/213151

8 Step Guide to Creating a Solid Content Marketing Plan

Your content marketing plan should ensure that every piece of content you put out accomplishes a goal. You want to improve customer experiences by educating and informing them. You also want to use content to establish trust and build credibility.

Well-planned content can do all of that and more if you create a solid content marketing plan first. Here are the eight steps to follow.

Step One: Audit Your Current Content

It's important to study the content you have now and what effect it is having on your bottom line. In this case, your bottom line consists of conversions such as list sign-ups, as well as sales, or any call to action that you included.

Step Two: Research Your Audience

Even if you've already done some research, you need to keep doing research on your audience. The audience might be the same demographics today as yesterday but due to technology and education, sometimes their views change.

Step Three: Understand Your Purpose

In this case, you want to understand your overall purpose, and then how each piece of content that you create fulfills that purpose. Start with some of the content you already have. What was your thought process as you created it and how did it fit in with your goals?

Step Four: Develop an Editorial Calendar

A complete editorial calendar includes product development, blog content, sales pages, social media content, and more. Include every last bit of content you will need for every single product or service you want to promote on every single site that you want to place it. You can create a master editorial calendar and then separate it up into different categories to make it less overwhelming.

Step Five: Develop the Content

Get to work developing the products and content. Content that is well developed will educate, inform, engage, and inspire action. Ensure that you can match every bit of content that you create, in any form, to a reason for existing. Don't only create text content. You also want to create content in other formats such as pictorial, voice, and video. The more forms of content you can create, the better for your audience.

Step Six: Promote Your Content

Now you need to promote every last piece of content that you put out there. Promote via social media and other avenues, to ensure that everything gets the attention you want it to. The attention that each piece of content gets will mean more visitors, more newsletter sign-ups, and more sales.

Step Seven: Measure the Results

It's important to always measure the results of everything you do. The reason is that you can change things on the fly. That's what's so great about online content marketing - the ability to improve as you go. If something isn't working, don't assume it's the product or the content. Change small things about layout and word usage, and test, test, test.

Step Eight: Refine and Perfect

As you find things that work for you and your audience, your job will become easier and easier. You'll figure out what works for your audience and you'll be able to get better at content creation and promotion as you go.

When you write and manage your content correctly, it will make your life easier and your business grow. To discover how the most successful online entrepreneurs plan, create, and deliver great content, download my free checklist, The 5 Step Content Strategy, at https://jonallo.com/contentplan

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Jon_Allo/1079948

The Most Useful Email Marketing Advice Nobody Talks About?

Bit of back story:

Besides helping client businesses to double their sales, I've also worked as a personal trainer.

And, unless you've been living under a rock for the past ten years...

You've probably noticed the influx of pointless supplements health companies that are trying to convince you to buy their stuff.

Nonsense, I say!

Here's my point:

People are pouring millions (if not billions) of dollars into the supplement market.

However, the #1 best supplement people should focus on is the one supplement that almost nobody talks about.

What is this mythical supplement, you ask?

It's simple:

A kick in the proverbial arse.

Let's be honest. Most people know what it takes to lose weight:

Consume fewer calories, and...

Exercise a more

That really is the "secret formula" to success.

You see the same exact problem in business.

Specifically, when it comes to writing great emails to sell your product or service.

Everybody and every marketer are talking about when you should use "fear" in your emails... or you should definitely add some "scarcity" in email #4 in your 5-day email funnel sequence... or some other nonsense like that.

Here's the truth.

Instead of focusing on random tactics like the ones I just described, here's what they *SHOULD* focus on:

• Knowing their market better than they know themselves.
• Understand their hopes, fears, and dreams.
• And finally, communicate with them daily.

Use Instagram, Facebook, or whatever platform you prefer the most.

Personally, I'm all about using simple emails.

But, no matter what you decide to do here's what you should take to heart:

"Focus less on short-lived tactics and more on timeless principles."

Focus on knowing your market so well that you could write a page in their diary and make them say: "That is some!"

Here's a simple way to do this.

I call it the "Client Mind Reading Blueprint."

** THE CLIENT MIND READING BLUEPRINT **

Create a Google Doc (or a note on your phone) and divide it into three segments:

1. Dreams & goals
2. Challenges & barriers
3. Fears & uncertainties

Every time you talk to one of your clients, listen to things they say that might fit into one of these three segments.

The second you hear or see one of your clients give you one of these golden nuggets, write it verbatim into your Google doc.

After a few weeks, you'll have an amazing resource to use when writing content, emails, sales letters, etc.

If you want to learn how to double your sales just by using simple (and even ugly) emails, you can get more material on my free daily email newsletter.

Including my free guide on the 7 fatal marketing mistakes that almost all businesses make... and how to fix them.

Get access to everything and more right here:

https://bemorebecomegreat.com/free-guide/

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Kristian_Thaulow/2777656

The Art of Using Auto-Responders in Your Online Business

Auto-responders are a tool built into most message management systems. Whether you are using Mail Chimp, AWeber, Constant Contact, IContact, or almost any other quality messaging service, an auto-responder will be built into the product suite.

What they allow you to do is send out a series of messages to your e-mail subscriber customer at intervals without manually having to do any work beyond the original setup of your e-mail campaign series.

For example, when they first subscribe to you, it is customary to send them a welcome message that tells them a little more about you or your organization and possibly provides them with a gift they hopefully will value. Gifts can be created in many forms and it is entirely up to you as to what you decide to give them and by the way, it often transpires that the person is willing to sign up to you because you have advertised the gift beforehand, they have seen it and they want it - so give good thought to what you give out as it may be what gets them to sign up in the first place. A few guiding principles for your gift:

• To keep your costs down or at nil, make it something that can be electronically transferable to the person signing up.


• The gift most often should be educational or inspirational to them in some way - so they do remember it over time and treasure that you were willing to part with it


• It should be perceived as being a gift of high value to them - they will treasure it more and you don't want them to feel insulted by it - I recommend you think hard and give them something you would value if you were in their shoes.


• It should be something that stands out - is unique - you don't want to give them something that they can get anywhere on the Internet. Make them feel special.


• The gift should have relevance to your business. After all, it is your type of business they have expressed an interest in when they signed up in the first place.

So here are some gift ideas that I think may be useful to someone just signing up for your business.

• A checklist of good ideas that they can use to make money in some fashion if they apply themselves.


• A checklist of something relevant to your business. Are you in Travel? How about a checklist of things to pack when you go on a trip - etc.


• Are you an online trainer? Give them a coupon for a free course.


• Have you written and published anything? Give them a copy of it or let them download a free copy of it electronically.


• Give them an application or some software that could be useful to them.


• Give them a template or templates of something (Could be done in Excel, or PowerPoint, etc.)


• A free sample of something


• A plugin of some sort, custom ringtones, screensaver, free music access, etc. - you get my drift.

So this gets us past the first thing you do with your auto-responder. You can automate all of this so they can signup, get their gift and you don't need to manually do any additional work at all except for maybe view your signup statistics periodically.

Once they have signed up, start sending them periodical useful information such as a newsletter. Most marketers will get something out to their subscriber base about once a week or so. The newsletter really shouldn't be trying to sell them anything, just convey some more knowledge or insights to them to help them during their day. You want to send them to content that they will want to see and that they will be looking forward to your next installment with a desire to open the next message from you when it arrives.

Pat Flynn, a well respected and successful online marketer says he only sends them a promotional message about every one in seven messages. A strategy like this is a good thing to keep in mind. As you set up your auto-responder campaign, it's a good idea to be thinking of setting up a series of 30 or more messages in a periodic sequence, carefully interspersing your promotional messages so that they don't feel inundated with pressures to purchase anything. You want them to believe you are in a relationship with them - that you are not just a salesman.

And when they get to the end of your auto-responder series, hopefully, they have purchased something by then. But in any case, keep the relationship going - you can have multiple campaigns built into your messaging platforms over time. The second series of e-mails can start after the first one concludes. These cost you nothing but a bit of time to set up - and they are well worth it as you never know when your prospect will choose to buy or who he or she will tell about you if they like you - which helps you grow.

So use auto-responders in your business and give them careful thought when setting up. You may find that over time, they become the heart and soul of the marketing side of your business venture. Good luck with your marketing activities.

About Dan Grijzenhout: Dan has lived a successful entrepreneurial career for over 30 years. He has been a consultant, entrepreneur, systems architect and developer, investor, business owner and is now an author, online course creator, and teacher, sharing his years of experience and knowledge with others. Search for the name - Dan Grijzenhout - on Amazon to see his available books and e-books.

You can find Dan's available online courses at https://www.udemy.com/user/dan-grijzenhout/

And Dan's articles and blog posts at [http://howto-guru.com/Home.php/]

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Dan_Grijzenhout/2147833

The Importance of Digital Marketing Nowadays

Over the years, many big businesses lost a lot of market share because of not realizing the importance of digital marketing. As a matter of fact, some businesses faced failure for the same reason. Some of them took a u-turn to get back in business. Now, if this can happen to big businesses, imagine what it can do to an individual. In other words, online marketing is of paramount importance these days. In this article, you are going to find out about the importance of online marketing nowadays. Read on to find out more.

People buy online these days

Today, the internet is being used across the globe more than before. The advantages of smartphones and other mobile devices have made it a lot easier for us to access the internet. According to statistics, around 60% of buyers use search engines and social media websites to check out and purchase their desired products.

If you don't market your business online, it will be a lot harder for you to drive sales or promote your brand. Since the goal of every business is to give a boost to its revenue, having an online presence is quite important.

Competitor campaigns

Since almost every business is investing in web-based marketing, you may already be losing a significant marketing share to your competitors. If you set aside some budget for internet marketing, you can easily compete with your business competitors.

Similarly, if your competitors have no presence on the internet, you can grab this golden opportunity to grab their market share. This is how you can give a boost to your business.

Online marketing strategies are cost-effective

If you invest in digital marketing, you can achieve incredible success. As a matter of fact, if you run an effective campaign, it will give you a great return on your initial investment. In fact, if you run an effective campaign based on a solid plan, you can get a great return on your money.

Unlike traditional marketing, these campaigns may cost a fraction of the budget that you have allocated to promote your business. Therefore, there is no reason to avoid running these campaigns.

Useful data and analytics

If you market your business online, you can get a deeper insight into useful analytics. With this data, you can develop effective marketing strategies. On the other hand, installing billboards, newspaper ads or radio ads cannot provide these advantages.

Digital marketing allows you to get access to facts and figures about your advertisement campaigns. For example, you can find out who has seen your ads. Similarly, you can find out about their engagement level. So, you can easily customize your campaigns in the future.

Long story short, this was a brief description of the importance of digital marketing. If you have never run this type of campaign for your business, you are losing a significant market share. Therefore, we suggest that you take some courses for digital marketing training.

If you know why digital marketing is important nowadays, we suggest that you take a digital marketing course in Gurgaon at 99 Digital Academy. It's a reliable digital marketing training institute in India.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Shalini_M/2609777

How to Increase User Interaction on Your Website

Your organization's site is the face of your business. This reality is very critical for upgrading the visibility of your business to your expected clients and potential customers. Expanding your client commitment diminishes your bounce rate, builds the traffic creating more leads in hand, at last, more transformations and results in an expansion in the development of your business. Here, we give you a few essential and successful approaches to build the client connection on your site from a website specialist's point of view.

The Ultimate Lead Machine

Ease of Navigation

When you are outlining your site, try to make it effortlessly accessible and safe for your site clients. Outline your route bar such that it is steady on every single site page of your site. Confounding and convoluted plans which have a tendency to befuddle a guest ought to dependably be kept away from at any cost, as guests are normally fretful and won't invest enough energy to delve into the substance on your site. Truth be told, uncluttered and efficient route configuration builds the potential for boosting the number of guests and furthermore in the meantime expands the stylish estimation of the webpage's website composition.

Public Opinion About your brand on the website

Giving Testimonials and in addition, mentioning your past work says a great deal in regards to your business. Individuals' feelings and encounters about your organization fill in as a tribute to approving your services and products. This is a magnificent element and ought to be given to your site to procure trust and positive social approval about the overall population assessment of your services.
Since individuals who invest energy online are dependably vigilant for realizing what others need to say in regards to the services or products they would need to utilize, along these lines outline your site in such a path thus, to the point that you incorporate this component and which will profit you over the long haul by prompting higher changes. For instance, a Website Designing Company in Delhi is probably going to have online clients who are scanning for popular sentiment about Delhi-based organizations giving website designing services.

we take a proactive approach in understanding your business and your target market within your industry, besides ensuring that every design element will work towards achieving your long-term business goals and objectives. Even if you are looking for internet marketing or rebranding your business, we have the solution. Our development company can assure you that you will be a satisfied and a repeat-business client after working with us. We are also confident that you will consider us as one of the best website designing service providers if you talk about b2b portal development especially within the country and globally as well.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Priya_Gupta/2569825

5 Proven Ways to Make Money Online

There are endless ways you can use to make money online. Some will give you great returns while others will leave you working for pennies. If you are looking to make money online, here are the top 5 proven ways that you can consider.

Webinar Training

One of the ways you can make a significant amount of money online is through webinar training. A webinar is an online event held in real-time. The people present are able to interact with each other and with the presenters by sending and receiving messages in real-time.

If you are an expert in a certain field, you can use webinars to train people who are interested in what you offer. To be successful in webinar training, it is important that you have a recognized online presence in your niche or area of expertise.

Start an Online Course

Another way to make money online is by starting your own online course. Courses present a good source of passive income. When you create a course, you can sell it for many years to come with little to no updates depending on the topic.

It is easy to start a course and you can price it the way you want. According to Teachable.com, their instructors make upwards of $5,200 per month, and most start making money immediately after launching their courses.

People are wired to seek education and skills, therefore, if you have a good course that really delivers value, it becomes easy to build a seven-figure business with it.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is the act of selling products owned by others for a commission. You can use affiliate networks such as ClickBank and others or look for other online businesses and companies that have their own affiliate offers.

You can easily make money with affiliate marketing if you have a blog with a good following. You can sell products or services that would interest your blog followers and make passive income without much effort.

Drop-Shipping

With drop-shipping, you sell products through your site to people who are interested without having to deal with inventory or delivery of the same. It is also a great way to make money online without a lot of investment upfront.

Become a Freelancer

Finally, you can become a freelancer and engage in lucrative ventures such as content marketing, digital marketing, and advertising, web analytics, web design, graphic design, and others. All of these are freelancing careers that are scalable and able to bring in a decent amount of income. Many people have built million dollar online business offering such services.

Other good ways to make money online include starting a blog, becoming an online tutor, offering virtual assistant services, and working with an online business like Uber, Lyft, and Amazon to offer driver and delivery services.

If you are looking to make money online, the time to start is now. If you are lucky, you might make money immediately; but for most ventures, you will need time to gain traction and start making a decent income.

Mathenge Kabui Is an expert author on matters to do with making money online. You can contact him to give you quality content for your website by following the link below: https://www.kenyawriters.com/customorders/

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Mathenge_Kabui/557294

Hello and welcome to this article concerning how to leverage your LinkedIn presence, such as who to connect with and what groups to become a part of. This article may be read in conjunction with another offering entitled "Top 5 Tips to a Memorable Profile on LinkedIn" which discusses how to build a solid profile. Today, we will look at. Tip #1 - the 3 i's of appropriately connecting on LinkedIn Once your profile is well under way, it is time to start building up your network. Here are the 3 i's of connecting well on LinkedIn: 1. Import: LinkedIn has a functionality whereby you allow the system to access your address book - on Outlook or on Google Mail for instance - and LinkedIn will tell you who among your contacts are on LinkedIn. This is a neat and easy way to quickly create a network based on folks you already know. 2. Invite: when you identify someone whom you would like to connect to, send them an invitation to connect by pressing the blue 'Connect' button. Do this ONLY if you already know the person - for instance, you met them recently at a networking event. You see, if you contact someone in this fashion without them having any prior knowledge of who you are, you risk for the individual to respond "I don't know [your name]": your account will be restricted if you get five so-called IDKs ('I don't know's). If you don't know the person, employ instead the introduction route (see point 3 below) or use the InMail functionality to send them a message explaining who you are and why you would like to connect. If they respond positively, then it will make sense to send them an invitation at a later stage. When you press 'Connect', LinkedIn proposes to you a prefabricated message which I heartily recommend you amend. Instead, write a personalised message as this will increase your chances of the individual accepting your invitation: remind them of when you two met and indicate why you would like to connect. Be mindful that LinkedIn only allows a maximum of 3,000 invitations: this may seem a lot but let me suggest that you still be mindful of how many you send out lest you end up running out. 3. Introduce: when you identify someone you would like to add to your network on LinkedIn to but don't already know, the most effective way to connect is to ask one of your existing LinkedIn contacts to introduce you to them. This is likelier to be a successful route than contacting them out of the blue using the InMail functionality. Introductions work like recommendations and endorsements: they lend you credibility with the person you'd like to connect to. If the introduction is successful, you can then press 'Connect' in a second stage. Tip #2 - wisely accept invitations Just as there is a protocol around sending invitations, there is an etiquette for accepting invitations. I am often asked: "Should I accept invitations from folks I don't know?" Here are a few suggestions to help you decide whether to accept an invitation you are unsure about: Did the person send you a personalised message helping you to place them? If so, have a think about the potential benefits of connecting with that person. What kind of profile does this person have? Do they feature a photo for instance? Is their public profile comprehensively populated? Make sure to connect to real people rather than spammers luring you with a ghost profile. What affinities do you two have in common, such as groups, interests, workplaces, skills? How many connections do they have and what kind are those? Consider whether you might want to be introduced to some of this person's contacts in due course. Tip #3 - calibrate your time commitment Let me say first off that LinkedIn is the most static of the top three social media sites. While Facebook and Twitter encourage daily activity, there is no such need with LinkedIn. How active you will choose to be depends on whether you wish to just maintain a presence or to actively engage others - for instance, when you are looking for a new position or interested in sourcing information. At the very least, use the 'Share' functionality to keep your network abreast of any meaningful update - such as a new role, a fresh qualification and a recent accomplishment. You can also use this functionality to share material, such as articles or videos you found interesting. Note that you do not need to update your network when you revise your profile: LinkedIn will do that automatically. Here are my three recommendations to ensure you optimise your time on LinkedIn: At the onset, as part of your original effort to set up your profile on LinkedIn, start building your network in parallel by mirroring on the site your offline set of connections, such as colleagues, customers, suppliers and even friends and family. You can be fairly sure these people will accept you into their network straight away. And remember that you are connecting not only to these individuals, but their networks as well. While a direct connection may not be able to help you directly, one or more of their contacts might. Secondly, keep your involvement with LinkedIn light and easy. When you meet someone new, have a quick peek at their LinkedIn profile and consider sending them an invitation. Along similar lines, when something new happens that is related to your professional life - a change in your professional circumstances or reading an interesting article, quickly visit the site and either revise the relevant section of your LinkedIn profile or share an update! Finally, increase your level of activity when you need to, for example when you are seeking a new role, ask your contacts for the recruiters they know and can introduce you to. Similarly, ask your groups for tips on how to go about doing something you yourself are unfamiliar with. Use LinkedIn to find information about a company you are interviewing with. Leverage being part of group by learning more about other group members than you would by just seeing their public profile, in particular their full name. This is usually restricted to first level contacts. You can also leverage being part of a group as LinkedIn facilitates connections between group members saving you the trouble of being introduced. Tip #4 - carefully select groups to join Another frequent question is "What groups should I join?" My rejoinder is always: "What do you want to join groups for anyway?" If it is about keeping in touch with school and university mates as well as ex-colleagues, then join school and university alumni groups. Most companies also have networks, some differentiating between ex- and current employees. If it is about keeping abreast of developments in those fields which you work on or are simply interested in, enter key words in LinkedIn's search engine and find groups that match. For example, I searched for 'Credit' and 'French expatriates in London'. There are over 1.7 million groups on LinkedIn, some of which with over a million members so there is plenty to choose from. LinkedIn limits you to a maximum of 50 groups. Some groups are open to anyone while others are closed - which will be denoted by a small lock logo next to the group's name. When you apply to join a private group, the group manager will vet your application so make sure your profile clearly showcases how your application is relevant lest you be rejected from joining. Get a feel for any group you want to join so you determine how useful it will be for you to join: scroll down the right sidebar to access group demographics. Consider how you will engage with the groups you join. Are you happy just looking at the weekly digest of discussions? Might you sparingly comment, initiate a poll or participate to a discussion? Or do you plan on actively posting material to a particular group? I recommend that you pay attention to your settings for each group and notably whether to receive a daily or weekly digest. Tip #5 - know who looked at your profile Unless visitors have set their public profiles to anonymous, you can click on the "Who's viewed your profile?" link and see a list of them. The free account limits how many you can see while paid accounts give you the whole list. The fact that someone looked at your profile is a good reason to maybe reach out. Even when you get visitors described as "Procurement Professional from the Pharmaceutical Industry" you can still click on the link: LinkedIn will give you a list which will include your actual visitor. I find it very educational to know who may be interested in my profile. Again, while there may be nothing to it at the current time, knowing who looked you up might come in handy at a later stage. The practice of looking at the profiles of people who visited yours is known as "looking back" and it is an important source of new potential connections. Bear in mind therefore that folks whose profiles you visit may also look back at your profile and seek to connect with you. There you have it: five straightforward tips to make the most of LinkedIn by appropriately inviting folks to connect, shrewdly accepting the right invitations, calibrating how much time to spend on the site, joining the groups that make sense for you and "looking back" at your visitors. Author of the "5 Gear Shifts to Accelerate your Career!" report, Alexandra helps ambitious and high-performing professionals tackle their frustration at work so that they resolve a complex problem, find a way out of a difficult situation or achieve a personally-meaningful objective. As a Career Accelerator, Alexandra works with gifted individuals to obtain the promotion they deserve, orchestrate an in-house move to a different group, succeed fast in a new role as well as get clear about their next job and how to find it. Alexandra's clients get to do more interesting work which they enjoy, avoid becoming stuck in one job when in fact they want variety, and learn to lead and work through others if they wish to. That way, they make a greater difference to their firm and, of course, grow their income! Alexandra will share with you stories and insights from her gratifying but eventful 23-year career in global finance, from Paris to the City of London via New York's Wall Street which you can use to accelerate your career faster than on your own! Alexandra is the author of the career management e-book "5 Gear Shifts to Accelerate your Career!" Get your copy by going to Alexandra's website at http://coachingforinspiration.com. Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Alexandra_Sleator/977200 Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7904884

Do you have an account on LinkedIn? If so, ask yourself: "Is it really working for me?" The ultimate online professional resource, LinkedIn is the place for you to establish your professional self and share what makes you brilliant. Whether you are job-hunting, networking, or establishing yourself as an industry and thought-leader, your LinkedIn account is something that should not be neglected. Whether you're just getting started or have been there for a while, here are four actions you can take right now to start working on your LinkedIn account to make sure it's working for you.

Your profile: Make sure that your LinkedIn profile is rich with content and information about you. This is no longer an option, it's a necessity. Would you hand an incomplete resume to a prospective employer or client? It's the same thing. This is your first impression, that crucial moment when you can turn an interested person into a fan, potentially making a sale, landing a job, or, at the least, making a great impression that will serve you well down the road. Don't waste this opportunity.

• The Summary is a great place for your cocktail story (aka elevator speech). Write it out, share what you are doing now and why it is special.
• Make sure everything is up-to-date and your experience not only listed but shares why it makes you valuable for future ventures.
• List every social media account, blog, or website where you are active and that you would like to share with your connections. This increases your visibility across the board.
• Don't forget your interests - use them to tell a well-rounded story of yourself. Do you climb mountains, organize charity events, volunteer? This is a place to share those extras that can make you stand out from the crowd.

Take some time to look at your LinkedIn profile and kick your profile up a notch. Making yourself stronger in LinkedIn makes your value more apparent, your recommendations more meaningful, and your presence active. Your connections will notice.

Nurturing Your Connections.

For the second step of improving your LinkedIn experience, we're going to look at your connections. Your profile is complete, but if that's all you have, we need to now really use LinkedIn for its purpose - "linking" or connecting professionals. Here are some statistics about LinkedIn you might find interesting:

• People with more than twenty connections are thirty-four times more likely to be approached with a job opportunity than people with less than five.
• All 500 of the Fortune 500 are represented in LinkedIn. In fact, 499 of them are represented by director-level and above employees.

Here are few tips for expanding your circle of connections and nurturing those networking relationships you are building.

1. Challenge yourself to reach out beyond close personal and work friends. Make a list of the top 20 people you would like to connect with and reach out to the - leaders, speakers, former colleagues, someone you always wanted to work with, industry rock stars. If LinkedIn protocol prevents you from reaching out directly, make it a goal to connect with someone who can "introduce" you via LinkedIn.

2. SUPERUSER TIP: When inviting a new connection, make use of that tiny little link in the invitation box ("add a personal message") to add a personal note - it's always appreciated and can often help you attain a connection that may not have happened.

3. Each month, add 20 more people to your list to connect to. Look at who your current connections are linked to and see if there is anyone from your list there - or people you may want to add to your list. As your connections expand, so will your horizons and you will find there are a wealth of valuable people within your reach.

Good Karma
For this step, we're delving into the subject of using Recommendations. These take the place of the "references" section of your old hard-copy resume. But they are even better. Highly visible, no limit, and easy to access, your LinkedIn recommendations can make a huge difference when you have a potential new employer, client, joint venture partner, etc attempting to learn more about you. Here are a few tips for building up your Recommendations:

1. This may seem backward, but start out by writing recommendations for other people first. Whether it's your MBA professor, a former client or business associate, colleagues, or service providers, if they did a good job, let them know. Make a goal to write at least 2 a month, if possible. It's a win-win, they will be grateful for the recommendation, you will raise your visibility within the LinkedIn community.

2. Ask for recommendations: Keep this to a minimum and DON'T fall into the trap of trading recommendations. It's obvious and a turnoff for those reading about you. However, if you have had positive business relationships with people you are connected with on LinkedIn, kindly ask them if they would mind writing their comments down in the LinkedIn recommendations format.

3. Any time you receive an email, voicemail, or feedback survey with compliments about you personally, also reach out to those people - ask them if they have LinkedIn accounts, and politely ask if they wouldn't mind writing those words down.

4. Another bonus: Writing and receiving recommendations shows that you are an active and forward-moving user in LinkedIn.

So head out there and start writing up some recommendations. You'll be surprised at how soon you will start seeing some return your way.

For the final step of learning to leverage your LinkedIn, I am going to share with you a very simple secret for increasing your visibility and making new connections. It's simply a call to you to "Be Active."

The more active you are within LinkedIn, the more benefit you receive. LinkedIn update emails sent to all your connections will republish to them what you are up to. The LinkedIn home page will also republish your updates to all your connections when they log on. There's no moss growing on you - other users will see a person who is in the game and keeping it fresh by participating in life and business.

Here are some ways to stay active for a healthy LinkedIn profile:

1. Updates: The easiest - and best - way to be active on LinkedIn is to let people know what you are doing by using the "update" function. You can access this either from your LinkedIn home page or from your Profile page (see the screen grabs). Did you attend a conference, speak at an event, receive an award, climb a mountain? Share your accomplishments and the activity in your personal and business life that will show off your best self.

2. Join Groups: Use the groups tab at the top of the LinkedIn page to search for and join groups with focuses that you are interested in. After you do this, join in the conversation. Ask and answer questions. Share your knowledge. Again - stay active.

3. Speaking of Q&A - check out the "Answers" section of LinkedIn. A place to ask and answer questions - here is your chance to chime in as an expert, share your knowledge and show your value.

Dawn Mena is a professional writer who helps entrepreneurs and business owners create captivating copy that shares the heart and the value of their business. She shares her knowledge gained from 20 years as a writer and editor at top media organizations like the Los Angeles Times and Star Lee Magazine for female entrepreneurs through her "Captivating Copy" ezine at http://eepurl.com/_iHg. Claim your free copy of "10 Easy Articles to Captivate Your Audience and Grow Your Business" at http://www.getcaptivatingcopy.com now.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Dawn_R_Mena/1096813

Video Marketing - How to Promote Your Business With Video

With the popularity of videos and how they have been used to market many different kinds of products, including mobile phones and digital cameras, it is safe to say that video marketing is an important part of any business plan.

The use of video on the Internet has grown tremendously in the past few years, and with the use of sites such as YouTube, video has become an essential aspect of the marketing process for businesses. But just how do you begin to incorporate video into your business marketing plan?

Before you turn to YouTube for help, take a look at the following tips:

1.) Begin by deciding what you want your video to accomplish. The easiest way to determine this is to do a research search on YouTube. Find out what the most popular videos in your niche are. The best videos tend to fall into one of two categories: educational or entertainment.

2.) Choose the type of video you want to make. There are many different types, and you can choose the type that most closely matches your business or product. These can include how-to videos, reviews, testimonials, or what-to-say videos.

3.) Decide where you would like to set up your video. Would you like to use your own, external microphone? Do you want to outsource this task or will you do it yourself? There are also many different resolutions and frame runs to consider.
4.) Choose your topic. There are many different possibilities here, from health issues to celebrity gossip, to current events. You will definitely want to be careful when writing your topic, as videos that are too topical may lose their interest factor with time.

5.) Once you have chosen your topic, have you decided upon your topic Writer? Are you going to write a description of what your video is about, or will you want to create a custom summary? If you are going to create a custom summary, you need to make sure that it is compelling, and that it contains all the information that your viewers need and want to hear. And, of course, it must be written by you. There are also many different resolutions and frame runs to consider.

6.) Now that you have chosen your topic, have you decided upon your format? Are you going to use standard YouTube formatting, or do you want to create your own? If you plan on creating your own, take a look at many different types of videos on YouTube. You may find that you can accomplish what you want to accomplish more easily with one type of format, than with another. For example, short promotional videos tend to utilize shorter 30-second format videos, whereas, long instructional or tutorial videos utilize longer 60-second format videos.

7.) Once you have decided upon the video format, have you decided upon your Title? Have you decided upon your description? Are you going to use standard YouTube formatting for your Title, or do you want to create your own? If you want to create your own description, you need to make sure that it is compelling and that it contains all the information that your viewer will need and want to hear.

8.) Once you have decided upon your format, Title and description, have you decided upon your Message? What does your video message consist of? What is the point of your video? Have you decided upon the length? Are you planning on including Music? Have you chosen a mood?

With all these decisions made, you will want to go to the Create Video section of your YouTube account and now you can begin the editing process. Have you chosen Music? You will want to make sure that each music selection you use is appropriate. Do you wish to use Background sounds? Have you chosen a Mood? Have you chosen a Feel? How about an Expression? How about a Clarity? Have you chosen a Spacing? Have you already added any transitions? Have you decided upon the Focus? Have you already added any Effects? Have you already inserted any narration? Have you chosen an Audio format? Do you wish to add narration? Have you chosen your Video length?

9.) When you are finished with the Video, have you added any annotations? Have you added any credits? Have you added any Notes?

10.) Have you added any communication after you have uploaded your Video? If you have added any communication, have you chosen your language? Have you added any Language Settings? Have you chosen your Status?

Please check out our website for more articles and our 5 money-making programs and our free offer to build you a money-making website for free https://www.profitww.com

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Paul_Rice/2896143

Which Method Is More Effective: Video Marketing or Email Marketing?

First, let us discuss what video and email marketing methods are exactly. Online Video Marketing is a technique in which you produce a video illustrating your business. These videos usually show the services and products your business has to offer. This allows customers to easily understand your business's message through video production. On the other hand, we have the approach of online email marketing. Email marketing is the process of promoting your business through emailing your customers new offers, services, and products. Though this technique can be very profitable, you need to already have your customer's email address to be able to send marketing material to them. Both are great ways to reach out to your customers and encourage them to choose your services over competitors.

Marketing through videos has been around for an exceptionally long time. But with the boom of social media and other online sites, this technique has been taken to a whole other level. This popularity is well deserved as it is extremely easy for customers to digest. With just a click or scroll, customers can view vital information about what your business has to offer them. There are also many online video platforms out there on which you can market your video production. I know I have mentioned an awful lot of pros so far, but we are not seeing many cons. Well, it is hard to find any cons for video marketing as it has become the most convenient way to reach customers. Online video marketing is one of the best ways to advertise your business promotions online.

So, we discussed the online marketing technique of video-sharing but what about email marketing? It is also a great way to communicate with your customers. This method allows you to contact your customers directly with new offers, services, and products. It also lets you easily send return customers deals to help them to keep your business in mind. But you will need access to the customer's email address to be able to send them marketing emails. You have to be able to encourage customers to give you their emails, they won't just hand them over. It can be difficult to reach new customers that have not already provided you an email to which to send marketing information. This makes email marketing a great secondary marketing technique rather than the main tool. So, in short, email marketing is great for customers you already have and not so great for getting new customers.

Though these are both great ways to get information to your customers, one is much more effective than the other for marketing. Online video marketing is the way to go when it comes to getting what you have to offer in front of new customers. Though video marketing is the best way to reach new customers that do not mean you shouldn't use email marketing once you've connected. Email marketing is a great tool to use in unison with video marketing. Let video marketing bring customers to you and email marketing keeps them coming back for more.

You can watch some of my famous explainer videos created recently. Armaan Productions is a leading video production company in Canada that provides all kinds of script-to-screen solutions for your video production plans.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Kumar_Lalit/1318248

6 Tips to Get More Views on Your YouTube Videos

Do you have a YouTube channel? If so, you may be looking for ways to get tons of views. According to statistics, YouTube videos get more than 1.5 billion views per day. On average, one viewer spends more than one hour on this platform. If your view counts are too low, we suggest that you follow this simple guide to grow your channel. Read on to know more.

1. Spur on your Existing Viewers to Subscribe

Your existing viewers are an ideal source of video views for your next videos. So, you should encourage them to subscribe to your channel. Once they subscribe, you will see a gradual increase in your view counts.

All you need to do is request them to hit the subscribe button on your channel. Adding a call to action to your videos is also a great idea. You may also want to place a subscription link in your video descriptions for search engine ranking.

2. Ask your Viewers about what they want to see

If you make videos that don't appeal to your viewers, you will barely get any views. So, what you should do is ask your viewers about what they want to see. As a matter of fact, uploading content that your audience loves is a great way of building viewership and keeping the attention of your audience.

3. Use Playlists for Better Watch Time

According to the statistics released by YouTube, top channels on the platform have a lot of playlists. Actually, these brands know the importance of auto-play. When the content is great, people will just continue to watch videos as they auto-play.

4. Use Cards and End Screens

With end screens and cards, you can direct your viewers to your other great content. Actually, cards work like pop-ups that show up during the playback. On the other hand, end-screens show up once your video ends.

5. Create SEO Titles and Descriptions

If people don't find your videos, they won't be able to watch them. In other words, you need to follow the best SEO strategies in order to make your content search engine friendly. So, what you need to do is add potential keywords when creating titles and descriptions. Make sure that the keywords are relevant to your videos.

You can use Google AdWords Keyword Planner and Google Trends in order to make a list of useful keywords for your video descriptions.

6. Use Compelling Thumbnails

Most people scan content rather than read. Similarly, on YouTube, they scan through the list of videos before they hit the play button. So, make sure that the thumbnails of your videos are compelling. It's not a good idea to use auto-generated thumbnails. Instead, you should use custom thumbnails.

In short, if you want your videos to get tons of views, we suggest that you follow the tips given in this article. With these tips, it will be much easier for you to grow your channel and get a lot more subscribers than before. Hope this helps.

If are looking for a great way of getting more views on your YouTube videos, we suggest that you check out SocialMedia Masters for Youtube views Kaufen.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Shalini_M/2609777

5 Things You Should Look For When Selecting an Influencer for Your Brand

Selecting the right influencer decides your marketing campaign's fate. Along with using the best influencer marketing platform for brands, you also need to have a solid strategy to choose the influencer that matters. But most brands consider any influencer based on the size of his follower base. It's an old-school tactic that just doesn't work now. You have to dig deeper than earlier days and prepare a set of pointers that your influencer must satisfy in order to be a good fit for your company's success.

Let's find out the criteria on which you should select an influencer for your brand that could actually hit the right note:

1. Prefer an Influencer in Your Niche

Choosing an influencer that doesn't operate in your niche usually backfires. To make the right fit, you need to find out an influencer that operates in your niche. It's the key to the right influencer marketing strategy. Having a similar niche ensures that your content gets shared among your ideal audiences to achieve great results.

2. Prefer the One With High Engagement Rates

It's not just about the size of the follower base an influencer has got but his engagement rate. It's crucial to calculate the engagement rate of the potential influencer you are considering for your brand before you finalize him. To choose the perfect influencer, check his average engagement rate. The idea is to get the right influencer that could really spark engagements with your audiences.

3. Choose the One Who Operates in Your Demographics

If you want to target local audiences, it's better to consider a local influencer that operates in the same demographics. Choosing an influencer with more global audiences won't meet your marketing goals. Find someone who actively operates in your region and has followers in the segment and demographics you are looking for.

4. Consider the One Who Meets Your Brand's Voice

Investing in an influencer that doesn't meet your brand's voice and goals won't help you. For instance, if your brand operates a vegan restaurant, considering an influencer who actively promotes non-vegetarian food through his posts would ruin your marketing efforts. You must reach out to an influencer who is vegan and it reflects from his social media posts.

5. Measure His Previous Performance Results

Don't just believe in an influencer with your eyes closed when he brags about his performance. Take a look at the performance statistics of his past campaigns. Just analyzing one campaign won't give you a clear picture of his abilities. Prefer an overall picture of his performance metrics by going through a couple of his past projects. It will help you conclude if he is the right fit to proceed with your influencer marketing or not.

Conclusion

Choosing the right influencer comes with a set of tasks that you have to do if you really want to get the best influencer working for you. Choosing the best influencer marketing platform for brands is just the half job done. You need to get the right influencer too to make your campaign reach the height of success. Follow these tips to get the influencer who could really help you achieve your marketing goals.

We are SocialBook, the best influencer marketing platform for brands that could really help you connect with the right influencer in a jiffy. We have influencers in all budgets and fan base sizes that would work great for you. Get in touch with us now to meet the perfect influencer in your budget.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Chen_Wang/1351971

3 Things To Know About Video Marketing

Videos not only add life to your presentations, but it's also the fastest-growing type of media online. If you're looking to promote or grow your business with Video Marketing then you're in luck. You will discover in this article 3 tips on how to make use of this visual technique.

For starters, videos do a great job of grabbing the attention of people surfing the web. The truth is, most people are much more likely to become excited about the dynamic content of a video than they would be over just some plain written text. Also, given the fact that most people have short attention spans these days, they prefer to watch a video over reading an article post.

Tip #1 - Know Your Audience and Create Videos They Want

You need to know what your audience wants and then give it to them. This may seem obvious but a lot of businesses are so focused on their products or services that their target audience may get lost in the shuffle. People will have questions that they want answers to in your niche, so make it your business to find out what these are and create videos around them.

Videos can definitely transform your static presentations into lively, more engaging messages that trigger emotions, and help to communicate on a deeper level than nearly any other form of marketing. There's nothing wrong with using videos to establish your presence within your market or to define your brand, you just need to know who your target audience is. This brings us to the next tip.

Tip #2 Optimize your Videos for Search

Do some keyword research in your niche. Figure out what your audience may be searching for when they are doing a query on the search engines, then create appealing, keyword-rich titles for your videos and a keyword-rich description that tells people what the video is about. Be honest though, people do not want to be deceived so don't say that it is about something when it isn't. Also, use related keywords in your video tags.

Try to add the word "Video" to your title too as this will help you to rank in Google and the other search engines. Lastly, upload your video to YouTube if you want your video to rank highly in a YouTube search. Do this even if you have your own video hosting. Your video is now ranked and you're starting to see some traffic, all you need now is some sales!

Tip #3 Monetize Your Video

So, if you want people to buy your product or try a service from you in a video, you need to attach a working link to it. The link should be in the video player. This way, your link will always be available, especially if your video is being shared. You can do this through the use of a text box on your video. This is a great way to let people know where they can go to find you and your products. If you don't include the URL, they'll just watch the video and move on with no way to make a purchase even if they wanted to.

As you can see, video marketing is one of the best ways to promote your business. Through video marketing, you can reach an entirely new audience that will help your business experience growth and success. Remember the contents of this article when it's time to enhance your business with video marketing and be sure to visit my blog terryphong.com for more online marketing tips.

For more online marketing tips, please visit: http://terryphong.com

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Terry_Phong/283420

7 Important Facts That You Should Know About Online Marketing

When it comes to online marketing, everyone starts off thinking they know how to do it. But, the truth is, online marketing is not very different from other types of marketing. The tool is different, but the way you go about it really isn't.

You still need to understand who your audience is, what your product or service is, and know how to explain to your audience why it will solve their problems and why you are the one to offer it.

The following mistakes can lead to problems with getting more business.

1. Not Sticking to One Brand

Don't try to recreate your brand for every social media network. Keep the same brand image, slightly changed up for each network's platform and features. You want your customers to know who you are, no matter where they connect with you.

2. Not Watching Your Competitors

You don't want to copy your competitors, but watching them will help you stay one step ahead of them. Be aware of what type of products and/or services your competition provides and be ready to do them one better.

3. Not Having a Goal

It's imperative that for each type of marketing you do, you have a goal in mind. Whether it's content marketing, pay-per-click marketing, or social media marketing, having a goal to reach will help you know whether or not you've accomplished your mission. Plus it will help you know how to move forward.

4. Not Having Diverse and Regular Content

It's no longer enough to simply put up 500-word blog posts and expect to get a loyal following. Today you need longer blog posts, videos, podcasts, infographics, memes, and more to ensure that you are reaching all parts of your audience.

5. Not Having an Email List

It's surprising how many business owners there are who don't realize the importance of building an email list for successful online marketing. But it's true; some people don't build an email list, and they should.

6. Not Having Well-Written Content

You can't just slap anything up and expect it to be successful when it comes to content marketing. You need original, unique content that speaks directly to your audience. In addition, you need curated content from other experts which you comment on.

7. Not Focusing on Benefits over Features

It's tempting to discuss all the features of your product or service instead of the benefits. All marketing messages, even on your "about us" page, need to be focused on your client and how your products or services benefit them. That can be difficult to wrap your brain around sometimes, but it is imperative in order to get more conversions.

Every successful online entrepreneur has made mistakes in their business at some time or another. It's all part of the learning process. Although mistakes are going to happen, you can avoid a number of common business mistakes. Download my free checklist, The 10 Most Common Online Business Mistakes at https://jonallo.com/mistakes

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Jon_Allo/1079948