Archive for the ‘Online Marketing’ Category

Social Media Marketing: Are You Optimizing Yours?

Monday, August 20th, 2012

SEO for Your Social Media…Don’t Delay!

If you own a business, you should also have a website. For your website to be working as hard as you need it to, it’s beyond important that you’re optimizing not only for Search Engines, but for your Social Media Marketing (SSM), as well. Your customers need to be able to find your business where THEY are. And they are hanging out, in greater numbers than you can imagine, on their social sites.

Social Media means more than just Facebook and Twitter, these days.

The phenomenon of monetizing and capitalizing Social Media started with Myspace, when sophisticated web entrepreneurs found a goldmine of untapped buyers. Facebook quickly overcame Myspace as the place to connect, and we all know what that did for Mark Zuckerberg’s lifestyle. Now the almost untapped places to optimize your SMM are “sharing” sites like Pinterest and Foursquare. Wherever people are spending their time online, is where YOU want to be, “talking” to the people who are the most likely candidates for your product or service.

Social Media sites can sell your products, services and ideas FOR you.

Did you know that Apple will currently sell Music, Audio and Video Information products, eBooks and apps for you, through iTunes, to their 375,000,000 customers? Mobile devices like iPad, iPhone and iPods are walking malls, and savvy entrepreneurs get in touch with them, 24/7.

Most people are completely unaware that Amazon is the largest BUYERS Search Engine in the World, holding over 200,000,000 customer’s credit cards on account. Even better, they are willing to share them all with you… For pennies! One YouTube video, done correctly, can produce more actual sales than your brick-and-mortar location. PLUS, because YouTube is a wholly own subsidiary of Google, they will give you FREE traffic on Google, just for adding your content.

Integris Marketing KNOWS Social Media.

There are, of course, thousands of other facts you need to be aware of. I have made it my business to constantly keep abreast of all the latest trends and trade secrets of Internet and Social Media Marketing, because keeping your business in front of your customers is really at the heart of what we do. “Do Good, and Prosper” isn’t just a nice thing to say, it’s my secret to success. To learn more, call us Toll-Free at 800.233.0239

Or, if you’re in the Reno, Sparks or Tahoe areas, call 775.322.3663 today.

I’m pretty darn sure you’ll be glad you did.

Pinterest: the New Social Network

Tuesday, June 19th, 2012

Courtesy of Wikipedia:

Pinterest is a pinboard-style social photo sharing website that allows users to create and manage theme-based image collections such as events, interests, hobbies, and more. Users can browse other pinboards for inspiration, ‘re-pin’ images to their own collections and/or ‘like’ photos. Pinterest’s mission is to “connect everyone in the world through the ‘things’ they find interesting” via a global platform of inspiration and idea sharing. It is one of the “fastest growing social services in the world.”

Make your Content Visual

The brilliance behind this new social network is that it only works with visual posts or content– photos and videos. We often fail to realize that we have the ability to change our content into visual posts by using word art, pictures to say the same thing, or creating an image that includes the words we want to convey.

Why would we want visual content rather than just plain text?

Because we are human beings – we want things to be pretty and interesting, we want to be surprised and engaged, we crave something new to share with the world (or our part of it) and most of all – we want to express ourselves; this new social network is just one more way to do this. Sharing (or pinning as Pinterest calls it) allows us to show the world things we find interesting and connect with others who share the same opinions and interests. Visual posts on social media sites go viral more often, last longer, and have more shares than plain text or links – period.  Pictures and videos are the mediums we crave; they frequently move us and inspire sharing visual posts with our friends, especially on this new social network, Pinterest.

How can I get on Pinterest?

This new social network has made their site an invitation only affair. This may at first make you think they are trying to limit the number of people adopting their social network – but it is very similar to “friending” someone on Facebook. You just need an in with someone who is already on Pinterest (chances are, one of your current Facebook friends is already on this new social platform and excited to extend you an invite – just ask).

If you are interested in more about this new social network, or visual posts on other networks, drop us a line at 775-322-3663 and we can chat about it or send you an invite to join in the pinning fun.  Go, be social; share what moves and inspires you.

Email Marketing – Strategies for Success

Tuesday, June 12th, 2012

Successful Strategies for Email Marketing

If you don’t have a plan, then how will you know that you are getting the results you really want from your email marketing?  You need to know where you are heading and how you are going to get there in order to set up targets to aim for with each email marketing campaign.  A roadmap to your email marketing will help you to decide what needs to be changed in order to make your efforts more effective.

7 considerations while you are setting up your strategy:

  1. You are only as good as your list.(see our 3 ways to increase the quality of your email database, below)
  2. Mobile devices are on the rise and more and more people are using their mobile devices to view their emails – including yours. So make it easy for them to see, read, click, and integrated for quick and easy social media sharing to be ahead of the pack.
  3. Keep your call to action ABOVE THE FOLD – or up to 70% of your audience may never see it.
  4. Mix up your email marketing with a direct mailing campaign to increase your response rate to the overall campaign.
  5. Promotions that are limited in time or availability always increase response rates.
  6. Link your email broadcasts to online interactions or call to actions – even if it is just a landing page where they can get more information (make sure your website works in mobile too if you are going to do this).
  7. Incentive focused subject lines are a great way to increase open rates as well – just remember not to use words like “free” since they often trigger the spam filter in email accounts.

3 Ways to Increase the Quality of your Email database

  1. Reward your opt-ins with a bonus or freebie (by AR) of something YOU can offer for signing up with you (this helps you make sure the things you offer are things your database are interested in receiving).
  2. Measure the activity of your list over time and send out updates or special AR’s for those who have been inactive to keep your database filled with real contacts that are interested in your services or products.
  3. Integrate your opt-in with social media so that it is easy to share to others and your offerings get more awareness and notice across platforms and the holy ‘share’ to others who may be interested in signing up with you.

These tips and best practices can change your email marketing efforts into ordered, cohesive campaigns.  Metrics and tracking will define adjustments needed to your methods and drive continuous improvement on successive campaigns until you are effectively utilizing email marketing to further your business.

Call us today if you’d like help with your specific email marketing needs – we can help! 775-322-3663

Use Video Marketing to Grab Your Customers Attention

Tuesday, June 5th, 2012

Almost everyone in America knows what YouTube is and that you can find almost anything on it to entertain yourself. What you may not know is that it is becoming the new search tool of the Millennials (Generation Z); rather than words, they want video answers to their questions.

Why Video Marketing?

If we think about our past, it isn’t surprising that we are drawn to the visual relay of information – a picture paints 1000 words, right? So a video must communicate a million, easy.  It is one of the fastest ways to share and ingest pieces of information between human beings.  It’s why commercials cost more than other forms of advertising.  Technology has allowed each of us to share our own personal cave wall art with everyone in the world who has access to the internet.  What IS surprising is that although this powerful medium has become advanced enough that you can make a video from your phone and post it online in mere minutes; there are few businesses that have truly committed to using it to its full potential.

It’s Easy to Use

It is an amazing time to be a business – especially a tech-savvy one! If you have a marketing department or an advertising agency that is already creating fantastic commercial quality videos for your company, feel free to repurpose them and upload them to  a company YouTube channel or a Vimeo account, which both offer easy sharing options to social media platforms.  If you don’t have access to commercially produced video footage, there are dozens of options for video recorders that are relatively inexpensive, simple to use, and a breeze to upload.

How do I make it Effective?

If you are making the video, or you have the ability to give direction to those who are, remember that online there are many distractions and it is important to grab your audience’s attention immediately and then keep them watching your ad. Recent research, by Harvard Business School Assistant Professor Thales S. Teixeira, shows that the best attention capture is achieved when there is:

… a quick element of surprise at the beginning of an ad, followed by a longer period of joy…

Now that you know the formula, you can get busy making surprising, joyful videos that capture the attention of your audience. Just remember it is always important to be authentic and real about your product or service, even while you make viewers feel good.

If you would like some help in your video marketing endeavors, feel free to call us at 775-322-3663 today.

Social Media – In or Out?

Tuesday, January 10th, 2012

You have probably heard before, how important it is to brand your company and build authority through social media. However, some businesses are not ready or able to commit the kind of time and personnel it takes to manage a full-force online marketing campaign for their brand. There are also some barriers to internally managing these platforms; according to Towers Watson research, the main factors which prevent organizations from being able to implement needed solutions are:

  • Limited Knowledge of Social Media
  • Lack of IT Support or Technical Capability
  • Limited Staff/Resources to Implement
  • Restrictions imposed by The Company’s Legal Department
  • Lack of CEO or Senior Management Support
  • Lack of Metrics to Measure Impact

This is where out sourcing can help your brand reach its online marketing goals. At Integris Marketing, we are external experts with expertise in managing social media for business purposes. We know how powerful these platforms can be, but we also know that they must be customized to work well for your brand.

Our extensive social media knowledge and technical experience will ensure that we are able to advise you on the platform that will work best for you and your brand. Our resources are very flexible, which allows us to reallocate resources to projects as needed. We start every project off by looking at the current data for your brand, then crafting a plan that we can implement with your full support.

Some of the areas of social media that we can assist you with, include: Blogging (enhances all website content and drives internet search traffic by improving SEO); Social Bookmarking and News (can also dramatically increase website traffic by improving SEO); Social Networking (i.e. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn); Visual and Audio Social Networking (i.e. YouTube, podcasts, and photo-sharing); or even Building your own Social Network. Any posts we create for your brand will be subject to your approval in order to avoid any issues with legality and to maintain the tone that makes your brand unique.

To get started with your brand’s social media presence using a data-driven professional process, call us at (775) 322-3663 or (800) 233-0239, or contact us with your inquiry.

What Marketing Efforts are Wasting Your Money?

Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012

With the plethora of choices in today’s marketing arena, our clients often ask us, “what works?” We have a straightforward answer. It depends. Return on Investment (ROI) in the various marketing venues depends on your business and more specifically, on your customer.

You’ll find when you work with us that one of the first things we’ll do is gather data. We want to know what’s working now, and what’s proving to be a waste of money. We will use this data to find the path ahead and to provide the most relevant and accurate suggestions for your hard earned dollar.

We also pinpoint your potential customer. You’ll hear us talking again and again about who your customer is. We’ll be marketing directly to those customers, both current and potential. Your customers determine the venues we choose to market your company. Your customer, in fact, is king and queen of almost all of the decisions we make – even down to the color of your logo.

The most important thing for you to know about marketing your product in the many available venues is that the whole is greater than the parts. The aggregate solution for you is almost guaranteed to be a highly custom mix of marketing venues.

When we build your brand, we build it like no other.

You’ll find that when we build your brand, it is uniquely yours in look, feel, voice and in choice of venues.

So if you are looking for a cookie-cutter type website, we may not be the choice for you – but if you want to stand out above your competitors, and get the customers you know you can impress – then we are looking to help you build your brand. Call us today at 775.322.3663, or fill out our request form for more information. We look forward to hearing about your brand and your customers.

 

Company Website Boring Visitors to Death?

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011

Tired of your company website?

Is your company website boring even to you? People are more and more obsessed with flashy, bright, shiny objects and websites are no different. Yes, you will need to have killer content on your website that is easy to understand and explains your product or services in a way that will make anyone want to buy it, but first – you have to get their attention – and in a positive way.

A Website is an Experience

As you browse through a site, you experience layout, colors, fonts, photographs, and content until you begin to feel a certain way. Of course, when it comes to your customers, you want that ‘certain way’ to be a positive one, one that converts to sales. Creating those positive experiences through design is what our team does best.

Remodelling: Ideas and Considerations

If you were to think about your website as the large billboard that everyone will see as they sit in a movie theatre and wait for their film to start – what would you want them to see?  I use the theatre example because, in this instance, you have a somewhat captive audience and the time frame is relatively lengthy.  Your website IS a marketing piece and it should fit with your branding as well as your vision and mission for the company.

However, you want more than a brochure or a static, unchanging picture as your website – you want to engage the audience and make them feel that you are right there with them.  This can be done with a custom layout that makes finding information for your users simple and almost automatic, it can be done with content that makes them feel instantly at home and trusting, it can be done with colors that evoke the emotional response you ultimately want your customers to have, and it can be done with images, videos, and sharing options where they can find out what their friends think of your product or service, and inform the rest of their friends of their opinions about you as well.

Your Website is the First Touch

Your website is the first touch you have on your customer; it is extremely important for it to be a positive experience and that it entices your target audience to take that next step and contact you.  Ultimately we have websites to initiate a customer relationship and to sell something, whether it is advice or kitchen spoons, we are all in a business to make some kind of money – whether sales or donations for a non-profit to support a meaningful cause, the desired result is the same. As you have probably heard in business, it takes money to make money. Designing your website is not free – but if it is done correctly, it IS worth it.

Think about it – if you wouldn’t stay on your company website for more than 2 minutes, then why would anyone else?  You have a lot of competition in the online world, so make yourself stand out. If you need ideas or a quote, check out our web portfolio or call us at 775.322.3663 or 800.233.0239

SEO Can Make or Break You

Tuesday, November 15th, 2011

SEO (search engine optimization) has become a necessity for being found on the internet. There are estimated to be over 153,000,000 websites on the internet.  So how do you optimize your website to be found by search engines? What separates your website from the other millions of sites out there?

One of the main things, here, is to understand how users reach your site. Meaning, what terms they type in to find your website. Reviewing this information for your site and then comparing the keywords that are found on your site by search engines, like Google, can help you see if you are on the right track with getting found. It is important to see how the content you are writing on your website matches up with the words that people are searching on the internet in order to find your site.  If these two areas are not matching up then you need to adjust your keywords on your site and in your content to match the words or phrases that people are using to search for you or your product in order to be found.

Do you know your keywords?

Often people and businesses have self-proclaimed SEO experts set up their search engine optimization, which is fine, as long as it is being done correctly.  It is important to understand what the keywords are on your website and why these words were chosen.  Don’t be afraid to ask for the reasoning behind the keywords and the list of keywords that are being used for each page of your website. This is information that belongs to your website – not the website designer or developer.  You have a right to know what is on your site and how it is being accessed.  If you aren’t sure what is on your current site, and would like to know how your SEO is ranking, feel free to call Integris Marketing today at 775.322.3663 or, for a Free Website Assessment, click here.

Update Your Website Frequently the Easy Way

Tuesday, November 8th, 2011

Relevance in Search Results

When you use a search engine, like Google, you are looking for the match to the keywords you type in that are most relevant.  This means they may have a local aspect if you are searching for restaraunts or movie theatres, as well as a date.  Most of the time when we search for something, we want the most up to date results. If we are asking about information on movie times, we want them in a chronological order – with the most recent events first.

The Google Algorithm

Google is not only aware of this need, but they have worked out several updates to their algorithm that will impact the results returned based on the data stored about the pages – including dates.  So what does this mean and why do you care?

A Common Problem

Here at Integris Marketing, we have several inquiries each week about how to show up at the top of the search engine results page.  There are several things that can help, but we found this blog from Entrepreneur.com that covers an online strategy which we often promote ourselves as a continuing solution for keeping your website up to date and in the recent search engine results – a blog.

The Solution

Having a blog ensures that your website will be considered ‘updated’ each time you create and publish a post.  This won’t solve all your problems, because it is important to have highly searched and relevant keywords set up in the meta fields for each of your website pages, but that is simple SEO and is fairly static.  The solution with blogs is that Google will notice that you are updating and posting new information on your site, and as the blog describes, those that are not posting new content on their website will be left off the search engine results pages more and more in the future.

Additional Benefits of Blogging

This will not only give you the benefits of updating your website each time you post something, but it can also increase the engagement of your audience. You want to gain more customers, but with a good blog you can also build brand loyal customers, who trust you for pertinent information.  Blogging can be easy and is often free, depending on the platform you use, so don’t delay – start your blog today!

 

If you would like customized help with setting up a blog and even finding content for your blog, please contact us today at 775.322.3663 or toll free at 1.800.233.0239!

 

LINK: http://www.entrepreneur.com/blog/220662 blog post about increased need for blogs on websites in order to be found by search engines

Privacy Lost or Benefit Gained: Healthcare and Social Platforms

Tuesday, November 1st, 2011

I recently watched a video (Note: auto plays when clicked) from WebProNews.com with Sona Mehring, who created this incredible social support network for people who are diagnosed with potentially fatal diseases.  Her platform is called CaringBridge.org and it has been around since 1997.

There is a lot of debate about Healthcare in the social sphere due to HIPPA laws and people worried about preserving their privacy. However, to us, Healthcare and social platforms are a win-win due to the basic need for humans to congregate when times are tough.

We need each other on a basic level to understand and validate the tough times and to celebrate our successes.  It is increasingly important for people to feel connected – and if social platforms can help someone who feels horrible due to their health, feel support (without having to travel, get dressed up, or worry about how they look, or if they will feel ok once they get somewhere), then it is definitely worth having.

It should be easy enough to create an opt-in type situation where those who feel strongly that they don’t want to be involved in an online support structure, don’t have any of their information shared (as in their diagnosis in order to be in a specific targeted group for that condition).  This would keep everyone protected while still allowing the support network to work for those who wish to participate.

What do you think about Privacy in Healthcare and the ability for Social Platforms to reach beyond for those who may be home bound?

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