Gearing up for 2012: Own Your Marketing Strategy

Posted on December 28, 2011 by Ana Lucia Novak

Small business owners often overlook their own marketing strategy, planning and implementation because they are overwhelmed with the process, don’t know where to begin, and think it’s going to incur a high cost, so they push it to the way side and wing their business development and marketing, only to see that there are no new business or increased revenue. Business owners should take their marketing serious if they want to grow their business, become known as an expert in their field, and attract new clients, and it will take an investment of time and money in order to learn how to leverage social media and online marketing tactics to attract and retain new clients, share your expertise across multiple channels, and get the search engines to index your website.

Don’t worry if you feel intimidated by all the verbiage around social media marketing, and SEO, but you and your business need to get the ball rolling in the right direction.

Here are a few things you need to assess immediately:

Website

branding

Is it time for an overhaul? when was the last time you updated your website? Consider new fonts, color, header and logo
What is your value proposition, is it time to reframe your positioning, strengths?
Is the language targeting your ideal customers? does it resonate with them, draw them in, and help them know,like, and trust you?

message

Does your website address your ideal customer’s pain points?
Does every page (tab) offer insightful tips, resources, (to enable the “know like and trust” factor)
are people (visitors) clear about who you are, what you offer and how you can help them?

Call to action (what do you want your visitor to do once they are on your site: sign up for newsletter? Download a giveaway that gives them a taste of who you are and your expertise? Sign up for a free 30 minute consultation?
List building tactics: (using text or newsletter to stay in touch with visitors) Your visitors are your potential clients. You want to continue to “touch” them on a regular basis by offering timely, relevant information they can use immediately. The more often they “see” you, the more chances they are getting to know you, and will eventually do business with you. There are tactics to employ if you are using a newsletter to educate, inform and add value to your prospects – that will drive them back to your website and social sites. That is why having a strong website, a newsletter or text messaging system, and social media all offer ways to connect and foster relationships with people who end up becoming a raving fan,endorser, a referral partner, and client!

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) – this is where it can get tricky. You don’t really want to do this yourself unless you have been aptly trained and understand how you can optimize your website on the back end (for the search engines) as well as applying tactics on the front end (website content, blogging, newsletter, utilizing videos and social media)

Keyword searches help you know what people are looking for online, this can give you ideas on what content to write about, adding appropriate headlines and keywords within your blog post
Keyword searches also tell you what words are highly searched for, and depending on saturation, what words are better to use and what words won’t work so well.

These are some of the things you should do first if you want to grow your business, attract ideal customers and be seen as an expert in your field. Sometimes having a fresh pair of eyes to look over your website, offer recommendations, will save you a ton of time, even money, because there are alternatives and viable options that can get you up to speed fairly quickly and taking your game up a notch.

You don’t have to wait to get your self all together to attract your ideal customers and build up your business; having a smart social media strategy and making it easy for people to connect with you such as “seeing and hearing you” via tweets, Facebook posts, blog commenting and engaging within LinkedIn groups and Quora will definitely show your value and expertise to others (even if your website isn’t perfect) but you want to make a way to capture your visitors, stay connected to them via text messaging or newsletters, and cross-pollinating all your online activities so your website gets indexed by the search engines, so people can share your information within their network via Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, there by growing your network, creating a buzz around you and your business, and growing your list. It all counts and it will all pay off, just start with getting your website up and running with the right tools in place, then get a strategy in place, know what platforms to be on, tools to use to manage and measure, and have fun!

2012 is going to be a great year, commit to that thought and make it happen.

Hire a business marketing consultant who can help you plan your steps and keep you on track so that 2012 will be prosperous for you.

After Christmas Special: 50%-off sale: Small Biz Success Summit

Posted on December 26, 2011 by Ana Lucia Novak

Good news! Michael Stelzner, Social Media Examiner is running a 50%-off sale on tickets to Small Biz Success Summit 2012–the online conference for small businesses that want to master social media marketing, brought to you by Social Media Examiner!

This online conference is all about using social media to gain more exposure, increase traffic, better engage customers (and prospects) and increase your sales. And it’s just for small businesses…

Already 600 of your peers have signed up! Click here to save 50%.

The summit includes 28 well-known small business social media pros, including John Jantsch (author, Duct Tape Marketing), Anita Campbell (founder, Small Business Trends), Michael Stelzner (founder, Social Media Examiner and author, Launch), Mari Smith (co-author, Facebook Marketing), Jesse Stay (author, Google+ for Dummies), Hollis Thomases (author, Twitter Marketing), David Siteman Garland (founder, “The Rise to the Top” and author, Smarter, Faster, Cheaper), Joe Pulizzi (founder, Content Marketing Institute and co-author, Get Content, Get Customers), Brian Clark (founder, Copyblogger Media), Lee Odden (founder, TopRank Online Marketing), Ramon Ray (founder, Small Biz Technology and author, Technology Solutions for Growing Businesses) and Lewis Howes (co-author, LinkedWorking)–just to mention a few. There’s really never been a better cast of experts coming together on this topic. Register now for Small Biz Success Summit 2012 .

Click here to save 50%.

All the presenters are actual small business owners. They’ll share extensive case studies and how-to sessions, including how they use Google+, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs and video to beat the competition.

Here’s a sampling of the topics the summit will cover:

* From Social to Sales: 4 Steps for Growing Your Small Business Revenue
* How Small Businesses Are Growing With Facebook (Case Studies)
* 10 Google+ Tips for Every Small Business Owner
* Mastering LinkedIn for Small Business Success
* 7 Unique Blogging Strategies to Explode Your Company’s Traffic, Trust Factor and Brand

Go here to see all the sessions.

This is more than just an online conference. It’s also a way for people just like you to come together, share their experiences, meet the experts and network.

At our summer summit, 99 percent of attendees said they’d attend again! That’s some endorsement.

FAST ACTION HAS ITS ADVANTAGES

We added 18 great bonuses worth more than $900 for early registrants. These are high-value video courses. When you sign up for the event, you get all of these included at no extra cost!

Here’s a sample of the valuable bonuses we’re giving away:

* 7 Proven Strategies to Grow and Engage Your Facebook Fans
* 20 Actionable Techniques to Enhance Your Blog’s Content
* Becoming a Dominant Force With Video Blogging
* 10 Ways to Bring the Power of Facebook to Your Website

Go here now to learn more.

Here’s to your success!

Ana Lucia Novak
Founder, Social Media Strategist, Trainer and fellow small business owner

P.S. This event does not require any travel. You simply attend sessions, meet the experts and network with peers from the comfort of your home or office. To see how this works, go here.

P.P.S. FYI, grab your 50% off ticket now!

Facebook Measuring: How to use the New Facebook Insight

Posted on November 17, 2011 by Ana Lucia Novak

Facebook constant changes can make your head spin, and I appreciate people who help others understand how to utilize a monitoring tool, primarily Facebook Page Insights. I’m in the middle of re-branding my business, and creating a Facebook Marketing Strategy Plan for my new Facebook page (not quite active). I have taken for granted the Facebook insight tool. I’m motivated to learn about my fan base after watching John Haydon’s tutorial on how to use the updated Facebook Insight tool. The insight gave me information about what my fans like and need, and gave me “insight” into what types of content to share on my page to increase engagement and interaction.

You can access Facebook Insights when you log into your Facebook, and click on your page, the Insight tab has 3 different tabs beneath it (Likes, Reach and Talking about This). You can watch the video below and I also encourage you to read Facebook Insight Product Guide (15 page PDF)

Fans – Facebook Connections
Reach- Who sees your content thru newsfeeds, events, ad
Talking About This- number of people who have reacted to your content: liked, commented, shared, RSVP’d to an event, answered your questions.

This video “How to Use the The New Facebook Insights Video Tutorial” hosted and taught by John Haydon. His 9 minute tutorial covers all aspects of the Facebook Insight, How to read and interpret the data, and helps you know your audience likes and dislikes based on the number of views and engagement activity. Watching the video motivated me to share original content and to learn how it affects, contributes and adds value to my fans. I can’t wait to learn what they like or need, so I can create content that adds value to their lives and business.

I’d like to hear about your experience with Facebook Page Insight tool, as well as how you you plan to use the information to increase engagement on your Facebook Business Page.