Do you have a brick-and-mortar business that you’re trying to promote online?

If so, you could be missing out on a lot of online traffic if you haven’t taken advantage of all the benefits Google Places offers for local business.

If you’re new to Google Places, here are a few tips that will help you set up an optimized profile and set you and the right track for local search success.

Why Google Places is Important

Google Places pages aren’t just for Google Maps searches any more. Google now integrates local “Places” search results for a lot of local keyword search queries, especially those with a lot of search volumes. Instead of the traditional layout of 10 organic listings per page, Google now either inserts a section of local results near the top of the page, or sometimes even incorporates a local listing with an organic listing.

These listings have prime positioning near the top of the page, but they also provide an extra visual element with star ratings and at-a-glance contact info. Even if your website is ranking well organically, that doesn’t necessarily mean it will be included in these local listing, as Google uses a slightly different algorithm for its local Places listings. If you want to boost your local web visibility, keep reading to find out how to set up your profile.

Setting Up Your Page

Setting up a Google Places page isn’t difficult, but you’ll want to follow some best practices to give your profile the best chance for ranking well.

First, you’ll want to check to see if a page has already been created for your business. Any Google user can create a local page for a business, but only the business owner can claim the listing (we’ll cover that next), and fill out the page with information that is “from the owner.”

You can find out if a page for your business already exists by doing a Google search for your business name or even going to the actual Google Places website to check for listings according to your business phone number.

If a page for your business already exists, you’ll have to claim the listing before you can start editing information. If you’re starting with a brand new listing, you’ll fill out all of the information first before you go through the claiming process.

The most important thing you should remember when setting up your page is to fill out as much information as possible. Add photos and videos; fill out a description that is informative but also incorporates keywords, and fill in business hours, payment types, areas served, etc.

When filling in “category” information, make sure you choose existing categories that the system suggests in the drop down list. Making up your own category could prevent your page from showing for relevant listings.

The next most important thing you need to know is that your business name, address, and phone number should be consistent with what is found on your website, and also what is found on other review sites on the internet.

This is referred to in the industry as NAP consistency, and it’s used as part of Google’s algorithm for ranking local places pages. Here are some examples of address variations that you want to avoid:

• 1234 South Yourstreet Suite 103
• 1234 S. Yourstreet Ste. 103
• 1234 S Yourstreet #103

There really isn’t a right or wrong choice for which format to use, but just make sure that the one you choose is used consistently.

Claiming Your Profile

In order for your Places listing to get the “owner verified” checkmark, you’ll need to go through the claiming process to show Google that you really are the business owner. This is also how Google is able to prove that your business has an actual physical location.

To do this, there are a few different options, but all involve acquiring a PIN that you will be able to enter into your Google Places account to verify the listing. Depending on the requirements in your country, Google will either send you a postcard through the mailing system, send an automated phone call to the phone number you listed in the profile, or in some countries, can even send an SMS message that includes your PIN.

After you have received your PIN, you’ll just have to enter it into the Places system when prompted and your listing will be good to go. You can always sign back into your account and update information after you have claimed your listing.

Creating Citations to Optimize Your Profile

Claiming and filling out a complete list is the first step to helping your Places page rank well, but there is another element you’ll to need to focus on to help your listing rank well, too. “Citations” is the term used to refer to anywhere else your business name, address and phone number are found together elsewhere on the internet.

You can think of these citations as being similar to how building links is beneficial for SEO. The more citations on the internet that refer to your business, the better chance it has at ranking. You’ll want to find other directly listing sites around the internet, whether national or local, to add your business to. Remember that when you create additional listings, or citations, that you always use NAP consistency like mentioned previously.

Also, don’t forget about customer reviews! They’re an important element to your listing, too. In the beginning, don’t hesitate to just ask some of your happy customers to write a review. You might be surprised at what a great response you get.

Conclusion

As with anything, the best way to learn about something is to actually do it. If you’re ready to create your own Google Places listing for your business, stop by the Google Places home page today and get started. Have any additional thoughts, comments, or questions? Leave them in the comments section below!

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Ok, I know what you’re thinking. These general how-to-improve-your-blog posts are a dime a dozen, and they are usually filled with a bunch of obvious, shallow information that helps no one.

Well, first off, you would be surprised how so few blogs take any of the obvious information about building a good blog to heart.

Secondly, I promise this post will have depth, originality, and flavor!

Make the Site Look Good

This is rule number one of building any good site, and it definitely applies to blogs. The least you can do is take your time and research good free themes that are available. And most of the time, thanks to blackhat SEO, searching Google for “free wordpress themes” won’t yield the best results; some themes may actually be hacked and mess with your links or content. Yikes!

The better bet is to search “free wordpress themes smashing magazine” or whichever blogging/design site you trust so you can find results like this or this if you want a list less than 100. Of course, if you would really like to invest in your blog, you should perhaps even consider paying for some themes such as Studiopress, Themewars, or many of the other paid theme sites. Not only will they offer great designs, but they are usually well optimized for search engines as well.

Choose an Interesting Topic

This is a surprisingly obvious point that so many blogs seem to ignore, and it is not that they are writing about generally boring topics either.

Whether a topic is interesting or not is highly subjective, but most bloggers seem to think that what is interesting is what is most popular and will get the most traffic.

As a result, they will choose topics that they themselves are not interested in. And let me tell you something, when you are writing about something in which you have no interest, it is hard not to be boring. So, to sum up this point: Write what interests you! Not what you think others will find interesting.

Use Captivating Images

Finding interesting images for your posts might be hard work, but I do honestly believe in the power of great images to attract clicks and traffic. Particularly when someone is on you blog, scrolling down to find interesting articles, a great image might just be that extra “oomph” that gets them to click on an article they otherwise would have passed up.

Also, it is a good idea to seek diverse images for your blog rather than repeating the same ones; while repeating images may work on new visitors, you also want to attract your loyal visitors to articles. For that, you need fresh, captivating images.

Avoid Filler and Be Competitive With Your Content

Writing empty, shallow posts is probably the surest way to drive traffic away from your site. If you don’t feel like you have a lot to say at the moment, don’t publish it!

When your readers start to see a lot of redundancies or just a general lack of purpose in your posts, they will stop visiting your site. Not only should you avoid filler content, you should also constantly try to think how you can boost your content to one-up competitors.

In social situations, I personally hate it when someone tells a great story or joke, and then someone else follows it up with an anecdote about themselves that completely pales in comparison. If this is annoying in social situations, it is equally if not more annoying online. If you can’t one-up a conversation, don’t add to it.

Make Your Blog Search-Engine Friendly

To do this, you have to constantly think about how your audience would find your site through Google. What types of searches would they use?

This is called keyword research. You should research this through your own Google searches in addition to using Google’s Adwords.

When doing research, it is important to find keywords related to your blog that aren’t completely dominated by huge companies that spend millions on SEO. For instance, if you write a blog about cell phones, don’t worry about outranking anyone for the keywords “cell phones.”

Try instead targeted, long-tail keywords such as “How to buy used cell phones,” “Android Ice Cream Sandwich features,” and the like. Finding which of these keywords have the least competition (yet still have good search potential) might help you decide which keywords to include on your post titles.

Write a Good “About” Page

This is where I see so, so many blogs go wrong. Some bloggers write purely about themselves, as if they think that is the main reason people read their blog.

While it is important to include your credentials, particularly if you are an authority in the topic of your blog, you should also include a very cohesive, well-written description of the blog itself and the content it has to offer.

Many people will go to the “About” page to get an idea of whether or not they want to subscribe to a blog after reading a post. If the “About” page is subpar, why would they subscribe?

Market Other Posts Onsite

One of the best ways to increase traffic is to keep the current traffic that you have on your site even longer. You do this by appetizing them with other posts on your blog that are related to the current post they have open.

There are several WordPress plugins that will find related posts for you for each article and automatically advertise them on your blog.

The one that Google’s Matt Cutts recommended a couple years back was Yet Another Related Posts Plugin which works well and is easy to use. There are a variety of other options available as well, so choose what you think looks and works the best.

Market Your Blog Offsite

This may seem like an obvious decision, but many bloggers don’t seem to go beyond SEO when it comes to marketing their blog.

A self-contained blog does not just magically get traffic. You have to constantly find ways to market your blog on other websites.

For many bloggers, this means using social media outlets which isn’t a bad idea at all. Do remember, however, that you can go beyond traditional social media with web marketing by guest posting to other popular blogs related to your topic.

This will also give you targeted traffic that may be already interested in your blog topic. Just be sure to grab their attention with a great guest post.

Outsource Content Producers and Opinions

While guest posting is a great way to market your blog on other sites, it is also something to consider for your own blog. Not only does it add content to your blog, it provides a fresh perspective for your readers.

Best of all, you don’t have to pay for it (aside from marketing their blog with a link and credit). Just be sure that you are outsourcing high quality content. Also, it is a good idea in general to ask and publish the opinions of your readers. This will add to the variety of your blog while also empowering your readers and giving them more of a reason to keep your blog in their sights.

Use Social Media Effectively

I talked a little bit about using social media outlets in the previous point; now I will elaborate on how to use these outlets the right way.

Most bloggers will simply create a Twitter account for their blog or themselves, and just update their Twitter whenever they have a new blog post. All this does is simply create an RSS feed, which you can do from your site.

It won’t attract any new traffic or followers because it doesn’t offer anything that you couldn’t get from your blog anyway. Instead, why not add additional useful information that you wouldn’t put on your blog.

Perhaps you read an interesting article related to your blog topic, but you don’t think it would constitute a whole post. Link to it and write about it on Twitter!

Also, try to make active attempts to use social media to engage with your audience and fellow writers. It makes you and your blog more approachable and actually gets people to care about your work.

Image Credit

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One of the problems with any “free” service is the fact that people tend to forget how much it really costs to maintain. Google is no exception. In my opinion, it’s about time SEOs started thinking about Google like a business.

At heart, Google is a company that runs a search engine. In the past few years, they’ve made this painfully obvious and shown the world that they don’t mind upsetting the entire inbound marketing community if they need to make a business decision (hello, blocking all logged in referral keywords).

If you understand this simple fact, then Google’s recent algorithm changes and search engine decisions will make more sense, and give you insight into how Google thinks. As one of the world’s most successful businesses, it’s not a surprise that they make algorithm decisions based on their business goals. That said, let’s get specific about what those goals are and how they’re influencing some of Google’s recent changes:

Why does Google care about duplicate content, and why did they release the Panda update? 

Last year, Google made 37.9 billion (mostly in PPC ads). Of that, they spent an estimated 24 million dollars just powering their servers, and that doesn’t include the cost of buying the servers, or any employee expenses for the people who work on Google’s search algorithm. Like any business, Google is looking for ways to save money, and one of the best ways is for them to reduce the workload on their servers and their employees: thus, the Panda update.

Panda was a business decision designed to save Google money. Low quality websites are everywhere, ranging from intentional black hat spammy sites to sites run by lazy web masters who create “thin content” web sites. What they have in common is that they are expensive for Google to crawl/index. By removing duplicate content from its index, Google is able to avoid the expense of having to crawl these poorly made sites and save millions of dollars in storage alone.

SEO companies (mine included) have spent a good part of this last year helping companies remove duplicate content from their websites (for example: The Decal Guru is in the process of completely rewriting their product descriptions to remove all duplicate content from its site.) A lot of e-commerce sites have been hit pretty hard, but companies like Zappos and Amazon are leading the e-commerce industry because they’ve invested in high quality content.

Why do some 301 redirects still work, and others don’t? 

Before you throw out a broad generalization, stop hard and think about the statement from a business perspective. How many times have you heard an SEO say, “Google is going to devalue 301 redirects because black hatters abuse them?”  Businesses have been changing their names and re-branding themselves for thousands of years. If Google suddenly decided that companies could no longer change their business name, they would break the internet.

Remember when Quantum Computer Services changed their name to America Online, and then to AOL Time Warner and then back to AOL?  A search engine can’t penalize companies who legitimately change their corporate identity. It’s true that you won’t retain 100% of your link juice, but non-spammy 301 redirects still pass most of their link authority.

Why does Google care about “search query intent?” 

There has been a lot written on search intent and semantic keyword research, so I’m not going to cover it in depth. The basic idea of intent is this: when you search for “apple,” Google determines whether you’re looking for the fruit or the technology company. For a user, this is extremely convenient because it provides more relevant search results. But search intent is more than just a move toward A.I. and search innovation; it is also a savvy business decision.

Going back to the bottom line – Google makes its money off of advertising. The click-through rate on relevant ads is higher then the CTR on irrelevant ads, so Google knows that displaying ads that are related to the searcher’s intent will ultimately make the search tycoon more money. If you search for “apple,” and Google knows that you mean the technology company, then it will display ads for Macbooks, iPads, and iPhones – and you will be much more likely to click those ads than if it had displayed the ones for local organic produce. Each click is more money in the bank for Google, so it literally pays for them to understand your intent.

Just as it pays Google to understand your intent, it pays you to understand theirs. The above are just a few examples of how Google’s business goals affect their search engine development. Once you understand Google’s motivations as a money-making company, you’ll be able to see why they structure their search algorithms the way they do, and start to use that knowledge to your advantage. I’d love to hear what you think about this article. You can tweet me @brewseo

Image Credit

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April 25, 2012 was the day everyone had been waiting for. No, it was not the coming of the next Messiah; nor was it a world public holiday. It was when the Avengers the movie aired in theaters.

People went gaga and thrilled about watching this movie.

What made the movie so exciting is to see these famed Marvel heroes enter the screens from different movies or stories merged together in one to save planet Earth.

Aside from this, the effects, the actors and the whole production, wonder why many had booked movie tickets weeks before the premiere showing day?

It was marketing—incredible marketing campaigns. In this article, we will discuss 10 marketing lessons business enthusiasts and practitioners can learn from this movie, The Avengers.

1. Clear Strategy

The movie was pre-launched almost two years before its show date. This shows that the marketing team had done their research and preparations well as they had followed a clear strategy in their midst. Starting from the Comic-Con International convention in July 2010, the movie director turned up and made a splash. Ultimate fans became hyped, waiting for the day the movie would screen. Two years prior to that, Nick Fury (Samuel Jackson) had also left an imprint somehow through the Iron Man movie when he mentioned he would be recruiting a team.

Disney had capitalized on this buildup after buying Marvel back in 2009. In last year’s Thor movie, moreover, the villain Loki had shown that there will be a sort of an upcoming avenge (before the actual credits). This has gone viral for the fans as well and grabbed their attention for the assembly and the coming of the Avengers.

Bottom Line: Four big names (Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America, Thor) to brand and market into one has been challenging. In an effort to create this successful marvelous super franchise, every piece of the Marvel movie way back in 2008 contributed to the main puzzle: the Avengers.

Conducting thorough research and being straightforward in knowing how to get to the target market and going beyond the expected reach is very important. In any product or brand marketing, knowing the best strategy to use for the intended market is crucial. Have an end in mind.

2. Awesome Movie Teasers

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More and more people are shopping on the internet, and everyone loves a deal, so how can you make the most of coupon advertising online?

Below are four ways that small businesses can attract new customers without breaking the bank.

1. Twitter Coupons

Social media has exploded into a social marketplace where businesses are getting new customers simply because friends are talking about their activities and experiences with their friends. As an online marketer, you can apply coupons to this equation and reap the benefits of referral marketing combined with discounted pricing.

There is a service called TwtQpon where marketers can create online coupons that they can advertise on their websites, and of course Twitter and Facebook. People who want to use the coupon must tweet to claim it, so this coupon service offers the benefit of having advertising built right in.

These Twitter coupons can be redeemed online using a special code or printed out using a smartphone. Thus, it’s a versatile option for businesses with a physical storefront that want to reach customers online.

Possible Drawbacks: If your target market doesn’t use twitter, well, this may not be your best option.

2. Mobile Coupons

Mobile coupons are all about being in the right place at the right time. If you have worked in marketing at all, you know that this type of positioning can determine whether or not an ad campaign is successful.

Instead of waiting for shoppers to find a coupon, business owners can now reach them on their smartphones while they are actually out shopping nearby and in the buying mood (right place, right time). A company called Yowza has developed an app that allows consumers to see what deals are happening in their area. Shoppers show the Yowza deal to the merchant (via the smartphone) to redeem the offer. Users can download the app for free, so cost is not a deterrent.

Possible Drawbacks: This type of coupon advertising service may be better suited for businesses wanting to attract local customers, since the app targets shoppers by their geographic location.

3. Website Coupons

If you want to advertise special deals exclusively to your own customers or you are on a tight budget and don’t want to pay a monthly fee, you can design coupons and have them available to download on your site.

If you aren’t a coding or graphics wizard, companies like Free Coupon Maker or One Minute Coupon offer a free coupon design service. Marketers can use these programs to create their coupons online and then upload them to their websites where visitors can download and print them.

Possible Drawbacks: Websites that do not receive significant traffic or have a large customer base may not want to rely solely on this coupon advertising method.

4. Advertise Your Coupons on Other Websites

Recently there has been a lot of press about “Extreme Couponing”, which has led many bargain shoppers to the internet searching for coupons. Large coupon websites often list a variety of different coupons from lots of different companies, making it a one-stop-shop for coupon seekers.

Possible Drawbacks: Advertising on high traffic coupon sites like Retail Me Not and Coupon Winner can offer lots of exposure, but there is also a significant amount of competition that goes along with it. A small business that is relatively new and unknown may easily get lost amongst all the other coupons.

Alternatively, businesses can advertise on other websites through a PPC (pay-per-click) service called Pocket Cents. Coupon ads are placed on websites within the Pocket Cents ad network and matched to the company’s particular target market. With a single ad placement, a business can gain exposure on multiple sites.

Possible Drawbacks: Websites on which the coupon ads are placed may be content sites which attract readers as opposed to shoppers.

Choose a strategy that works best for you, and coupons can be used not only to find new customers but keep them coming back as well.

Image Credit: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Search engine optimization used to be so easy. It seems like just a couple of years ago you could just plug in some keywords you got from Google Keyword Tools, get some low quality links, and you would be ranking in no time. That is not the case anymore.

The recent Penguin/Panda updates have not been greeted too kindly by most in the internet marketing industry. Many believe that Google and Matt Cutts, Google’s head of web spam, is trying to manipulate search engine results and have contradicted many of the original commandments that they previously created.

That is most certainly not the case. Google, and Bing to some extent, are trying to make the best possible products for their users. There are trying to return each search result with the most relevant possible web page. They are not going to allow a websites offering sub-par products or services to rank ahead of tried and true companies that could genuinely be of benefit to customers. As much as I hate to say it, 80% of SEO is make the internet and search engines WORSE.

The recent update to the Google algorithm is trying to combat something that we have been adamantly working on for our clients for 2 years. Using the same anchor text for all of your out-bound links is not only obviously unnatural but is extremely easy for the web crawlers to pick out. Using various text in your link will not only help your site in the eyes of Google but also will help you organic keyword spread. The general rule is having  a maximum of 55% of your links using the same anchor text.

Rules to Live By

It is pretty easy to see what the search engines want, and have wanted for some time. They are looking for natural linking sites with quality content. Focus on what it is that you do. Do not just go after the keywords with the most traffic. If you sell cakes, do not include cupcakes in your title tag just because you HOPE it will send addition traffic. Even if it does, traffic that arrive for cupcakes will  increase your bounce rate.

I always refer clients to what we call the Trinity of a successful website. Quality, Direction, and Simplicity.

Quality is self-explanatory. If you have a blog, you should never post articles due to the sake of quantity. Always think before publishing an article, “Would I share this?”. If the answer is no, go back and revise or start over. The more sharable your posts are, the more natural links you will receive, and the better your site will do in the SERPs.

If you have an eCommerce site, focus on quality descriptions of each item. Is it going to take longer? Yes. But you will reap the benefits 10 fold.

Direction is key for any site. Users should be able to know how to navigate to the important sections of your site without even thinking. Large BUY NOW buttons, easy to read menus, and thoughtful navigation are key to optimizing your conversion rates and getting the most out of the traffic you receive.

Lastly, simplicity is important for customers and SEO. Make sure the search engines and potential customers know what you do and what they are there for. Nothing is worse than a site with five pop-ups, a chat window and 300 social media buttons on every page.

The moral of the story is don’t try to game the system. Provide great, clean information and do what it is that you do. As Google puts it “don’t be evil.”

Image: Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Whether you blog or run topical niche sites, you’ve should have heard of Google’s AdSense program. Maybe you even currently make money from it, or you know someone who does. The truth is that there is a lot of money to be made from AdSense if you know what you are doing. But there are also important guidelines to follow if you want to keep an account in good standing with Google.

Introducing Google’s Adsense Academy

AdSense Academy is free and you can use it today to start learning how to make more money, with more speed so you can reach your goals faster.

Here’s the thing. There are bloggers who make big money with AdSense. They make a lot of money and they have fun doing it. But there are also bloggers who used to make a lot of money with AdSense and then they lost their account because they failed to follow the guidelines. Click this link to see for yourself

If you make a lot of money with AdSense or you plan to, you will want to go through the academy. Why? Because when you complete it, you will have a clear understanding of how to comply with Google’s policies as well as how to make more money with ads on your site. You will also learn how to be more efficient, and how to make more money per ad and get more traffic.

I think we can all agree that more money, more traffic, and more conversions are awesome! So don’t worry about if it will be too boring to trudge through the information and learn it, because you ought to be focused on growing your business and making more money so you can do what you want.

Here is what you will find in the AdSense Academy. There are six modules.

Module 1. Implement your ad units.

Master the knowledge of ad policies and learn how to quickly find the best performing ads in your campaigns.

Module 2. Take control of your ads.

High five! You’ve learned how to find which ads perform best for your campaigns. Now learn how ads are targeted and how to properly monitor your traffic so you don’t get invalid clicks. Invalid clicks are very bad!

Module 3. Get paid.

Money time! This module teaches you how to get paid. Pretty important.

Module 4. Track your success.

Learn about reports and channels. This is where you get into running efficient campaigns. Having an efficient campaign means maximum profits.

Module 5. Try more features and products

Learn how to experiment with different types of ads to further maximize your profits.

Module 6. Increase traffic and grow earnings

More traffic will likely result in more ad revenue. In other words, make more money. This module will help you optimize your site and find easy ways to improve traffic flow.

If you are using AdSense or plan to use it, go through this free training. If you don’t, you will be much more likely to run into problems including getting your account banned. But you will also make less money if you don’t go through this course. It really is not painful to just go over this information and make sure you understand it. Focus on how it will make you more money and improve your business!

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Everyone loves a sweet deal on a product or service especially at over half the going rate. As an avid researcher for a site comparing internet fax services, I come across tons of deal related information and websites and I have to admit, I’ve been roped in and have taken advantage of a few Groupon deals myself. But with all the trouble websites like Groupon have experienced, is this form of free advertising benefiting the small business owner or creating epic business failures or even worse, complete business shut downs?

A Few Quick Stats on Group Deal Sites

Statistics according to SocialMediaExplorer.com show that:

• 15% of Americans are signed up for a daily-deal site or service
• 66% of those users are women
• 62% of daily-deal users are using them as frequently or more frequently than when they started
• 53% of users tried a business or service specifically because of the deal offered
• And 23% stated they continued using the business after the deal was redeemed

So, how can you take advantage of this advertising outlet and obtain repeat customers without experiencing an epic failure?

Here are 5 steps to take to prevent a total business meltdown and increase repeat customers:

1.    Pre-Plan for Before and After the Promotion

Thoroughly think through what you want, and are willing, to offer to build repeat business and how you will attract the right customers. You don’t want to cheapen your services and attract customers who will not return. One way you can avoid this is by offering services in bulk or as a packaged deal. Some spas, salons, or gyms can do this. You also may want to offer up a follow up service with a cost not as steep as the first coupon or a preferred customer service program that takes effect after the second visit.

If you have a service or product that cannot offer such packages like a restaurant, provide a coupon or some other type of incentive that gets them in again but doesn’t take away from your bottom line.

2.    Ensure You Have Financial Resources Available

Deal sites don’t pay out until the promotion is over and some don’t pay in full but in bits and pieces.

Make sure you plan for your out of pocket expenses vs. getting only a proportion of the price for your product.

Plan your budget wisely.  Ensure that the price point fits your business by doing some quick research on similar businesses and markets.

Don’t let lack of information and research create a $20,000 mistake from not setting the right price points or lack of staff for a deal that turned overnight success like these small business deal- site disasters. Deal-sites will haggle with you so don’t be afraid to go after a price point that will benefit you and satisfy the deal-site.

3.    Get Your Customers Info!

The email addresses and customer information received through the deal-sites are their property and are unavailable to you. You want to remember to gather the customer’s information when they come in to redeem their coupon so that you can have future contact on other deals or events that you may offer in order to lure them back.

4.    Plan for Procrastination

People procrastinate. They make a quick decision on line, forget about the coupon, or get busy and realize that the coupon is expiring soon and they need to redeem the voucher. Always keep this in mind and have time set aside for procrastination to be a possibility. Set aside for the last few weeks of your promotions expiration date to have more staff if needed, supplies, and additional resources.

If you have a service such as a gym with a limited number of spaces in your classes, use the expiration date as the last date to sign up so that you don’t have to turn people down because you are unable to accommodate the number of customers. Or, you can simply plan to honor the deal past the due date if necessary and you have the ability.

5.    Research your Deal-Site Source

Tons of deal sites are popping up every day. You want to make sure that the site you choose is a reputable source and won’t be closing down anytime soon creating the inability to pay you. Read their terms of service so you know exactly what you are getting and don’t be afraid to ask questions! They are here to help you!

Deal-Sites such as Groupon or LivingSocial can be a great advertising avenue for your business and don’t have to lead to a complete failure or profit loss. It is your responsibility to make sure this is the best decision as with any decision you make for your company. Put these tips to use when getting up and running on your deal-site campaign!

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We’re in an age of infographics; you can’t visit a popular website of any genre without coming across one. While the huge demand for infographics has led to an increase in volume of the innovative learning tool, it’s also caused a downsizing in their overall quality.

Every graphic designer thinks they can make the next viral infographic, but it takes real effort and thoughtful execution to make one that stands the test of a reader’s scrutiny. Infographics have to be engaging, visually appealing, and highly informative if they’re going to be successful.  If you think you have a great idea for the next best infographic, you might want to take heed of these tips before you send your proposal to a graphic designer.

Choose your topic wisely

As you well know, successful infographics pair easy to understand visuals (pie charts, bar graphs, whimsical drawings) with well researched data in order to inform readers on a subject that needs to be addressing. The infographic essentially offers a long, detailed answer to a question that’s been asked over and over in the blogosphere or through other forms of media.

So if you want your infographic to take off, you need to carefully choose the topic. It needs to be something that many bloggers and comments touch on from time to time, but something that hasn’t been discussed in any detail. A fashion blogger might create an infographic that details the evolution of some universal apparel trend that’s gone unnoticed among other bloggers, for example. Your infographic should be designed to answer the question that’s been on everyone’s mind, one that no one has had the courage (or forethought) to answer.

Cite everything

When I read through an informative infographic, one that makes me utter “I didn’t know that” out loud in disbelief, I expect to see a bunch of sources backing up the data. When I see the sources in a footnote at the bottom of the infographic, I get that warm feeling that I just learned something new that I can use as a talking point with my friends later on.

When there aren’t any citations, I tend to doubt the credibility of the infographic. And when I do that, I start questioning the credibility of the blog that posted the infographic, and I start to wonder if the blogger in question just posted it to boost his readership.

Infographic citations are just as important as grammatical sentence in blog posts: the reader might not always notice it when you have them, but they’ll definitely let you know when you don’t. If some statistic can’t be backed up by hard evidence, don’t include it in your infographic!

Punchy and clean design elements

The best infographics out there combine clear and citable statistics with equally clarifying graphics meant to enhance the dry facts and figures. The graphics in an infographic serve as the vehicle for communicating all the information you want to relate, so it’s best to make those images as clean and bold so as to catch and keep your reader’s attention. That means avoiding clutter, whether that means too many charts and cutesy figures clustered around each other or huge paragraphs of text breaking up the consistency of your design. That also means including charts and graphs that don’t require a physics degree to figure out, sticking to layman’s terms and figures.

What are some of your favorite infographics out there? Do you have any guidelines for choosing the topic and design of your own infographic? Let me know!

Image Credit: Suat Eman

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A few years ago, I was on the other side of the Twitter debate. “Rubbish”, I called it.

A “fad” that will never catch on in B2B circles, because businesses don’t communicate with businesses over social networks.

I still think that I was partly right, and I still can’t help but raise a smile whenever I see a marketing manager at a mid-level accounting software business declare “we simply have to be part of the social media revolution – get me a Facebook page now.”

Can B2B really get anywhere with social media? Or should b2b marketers simply shift their focus back to the real world, i.e. face-to-face market research, lead generation and getting “face time” with prospects?

I’m starting to believe that it can. Talk of a convergence between B2B and B2C has petered out of late, but I can see b2b marketers using social media in a more traditional manner: nurturing and understanding prospects and customers. Let’s look at the common social networking sites and how we can best take advantage of them.

Twitter

On a personal level, I’ll be damned if I ever want to ‘engage with a brand’ on Twitter. But that’s just a characteristic of mine, and any B2B marketer had better understand that before they talk to me. However, I am there, and you can ‘engage with me’ should you wish to – and many of your potential b2b prospects are on Twitter, too.

While many businesses simply ‘tweet’ their latest news and product promotions, they are left scratching their heads at why Twitter doesn’t generate a) clickthroughs or b) leads. Instead of being outside the community, shouting into it, they should be in it, saying something interesting. People don’t want to engage with your brand, but they would engage with it if you had something of value to them. Give them research, white papers, exclusive downloads, anything you can package for free that is done by you, but not about you. Position yourself as a thought leader, and don’t expect anything in return!

Here’s how to do it:

1)   Build up your community by following people who have an interest in your industry or niche. Followerwonk.com helps you do this by searching through peoples’ bios – or you could just search through tweets.

2)   Use twitter handles (@something) as part of your overall data set – they’re as important as e-mail and postal addresses now, so get your CRM fixed so that it includes this.

3)   Say something interesting – comment on the latest industry news, share some articles (not your own), and join in conversations.

4)   Keep adding hashtags to commonly used keywords, so that you turn up in searches.

5)   Retweet things that you find interesting

6)   Monitor your engagement with target organisations and personnel. Record it in your CRM, if you can, and you start to build up a picture of behaviour and attitudes that is useful for other people in your organisation (sales, perhaps?)

7)   Once you’ve built up a decent list of followers, start giving. Freebies create goodwill, so start spreading the love.

8)   Again, as a good B2B marketer, you’ll know what to do next: monitor, measure, record and react. If you have multi-channel contact possibilities, an e-mail will likely be better received. A phone call may even be welcomed. Nurture your list.

Pinterest

This made me smile: http://pinterest.com/search/?q=Vmware

No re-pins yet. Bless them for trying, though. You see, Pinterest is developing at a rate of knots, and it pays to be at the forefront of these so-called revolutions. If you haven’t yet discovered Pinterest, it’s all about ‘pinning’ images onto virtual pinboards. It’s very popular with women, especially brides who are looking for inspiration, but also anyone who is looking for interior decoration ideas. In short, anything where people can share and comment on images, or even videos.

It’s developing, too – more and more, people are sharing the ubiquitous memes, lolcats and the like – but increasing numbers of businesses, mainly B2C are seeing potential by adding prices to their products.

Chances are that your prospects aren’t using Pinterest at work – and if they are, they won’t be in their job for long. However, that’s not to say that you can’t find ways of generating a buzz through Pinterest – the only cost is your time. Just think about how imagery can convey something about your business – it could be an infographic, it could be a compelling image from your blog, it could be an eye-catching graphic that opens up a conversation.

Google+

The problem with Google+ is that hardly anybody knows what it’s for, apart from SEOs and photographers. Oh, and Google.

Research has shown that people only spend a few minutes per month on Google+, compared to several hours for Facebook, and the entire month for certain Pinterest users. There was even an open letter to Google from a former employee damning the company for the haphazard launch of G+.

That said, it’s Google’s toy, and they’re pushing their own content into the first page of your search results. When signed in, users get personalised content according to the people they’re connected to (if they’re connected to anyone). Therefore, having a Google+ business page is essential.

The future of G+ is unclear, but one recent Google patent shows that author rank is going to play a major role.

So what is author rank? Again, we don’t really know yet, but it all revolves around author popularity and authority. So, if you’re writing, you have to connect your blog up to Google+ (and vice versa), and you have to write content that is compelling enough to be shared. The more shares you get, the more authority you have.

If this is Google’s end game with Google+, then it makes perfect sense: those who have something interesting to say, and who act as part of a community, will benefit in the long run. So start now. Write – not just for yourself, but for other websites. Find content partners, and share content. In the years to come, your effort should pay off with better search engine rankings, and better clickthrough rates from the SERPs.

Finally, it’s a marketing mix, as we’re always told, and it’s what works for your business. The only real investment here in social media is time, and time is precious. But as with all other elements of the marketing mix, the essentials are there: if you can’t measure it, don’t do it.

Image Credit: Stuart Miles

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