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Reasons to Blog
Written on Mon, Jan 30, 2012
There are tons of reasons to have a blog. Here are a few.
Blogging helps establish you as an expert in your field:
If you write extensively about topics in your field, people will come to regard you as an established expert; the more you write, the more that will be true. And in marketing, being an “expert” is gold. This, in my opinion, may be the single most important reason to maintain a blog.
Blogging gives users a reason to come back:
If your website content never changes, visitors will read what they want to once and leave and probably never be back. But if you’re writing new content all the time, they have a reason to come back. And if your content is interesting, they may even become loyal readers (and fans).
Blogging gives you a reason to create new content:
Once you’ve established a blogging habit, you’ll want to keep doing it (the definition of a habit, after all). If you don’t have a blog, adding new content is difficult and may involve redesigning your site. Blogs are simple; they manage themselves. All you have to do is to keep pouring content into them.
Blogging helps you think and improves your creativity:
By disciplining yourself to blog frequently, you are making yourself create new ideas, think new thoughts, and explain things in new ways. Blogging will keep you out of mental ruts. New ideas will emerge, and you may even find yourself changing or redefining your business model.
Google loves activity:
Did you know that Google gets bored easily, and if it finds nothing new when it checks your site, it probably will stop checking? But did you know that Google sees each new blog post as a separate page, and more pages and more content equals more attention from search engines?Want to get found?
Write more stuff, and do it often!
Tags: blogging -
14 Things To Do This Year
Written on Mon, Jan 16, 2012
1 - Use a 3-level goal setting approach:
- What is the minimum result that I could be happy with?
- What kind of result would make me really happy?
- What kind of result would generate fireworks?2 - Measure success against yourself; your own past performance, not against others' performance.
3 - Test and measure your marketing activities. What's working? What's not working?
4 - Give as much as you can, right now, in all areas of your life.
5 - Publish lots of content, wherever you can find a place to publish it. Be heard above the noise.
6 - Do lots of networking. Lots of it.
7 - Remember how awesome you are.
8 - Be insanely brave. Only good can come from it.
9 - Spend more time with friends and family.
10 - Make a NOT TO DO list of the things you'd like to STOP doing.
11 - De-clutter your life, your living space, your mind.
12 - Know your desired outcome.
13 - Surround yourself with positive people.
14 - Take consistent, focused action.
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Web Stats for 2012
Written on Fri, Jan 06, 2012
In 2012:The audience of internet users in the U.S. will grow to 239 million, about 75% of the total population.
Social Media:- Facebook will reach 143 million US users in 2012, up 8% over 2011.
- About 2/3 of Internet users will use social networks in 2012.
- More than 90% of social network users will be on Facebook.
Online Video:
- Online video viewers will reach 169 million in 2012.
- 53% of the population and 71% of Internet users will be watching online video.
- Mobile video viewers will reach 55 million.
- Smartphone video viewers will reach 51 million.
Ecommerce:
- 88% of US Internet users ages 14+ will browse or research products online in 2012.
- 84% of Internet researchers will make at least one purchase via the web during 2012.
- Online shoppers will reach 184 million, up 3% from 2011.
- Online buyers will reach 155 million, up 4% from 2011.
Mobile Marketing:
- Smartphone users will increase by 18% to 107 million.
- 94% of smartphone users will be accessing the Internet on their phones.
- Mobile shoppers will reach 73 million.
- Mobile buyers will reach 38 million.
- Smartphone shoppers will reach 68 million.
- Smartphone buyers will reach 36.4 million in 2012.
- Tablet users will reach 55 million, a 63% increase over 2011.
- iPad users will grow to 42 million.
- 76% of tablet users will be iPad users.
- Adult eReader users will reach 45 million in 2012, up from 33.3 million in 2011.
Maybe you should get more involved?
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Should you still use "old media"?
Written on Thu, Dec 22, 2011
The Yellow Pages are on life support. Newspaper and magazine ad revenue is a fraction of what it used to be. Nobody opens and reads direct mail anymore. Advertising itself is a dying art. All the various forms of "old media" are dead or dying, aren't they? Yes, they are.
So let us flock to the altar of the "new" media, i.e. online everything. Google is where it's at. Social media is where we need to focus. If it ain't digital, it ain't worth even thinking about!
It's pretty easy to get sucked into this line of thinking, that the web is all there is. Remember the old adage "use the right tool for the job"? That applies to marketing, and I think it means "use whatever tools get the job done".
There are few absolutes in business and marketing, so let us not get into the mindset that digital is EVERYTHING and non-digital is NOTHING. Direct mail still works, if it's used as a follow-up to some other form of initial contact. It should mostly be used to keep a prospect's attention, not as a way to get their attention. Radio and TV still work, though certainly not at well as they used to. Newspapers are rapidly diminishing in effectiveness, and will no doubt some day disappear as a physical medium. But that has not happened yet.
I'm just saying, don't completely disregard the so-called "old" media.
One specific area that seems to command everyone's attention these days is search marketing and search engine optimization (SEO). It's a very important subject, but remember this: not everyone who wants or needs your product or service is actively looking for it on Google. SEO is important, but let's not overstate its importance. You need to analyze who your market is, what they want and need, and whether they're actually aware of that want or need. If they're not, then they're certainly not searching for it on Google, and you may need to use other means to connect with them. There may be many people who don't even know that your product or service exists, but would want it if they did.
Summary: you need a thoughtful analysis of your market. No doubt you'll be best served by a combination of marketing tools, some "new" and some "old". Have you spent enough time lately thinking about this?
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Why do people buy?
Written on Wed, Dec 21, 2011
Do very many people make buying decisions based only on price?Nope. It’s the last on the list.
Top 5 Reasons People Buy:
43% buy because of confidence in the product or company
18% buy based on the quality of the product
14% buy because of the service they can get from the vendor
13% buy because they are offered a good selection
12% buy based on price
Now, total the first four numbers and you’ll see that 88% of people do NOT buy on price! -
Email Marketing Tips
Written on Mon, Dec 19, 2011
Some marketing gurus are suggesting that email marketing is “old school” and no longer very effective. Others maintain that it’s as effective as ever. I’m not going to argue either position here (though I tend toward the latter one). But if you’re going to do it at all, here are the raw basics:
• Messages must only be sent to “opt-in” recipients (people who have signed up for your email list, or otherwise given explicit permission for you to market to them).
• Messages should be short, not more than 200-300 words in the message body. The “less is more” rule applies here. The longer the message, the less the probability that most recipients will read all of it (or maybe any of it).
• Messages should be frequent. How frequent? The correct frequency will depend on your audience and the nature of your business and your content, but mostly it will depend on the agreement you have with your subscribers. If they know they’re signing up for daily messages, then daily is OK. But don’t ask them to sign up for a weekly message then hit them with something every day — they won’t like that. In any case, once a month (or more) is too seldom; you’ll lose continuity with your subscribers.
• Minimize the number of images in your message.
• Never put critical information inside an image. Sometimes, for various reasons, images will not display to the recipient and your information will be lost.
• Your messages should contain interesting and useful information (much like blog posts). If your message content is 100% sales pitch, you’ll lose audience pretty quickly. Use a website landing page for your “pitch”, with a link from your email message.
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| tom@tomharris.us 877-901-9977 Copyright 2012 by Tom Harris |
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