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Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah’s SEO-Friendly ‘Bluebird’ and the Betterment of a Google Ranking

December 15, 2014

As you all know — I love all things Disney, so how could I pass on a guest post that used a Disney classic to talk about SEO!  Enjoy this post from Lucas Miller.

American actor James Baskett was most famous for his portrayal of Uncle Remus, an extremely deep voice, singing the song “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah,” and inventing the word “satisfactual.”

However, what many fail to recognize is the prophetic, Nostradamus-like, subliminal message that Baskett originally fed American marketers at the time of his pioneering music video’s release in 1946 — exactly 60 years before Twitter and her globally-recognized bluebird ever became an actual tool for internet fanatics.

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As an SEO professional, if you’re not harnessing the power of the internet’s favorite “bluebird” — Twitter — you’re doing yourself and your client a disservice.

Says Todd Noall, President and Chief Strategy Officer of Fusion 360, an advertising agency in Utah, “How a brand performs in the digital world is based largely upon it’s ability to be found by potential customers.”

While that might seem like a bit of a “No sh*t, Sherlock” statement, continues Todd with the more difficult portion of the task, “… producing relevant content that customers not only want to interact with, but share with their friends.”

Enter Twitter, stage left. One of the most basic rules of the SEO industry is that quality content will, in time, lead to conversation flow.

According to SearchEngineLand.com, “Posting quality content will also encourage people to follow you. Building high numbers of followers will enhance your authority in Google’s eyes, meaning, any links you post will carry more weight.”

Though popular quick fixes like Twitter competitions and mass follow and unfollow sessions might prove beneficial as a temporary remedy, Twitter as an SEO tool becomes helpful when worthwhile blog posts, widgets, discount vouchers and articles are being shared on a larger scale.

The simpleton of SEO thinks he or she knows the entirety of the industry by one term: “keyword.” It should come as a surprise to no one that using appropriate keywords on a Twitter profile can help with Google ranking, but it’s an error made all too often.

By simply adding important keywords to Twitter bios and tweets, Google — however you view this all-encompassing, amorphous entity — will peg your tweets as relevant to your brand’s cause, thus improving page rank.

Lastly, and here’s the fun part: produce tweets in a way that people will want to retweet them. Depending on the client that you represent, this may mean looking beyond the low-lying fruit of YouTube videos containing hysterical groin kicks. There’s definitely more out there and digging into the deepest of the mind’s creative catacombs will, more than likely, be necessary.

Keep in mind that each tweet only allows for 140 characters. When calling upon the powers of wit, humor, sex, human emotion or anything else that us homo sapiens find attractive, remember that you’ll need to leave enough space for people to retweet your videos, links and comments, all while allowing enough room for them to add a thought or two.

Armed with the help of a certain “Mister bluebird” whispering into your ever-attentive ear the secrets of Twitter mastery, your clients, coworkers and boss will soon be joyfully singing, “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah, Zip-A-Dee-A! My oh my, what a wonderful day!”

They’ll look a little ridiculous, ya know, cause they’re full-grown adults, but what can you expect with a booming Twitter page and Google rank? Answer: nothing less.

Lucas Miller is a young, up-and-coming Wizard of Public Relations. When not writing, running or studying, he’s working tirelessly to perfect what he claims is the “World’s Greatest Pompadour.”

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Are you feeling a little stressed?

November 19, 2014

Feeling a little stressed? As we head into Thanksgiving week, for many of us it signals the beginning of the last frenzied six weeks of the year.

Stress is a natural part of life — but as a culture, we’ve upped the ante and are entering an era of super stress. The consequences of that super stress are showing up in every aspect of daily life and come with incredible costs as we wrestle with the consequences.

Here’s the reality — it’s not going to be getting better any time soon. The causes of this heightened level of stress are here to stay and believe it or not, in some cases — it’s just going to get worse. The country’s economy, a tough job market, and the rising cost of living are the top three stressors cited in a recent survey.

These challenges are not going to be resolved in the foreseeable future, which means their influence will continue.

Another reason we’re a little stressed is because we choose constant connectivity. Our always-on world just keeps getting faster. We’ve explored how the workday is no longer 9-5 but really it’s become 24/7. And it’s not just work.

Our constant hunger for being in the know means there’s always one more video to watch, one more post to read, one more Facebook update to post and one more news story to pass on. We never unplug which also means we have no down time to unwind.

Even the things we love — like having lots of choices, living in urbanized areas, and our Western lifestyle all contribute to why we feel stressed out all the time.

The marketing insight that comes from all of that is — if we are feeling the stress, so do our customers. What should we do with that?

Point out the stress-reducing aspects: If what you sell can make life easier for your customers, be sure they see that attribute. Help them see how your product or service helps them unplug, unwind or unload some of that stress.

Make working with you easier/less stressful: This goes way beyond just having convenient hours or an easy return policy. This is about really walking through your buying process and eliminating as many of the challenges and difficulties as you can. Be sure you let your prospects know that you have made it simple to do business with you.

Simplify the choices: All too often, marketers believe they should offer as many choices as possible. The reality – too many choices equates to stress. Maybe it’s time to look at your offerings. Do you have too many choices? Are the distinctions between the choices clear? Is there something you could do to reduce the number of choices without compromising your prospect’s ability to choose?

Mix in some fun and surprises: People need to find ways to have some fun in this stressful world. But everyone has less leisure time (remember – 24/7 connectivity), which means the fun needs to come to them, right in the middle of the stress. What could you do that would be completely unexpected and add an element of joy or delight to your prospect’s or customer’s day?

The benefits of helping your customers’ de-stress goes far beyond their mental health. It will make interacting with them easier – which your employees will love and if you truly can reduce stress levels – the loyalty that will breed will drop right to your company’s bottom line.

And there’s no better stress reducer than that!

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Big data delivers customized experiences or it’s just noise

November 11, 2014

If there is one phrase we couldn’t seem to get enough of this year — that phrase is big data.

Every day our digital activity (on the web, on our smart phones, social networks etc) creates over 2.5 quintillion bytes of data. In fact, 90% of all the data in the world today has been created in the last two years.

As our phones evolve into our mobile wallets and our hub for digital tickets and coupons – they will add dramatically to the collection of data on consumer spending and behaviors.

Suffice it to say – we are leaving quite a trail. A trail that will help businesses get to know us better, anticipate our needs and provide real time service. As business owners we need to recognize this trend for what it is – both an opportunity and a threat.  It’s also what could put you out of business if you ignore it.

While you may be personally creeped out by the robustness of your data trail, the truth is – most consumers expect you to use their data to service their needs. And now.

With information literally at their fingertips 24/7 and instant access to a host of social media platforms where they can (and do) tell the world if you’ve pleased or disappointed them, today’s consumers are at the epicenter of their world— and their expectations are unbelievably high.

These consumers, especially Millennials, take for granted the idea that companies are using the data they create to tailor offerings. Here are some of the ways we need to be thinking about meeting that consumer expectation. And don’t think that if you’re a B2B company, you are exempt. Your buyers have the same expectations.

Big data needs to mean personalizing offers: Some big box retailers are using data from loyalty card holders to offer different coupons to different shoppers based on insights gleaned via analytics—in essence, personalizing pricing.

On the B2B side, your customers expect that you are intimately familiar with their buying patterns and expect you to serve up offerings that match their buying patterns.

Big data needs to mean catering to consumers in real time: Looking back over last year’s data is so 2001. Your customers expect you to be reacting to what happened yesterday and this morning. They want you to anticipate their needs based on what is happening right now. Does weather, a specific current event or financial conditions in the country influence how your products and services are used? You’d better be tweaking offers, product improvements and availability based on those real time factors.

Big data needs to mean that my customer service should be all about me: Businesses in many industries can fine-tune their customer service to individual consumers based on consolidated data from various sources. This should be heeded, especially in the B2B space – where the assumption is that you have fewer customers and those you have, you know better. In their mind – it is a given that you are tracking and responding according to their past behaviors.

It’s a fine line, of course. We’re talking a trend, which means it isn’t mainstream yet. Some people will be uncomfortable that you know so much. But that will dissipate. And among the Millennials, the attitude is almost non-existent. They expect it. So expect this concern to be somewhat generational and over the long haul, fleeting.

Transparency will be critical. You will need to explain what digital data you are collecting and why, and then assure consumers you can be trusted with the information.

Today this is still cutting edge stuff, especially for most offline businesses. But tomorrow – it will be the norm. Don’t get caught behind.

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This marketing summit promises to be extreme!

October 25, 2014

Are you looking for an edge?  Want to super charge your 4th quarter as you power into 2015?

Maybe this free online event is your ticket.

At the Extreme Small Business Marketing Summit, 6 small business experts will reveal their secrets to get more leads, convert more sales, win more clients, and make more money without driving themselves crazy or spending their last dime.

Now, you can do it too!

In just 6 hours, you’ll revolutionize how you grow your business. Get the business-building tools and strategies you need to boost your results when you register now at no cost for this exciting virtual event.

The Extreme Small Business Marketing Summit starts Monday, November 3rd.  Here’s the speaking line up:

• Adam Urbanski, The Millionaire Marketing Mentor:  His topic is, 3 Step Stealth Marketing System Guaranteed to Attract Clients Like Crazy!
• Dan Hollings, the marketing consultant behind the success of ‘The Secret:” His topic is Zero Cost Marketing Secrets.
• Erik Luhrs, the Bruce Lee of Sales: His topic is, The 3 Steps to Create Lead Generation Messages Prospects Actually Open AND Respond to
• Michele Scism of Decisive Minds: Her topic is, Social Media: Quit Wasting Time & Start Making Money.
• Laura Posey of Dancing Elephants: Her topic is, The Extreme Value Proposition Makeover
• Wendy Weiss, The Queen of Cold Calling™: Her topic, Win Better, Higher Paying Clients Now!

Even if only one or two of the topics appeal to you — the price is definitely right.  Check it out and let me know what you learned!

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Storytelling, storytelling, and more storytelling

October 24, 2014

Seems like every marketing book, blog and study is talking about how we should be using storytelling as a marketing technique. I couldn’t agree more.  Unfortunately, I think most attempts fall short.

Marketers clearly believe that storytelling is a critical component of their marketing efforts.  It’s one of the most talked about topics in marketing circles today.

So — no argument that marketing’s version of storytelling is critical to a business’ communications success. The question is — why are so many companies doing it badly and not experiencing the results they want?

The stories don’t evoke an emotion: There’s not a memorable story around that isn’t seeded in emotions.  For some businesses, especially those in the B2B sector, it’s hard to imagine what emotions their products or services might trigger.  That’s because the marketers are staying at the features level of sales, not delving into the benefits that lie beneath.

It might be as simple as your prospect is afraid if they make a bad decision, it will cost them their job.  Or it could be that what you sell is helping your clients fulfill their reason for existing — which to them is very emotionally motivated.  If you dig deep enough, you’ll find the emotions behind your stories.  Be sure you expose those in your storytelling so that your audience can relate to and empathize with the people in the tale.

The stories don’t use data to lend credibility: What makes true stories so dramatic and grabbing are the facts that are dotted throughout the telling.

Data can be used in a variety of ways to tell your story.  Think visual data like an infographic or let the data suggest a new angle or insight for both you and your audience.

The story doesn’t take us on a journey: In marketing’s version of storytelling, we often take shortcuts to get to the big reveal.  But in taking the shortcut, we rob the audience of story’s arc. Every story is, in essence, a journey that chronicles the problem, the fight to solve the problem and how things are better once the challenge is resolved.

But a great story lets the journey also help the audience see the motivations, frustrations and worries of the characters while they try to face the problem. The outcomes are also wrapped in more than just the tangible results.  When the story is rich with details – we also learn more about the intangible results and ultimate value of delivering the right solution.

The story doesn’t include a next step/call to action: Here’s where most marketers really miss the boat.  A well-crafted story draws the audience in, helps them connect with the main character and feel their common pain.  As the story evolves, the prospect is pulling for the character — because in reality, the character bears a striking resemblance to them.  They experience the ups and downs within the story and as the story delivers the happy ending — the prospective customer is thinking and feeling relief and a desire to share in that sort of outcome.

So marketing’s version of storytelling is all too often, a big tease.  You led them right to the edge — get them hungry for what you’re selling but don’t give them a clear and defined next step.  Ask yourself — what do I want them to do next and be sure you make it easy and quick to take that next action.

What do you think? Can you tweak the way you’re telling your company’s story so that it actually drives leads and generates sales?

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Are you social sharing to your best advantage?

October 20, 2014

If your company is involved in social media, one of the elements you worry about is if you’re sharing in the best way. You want to maximize your company’s exposure but choosing the best social networks, the best way to communicate and even the best time of day.

Your blog content:

If you aren’t using your corporate blog to fuel your social media strategy, you are almost certainly not as effective and efficient as you could be.

If you are sharing great content on social networks that doesn’t exist on your blog or content hub, you are missing out on a huge SEO opportunity. If your content is on your blog, it will generate links and social indicators (likes, shares, +1s, etc.) that will benefit your website’s domain.

Blog content is permanent – social content is not. Let’s say that you posted a great tax tip on Facebook that received hundreds of Likes. When tax time comes around next year, that post will be long gone. However, if you post the tax tip on your blog, you can re-share it year after year. In addition, the tip will be indexed by the search engines and will likely drive search traffic as well.

Social sharing:

How you share content influences the your audience’s reactions. Here are some suggested copy do’s and don’ts as you compose your next update.

• 11-15 words is the sweet spot for Twitter (about 100 characters), and you’re safe to use up to 25. Go any shorter, and your message will likely lack enough information to draw people in.  But you want to leave enough “open real estate” so you your audience can re-tweet or comment.
• LinkedIn postings should aim for 16-25 words, but you are safe to go shorter if necessary.
• Messages on Twitter and LinkedIn receive significantly more clicks if they use a hash tag.
• Using a number (i.e. 4 smart ways to work with your attorney) generate  more clicks on Twitter.

Social timing:

It’s not just what you say, but when you say it.  Timing your social sharing matters.

• Want to get some social love on LinkedIn? Be sure to share your content on Sundays, which delivers more clicks that any other day of the week.
• Fridays yield more clicks on Twitter than any other day of the week.
• Facebook content does well around lunchtime and later in the afternoon. This is because many people get on Facebook during lunch and towards the end of the workday.
• Schedule tweets between 10am and 2pm. Many people check their Twitter stream after they settle into the office, but they are less likely to check it once they start wrapping up for the day.  There’s another spike of activity in the evening, when everyone checks back into their social networks.
• Twitter and LinkedIn content are both more likely to be consumed during the top and middle of the hour. This is likely due to the reader’s need to check their feeds in between meetings.
• Again – keep in mind that these are good rules of thumb, but your industry, audience and experiences may vary. The key is to actually look at your analytics and identify the patterns so you can be as effective as possible in your own social sharing strategy.

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Plant some marketing seeds

October 12, 2014

By the time a farmer is harvesting his crop, he’s already well into the planning of his upcoming planting season. We marketing types could learn a lot from those farmers.

The fourth quarter is a very busy time for most businesses for several reasons:

• Lots of clients are spending the remainder of their budgets
• Customers are motivated to wrap things up before the year’s end
• Many companies are working short staffed and lose a lot of productivity around Thanksgiving and throughout December because of holidays and vacations
• Internal planning for 2015 budgets and work plans is typically done during this time

That’s why it’s not all that surprising that you aren’t thinking about the sales/activity dry spell that often comes in January and February. You may be the exception to this rule, but for many organizations, the first few months of the year are often the slowest in terms of leads, sales and revenue.  That’s why you need to plant some marketing seeds right now.

It’s usually around the end of January that someone inside the company says, “Wow, our sales are really slow. We’d better do something.” They go into a brainstorming session and come up with some sort of promotion, marketing tactics or special to generate some sales activity.

Odds are, the ideas that get generated at the end of January usually start producing results 30-90 days after they’re deployed.

So if that’s the case…wouldn’t it make a lot of sense to begin those promos, specials, and increased efforts now, sixty days before your inevitable dry spell?

Let’s call it your planting seeds effort. You want to generate interest now but deliver the services/goods in January and February. How might you plant some marketing seeds now?

Offer a 2014 budget/2015 delivery deal: You know that many of your clients have a fiscal year that ends in December. They have “use it or lose it” budgets. So why not help them wisely spend those budget dollars? Create an opportunity for them to make a smart purchase in 2014 for things they’ll need in the first few months of 2015.

Put together a package: Why not bundle some of your products/services in a way that guarantees usage over the first few months of the year? Set the end date to purchase the bundle sometime in the middle of January. Begin talking about the bundles now and you’ll either sell some in December or you’ll plant the seeds now and make the sale in January.

Kick off a PR campaign: Maybe it’s time to create some buzz? That kind of buzz usually takes some time to build up so starting now means you’ll have some momentum in a few months. Be smart – concentrate on a few key publications that will position you in the right way with the right audience.

Reach out to former clients: Now might be the perfect time to re-connect with some of your former customers. Keep in mind that they’re (hopefully) doing their 2015 planning right now which might result in their realizing that they are going to need what you sell.

Develop and distribute helpful content: Depending on your industry and your customers, this might be an e-book, a white paper, a podcast, or even an in person seminar. Use this opportunity to demonstrate just how smart you are and how you can help them by sharing that expertise. Use the content to reach back out to potential customers you’ve already courted, prospects and even current customers.

Mine your referral network: Your best customers are typically more than happy to boast about your work. Now is the perfect time to ask them who else they think might benefit from your expertise/products. Set up those initial meet and greets for the first week of January.

Don’t wait until you’re in the middle of your slow season to worry about shortening it. If you plant some marketing seeds right now, the slow season may be a thing of the past.

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How cause marketing can be smart marketing

September 30, 2014

In the last 20 years, the term “cause marketing” came onto the horizon.

The whole idea was this: Many companies donate their time, their talent and their money to various charities, but it was done without anyone knowing about it or the company gaining any additional value from being a good citizen.

Some would argue that to give without any expectation of reward or recognition is the true definition of giving.

Perhaps that’s true. But it’s also very small.

Another word for small in this instance might be isolated. If I give five dollars to a charity and don’t tell anyone about it, the charity gets five dollars and I get a warm feeling inside. All good. But if I tell my friends about the charity and that I’m giving five dollars and invite them to do the same, now look at that I’ve created:

• More awareness for the charity
• Additional dollars donated to the charity
• A community of people who believe in/care about the charity

Which do you think the charity would prefer?

Now, take that a step further. Rather than just telling my friends about it, what if I aligned my choice of charity with my customer base? Odds are I serve a group of people that I have a connection with and that I care about.

So if I look for a charity that would be important to them and to me, I can amplify the impact I can bring to the charity by engaging my entire customer base to rally around them.

When anyone talks about cause marketing, one of the examples they use is Avon and their commitment to fight breast cancer. They were pioneering in the idea of uniting a cause and a group of customers, for a greater good.

We’re all smart enough to recognize that Avon benefits from this alliance as well, in earned media exposure, creating a powerful connection to both their female customer base and their female employee base as well as increased sales.

None of that mitigates the good they do. It’s truly a win/win situation. Here’s how Avon talks about their efforts on their own website:

“One of the company’s largest ongoing projects is the Avon Breast Cancer Crusade, which is aimed at funding research and access to quality care. Now in its 20th year, the project has donated more than $740 million to the cause, making it one of the world’s leading corporate supporters of the fight against breast cancer. Among the successes that Avon lists on its website:

• Linking more than 15 million women around the globe to early detection programs and mammography screenings
• Educating 100 million women on breast health
• Expanding into 55 countries
• Enabling access to care for underserved populations
• Providing $175 million to breast cancer research projects since 1999
• Creating Love/Avon Army of Women, a program designed to accelerate the pace of prevention research by enlisting more than 350,000 women (potential study volunteers) for this effort.

Avon fundraises for these efforts through various methods like hosting the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer series and selling Crusade Pink Ribbon fundraising products.”

I know your company probably doesn’t have the reach of an Avon, but you do have loyal customers who care about the world around them. And I’ll bet there’s a charity or cause that matters to you and that would matter to them if you made the introduction.

As you work on your 2015 marketing plan – I challenge you to weave in a cause marketing effort. There’s nothing that says marketing can’t also make the world a better place.

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5 tips for creating a company culture that connects with your sweet spot clients

September 25, 2014

An area of marketing that is often overlooked is how important it is to be mindful when creating a company culture. You don’t build a culture to make a sale. But the culture you build, if you’re very clear about your organization’s values and beliefs, can translate your company’s personality and attract right fit prospects. It can also reinforce your current customers’ buying decision.

Company culture doesn’t just happen. If you want it to really flourish, you need to make it a priority for your business. You need to build/strengthen the foundation of your culture and then nurture its growth from there.

The challenging aspect of corporate culture, of course, is that culture is shaped by the workforce. Which means it’s an ever-evolving entity. As employees come and go, the culture can be altered in ways that don’t benefit the employees or the organization.

Your culture is too valuable not to protect. Here are a few ways you can ensure that your culture has a consistent foundation that doesn’t ebb and flow over time. If the core is rock solid, then it’s okay if the details shift a little.  Ready to start creating a company culture? Keep these tips in mind.

Create a manifesto: Don’t hide your culture. Celebrate it. Capturing the essence of your culture in a statement of beliefs or manifesto will allow you to articulate the key values and behaviors that you want to protect.

Put it in your employee handbook, create a beautiful framed version and hang it proudly in your corporate office and read it out loud to kick off each year’s first staff meeting. You could even ask new hires to sign a commitment to honoring the manifesto on their first day of work.

Weave the culture’s core values into your job descriptions and review process: Employees know that if something is important enough to be a part of their annual review, then it must be pretty important to the company. You can reinforce your culture by rewarding your employees for keeping it alive.

It’s also a built in culture training program for new employees. If they know they’ll be held accountable to their job description when review time comes along, they’re much more likely to adopt those wanted behaviors.

Make your staff part of the solution: If you teach your employees how your company culture contributes to the success of the organization and then invite them to help you protect it, they’ll gladly accept the challenge.

Why not a team that is charged with bringing the culture to life through employee events, customer interactions and rewards programs? They’ll probably surprise you with their innovative ideas and enthusiasm.

Hire for culture, train for skills: Identify the attitudes and behaviors that best support your company’s culture and hire for those traits. You can teach skills but you can’t teach attitude. It’s much easier for a new hire to fit into an environment that aligns with his or her own personal beliefs. Trying to force a square peg into a round hole puts a great deal of stress on both the organization and the new employee.

Share the vision: The purpose of a company culture is to support the organization as it marches towards its future. One way to help the employees understand the importance of protecting and building the culture is by sharing the desired end result.

Once they share the vision, they’ll be inspired to guard everything that will help you all achieve that vision. If anything, they will strengthen your culture to help you get there even faster.

Your culture matters every day. Purposefully creating a company culture will help you recruit and retain your best talent. It supports how you deliver excellence to your customers and it is a compass that guides you towards even greater successes. Be sure you protect it like the valuable asset that it is.

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