Marketing: Do you use these resources?

Fast Company:
Four Awesome Marketing Vehicles You Probably Take For Granted
Read more:  http://goo.gl/mag/XzuMf

10 Small Business Social Media Marketing Tips

I suggest you begin by outlining clear goals for your social media marketing efforts and figuring out how you’ll measure success. Once you’ve outlined your goals, let’s look at 10 great ways you can begin to leverage social media for your marketing efforts. Read more online.....
10 Small Business Social Media Marketing Tips


I have also published an eBook on the topic of Social Networking.... available in the Amazon Kindle library for Free or for Purchase $8.

 

Take Twitter to the Next Level

I'm not that great at "Tweeting".  I found this article to help me Take Twitter to the Next Level
(click on the link to read the entire article.) Here's the 10 Tips that were listed:

Tip #1
Be funny and/or interesting. Although the Twitter feed moves very quickly, you never know who will come across your tweet, so make sure it is relevant and thoughtful.

Tip #2
Tweet quotes and statistics, but keep them under 120 characters so people can retweet with ease.

Tip#3

Find, follow, and talk to people who like to talk about what you like. It is important to follow people who have the same interests as you. From there, you can start conversations and position yourself as a thought leader in your industry.

Tip#4
Make influencer lists. In order to be an expert in your area, you need to know what people are talking about. When you follow someone, add them to a public list. This is also helpful in organizing your followers and then easily finding information when you need it.

Tip #5
Use a dashboard—this is helpful because you have the ability to schedule Facebook posts and tweets in the future. With the help of a dashboard, you don’t have to be sitting right in front of your computer to tweet. You can schedule your tweets to post whenever you want! (Shameless plug: iContact now has a way to schedule your Facebook and Twitter posts. Read more about it here.)

Tip #6
Go mobile! In a world where the majority of people have smartphones, it has never been easier to tweet on the go. Make tweeting second nature.

Tip #7
Tweet live events, and remember to use the hashtag for the event. It’s another great way to position yourself as a thought leader in your industry.

Tip#8
Embed Twitter and Facebook into publications. Make it easy for your customers to tweet and Facebook you by including your Twitter page in your email signature, on your website, and through direct mail.

Tip #9
Track and analyze to see the impact that you have! This is a crucial part of social media. How will you know where to go if you don’t know where you have been? Measure clicks, @mentions, and retweets.

Tip #10
If all else fails, use the Beibs. Look at what is trending, and join the conversation!


This post was written by Lucy Welton.

How Do You Stack Up: Self-Diagnostic Marketing Assessment Test

Are you questioning your marketing strategy or putting a new strategy in place for 2012?  Take this mini-Marketing Assessment Test, courtesy of William Stewart. 
Let me know how you score.  Comment below or send me an email to Nakia@NakiaBrands.com
We can discuss & come up with a Plan that gives your business a boost!!

Open publication - Free publishing

Optimize Your PDF Documents

How to Optimize a PDF for Search

Five Social Media Mistakes to Avoid

Five Social Media Mistakes to Avoid
Written By:
Lucy Welton, iContact Social Media Marketing Coordinator

What’s the one thing that every single person is guaranteed to do? Make mistakes! Some of us make more than others, but we can all learn from them. (Trust me, been there, done that!) As the social media marketing coordinator for iContact, I spend a great deal of my time on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus each day. I recently got to thinking about common mistakes that people and businesses make on social media channels and thought I would share what I’ve learned.
Click below to read the five easy-to-fix mistakes.

Five Social Media Mistakes to Avoid

Keys to Writing a Solo Email

By Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero

The day you hung out your shingle as an entrepreneur, you also took on the job of marketer. The minute you stop marketing yourself is when your profits dry up, so you may as well get used to your role. If you don’t let people know what your business has to offer, you will NOT run a thriving business.

You may not want to hear this – in fact it may even make you mad. But a great way to let people know you have something special for them is through a solo-mailing (an email with a single offer sent to your permission-based list of subscribers). 
Solo-mailings are so prolific because they WORK. While I don’t advocate abusing your list by sending them more than a few times per month they ARE effective when done correctly. They have kind of a bad rep because some marketers have a “buy or die” attitude. They send solos out daily or every couple of days until you either buy or unsubscribe. They aren’t worried about building loyalty and trust. They just want a quick buck. (I do not share this philosophy.) Even when you offer something of great value

I’ve found three definite trends you can count on with a solo-mailing:

1. You WILL get unsubscribes
2. You WILL get hate mail
3. You WILL make money

It is number 3 that I want you to laser focus on. See, I WANT you to make money. Since you have entrusted me with your email address, I consider it my job to show you as many tactics as I have learned about how to run a successful online business. That being said, here are the 5 keys to making solo-emailing work for YOU:

1. Attention-grabbing subject line. Do you sort through your email and select “delete” without even opening some? Me too. But if the subject line is intriguing the email is much more likely to get read. It’s really the headline for your email. Also try to keep the number of characters on the short side so the words don’t get cut off in the email program. Here are the maximum subject line lengths for some commonly used email programs:
Outlook: 64 characters AOL: 52 characters Hotmail: 45 characters Yahoo: 80 characters
Some of my more successful subject lines were: I’m not that kind of girl She didn’t want me to tell! May I critique your copy? How to get lucky on Valentine’s Day Are you in?
Remember, you’re competing with hundreds of other emails so make your subject line strong.
2. Make it Personal. Studies show an increase in response when first names are used in the copy. Think about it. If you were in a busy airport and you heard someone holler out your name, wouldn’t you turn to see who it was? Of course you would. Works in email too. (Techno Tip: The code looks like this: {!name} but when it comes out it reads as the subscriber’s first name. You have to use a delivery system that supports this mail merge tactic.)
3. Dazzle them with your hook. Nothing kills a sale faster than boring copy. So throw in a little soft shoe entertainment. Give your readers a reason why you are having this special sa!e or 0ffer. Tell them a (brief) story. Marketer Jason Potash does an excellent job with hooks. One email explains how he needs his subscribers help to get him out of the doghouse with his wife… so they should buy his product. Tellman Knudson caught my attention with a tale of how he was unable to sleep at night… so I should buy his product. Perry Marshall spun a brilliant story of how as a kid he wanted a robot to do his chores for him but that was just a fantasy; today he knows copywriting is as close as you get to an effortless marketing solution… so you should sign up for his teleseminar. All of these hooks tie back into the offer. A good story keeps them reading.
4. Don’t forget the 0ffer! Let’s have a little chat between the two of us, k? The purpose of your solo-mailing is to generate cash. So remember to ask for it. Allow me to grant you permission to ask for business. Poof! It is okay to ask for business. It is okay to market. It is okay to make money. You, like me, are in business to make a living, correct? So marketing ourselves is a given. I expect to be marketed to… and so should you. Like the late, great Ray Charles said, “If you think in pennies, you get pennies. But when you think in dollars, you get dollars.”
5. Make your P.S. work harder. Your post script, or P.S. is a very highly read bit of copy. It’s that last afterthought of the email. And our eyes are drawn to it like a magnet to steel. So this is a great place to encourage them to take action NOW and place the order link. Even scanners are likely to read the P.S.

For better or for worse, we are all in sales. So face your fears, gulp hard and get out there and market!

Author Resource -> Copywriting guru Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero has been helping entrepreneurs and copywriters get their marketing messages razor sharp since 1999. Get free access to 5 tips to turn your “blah” sales message into red-hot copy that ROCKS… at  http://www.redhotcopy.com/

Ask the Marketing Team: Website or Facebook?

Which is better for your business?
Written By:
Randall Rozzell, iContact Creative Designer & Developer
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Recent Ask Marketing question:
I am preparing to start my own business, and I’m unsure of what to use to promote myself. What would you say are the advantages of having a website instead of Facebook?

Take a look at the answer here:
Ask the Marketing Team: Website or Facebook?

Twitter for Brands... now available!

Check out Twitter's announcement:  Twitter Launches Brand Pages for Business Accounts

Social Media Buttons; which one works?

Social media is an extremely valuable tool for promoting your great marketing content. But with so many social media platforms providing their own individual content sharing and follow buttons, it's often difficult to differentiate between which social media button to use for what purpose.  
Read more....
The Ultimate Cheat Sheet for Creating Social Media Buttons

Want to Start a Blog? First Things First. You’ll Want a Great Web Domain Name!

By Nicole Dean

More and more moms are getting into the blogging scene. Some for fun, some for profit, and some for both. Why not make money while you’re blogging about your favorite stuff, right?
It’s easier than ever to get started blogging. But the first thing you need before you begin is an idea for your domain name.

What is a domain name?
It’s the “www (dot) SOMETHING (dot) com” that people will type in to get to your blog. It’s like your address.

How do you Know What is a Good Domain Name?
There are some standards for what is a “great” domain name verses one that makes you wonder what on earth that person was thinking!
In order to help you to come up with a great web name that you’ll love for years, here are my unbreakable rules for choosing a domain.

1. No hyphens. Avoid dashes and hyphens. I’ve been there. Done that. Regret it to this day.

2. No numbers. Do I spell it out “seven” or is it the number “7??

3. Avoid words that are difficult to spell. Although I once was really excited about using a domain with the word “catalyst” in it — I found that no one could spell the darned thing.

4. Domain should end in .com. I don’t bother with other endings like .info or .biz. People tend to type in .com at the end of everything, so it’s usually best to stick with a .com ending.

5. Domain must NOT have any copyright names in it. I would not recommend using “Starbucks”, “Disney”, or any other company name in your URL or you may get a “cease and desist” email. Yes, even though you’re starting as a little mom blogger, eventually you might get huge. So, it’s best to plan for success in advance and avoid using trademarks in your URL.

6. If I’m looking to sell your blog down the road, it must be generic enough. For instance, I wouldn’t buy “NicoleKnowsFootball.com” to talk about my favorite football team if I planned to sell the site ever, because I’d have to find someone named Nicole to buy it.  And my big, bad unbreakable rule.

 7. It must pass the Oprah test.


Nadine Thompson, CEO ~ Soul Purpose Lifestyle Co.
and Oprah Winfrey

What exactly is the Oprah test? Well, I picture Oprah saying it out loud. “Today I have with me, Nicole Dean, author of Blah blah blah and owner of NicoleontheNet.com”. Is it memorable? Easy to spell?

You can’t do that with MyNumber1-BestHome-Remedy-Treatments4New-Mothers.net.

Why is this Important?

A difficult domain is actually wasted opportunity and wasted traffic slipping through your fingers. If you’re promoting via audio or video (maybe on podcasts or on YouTube) – you need a domain that is EASY to remember. It has to make it into the person’s ears and to his brain and stick. Heck, even if you run into an old college friend and say “Stop by my site www (dot) somethingcool (dot) com” – you’ll want her to remember long enough to actually come to your blog, right? So, make it simple. Make it memorable. And you’ll be glad.

Plus, honestly, it’s a credibility issue. Would you really buy something from MyNumber1-BestHome-Remedy-Treatments4New-Mothers.net? I hope you wouldn’t even think of getting out your credit card for a site like that. SCARY. And would you feel comfortable referring it to your friends? Not a chance.

How do you get a domain name of your very own?

You can get a domain at https://www.momwebs.com which is also my recommendation for Web Hosting. As you sign up for your domain, you can get hosting at the same time. And… they’ll even set up your blog for you for only $10. Plus, there’s a phone number that you can call if you have any questions.

 With all of that help, there’s nothing stopping you from setting up your first blog.

I hope this has been helpful. And, I really look forward to seeing YOU on Oprah!


Nicole Dean is co-owner of Mom Webs Hosting – https://www.momwebs.com where you’ll find the host with the most. It offers everything a mom blogger needs – reliability, unlimited hosting, and customer service that never makes you feel intimidated — all at a price you can afford. MomWebs.com was created to help overcome the technical hurdles that may be preventing moms from sharing themselves with the online world. Check out the free training at MomWebs.com