5 Ways to Improve Your Social Media Marketing

Social media is an ever-evolving industry. It seems as if every major social network on the market rolls out a new feature or update every week, making it a challenge just to keep up with all the changes they foist on their billions of users, let alone actually use these tools for your company’s marketing and promotional campaigns.

Still, if you want to stay ahead of the competition and keep your clients, prospects and supporters engaged, you need to constantly be aware of the best practices utilized by the masters of the social media world. Check out these 5 tips on improving your social media marketing to boost your business and your bottom line:

1. Schedule it. Don’t let the demands of running your business overwhelm your social media efforts and lead you to abandon a promising social community. Use third-party tools like Hootsuite or even Facebook’s own native scheduling feature to line up your content and have them automatically publish on days and times that you select. That way, you’ll never have to worry about keeping your social networks updated with useful and interesting content for your followers and fans, even on your busiest days and weeks. 


2. Diversify your content. Don’t just populate your networks with sales copy ripped from your catalogs or manufacturers’ brochures. Think of other media you can take advantage of to keep your content interesting and attract your followers’ attention. The next time you’re with a client and they compliment your business or customer service, ask them if they wouldn’t mind doing a quick video testimonial for your Facebook page or YouTube channel. Most of the latest smartphones make great web-quality videos that you can then quickly upload to YouTube for easy distribution across your social networks. If you’re an interior designer, take photos of your latest project and share your creative process on your blog or Instagram feed. Content doesn’t have to be all text, and if you want people to keep coming back and remain interested in what you have to share, it shouldn’t be.


3. Maintain consistency. One way to not only improve your social media marketing but also simplify it is to create a series around a theme that will publish at regular intervals. For example, if you’re an HVAC dealer, why not create a web video series on your YouTube channel focusing on simple DIY tips for the homeowner or even a Word of the Day centered on the HVAC industry? Each video need only be about 2-3 minutes long, unless you’re doing a detailed instructional video. Release a new video every week or every month as you would a “real” TV or video series so that your fans and followers will know to expect it. Not only will it lend your company and your expertise the credibility you need to attract new customers, it will also give you powerful search engine optimization benefits as you build a deep bench of video content to promote your website and your company online.


4. Consider paid advertising. While many brands run successful social media campaigns without paying a dime in advertising, it’s much harder now for small businesses to attract a sizable following than it was even just a couple of years ago. Paid or sponsored advertising on Facebook or Twitter is a great way to accelerate your community growth and learn more about that community and what they’re interested in. Like PPC (pay-per-click) advertising on search engines, social media advertising is largely dependent on the click-through rate, i.e., the more you click, the more you pay. You can experiment with different ads, keywords, graphics, and/or to see what resonates best with your target audience and then invest your funds in the ads that get you the most bang for your buck. Depending on your goals and budget, you can advertise for less than a $100 a month, and since you can stop and start ads at any time, this is a great way to promote seasonal or otherwise short-term sales and new products.


5. Keep up with the industry. You don’t have to read every single blog and online publication out there to know what’s going on in every corner of the social media universe, but at least subscribe to the newsletters of the big names in the industry: Mashable, Social Media Examiner, AllFacebook, and Social Media Today are all excellent sources of the latest information and news for social media marketers.

Do you have a favorite social media you’d like to share with our community? Please feel free to add to the comments below.

 

5 Ways to Improve Your Social Media Marketing

Celebrate Mohawk Flooring’s Anniversary with Big Savings!

 

Need to replace your flooring? Now is the time to act!

Celebrate Mohawk’s Anniversary Sale by saving big on select styles and get up to $500 cash back on select SmartStrand® Silk™ Carpet & ArmorMax™ Hardwood.

Fall is the perfect time to enjoy the comforts of home and huge savings from Mohawk’s Anniversary Sale, featuring SmartStrand® Silk™ carpet that’s luxuriously soft with exceptional durability, and ArmorMax™ hardwood! Check to see if your local flooring store is participating in this promotion and make sure to enter for your chance to win $2,500 of Mohawk Flooring!*

Hurry, contest and offers end October 28, 2013.

 

Visit http://www.mohawksale.com to enter to register through one of these store locations:

Al’s Carpet Flooring                                                Carpet Clearance Custom Flooring Center      8016 N. 2nd St.                                                           21014 Golden Triangle Rd

Machesney Park, IL 61115                                        Santa Clarita, CA 91350

815.673.7428                                                              661.505.1898

DeGraaf Interiors                                                    Mark’s Floors
6450 28th Ave., Suite J                                              3985 Hwy 19A

Hudsonville, MI 49429                                              Mount Dora, FL 32757

616.777.5538                                                             616.777.5538

Valley Floor Company
8909 Boston State Rd.

Boston, NY 14025

716.312.4227

 

Visit www.mohawkpromo.com to enter to register through one of these store locations:

The Floor Store                                                            Barrington Carpet & Floor Design

5327 Jacuzzi Street 2A Richmond, CA 94895            3602 S. Arlington Rd Akron, OH 44312

510.374.4746                                                                 330.752.2081

 

It’s easy! Click on one of the links above and choose your local participating store. Then, just 3 Simple Steps to register for your chance to WIN $2,500 of Mohawk Flooring!*

1. Complete our short survey.

2. Print Your Official Registration Form.

3. Bring form into your local participating store between September 13, 2013 and  October 28, 2013.

 

*No purchase necessary to win $2,500 of Mohawk Flooring. Must register for chance to win $2,500 of Mohawk Flooring between 9/13/13 and 10/28/13. Product offers good through 10/28/13. Void where prohibited. For official rules, complete program eligibility, dates, details and restrictions, visit http://mohawkpromo.com or http://mohawksale.com. Official registration form must be brought into the store to complete entry.

 

 

 

 

Celebrate Mohawk Flooring’s Anniversary with Big Savings!

CRM Apps for Small Business

Without customers, you have no business! Customer relationship management (CRM) should certainly be a high priority for you and your business. With CRM apps, small businesses can now manage their client relationships and customer databases with ease. Try these apps to get connected and stay on top of your CRM needs:

Insightly: A CRM and project management tool in one. The application integrates with Gmail so users can manage data between both services seamlessly. Users can create reminders, assign activities, save recurring tasks and automate many schedule-related processes. Social integration is also offered so users can interact through social media channels like Twitter and LinkedIn.

Batchbook: This application is like Facebook, Google, and your contact database combined. You can view blog posts, photos, tweets and more alongside contact history to really keep on top of your customer relationships. This app offers great reporting and even integration with other apps like MailChimp.

Capsule: This application that allows users to keep track of their professional contacts as well as maintain communication with them. The tool covers all contacts even beyond customers, which includes leads, vendors, and others. You can review their history, attach notes, files, and documents as well as organize emails and track bids.

Maximizer: This app has sales automation at its core. It’s great for managing contacts as well as interactions and pipeline status. Additional capabilities include marketing automation for lead scoring, nurturing, and email campaign execution.

These are just a few of the CRM apps available. There are many to chose from depending on your needs and budget. Are you already using a CRM tool? Which one is your favorite?

CRM Apps for Small Business

Why Your Website Needs a Digital Audit

You have a website, email campaign, and social media pages, but are all your digital efforts working together to give you the best possible results? Before you can start making relevant changes to pages and content, you must be able to identify the exact issues that are getting in the way of your website reaching its full potential. A digital marketing audit allows you to understand how your digital investments are working and what’s needed to accelerate your ROI. A few reasons why your website needs a digital audit:

Website performance. Navigation and load times are highly important when attracting visitors to your site and keeping them there. Broken links and error messages are just a frustration for everyone. Your potential customers won’t wait around to find the information they need. Instead they will simply move on to the competition.

Search optimization. A website is useless if no one can find it! Search engines like Google and Bing are continually changing their search algorithms to offer users the best possible search experience. Your content, page titles, URLs, and Meta tags absolutely must be optimized for the latest search updates to ensure you are ranking and being found online.

Website security. Providing a safe and secure website experience to your audience will make customers feel more confident in your site and business. Plus, you’ll protect yourself from online threats and attacks.

Improve conversions. Whether it’s inbound leads or product purchases, a digital audit can show you how visitors are converting to customers. See how users are interacting with your website to decide what works and what you may want to consider changing.

When it comes to determining whether or not your website is achieving your business’s goals, a digital audit is just what the doctor ordered!  A good audit should show what you need to edit or improve, why you need to make the changes, and how to go about it all.

Ready to give your website a digital audit? Contact us at Business Direct Marketing today to get started!

 

Image via Wikipedia 

 

 

 

Why Your Website Needs a Digital Audit

Marketing with Facebook Contests

Facebook recently updated their Page Terms and revamped the rules for holding contests on Business Pages. Its new guidelines for contests and promotions now make it significantly easier to create and administer promotions through your business’s Facebook page. Businesses are now allowed to run their contests directly on their own Facebook pages rather than use only the previously required third-party apps. Now businesses can:

• Collect competition entries by users posting on the Page or comment and/or liking a Page post


• Collect entries through users messaging the Page


• Use likes as a voting mechanism

Now that Facebook has made a huge shift in how they allow contests to be run, here are a few tips for you to get started on marketing with Facebook contests:

Set your goals. Think about what you hope to accomplish with the contest and set applicable goals. Perhaps you want to increase engagement, to grow your fan base, or to promote brand awareness. Setting some simple goals will help you to stay within your budget, identify your target audience and, choose your contest activities.

Select your prize wisely. Make use of your own branding and products to appeal to your target audience. This keeps the motivation to enter related to your business. You’ll attract targeted participants (ie, potential future customers) who are interested in your products/services – not just people who ‘like’ your business for your contest prize.

Promote your contest. Of course you’ll want to promote your contest on Facebook, but also cross-promote the contest on your other social channels like Twittler and Google+. You should post about your contest at least once a day on all your channels. Also add links and banners about the contest to your website and include information on it in your customer newsletters and blog.

Measure your results and learn. Take note of how well the contest contributed to your predefined goals. Check your business page’s Facebook Insights to see how many people visited your contest, how many more likes you received during the contest period, and how your reach was affected during the contest. Understand what contributed to the success of your contest and start thinking about what you can do differently the next time around for even greater success.

Have you run a Facebook contest recently since the rules have been redefined? What was your experience and what other tips would you add to our list?

 

 

 

Marketing with Facebook Contests

BDM Joins 'Duck Dynasty' Stars for Fundraiser

 

Recently, Business Direct Marketing partnered with East Texas Christian Academy to promote the school’s 35th annual fundraiser. Special guest speakers Willie Robertson and Miss Kay Robertson from the A&E hit show ‘Duck Dynasty’ appeared at the event to benefit ETCA and raise funds for a new school building. The BDM marketed event at the Oil Palace in Tyler, Texas, was an overwhelming success!

Autographs from the stars of ‘Duck Dynasty’

BDM with Willie Robertson

BDM with Miss Kay

 

 

BDM Joins 'Duck Dynasty' Stars for Fundraiser

Google AdWords Tips for Small Business

 

Google AdWords is a great way for small businesses to advertise. In fact, it’s one of the most useful online tools for directing new traffic to your business website. If your not familiar with Google AdWords, it is Google’s own ad buying and placement tool that partners with Google Search to drive web traffic straight to your site. While it may seem sophisticated and complicated, Google AdWords doesn’t have to be as overwhelming as it looks. And if done right, it can yield amazing results for your small business. Try these Google AdWords tips to get your campaign started:

Create your ad and keep it simple. Well-designed ads can work wonders for your AdWords campaigns. The ads only allow a couple lines of text, so make it attractive and to the point.  The right wording or image choice can lead to increased sales as well as lower cost-per-click and better ad placement overall. Start small and test the waters to see what works best for your business. There is no requirement to make a major investment, and you can always progress to larger ad buys once you know what works.

Target with keywords. Choose keywords that are specific to your product, but avoid using words that are too general or obscure. Use words specific to your location as well. Keep in mind that Google charges based on the number of click-throughs to your website. While you can add as many keywords as you want, the more you choose means the faster you’ll run through your clicks, and the less targeted your audience will be.

Make use of negative keywords. In addition to adding the keywords most relevant to your business, think about those word variations that you do not want included. Using negative keywords will disqualify those variations of your search terms making your ads much more successful.

Point to custom landing pages. Create custom landing pages specific to your AdWords ad campaigns. Rather than sending all traffic to your homepage, direct targeted traffic to a landing page based on your keywords and text that further conveys your message to seal the deal.

Test, test, test. Set up multiple ads for A/B or multivariate testing within campaigns. Setting up multiple versions of an ad allows you to better gauge what works and what doesn’t. By regularly testing and modifying, you can further optimize your AdWords campaign for even better results.

 

 

Google AdWords Tips for Small Business