Content Marketing 2 - Old City Web Services

Content Marketing Part IV

October 9, 2015 by anoadmin

October 7, 2015

Today, we are looking at the fourth and final part in our series on Content Marketing. In Part I, we looked at Analytics, in Part II, we looked at Building Your Strategy, in Part III, we addressed Why It's Important. Today, we are going to bring it all together and talk about Implementing Your Content Marketing Plan.

Have a Calendar

Having a content marketing calendar to guide you in what you are going to post on what platform and when is key. You can see what you need more of, and as always it can be altered based on results that you find through Analyzing your Google Analytics

Diversify

A content marketing plan is much more than a blog or website homepage, and you want to think of the big picture. In addition to blogging, your website and content should include calls-to-action, social media posts, email, and website changes.

Enlist Help

Content Marketing Part III: Why It’s Important

September 30, 2015 by anoadmin Leave a Comment

September 30, 2015

Today, we are looking at the third part in our series on Content Marketing. In Part I, we looked at Analytics and in Part II, we looked at Building Your Strategy .

Today, we are looking at why Content Marketing is Important.

In today's digital age, it seems like everyone is online - either on their smartphone, tablet, or home or work computer. Through those channels, people are inundated with information. This makes it more important than ever to 1. Use these channels to market your business and 2. Make your content stand out so it doesn't get lost in the crowd of information sharing.

Content Marketing is effective and efficient

Just having a website for your small business will not cut it anymore. Social Media gives you as an outlet to connect with customers on a brand new level. Your company can directly inform and engage with your audience by using content like photos, videos, graphics, and links. These are ways to add a personality to your business - it gives customers a way to see you as more than just your products or services. In the speed of clicking "Enter" on your keyboard, you can connect with your customers in a whole new way through content sharing that gives them a completely different glimpse of your business.

Content Marketing Builds Trust

The bottom line is, content marketing establishes and helps build relationships. And relationships are built on trust. And the more a person trusts your business, the more they use it, the more they tell their friends about it, and the more your business grows. Also, through making yourself available in these ways, you can respond to clients faster after monitoring reviews and feedback from customers. When they see your engaged presence, they will know that even in times of dissatisfaction, you are right there to fix the problem and you'll be trusted the next time to do the same.

We at Old City Web Services are experts at getting your website content where it needs to be for optimal marketing of the website you have invested so much time and energy into. We can help you build your blog, your social media pages and your content strategy today!

Next week, we'll be looking at Content Marketing Part IV: Implementing Your Plan

Content Marketing Part II

September 23, 2015 by anoadmin

September 23, 2015

In our series on Content Marketing, last week we looked at Using Analytics. We touched on how to see what your viewers are looking for, what pages they are viewing, and what content is either keeping them at your site or not. With this information, you can begin to build your Content Marketing Strategy.
Great Content is Customized to Your Audience

Now that you have your customer base and know what they are looking for when they come to your site, you can customize your content accordingly. For most small businesses, the important thing is to remember who your customers are and to make sure that you are sharing information that they are seeking - and, presenting the right information in the right way.

You want to inform your customers of what you have to offer. Don't forget, they are customers and potential clients, not business peers. They don't want insider secrets on your business niche, they want to know you are going to be the expert in what they are looking for.

You can use the information you've gathered about your customer base to plan your content specifically for your audience. You can share content in a way that your customers are looking for. What you share goes from "How to Build a Website for Your Small Business" to "The Top 10 Things Every Amazing Website Should Have." Which one do you think is more likely to get your specific target audience to read your content?

Great Content Solves Customer Problems

In creating your content strategy, think of the questions your potential clients may have and focus on the basics. Effective content will address your customers' issues and help them solve their problems. It provides simple answers to their questions, while building your reputation as the expert in your field. Share the services and features of your business in a way that convinces your customer that you can help them quickly and effectively.

Great Content is Engaging and Calls Customers to Action

Presenting your expertise in a way that involves your customer, draws them in and then inspires them to act is how you provide good content. Make your case interesting, compelling, and tell your customers why it is important to act now. If you leave them with nothing to do with the information you have provided, you are establishing yourself as a resource but not a money-making business. Compel them to use the information you've provided and tell them why it is important to have you help them reach their goals with your business.

Next week, we'll be looking at Content Marketing Part III: Why It's Important

Content Marketing Part I: Use Analytics

September 17, 2015 by anoadmin Leave a Comment

We are beginning a new four part series which will be centered around content marketing. This week, we are looking at how to use Google Analytics to improve your content marketing. Believe it or not, there is actually a way to make use of the information you gather from your analytics report – bounce rates, where visitors come from, how long visitors stay on your site, what pages they view, and what page they leave from. It can be difficult to know what data is important enough to track so you can maximize your small business website.

Give direction

So, you have a page or pages on your site that has high page views, but it also has a high bounce rate. On the one hand, the visitor may just be finding all they were looking for and therefore your page is valuable. But you want to take this a step further and give the viewer something else enticing or compelling to view, keeping them on your site rather than leaving right away.

Track Daily

By regularly monitoring your top pages of content, you can see what is trending and even go in to those pages and make changes that are more current or link to other places on your site to keep viewers on your site longer. An old blog post or a page about an old event can be updated to link to other relevant content that the viewer would find enticing.

Discover viewer intent

Even if you have a page with high views, if you see those are coming from keywords that make it obvious that the viewer is not getting what they expected from your page, you can change your content to better fit what a viewer is or isn’t looking for. Getting page views that aren’t relevant to what you are marketing doesn’t help your business. Make sure you have your content drilled down to attract the right visitor with the right information at the right time.

We at Old City Web Services are experts at getting your website content where it needs to be for optimal marketing of the website you have invested so much time and energy into. Let us help you wade through your Analytics report and get your content at its highest potential. Call us or email us today!

Next week, we’ll be looking at Part II of Content Marketing: Build Your Strategy

Promoting Your Website Part II: Branding

August 12, 2015 by anoadmin Leave a Comment

Last week in our series about promoting your website, we discussed the importance of SEO. Part of SEO is knowing your brand and niche well enough to use the right keywords so that ultimately, your website is being promoted to its maximum potential. You can't do this until you have your branding complete.

Branding involves consistency and professionalism. You want your website, logo, and business actions to reflect a level professionalism that customers seek. Nearly everyone who is considering a business for services or products will look them up on the internet and the way you are branded needs to extend to your internet presence. Your brand needs to be consistent: your website needs to look as familiar as your shirts, business cards, and brick and mortar location.

Here are some tips for branding that will help you in promotion of your small business website:

Know Your Audience: When you are deciding on the look you want for your brand, it is more about what your customers will respond to than what you like. You have to appeal to a large audience - so, make it personalized to you but something a large amount of people will recognize and lean toward when choosing where to put their business.

Identify Your Competition: Know what your competitors are doing - this way, you can be consistent but unique.

Create a Unique Logo: The unique look of your brand is what will help you stand out, be recognized among the sea of competitors in your niche, and will bring new business as your logo and business name spread.

Build Your Website Around Your Brand: Your website is something that is key to branding. If a potential customer tries to find you on the internet and they come to your website but don't recognize it as your business from signs or logos or the feel of your shop that they are familiar with, they may not even know it is you. From colors and design to the warmth of your personality, you want your business to be expressed consistently through your website.

Be Consistent Across All Channels: Your social media channels, website, print designs, and other items that you use to promote your business - from t-shirts to bumper stickers - need to be consistent. Use the same colors, the same logo, the same tagline - to keep people knowing what your brand is. This will not only provide a feeling of longevity for your business, but also a professionalism that all customers seek when choosing a business to patronize.

We at Old City Web Services are experts at helping you formulate your brand for your new business beginning with your logo and extending to your website and other channels of promotion.

Next Week, we will be looking at how to use Social Media to promote your website and build your business. Make sure you check it out!

Tips for Creating a Compelling Website Landing Page

May 20, 2015 by anoadmin Leave a Comment

When you are getting started on designing your website, there are things you need to keep in mind about the first impression that a viewer will have when they arrive at your site. From the moment a visitor clicks on your website, you want them to be drawn in. Many businesses make the mistake of not creating a landing page for their website that draws a web viewer in, and keeps them there long enough to ultimately get that person's business.

Here are some tips for creating a compelling landing page that will help with this problem:

Show your product or Service - Make sure that someone who comes to your site immediately knows what your business offers. Do you sell products? Let them know. Do you offer a service? Make sure it is prominent. Your website is way more than just a nice design. It has to be informative too.

Explain Your Business - Don't assume the viewer knows your business inside and out. You eat, sleep, and breathe the work you do, they don't. If a person has to look around to find out what exactly your business is or what it does, you've lost them. Show them what you offer and explain who you are as a business and do it succinctly and with good design presentation.

More Images, Fewer Words - Speaking of design, while a website is more than just a pretty page, it has to be visually appealing. It also has to be easily skimmable. This is made possible with larger headings, bigger text, shorter paragraphs (if you have any at all) and larger images. The truth is, people don't read on the internet. They skim. Make it look good and make it informative and don't waste the viewer's time.

Does your website do these things or do you need some help giving your landing page a facelift? At Old City Web Services, we are skilled at giving you the best combination of all of these elements so that when a viewer clicks on and arrives at your site, they have the best experience possible. Give us a call or email us today! Call us (904.829.2772) or e-mail us today!

Email Marketing Tips for Small Businesses

April 22, 2015 by anoadmin

Email marketing is an excellent way as a small business owner to reach your client base and build your business. It is inexpensive and a way to keep a personal connection with your customers. Remember with your email marketing strategy that people are very particular about who they share their email address with - make sure what you share is mutually beneficial in that it gets your message across and doesn't waste their time.

Here are some tips for making email marketing effective and useful for both you and your customers.

Make it Easy to Subscribe. Have a way for customers to sign up for your email list either in your brick and mortar business or your online website. Don't ask for too much information - just their name and email address is sufficient. Don't make them jump through hoops!

Design Your Email to Fit Your Brand. Your email campaigns should match your brand's look and feel. If you're using a template, you might want to customize it to include your company's colors and logo in the header. Keep your brand consistent so they feel comfortable and familiar when they receive your messages, and they always know it's you that is talking to them.

Make it Scannable. Providing line breaks and making your content easily readable for those who are in a hurry is imperative. Get to the point and do it well. Most people scan an email for the most relevant content and skip ahead to it. Use italics and bold to draw attention to the most important aspects of your message.

Keep it Relevant. To ensure this, you can break your mailing list up into groups and only send what certain groups are looking for. You can also know your audience, know what they respond to, and why they are signed up in the first place. Knowing your business and having confidence in what you do and the services you provide and sticking with this is very important. Don't try to be something you or your business are not. Be consistent and trust your brand.

Be Consistent. Your customers will come to know that you send your email at a certain time or a certain day and they will come to look for it. Be consistent in your message and in your timing so you can always be a brand your customers trust.

Old City Web Services can help you with all of your marketing needs. Just contact us today and let us get started!

At Old City Web Services, we specialize in marketing so that your online presence is optimized to its maximum potential. Call us (904.829.2772) or e-mail us and we will be happy to offer our services!

Feeling Invisible Online? 3 Tips for Being Seen on the Web

April 15, 2015 by anoadmin Leave a Comment

You have a website, social media pages, and send out a newsletter or emails to your clients on a regular basis. Yet you still aren't getting the results you'd hoped for, the online sales you are seeking and the social media response that is warranted after all the effort you put in.

There are plenty of times that as a business owner you can feel like you are doing all you should but you still feel like you are talking to a wall at times and you just aren't sure that the online world is giving you the results you expected.

Here are 3 tips for no longer feeling invisible on the internet:

Update, Update, Update: Keeping fresh content on your website will not only keep your online audience interested, it will keep search engine ranking up. You have to be high in search engine rank to be found and once you are found, you have to give visitors a reason to come back. Keep a blog, post updates about sales or specials, or simply update photography and content so that your page is always fresh.

Keep your social media updates compelling: Great photography gets shared more than anything on social media. Share a photo that will stop a web surfer in their tracks, compel them to click and read more, and to share what they've read afterward. More people will find you and continue to share, and your online presence will become more visible bringing you the results you hoped for when you set up your Facebook and Twitter pages.

Add social media share buttons on your webpage: Adding buttons to your website that not only take people to your social media pages but that make it easy for them to click and share your website and the content on it is a top way to get people sharing and ultimately seeing your business online. Providing a special or a deal for social media shares only is another way to encourage users to spread the world about your business online.

At Old City Web Services, we specialize in optimizing your website and training you in social media so that your online presence is optimized to its maximum potential. Call us (904.829.2772) or e-mail us and we will be happy to offer our services!

Expand Your Concept of Customer Service

March 27, 2015 by anoadmin

There are so many ways we are told daily that will help us boost our business. Expanding your concept of customer service is key to your business model and has to be part of a larger strategy for customer engagement. It is important not just to engage customers, though, but to meaningfully engage customers while delivering excellent service.

Customer service isn't just something you have to do once - it needs to be an ongoing conversation using a variety of modes of communication. Using the web in addition to your face-to-face interactions is vital to your customer's experience. This interaction needs to be genuine and relevant - with those things you will build trust and form a positive relationship with your customers that will keep them loyal to your brand.

Use Email - Email marketing can be a very effective tool when used properly and in a way that both engages your customers and encourages them to buy your products or services. Email messages should be clear, concise and enticing. Emails should both inform and entice. Share what you are doing as a business and entice with a deal, special or freebie.

Use Social Media - You need to clarify your audience's needs, wants and challenges-not to mention where they're spending time online. You can discover these things by surveying your customers. Once you know where they are online, you can use your company's social media presence to interact with them. Whether it is Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, or Linkedin - having a presence and interacting with your clients where they are the most is vital.

Blog - Having a blog connected to your business website will help you present a more casual yet useful and informative side of yourself and therefore your business. Share information is current and relevant, add a personal flavor to the writing you put on your blog. Even use your blog for promotions to encourage sharing on social media and shopping online or in person.

Helping you write content or set up social media accounts and train on best practices are things we can help you with here at Old City Web Services. If you want to take your customer service to the next level by engaging your customers in these ways, let us know how we can help you by contacting us today!

If you'd like for us to help you in taking your business to the next level, call us (904.829.2772) or e-mail us and we will be happy to offer our services!

Business to Business Marketing: Videos

January 20, 2015 by anoadmin

Many small businesses today rely a great deal on Business to Business (B2B) marketing as part of their business model.

B2B is a marketing practice that allows a business to sell products or services to other companies that resell them, or use them in their products or services.

When it comes to content marketing, a whopping 76% of businesses are using video as part of their content marketing strategy. 72% of those that use it, say that YouTube is their video platform of choice to distribute content for lead generation and brand visibility purposes.

The question is this: is video marketing effective in all cases? Or should it just be one small part of a broader B2B content marketing strategy?

Some upsides to using video in content marketing is that video is easy to combine with a broader social media marketing strategy, and it is easy to share via multiple venues to bring brand or product awareness.

As with all marketing strategies, though, one must know their audience and what will be most effective for who they are targeting. As a marketer of your small business, it's key to understand what will be received well by who you are marketing to.

Video is a quick way to get the message about your services or products out there. But B2B is complex and it isn't always as easy as making a video, pushing it out there, and seeing immediate results, and video marketing isn't a silver bullet. As a marketer of your small business, you should never over-simplify your buyer into one narrow package. Not all buyers are looking for the same thing or using the same process to make a choice of product or service: some rely simply on facts, some on emotion, some on a combination of both. Video is an excellent way to draw in the buyer emotionally but may not provide as much fact as the buyer needs to make a choice. On the flipside, a fact-based video may draw in a buyer based on product description but not draw in an emotional buyer who is looking for a compelling connection when making the choice of which business to go with.

At the end of the day, any marketing strategy for your small business should be nuanced and complex enough to cover the many different people who are looking to use your products or services. At Old City Web Services, we can help guide you in the process of broadening your strategy and help you grow your business in 2015.