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Your landing page is as critical to the success of your online marketing efforts as keywords. For, they are the first place prospects “land” when they click on your ads. Now that you’ve done all the hard work of getting them to click through, following is one thing you can do to make sure they take the action you want them to take.

Often landing pages are conceived, written, proofed and studied by professional internet marketers – or fellow comrades (eg, a copywriter). We point this out to say, it not likely to be looked at by someone who doesn’t know anything about landing pages. Hence, it doesn’t get the “fresh eye, first look” perspective it may need to be improved.

One thing you should always do is get someone who doesn’t know anything about internet marketing, or at the very least someone who had no input in designing the landing page, to look at it and give feedback.

You may be pleasantly surprised by what you’ll discover, ie:

How a concept you thought was clear was in fact very confusing;

How the action you thought you were asking a prospect to take was not very clear (or was too involved/intrusive);

What was left out that you thought was implicitly understood;

Etc. 

Remember, your landing page should be written from the point of view of your visitors. Too often in internet marketing, knowledge you think your prospects will have is something they simply don’t possess. This is because internet marketing is a fairly new phenomenon.

If you spend your days discussing click through rates (CTRs), conversions and calls to action statements, then it’s second nature to you. But your prospects may not have this type of knowledge; hence, a lot of what you have to say may be a foreign language to them.

Recognize this, and optimize your landing pages so that they’re crystal clear – and your prospects can take the action(s) u want/expect them to take.

To learn more about Landing Optimization and other online marketing strategies check out the Search Engine Marketing (Pay Per Click) Insiders email newsletter.

Social media marketing is a sword that cuts two ways. It’s easy to build a community, but can be difficult to get them to trust you. This is because there is so much garbage on the net – everyone is trying to make a fast buck.

Building trust is key to making sales. So, how do you get your community to trust you? Let’s look at some numbers to gain some insight. According to What Makes Social Media Trustworthy?, a recent study highlighted by eMarketer, a firm that tracks trends in digital media and marketing:

Just over a quarter (26%) of those polled trusted a brand product or company based on its blog posts, Twitter feed and/or Facebook updates.

BUT . . .

Approaching two-thirds (61%) trusted blog posts, Twitter and Facebook updates found on pages from someone those surveyed knew.

Social Media Marketing Message: To Get Trust You Have To . . .

Be a real person, not a company.

Remember, social media marketing is all about building relationships. And, people don’t have relationships with “companies.” People have relationships with other people. So it’s imperative to interact with your community from a human standpoint, not a corporate standpoint.

This can be as simple as signing up using a real name as your “account name,” instead of your company name.

Other Tips for Creating Trust in Social Media Marketing

Stay in contact regularly;

Don’t talk about you so much; send links to information relevant to your target markets’ lives; and

Create conversation by asking your community’s input.

If you remember your old-school social graces and apply them to the new medium that is social media marketing, you’ll have no problems getting your community to trust you – and increase sales.

What social networking sites do you use? Are you reaching your customers on Facebook, Twitter or other sites? We’d love to hear your comments.

Ever heard of hash tags? They can be your secret weapon to getting more traffic from every tweet you send out.  Here’s how and why.

The Language of Social Media Marketing: What are Hashtags & How They Help You Get Traffic

Hashtags are words on Twitter that are preceded by the # symbol. This symbol lets searchers know that there’s a topic (group) around this subject. For example, if you send out a tweet about social media marketing, your tweet might include a hashtag that looks like this: #socialmedia.

Hashtags turn up in search engines like Google much like keywords. Hence, it’s wise to use them in your tweets as often as possible.

Another reason to use them is that if other Twitter users are searching for something on a topic that you’ve tweeted about and it includes a hashtag, it’s much easier for them to find it – and possibly retweet it.

Retweets are akin to backlinks in search engine optimization (SEO) lingo. So the more of them you have, the more likely your results are to show up higher in search engine results – and the more traffic you’ll receive — all from just using one little symbol.

Tip: As tweets can contain only 140 characters, if the message you want to tweet or RT is already close this limit and the phrase you want to put a hashtag in front of is already included, just put the # in front of it. It won’t affect your tweet at all – other than to possibly give it more traction.

The bottom line is, don’t tweet blindly. Remember, there’s an art to tweeting effectively. And, if you use social media marketing sites like Twitter with search marketing tips like this in mind, you’ll be seamlessly increasing your traffic in no time.

Facebook, now known worldwide as a social media marketing site, didn’t start out that way. When it was initially launched in 2004, it was just a site for college students to interact, eg, share photos, send messages, update personal profiles, etc.

It quickly grew to become one of the most popular sites on the web. As of July 2010, it had more than 500 million users worldwide. And of course with numbers this large, it’s one of the premier social networking sites for businesses of all size.

The “Secret” to Standing Head and Shoulders above the Competition on Facebook

Many companies fall into the trap of using the same Facebook setup that casual and non-professional users have. In order to ensure that your presence on Facebook is as professional as it can be, customize your firm’s page.

By customizing your company’s page, you can easily make it stand out from the competition. To do this, simply use Static FBML (Facebook Markup Language). It allows you to not only create unique tabs and content, you can also change where visitors land when they visit your Facebook page.

This can be extremely important in converting mere prospects into customers. Why? Because the default landing page in Facebook is “the wall.” But, if you have a particular product or service you want to feature, you can have prospects land on one of those particular pages instead.

It’s the little edges you gain in business that, over time, make a big impact. And, the reason they do is because most don’t go the extra mile. They stop at “good enough.” To get the edge in social media marketing, go the extra mile – and reap the rewards of doing so.

Let us know what is working (or not) for you in social media marketing. Are you getting a good return on the time and money you’re spending? Are you reaching your customers on Facebook and other sites?

The continued growth of search and social media marketing is creating new opportunities, but Marketers are challenged on how to effectively integrate social media into their search marketing efforts. To address this challenge, PPC Summit presents an all new conference this year “Search & Social Media Success” which will be held at the Omni Los Angeles Hotel on Sept. 21-22, 2010. 

The new sessions will teach expert, trusted strategies, and provide the tools and resources to Marketers searching to improve their campaign results. Registration is open and parties can register now before the full agenda is live to get the $400.00 early bird rate.

The ALL NEW 3 Tracks and 27 ‘How-To’ Sessions cover step-by-step instructions for creating and managing successful search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimization (SEO) and social media marketing (SMM) campaigns.

Over the last five years, PPC Summit has trained thousands of internet marketers how to be smarter and increase their ROI using search engine marketing. Results from a recent attendee survey sent to 3500 Search Marketers, revealed the growing need for further advanced training in these areas: Google AdWords, Quality Score, Keyword Targeting, Pay Per Click, Blogging, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, SEO tips and tools, Landing Pages and more.

What Marketers Will Learn:

• Leading-edge SMM (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube), SEO and SEM (Google AdWords, Microsoft AdCenter, Yahoo Search Marketing) instruction, content and actionable strategies that can be implemented right away to boost ROI.
• Which SMM, SEO and SEM tools, solutions and resources to utilize to achieve higher profits, and take-away comprehensive reference guides to build an effective search and social marketing plan.
• How to get on the fast-track of successful search and social media marketing–gain answers direct from the SEM/SEO/SMM experts and build lasting relationships with peers

 Register today for the two-day pass, only $995–includes three tracks and 27 in-depth sessions, networking, breakfast, lunches, breaks, 2 comprehensive training manuals and more. For more information, visit the
PPC Summit website or call 800-507-2958.

Social media marketing has grown to such an extent that many companies are abandoning other types of marketing altogether. Proof? Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream was the first major company to announce that it was abandoning email marketing to focus more on social media marketing.

The real “story of this story” though is not that they did this, but why they did this. As the article states:

“ . . . the iconic Vermont-based premium ice cream maker is dropping its regular email newsletter . . . after customers aired their preference to be contacted via social media channels [emphasis added].”

Only you can decide if social media marketing is the only form of marketing you want to engage in. But, it should definitely be a part of your marketing mix – for it’s a direct line to what your customers want. Following is the number one thing you can do to generate traffic – for years to come.

The #1 Social Media Marketing Tip Every Business Can Use to Get the Most Traffic

Make useful content creation the foundation of your social media campaigns. Following is why.

There are many ways to generate traffic online, eg, commenting on other blogs, article marketing, pay per click, etc. Some are more time consuming than others. But great content will always drive traffic – immediately and in the future.

This is because web surfers look for information. Two hours spent writing an in-depth blog post that answers a lot of questions those in your niche might have will get linked to over and over and over again. This generates traffic for years to come.

How Content Marketing Via Social Media Outlets Saves Time

Once you create great content and make others aware of it via social media outlets like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, you can spend much less time marketing because it becomes viral. Social media users love to promote great content – for it makes them look good. This is akin to having a social media marketing sales force on payroll.

And it’s why great content – whether it’s a series of videos or a standalone blog post – should be the cornerstone of every social media marketing strategy.

Have you heard about PPC Summit’s upcoming Seach & Social two day conference coming to the Omni Los Angeles Hotel in Sept? It’s the event for marketers to learn actionable strategies for effectively integrating search and social campaigns.

Ben & Jerry’s recently made what some would consider a ballsy move? They abandoned email marketing in favor of social media. While arguments can be made on both sides — ie, it was a good move or a stupid move – that’s not the point.

The lesson here is one every business can capitalize on. What is it?

Social media marketing is not a fad; it’s here to stay. And if you haven’t jumped on the bandwagon, you’d better bet your competition has, or plans to very soon. Proof?

50-75% of Businesses Worldwide Use Social Networks (eg, Twitter, Facebook, etc.)

According to a July 2010 post on BizReport.com entitled, Survey: Small businesses find success with social networking” on BizReport.com:

Social networks are now actively used by between half and three quarters of companies worldwide for  various networking functions . . . [and] 40% of businesses globally have found new customers via social networks.

While some may argue that Ben & Jerry’s have gone a little far in their adoption of social media marketing, the argument could be made that pouring a company’s resources into a marketing method that works is just smart business.

Social Media Marketing: It’s Biggest Advantage

Social media marketing provides immediate feedback. While email can be pretty immediate, a newsletter, for example, may sit in a prospects mailbox for days or weeks before it’s read. With social media marketing (eg, Twitter), prospects are primed to respond to tweets immediately – and constantly.

Perhaps the brand manager for the giant ice cream change said it best, ie: “Developing friendship and a relationship is key for us and social media [marketing] is the best place for that.”

PPC Summit is dedicated to bringing you the latest strategies, insights, and techniques for Internet marketing.  Search marketing, search engine optimization, and social media practices are constantly evolving.  Stay up-to-date and learn about special offers with PPC Summit’s monthly email newsletter, and it’s free!

B2B search engine marketing is all encompassing. It includes everything from pay per click (PPC) to search engine optimization (SEO). One of the fastest growing niches of B2B search marketing is social media. Sites like Twitter and Facebook sign up tens of thousands of new users per day and drive massive amounts of traffic to online businesses.

Hence, it’s essential to not only have a presence on a few of these sites, but to also pay attention to how your business is perceived via them.

Following is some insight into how to use social media sites – the right way – to brand your business.

B2B Search Marketing & Social Media: Don’t Sell, Inform
Have you ever known someone who talked about themselves incessantly? They never ask others, but are always divulging what they want, what they need, what they’re doing, who they met, etc.

Annoying, isn’t it?

People do the same thing in social media. For example, they always tweet their latest blog post or product/service offering, but never bother to retweet content from others.

While it’s perfectly fine to use social media to market your products and services, remember that most people look for information before purchasing. So share relevant information – pertinent to your niche — with them. This builds a relationship, which leads to sales.

Once you set up a social media account – whether it’s on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, etc. – stay active on a regular basis. Otherwise, you run the risk of making your business appear “flaky,” which is never a good thing in business.

Social media is an ideal B2B search marketing strategy to build a relationship with prospects. And when they’re ready to buy, your firm will be front and center.

To learn more valuable strategies on B2B search marketing and social media, join top B2B Marketers June 23 in San Francisco at the B2B Search Strategy Summit and “Discover the Top 7 Ways to Increase Your B2B Search Marketing Profits.” We look forward to see you there!

If you offer only one way to access information on your site, you could be losing customers. B2B marketing in a multi-media world means paying attention to how your prospects like to receive information – not how you like to offer it.

B2B Marketing: Something to Think About When It Comes to Multimedia

Have you ever visited a site and wanted to access some content, but it wasn’t in the right format for you? For example, let’s say a site offers a free report you’d really like to have, but it’s a video. What you want is a pdf file because you want to print it out and read it while you’re taking the train on your evening commute home.

B2B Search Marketing Tip: Diversify to Capture More

While multimedia formats have been around for years, many businesses are not up to speed when it comes to integrating these choices into their website offerings. This could be because many businesses still grapple with what it really means to do business online.

Many have just gotten around to grasping the basics of B2B search marketing. So thinking ahead of the curve is not a consideration at this point.

In order to effectively compete online though, it’s critical to stay in tune with what your customers want – even if it forces you to play catchup.

One easy way to increase your site’s traffic is to offer info in a variety of multimedia formats. By giving your site’s visitors options, you put them in control of how they receive and process information.

And that’s what B2B search marketing is all about – giving customers what they want – how they want it.