Does Your Small Business Need a Blog?

As a small business owner or marketer you've probably heard the term "content is king" many times by now. And one of the best ways to create and share all sorts of visual, textual, and animated content where visitors can be engaged is via blogging. As a matter of fact many industry-leading marketing brands constantly highlight why blogging is important for business.

But with the huge surge in corporate blogging and content generation, does your small business really need a blog? Is it going to make a big difference? The answer is still overwhelmingly YES.

Here is why:

It Is Cost Effective

Creating a blog is fairly cost effective. Using blogging platforms such as the premium service from Wordpress would cost you $99 USD (there is a free version as well) on a yearly basis and that service basically allows for an integration of multitude of features:

• custom domain name
• combined blog and website in one place
• various plug-ins to help optimize for SEO, writing and editing
• easy to use interface
• responsive template designs so you don't have to start from scratch

With that being said, to produce engaging content you will still need to include visuals, videos and other features which may require time or financial investment. Luckily we put together a list of free online marketing tools to help keep things on budget!

Doing the actual writing or content creation itself will take some of your time, but once you get into the groove it becomes much smoother (and much more fun). Biggest investments will be learning and time.

Long-Term Lead Generation Tool

Blogging is not just a means of connecting to your audience on a more personal level, it is a fantastic lead generation tool. While timeliness (context is just as important as content) is a key component of capturing leads, according to HubSpot research 70% of traffic to their blogs each month come from posts that were published in the previous months and about 90% of the leads generated on their blog came from blog posts published in previous months.

If you put in a thorough effort to do proper research, create engaging visuals and reach your audience in the right way, previously published blog posts can be a fantastic lead generation tool.

Creates Storytelling & Networking Opportunities

If by now you are not aware of storytelling, take a look at our recent post covering the improtance of creating a brand personality. Basically, storytelling does not fall under marketing or ads, it is simply a way to evoke imagination within your audience. They should not be focused on your brand, they should be focused on your reader. Done right blog can be a huge storytelling venue where the reader engages with your content on a deeper level beyond just becoming a customer.

Such storytelling capabilities and/or useful blog posts can usually lead to networking opportunities. Readers can engage you directly in the comment section, become brand ambassadors (sharing your content on the regular) or even connect for potential guest blogging possibilities. A great example of this would be this exact blog post. I have made a reference to the HubSpot blog and stats numerous times because I regularly consume their content that I frequently share. They publish useful information all the time!

Increases PR Outreach Possibilities

Some posts can spread like wildfire. Unexpected company announcements, emotion provoking videos or very helpful, in-depth guides quickly spread all over social media. Similarly to the networking point above, imagine one of your blog posts getting shared by an industry thought leader or a major news outlet?

While this is the ideal scenario it is much harder to achieve. Content within the blog post usually has to be very informative, ground breaking or engage the intended audience in a way that no one has yet done. No easy task, but not impossible either.

Contributes to SEO Efforts

Blogs are a fantastic way to improve your Google rankings. Why? Well, your corporate website (you know the one with the about us, history, products, etc.) probably does not have many pages. On top of that they probably aren't updated too often. This is where a blog comes in handy: you can research topics that are of interest to your audience (who would of thought there would be something more interesting than reading an "about us" page?) and create a visual, interactive story that they will WANT to engage with and most likely share.

What do you think is more likely to get shared? Your website home-page or a kick-ass blog they read on their phone while waiting for dinner? If you take a look at your own personal social media feeds they are more likely to be filled with videos and blog posts than corporate web pages.

Create buyer personas, research content and get creative! Blogs allow for more indexed pages and a broader search ranking. Imagine how many different terms you can focus on with blogs compared to just your website.

Uncovers Audience Insights

Not only does each blog post have some sort of call to action feature, but a blog usually consists of multiple topics and themes. Tracking, measuring and analyzing user behaviour and content consumption of your visitors can help shed light on future content focus. Perhaps your audience members prefer long articles full of how-to steps as opposed to listicles (listed points, such as 10 Ways to Do Such and Such).

Using this data to drive better content will help increase engagement, performance and even lead generation. Set clear goals you want to achieve with your blog and evaluate as you keep publishing content.

If you're on the fence about starting a small business blog, do it! Blogs are still a very useful tool to connect with your audience. 

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Unknown Monday, May 02, 2016  

How to Spot Spam Email Proposals for Online Marketing Services: Dissecting Actual Examples

If you have a website or a social media presence with any sort of contact information (especially a publicly published email) you have, or still do, probably received some sort of email marketing indicating that your website rankings are below the first page of Google. Similarly, the same proposal indicates how the sender can work special online marketing magic at an affordable rate - getting your company visible across social media, Google search, etc. Most of these emails are spam, and spotting real vs. spam is sometimes difficult.

However, there are ways to spot a worth-while email proposal from it's spammy counterpart. Below we take a look at each type of email and it's features that help set them apart:

Spam Email Proposal

Alright, lets start with each of the highlighted sections above:

No Visible Web Presence & Unsupported Self Boasting

The email indicates that this is a "leading firm" in online marketing - which is a fairly bold claim considering I have yet to hear or read anything about "extendyourteam.net" being mentioned within the digital marketing community world wide. Speaking of which, after attempting to open that URL I was unable to load any type of website - meaning that although this email preaches following best-practices and claiming to be a leading firm; it does not have a website of it's own.

How are people supposed to see more information? Perhaps examples of previous work? Other than the information provided in the email, there is no trace of this company on the web. Usually a sign of spam.

Unsupported False Claims Used as a Bait Tactic

If you look at the introduction it simply says "hi" - it is not personalized directly to either the business name or addressed specifically to me as the recipient (keep in mind my name and contact information are accessible across my website, blog and multiple social media websites).

Similarly the paragraph highlighted in blue indicates that my website is not ranked on the first page of Google search results and that the business is no where to be found on social media. There are a number of factors to consider here:

What keywords is the website not ranked on the first page for?
If someone is searching: "digital marketing agency" of course none of the web pages will appear on the first page because that is not the keyword or key-term that is the focus of any of them. Lack of details and vague terminology give this part away.

Who are the competitors "outdoing" me?
Not a single competitor name or detail is included in there - if this was true they would point out that for search term A, competitor A is on the first page while my web pages are not. Is this mentioned anywhere in the email? Absolutely not - simply used as a persuasion attempt to take action.

Which social media websites did you look for, and what were you looking for?
Interestingly enough if I type my business name not only into the different social media platform search options, but in a general Google search, all of my social media profiles come up. More false claims:

1st page results for "nr digital branding" search.

Indicating Spam Intent & Highlighting Outdated Spam Laws

The first sentence of the email indicates that this is a "cold outreach" attempt, in other words spam!It only uses an apology to seem genuine so that the recipient would continue to read further.

Additionally, the inclusion of CAN-Spam Act of 2003 fine print after the signature is another sneaky way of masking legitimacy. Unfortunately most people will get confused by this trick as it gives the perception of following guidelines set out by the Canadian government. The Can-Spam Act of 2003 is no longer valid, it has been replaced by CASL (Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation) in 2014 and has been in full effect since last year!

Inconsistent Details

In the body of the email the person indicates their position as "search engine marketing strategist" while in the signature of the email the title of "offshoring coordinator" is used. If you come across discrepancies such as these it could very well be that your email was simply picked up online, put into a large list of recipients and mass blasted in an attempt to elicit some sort of response.

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Luckily, companies providing actual services and following set guidelines are doing a much more appropriate job. Let's take a look below.

Appropriate Email Proposal

Personal Communication & Reason Email Was Received

Unlike the example above, this legitimate email includes personal information in the subject line and as the first greeting message. What a difference it makes to hear an email sent to a person versus "I apologize for this cold outreach" copy & paste spiel.

In addition to the personal messaging, notice that at the bottom of the email further supports the reason as to why specifically the email was sent to me: I am an existing customer. And as an existing customer of an email marketing service, they are offering me free newsletter templates for Valentine's Day. The message and the focus is spot on - everything aligns.

Plus, did you notice the easy unsubscribe option with no SPAM fine-print? Under the new Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation, that is the appropriate way to provide a communication termination option.

Credibility Through Online Presence & Branding

Send Blaster's URL and logo are both easily searchable. If I go to their website I can clearly see that the logo in the email matches their website. The URL that the email came from works just fine and has further information on the company - giving it credibility as an email marketing solutions provider.

Clear Purpose & Indicated Action in Body of Email

The body of the email is kept short and to the point; it did not talk about how my email designs are bad (like the first email indicating that my website is suffering in SEO rankings), nor how I need to improve my email templates. Why? Because I do not send emails to Send Blaster - they do not know what my emails look like, all they do is provide the means for me to send emails. They are simply offering additional free resources on top of the one I subscribed to. Now that is providing customer value!

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Although these emails do differ in some ways - there are a few similarities which make it hard to distinguish legitimacy of communication.

Similarities That Cause Confusion

1. Adherence to Spam Regulations

The spam email may seem as the more legitimate one due to its fine print of the CAN-SPAM regulations, but in reality this law has been replaced with a new legislation. It is important to point out that emails DO NOT require any fine print of regulations - they need to indicate the following;

• who the sender is
• what software or service they are using to send the email (if not their own)
• a clear unsubscribe option directly in the email

While not part of marketing communication legislation, good email messages will also indicate why you are receiving the email much like Send Blaster in the example above (signed up for newsletter, existing customer, etc.).

2. Credibility via Email Signatures or Branding

Notice that the first email seems perhaps a little more credible because the signature contains an "actual name"? While in most cases true, it is not always a good indication of legitimacy. Send Blaster may not have an actual person's signature but it does have other aspects which make it credible: reason as to why the message was receive, clear cut privacy policy, refers to actual name of recipient in copy, etc.

Many spam emails will place "personas" or make-believe signatures to make them seem real. While we cannot for sure say if the person in the example above is real or not, it sure does not give me confidence knowing that they did not have matching titles (what they indicate in the opening paragraph of the email vs. their actual title in the signature) or any sort of web presence.

3. Personalization of Subject Lines to Encourage Open Rate

One email includes "Re:" as if it were replying to a previous email while the other has the recipient's name. Which one is more legitimate? This would depend; I have never had previous communication with anyone from that first email. Therefore including the "Re:" is clearly a bait tactic to get me to open the message. The second email has my name, which is also a marketing tactic used to make the email look as if it was sent personally to me (not such a bad thing after all).

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Hopefully this will help you distinguish between spam and regular marketing service proposals. We all known even the best filters will let through a few junk emails. The better you are prepared to recognize them in your inbox, the less time you will waste managing proposals.

Now I would love to hear any spam-like communication stories you may have come across from? Feel free to share below in the comment section to help others be more prepared.

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Unknown Wednesday, March 18, 2015  

Why Online Small Business Branding Is Like a Rock Concert

I am a big fan of metal (if you have not yet heard of Mastodon, you need to check them out!) and rock, sometimes heavy - sometimes mellow, depending on my mood. Over the past two years I really got into concerts and music festivals (nothing like a muddy, outdoor heavy metal festival on a sunny & rainy summer day at Heavy TO in 2012).

Recently, I have been invited to go to a small venue for a local Hamilton, Ontario band called Monster Truck - I had my doubts. I heard a couple of their songs on the radio but that is about it, the venue was small - but I gave it a shot.

They did not only stump all of my assumptions, but rocked out in the best way possible. The amazing energy, sound - crowd involvement and best of all: a great musical experience. I went from leaning back on the bar to jumping, headbanging (its just not the same without long hair) and video recording most of the songs.

So how does this tie into small business branding online? Well just like me; a not-so-familiar concert goer of a local band, some of your audience members probably do not know too much about your local business. Once they enter your social media sphere, your brand has to bring the energy, content and genuine interaction in order for them to have a memorable experience, and hopefully become fans going forward.

Let's breakdown the connection even further:

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The Band

The band = your team. The band is made up of 5 members: the singer, guitarist, bassist, drummer and band manager. Without each teammate the band would not be able to function, much like a great small business or marketing team. The world wide web, social media networks and ebalsts (virtually anything digital) is your concert hall.

Once you step onto that stage you have to constantly be focused, bring your a-game and have a set list ready to play in order to engage your audience. All eyes are on you, and everyone has paid for their ticket - eagerly waiting to hear what content you put together for the show.

The digital brand strategy is your band's tour plan, while your individual concert set lists is the content you plan to deliver on a nightly basis.

Now that you have the plan laid out, and the tour has been finalized - let's look at each team member's role in this rock tour.

Singer

The front-man of the group; always bringing the emotion, energy and directly engaging with the crowd. Finds creative ways to get the group involved and makes sure that everyone is having a blast. This would be the SEO/social media specialist of your team. 

Directly interacting with your brand's audience members and coordinating all content efforts - as a front-facing role, this person has to be ready to engage the audience, provide timely customer interactions and find creative ways to keep the community rocking out.

Guitarist

Shredding epic riffs, and providing the main sound for each song - the guitarist takes each song to the next level. Once the vocals die down, the drums slow down - the guitar solo brings on sounds that make the entire concert hall go crazy. Having epic riffs and sounds is crucial; just like having a digital strategist to plan out epic content. 

Your digital branding strategist comes up with content, the schedule, ideas, execution and everything that makes a good blog post, social media update, infographic, video, or any piece of content look great.

Each and every week (or concert) there is a planned set of solos of content that will engage your audience. While the singer delivers it to the audience, the guitarist makes them headbang!

Bassist

Usually overlooked, but nonetheless important part of the band. Hangs out in the back - provides depth to the sound and gives each song that completing sound. Bassists usually do their research and are very knowledgeable on music, giving feedback and direction to the band. This would be your analytics and analysis person, responsible for measuring the success of all online efforts.

Good analytics professionals have a keen ability to take data and turn it into meaningful analysis. Continuously monitoring and improving all strategies is key to adapting to an ever changing digital landscape. 

Having someone that can help shine light on huge amounts of data, find trends - connect variables to performance, is a huge benefit for your band's long term success.

Drummer

Usually taking the back-seat to the rest of the team, the drummer provides the sound that connects the entire song. Follows the tune of each song, makes sure it sounds good and ads the connecting drums beats without which none of this would be possible. This of course is your technical developer role. 

If your organization is involved with anything online, you need to have a dedicated IT/web developer teammate that knows the how-to of all the efforts; social metadata, web development, social apps, database integration, API, etc.

 At some point in time you will run into technical difficulties or challenges, and having someone who understands the language will ensure you can utilize all of the necessary tools to make your concerts (or online interactions) go smoothly.

Band Manager

The person that makes it all happen, believes in the band and goes out of their way to make sure it succeeds. This of course is the small business owner, or marketing manager.

The manager constantly learns new ways to stay relevant, gives motivation to his team and ensures that they have the necessary tools to be successful. They usually go out of their way to make things happen and give regular feedback (both positive and negative) to the team based on performance.

What separates a good band manager from the bad? They allow autonomy, encourage development, provide direction and give the band confidence to truly create an epic sound (or brand personality).

Alright now that we've covered the band, lets see what the audience is made-up of!

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Audience

The real reason any band or brand exists in the first place - the people who listen to the tunes, buy stuff or in any way interact with the b(r)and. The audience members for each concert are made up of three different types of fans: crowd surfers, casual listeners and new to the scene.

Image courtesy of ponsuwan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Each of these audience members experiences the concert differently, and depending on how your concert goes - they could move from one category to the other.

Crowd Surfers

The loyal fans that try to make it out to every show they can - they buy all the records, they actively talk about the band in forums, social media and eagerly wait for new music to be released. This would be your brand loyalists - people who love the brand and regularly consume it.

This is your bread and butter, the people who re-tweet, share and like most of your social media updates. They can't wait to see what is going on with your brand and willingly encourage others to become brandlievers (terrible pun, I know).

However, if they attend your concert (or join your social media network) and you fail to perform with epic content, or bring energy like they are use to your brand bringing, they may slowly lose their interest and move into the casual listener section.

Casual Listeners

This group of fans listens to the music occasionally - depending on their mood they may or may not go to your concert. If it's convenient for them to attend, they will - but will not go out of their way to see a live performance. These are people who sometimes engage your brand and use your services/products, but do not actively seek it.

The best way to reach this segment is to have a contextual approach - when they need something you offer, make sure that you are available and relevant at the time of need.

Think of it as having a concert in their home town, on a night they feel like heading out with their friends and listening to some great tunes, by no means an easy thing to do. Depending on their long-term experience with your brand they could either become crowd surfers or remain casual listeners.

New to The Scene

Image courtesy of phanlop88 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Last but not least - these are people who have not yet heard of your band (or have to a limited extent) and got convinced by their friends to come along for the experience. These are your potential customers.

These will be new followers on social media, new visitors to a website or first-time consumers of your brand. The first experience you create is a memorable one - if you cannot deliver the first time around, the potential will not be realized.

This audience group is the most interesting as it has the potential to become a brand loyalist, casual buyer or completley opposed to the brand. It all varies by their first experience at the show.

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That is the connection between rock and digital branding. Of course some team members may take on shared or less responsibilities than what is mentioned here. Sometimes a band has two guitarist, or the singer plays guitar and sings - just like many online professionals are both the social media strategist and analytics professionals.

Each band is made up differently, as is their sound - it all has to be relevant to their unique audience so that both sides can rock out to the same tune.

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Unknown Wednesday, February 12, 2014