The Instagram Advantage

Instagram is among the most popular of social media networking websites. It brings people together and allows them to share their lives through pictures. But how useful can Instagram be at driving traffic to your site?

Though this may not be the traditional route to getting new visitors, it can certainly be done. Let's discuss a few tips on how you can use this social media site to improve your online visibility.

Use Watermarking Strategically

We typically think of watermarking as a way to prevent digital images from being stolen. However, it can also be used as a form of internet marketing by inserting your web address as the mark. It's important that this mark is dark enough to be noticeable, but transparent enough so that it won't intrude upon the image.

Use Creative Captioning

There is no better way to drive to your website than an excellent caption. Provide a link to your website and interesting description to go along with it. However, you should be careful when using this method. If the link is not relative to the image it could be viewed as spam and inevitably do more harm than good.

The Power of Mind Mapping in Marketing

In order for your marketing to be really effective, it is important that all the strategies that you are using complement each other, as this will really help to get your message across. There are many different avenues of advertising that are available to you such as blogging and social media, and these methods should support each other. This can be difficult to achieve if you are trying to juggle several different methods of advertising at once. One way that this can be made easier is to use a mind map.

What Is A Mind Map?

A mind map can be used to help you plan the different connections that you may be able to use in your marketing. Mind maps are a type of visual tool that can be created by simply using a pen and pencil to write down your ideas. If you prefer to work digitally, then there are various apps and online tools that you can use to create these mind maps.

The 3 Essentials of Authentic Marketing with George Kao

Do you aim to grow your business in a way that is generous, high integrity and expresses your authentic self? 

If your answer is, “Yes,” then I’m excited to invite you to join coach and online marketing expert George Kao for a free virtual seminar. 

George will share key strategies for building a thriving business that allows you to generously share your gifts and build a compelling reputation and genuine trust and goodwill with potential clients without selling out. 

The 3 Essentials of Authentic Marketing: Joyfully Building Your Visibility By Serving Your Audience With Love is free and will help you learn how to generate more business with less effort, while also contributing to the shift our world needs. 

Learn more and register here.

Key Points to Attracting Industry Influencers

Aligning yourself with some of the best industry influencers is certainly not a requirement to become successful, however, it helps a lot, and can make a world of difference for you in establishing personal and professional success.

Building strong relationships with some of the biggest players within your own niche is helpful in that they will let you know what sells and what doesn't, as well as providing you with a host of other benefits.


So Just What Is An 'Industry Influencer'?

An 'industry influencer' is someone who has a large following within a specific niche. You can easily find industry influencers on any social media site. These people are talked about, and everyone wants to be associated with what they do and say.

When you note that someone has thousands of subscribers to their blogs plus blog comments always seem to be new and engaged fully in the topic at hand, you know you have found an influencer.

These people are very involved in their particular niche, offering a variety of services, products, and promotions to their loyal fans. Some may even have published books related to their niche. Writing and blogging may just be a part of what they do.

Make Your Work Truly Your Own

If you see the word “personalization” and you stop breathing – either because it petrifies you to even consider, or you become paralyzed by a lack of knowledge, you’re about to feel a lot better about working your own style and voice into your online business efforts.

For many people, introverts or not, personalization is something they don’t understand or don’t want to do. After all, isn’t making money online all about being able to stay anonymous and rake in cash?

No, it’s not actually.

Working from home online is about finding your passion to help other people, and reaping both monetary rewards and personal satisfaction from your efforts. Personalization elevates you from anonymous, possible scumbag (in the eyes of a wary consumer), to a trustworthy source of valuable information.

Purposeful Marketing with Tim Kelley

Have you found traditional marketing so distasteful that you often avoid it altogether? 
  
If so, you are not alone.  The old paradigm of traditional marketing can feel awful to people like you and me who are committed to living consciously and doing business in an authentic, new way. 
  
Globally-respected change agent Tim Kelley calls this new paradigm of marketing “purposeful marketing” because it is sourced from the highest purpose for your life (or business). 
  
Tim will share key insights from his Purposeful Marketing system, during Making the Shift to Purposeful Marketing: How You Can Increase Your Revenue & Impact with the Right Messaging to the Right Audience. 
  
You can register for this free online event here.
  
Tim has taught these techniques to thousands of people — from CEOs to coaches. His education in mathematics at MIT, distinguished career in Silicon Valley hi-tech and service as a Commanding Officer in the U.S. Navy, has led to insights that are practical, replicable and reliable, and yet appealing to the heart and soul. 

Learn how to make your marketing magnetic, respectful and effective, because it expresses exactly who you are and how you can serve your ideal audience.

Have you found traditional marketing to be unsuccessful, overhyped or so distasteful that you often avoid it altogether?

This is likely because we’ve grown up in a world of marketing based on an old paradigm. Traditional marketing is all about convincing people that they need the thing you are offering. Whether this is true or not is secondary; it’s about generating demand and sales. Period. This old way of marketing often uses psychological tricks and even lies to get the desired results.

In other words, traditional marketing depends on psychological manipulation for the purpose of making money — which can feel simply awful to people like you who are committed to living consciously and doing business in a new way.

The good news is that there’s another way to do marketing that is authentic, powerful, and even generous.

Globally respected change agent Tim Kelley calls this “purposeful marketing” because it is sourced from your highest purpose. It’s about tuning into the clearest, most precise way to describe what you offer, so that it resonates powerfully with exactly the people you are meant to serve.

When you learn how to apply purposeful marketing effectively, it’s like blowing a dog whistle that your ideal customers (what Tim calls your “divine audience”) can hear, even if no one else can. Imagine knowing instantly that a person is meant to work with you, and knowing exactly what to say so that they know it, too!

Because this form of marketing is rooted in who you are and why you’re here, you don’t even need to create it — you receive it! The map to your ideal clients and serving their highest good, AND earning good money at it, is all contained within you. From this core place of truth, you are aligning yourself with the Universe, expanding your impact on global transformation and increasing your income, all at the same time.

By revealing the deeper truth of the transformational value that you provide — especially with precise, purposeful words — you can stand powerfully in your marketing, because you know that you are speaking the whole truth.

In order to do purposeful marketing in a way that actually gets BETTER results than old-school marketing, though, you’ll need to learn some of the specific practices for doing it well (and what NOT to do).

In this illuminating, free virtual seminar, Tim will share key insights from his Purposeful Marketing system.

He has taught these techniques to thousands of people — from CEOs to top coaches. Tim’s education in mathematics at MIT, distinguished career in Silicon Valley high-tech and experience as a Commanding Officer in the U.S. Navy, has led to insights that are practical, replicable and reliable, and appeal to the heart and soul.

In this free event, Tim will open the door into a new way of marketing that is fulfilling, meaningful and inspiring.

You will:

• Discover which aspect of your purpose carries the most impact and attraction for prospective clients.
• Understand why traditional “niching” won’t necessarily help you find the precise “divine audience” that is meant to receive 
  your services.
• Learn how you can position yourself in such a specific way that you have no competition at all.
• Discover two sources of information that can make writing your marketing copy a breeze.
• Identify 3 issues that make pricing your services, and pricing conversations with your clients, much more difficult than they need to be.
• Uncover the key issue that prevents people from being clear in their marketing, attracting their ideal clients, and making money from their higher purpose.

  
During this exciting free presentation he will open a doorway to a new way of marketing that is more fulfilling, meaningful and inspiring.  He’ll share  specific practices for doing it well, as well as how NOT to do it. 
  
If you participate, you’ll: 

• Discover which aspect of your purpose carries the most impact in so that you can clarify your offer in the right language to attract your ideal clients
• Understand why traditional “niching” won’t necessarily help you find the precise “divine audience” who is meant to receive your services 
• Know how you can position yourself in such a specific way that you have no competition at all 
• Gain greater confidence in sales, marketing and pricing conversations, because you know you can deliver results 
• Increase your skill in generating marketing copy that speaks directly to the right audience 
• Align your business persona and marketing with your purpose and true essence 
• Save money on copywriters and outsourcing 

I invite you to join me in learning Tim’s precise and proven methods for evolving  “old-school” marketing to Purposeful Marketing. 
  
You can register here.  
  
Danielle 
  
PS – As you apply this knowledge, you’ll stand powerfully in your marketing because you know that you’ve sourced your message and materials from your purpose and higher guidance.  Register now and receive a downloadable replay.

Why You Need A Content Listening Plan

Do you take the time to listen to what your customers and prospects are saying? Are you aware of what your competition is doing? Do you know what they are talking about and publishing? Are you up-to-date on the latest content trends and the industry news? If you answered no to any of these questions then you need to think about having a content listening plan.

Content Listening Plan

A content listening plan is simply a way for you to track what your customers, prospects, industry leaders, and your direct competition is saying and doing. This is an extremely valuable strategy that lets you listen in to what others are doing, and create content and headlines that are timely, relevant, and offers valuable content for your own customers and prospects.

The Elements In A Content Listening Plan

Keyword Research:

Are you aware that keywords change and evolve very quickly? It's important for you to stay on top of what is trending right now. You should make it a habit to do some keyword research at least once a month. This will ensure you catch the latest keywords and phrases. There are a number of keyword research tools available. Find one you like and use it on a regular basis. Keywords are the backbone of searches: make sure you know what people are searching for.

Social Media Trend Analysis:

Visit as many social media sites as you can, and take note of what people are talking about. Knowing what is hot at the moment helps you identify opportunities. If everyone is talking about a football player who has had numerous concussions, and you have a sports blog, you can write about the hazards of concussions and how to avoid getting hurt.

In this case, you already know what the problem is and can help your niche audience by sharing your knowledge about sports injuries. This is just one example; knowing what is a hot topic can help you draw people to your site. You can also take this trending topic, take your hashtag research tools and find other topic trends.

Newsworthy:

You want to know what is happening in your industry. Set up a Google alert system to tell you when certain keywords or phrases are used. This not only helps in keyword research but helps you keep track of what your competition is up to.

System Of Delivery:

In order to make use of these elements, you have to choose whether to receive your information through email or have it downloaded onto a database. This is the easy part: using this information to build a larger customer base is the key to your success.

How To Use The Content Listening Plan

Brainstorming and creating a working plan is something that should be done on a consistent basis. You really should plan to sit down once a month and review all the information you have received through your listening plan.

You can do it more often if you know things change that rapidly in your industry. By taking the time to go through your content, you are able to put out timely, relevant content that has value for your audience. Your goal is to respond to what your audience needs, and fill those needs quickly.

7 Tips on Using Youtube for Marketing

YouTube is a great marketing tool for those of us that know how to make the most of the opportunities that it offers.

In the space of just a few years, YouTube has become one of the most popular websites on the entire internet. To a large extent the popularity of YouTube and other websites that host video clips is due to the early onset of broadband.

Once this occurred, those who are technologically savvy have been able to learn the latest methods much more quickly, as well as create videos of their own with which to drive traffic and educate others. YouTube has the extreme advantage of being easy to use, easy to upload videos to, and of course as we all know, it has had millions of videos viewed.

Astute marketers soon worked out that they would gain the most from amusing or viral videos. Such videos can prove to be very popular, and if the marketing material is cleverly used reach a large audience of potential buyers or users. A viral video or two can create far more interest in what they are selling than expensive advertising campaigns, and the added bonus is that these cost absolutely nothing to do.

Essentially YouTube offers amazing opportunities for marketers that get their video uploading strategies spot on. Certain types of video are more likely to go viral than others and making sure those that do have an effective marketing message will benefit marketers greatly.

 

These kind of videos generally do well:

• Old commercials: People like to see them again, you have already paid for them, but they are free to put on YouTube.

• How-to videos: While you are teaching your viewers how they can do things you can also advise them that things are done better by using the items that you are selling.

• Show special events: Things from trade conventions of fairs can generate a lot of views, so if you go to conferences anyway take a camera then upload the video.

• Upload something funny: People will watch funny videos so it is a sure way of getting hits, just make the marketing message clear.

• Remember to avoid common mistakes that leave videos unwatched and marketing plans in tatters.

• Pay attention to where videos are uploaded: Make sure you put them in the most apt sections and make the best use of tabs. People will only look for things in their most logical so make sure you put them there in the first place.

• Put keywords in your product descriptions to make sure your videos are high up on the search results. People tend to look at the first few results so good keywords are a must. Make certain you include your URL to direct traffic to where you want it to go.

• Allow embedding, comments, and ratings: All these things can be really good for marketing providing the positive ratings outnumber any negative ones. Higher ratings mean more people will see your video, and see your marketing material.

YouTube is so easy to use, and videos are easy to make. For some people making videos can initially be intimidating, and understandably so. There is a lot that needs to happen in order to make a good video and have it flow with your personality in order to complement your online presence.

But people today really like to see the face behind the website and the marketing. So practice speaking into a camera, over and over, as much as you need to until you feel very comfortable... and then just go ahead and do it!

Beginning Steps to Host Your Own Webinar

Hosting your own webinar doesn’t have to cost a lot unless you decide to pay for more advanced services. Those worried about the technical aspect can relax. If you have a working web cam, speakers, and a microphone, then you can easily host your own webinar.

Do you feel that you have valuable information to share with your customers and prospects that just won’t feel the same in text format? Perhaps you know about some breaking news happening within your industry that your customers might appreciate knowing firsthand.

How to Have Mobile Marketing Jive With You

Some of the phones equipped with the latest technology advances have the capability to communicate via mobile marketing platforms. There is too much potential with mobile marketing for you not to join the throngs of marketers who are already putting this method to work and seeing the results.

We now have the benefit of taking business anywhere we are, which means that technology has advanced the way business is run and created a wide open space for anyone smart enough to put mobile marketing to work.

Why You May Want to Outsource the Harder Tasks

There’s a tendency when running a business to do it all yourself. You want to make sure that every aspect of the business runs smoothly and is completed in a professional manner. 

When you’re just starting your company, that school of thought might not only be best, but it might also be better for you financially. As your business grows (and it will thanks to all of your hard work), you’ll start to feel stretched thin from all of the tasks that you have to take care of and you’ll start to feel like you’re always working. All work and no play will eventually lead to sloppy work - or worse, burn out.

Creating a Joint Venture With an Influential Niche Marketer

A joint venture is creating a partnership with someone else where it’s a beneficial atmosphere for all parties in the JV. Big businesses do it all the time. They reap visibility and money making opportunities because they understand that a JV is a way to get a bigger slice of the marketing pie.  It’s a slice you can’t afford not to go after yourself. One of the smartest marketing strategies you can put into play is have a joint venture with a marketer whose word carries a lot of weight online.

Set Up a Facebook Fan Page for Your Customers and Prospects to Gather

A Facebook fan page is like having a Facebook profile dedicated to your business. While you could make a profile for your business, Facebook will likely flag it and remove the profile, leaving your customers and prospects without a way to connect with your brand on Facebook.  Instead of a profile, you want a fan page for your business. Fan pages are a way for your customers and prospects to identify with you and associate who you are with your brand as well as share the page with others.

How To Set Up a Squeeze Page & Blog Opt In Box

Regardless of whether you’re new to marketing or you’ve been around for years, you’ve inevitably heard the term “squeeze page.” You may also have heard the term “landing page.” Sometimes, they’re one and the same, but a landing page can be anywhere that the customer enters your site. A squeeze page can be used as a landing page and that’s what smart marketers do.

7 Easy Steps to Building Your Networking Skills

In today's economy, a lot of us are looking for work. One of the best way to find new employment is by networking with friends and colleagues. For shy or inexperienced folks, this exercise can be daunting. Here are some helpful tips for developing your networking skills.

5 Email Hooks Based on Marketing Psychology

 

5 Email Hooks Based on Marketing Psychology

Written Nov 3, 2014 by Macdara Bracken

Successful email marketers use their understanding of behavioral psychology — what makes people tick  — to maximize engagement and sales.

It’s believed that we have 50 to 70 thousand thoughts per day. Many of these (95%) are repeated daily considerations and inner dialogue. The question is: How can we change a tiny fraction of the other 3,500 thoughts to, “Gotta click on this and this. Oh, and buy this?”

The Enlightened Business Summit

Do you want to build a thriving business that leaves a legacy of good for decades to come? Creating a conscious business can be hugely rewarding on so many levels. However, running a business that is aligned with your values and vision can also be extremely challenging. The good news is that these challenges can be catalysts for your greatest growth and success!

How To Use The Call To Action

Have I mentioned how much I love the folks at Mad Mimi?  Oh, I'm certain I have!  They have once again provided some fabulous information to those of us on a continual journey towards building our online presence, and building our business.  This is what we do.

And at Mad Mimi (in my opinion), they make it fun, with a fair amount of cheekiness.  To make it extra fun.  Which is of course, right up my alley!

Using Webinars to Grow Your Email List

When you are running an email marketing campaign there is nothing more important than having a healthy list. This takes planning, and a well thought out approach in order to gain the most benefits, including, increased open, click through rates and conversions on your offers.

7 Simple Steps to Build Your Networking Skills

In today's economy, a lot of us are looking for work. One of the best way to find new employment is by networking with friends and colleagues. For shy or inexperienced folks, this exercise can be daunting. Here are some helpful tips for developing your networking skills.