Effective Digital Marketing: Too Good To Miss
Everyone from the average consumer to the marketing departments of Fortune 100 companies are going digital. With this in mind, a digital marketing strategy is essential for any company that wishes to have longevity in their market. Consumers are increasingly partaking in commerce from mobile devices and are also becoming more comfortable with the impulsive nature that these devices tend to accentuate. This is good news for companies with the right digital marketing strategy.Below are five tips for effective digital marketing.1. Social media is king. Any long term digital marketing strategy will include a comprehensive social media presence. Facebook alone accounts for a full one fourth of total clicks which are performed by internet browsers in the US.Social media gives you the ability to connect with your audience in real time like no medium before it. One way to think of it is this:Any offline promotion or communication has an online component. To maximize your business presence online, each of the ways that you promote and advertise offline should be done online as well. Online will reach more people, and cost less. For instance:Twitter is a great place to offer coupons, or if your business is appointment based, inform customers about last minute cancellations to keep your customer flow high. Facebook is a wonderful place to post pictures of your customers with you in the office. Nothing says “recommendation” quite like a smiling photo, which gives a tacit recommendation to anyone who views it. There are many other ways to use social media, but the main thing to remember is to connect all of the various pages you will be creating, and to have different sorts of information on each page.2. Blogging is the other king.To keep your business in the top of the minds of your customers, there is no better activity than blogging. Blogging can keep your audience abreast of happenings in your industry, in your business specifically, and make you known as an expert in the field. People gravitate towards experts, and it gives your business instant gravitas without having to hard sell. It also shows the personality of your business.3. Keep your web copy poignant and simple.Ever since the Google Panda update, search engine optimization is more human than ever. No longer will search engines list a site well based on a single metric in a vacuum. Top web sites are the ones that give the best overall experience.In terms of web copy, that means keeping it simple. There are still some technical nuances to know, such as putting keywords in headers, in the first sentence, and using the free resources that are readily available online to find adjunct keywords to flesh out your copy with.However, for the most part, your web copy should be written to a human audience, not for a search engine spider. Professional with a sense of humor is never wrong. Make sure that the text drives your customers to a single call of action.4. Email strategy.Direct email still works. Make sure that you are keen to the nuances of the new email systems. For instance, many email clients give a preview window on mouse-over before the email is ever opened. If your customer base is receiving a newsletter from you, are they seeing an attractive title or headline in the preview screen, or a confusing block of text or half of an image that is too large? Things like this can make the difference between a sale and an opt out message.5. Retention and remarketing.There are now marketing programs offered that can place targeted ads for your business in front of customers who visited your web site but did not buy. This particular technique is known as remarketing, and is one of the highest ROI activities available on the market today.This type of marketing also helps in retention efforts, as people are naturally inclined to feel buyer’s remorse if they buy something which immediately ceases to be promoted. Letting old customers see that the product or service they bought is still relevant will keep them happy with your business, and they will happily buy updated versions and new products from you.Digital Marketing although no longer in its’ infancy is still quite new to many businesses, so make sure you get ahead of the crowd by finding a digital marketing agency, or in the worst case, starting to catch up!
Online Business System Ethics – Has Honesty Become a Thing of the Past?
Thousands of individuals search the web daily hoping to find an online business system they can use that will actually make an income for them. At the same time they are also asking themselves. Is there really any honesty in Internet marketing or is it a thing of the past?As the economy is in a tragic state not only in the USA but globally people are turning to the Internet to see if they can find solutions to their financial instability.While trying to find the online business system that will turn their lives around for the better, many desperate in their search will spend hard-earned money for one of the many get rich quick schemes that are so readily found on the Internet these days to only find that they have been taken for every Penney they have spent.This not only can cause the loss of money but also the loss of the hope and dream of financial stability and success. Has this happened to you? Have you ever asked yourself about the honesty or ethics of those individuals selling Internet marketing products services or systems to make money online? If so then this article will hopefully give you a little advice about this subject.What happens to a lot of individuals who find themselves being taken by one of the many get rich quick schemes is that they will simply chalk it up as a good lesson learned. Then there are those who will seek retaliation in some way, shape, or form.They my lose all trust for Internet marketing, they may never want to try any online business system again, or they may even find a way to give the marketer from whom they made their purchase a bad name or reputation by spreading the facts of his or her negative experience to others online.The only way to prevent a negative experience from happening to you over and over is to know enough about Internet marketing to be able to tell what is likely to work and what is not. That takes time and effort to learn and even then it’s possible to make a mistake and purchase something that will not work as advertised. So where does that leave us?Changing Online Business System EthicsHere comes the advice. First the important thing to remember is that we can’t change what the other guy does. We only have control over what we do and how we do it. That being said we should each take the personal responsibility to operate any online business system that we are using in an ethical and honest manner.Being honest and ethical online has something to do with each and every Internet marketer. Not only is it basically important in running your own business it additionally insures integrity in what ever online business system, product or service that we provide for others.There was a time when you could more or less trust the majority of Internet marketers to get what you paid for online for their products and services advertised to help you generate income on the net. If you have been around a while you probably remember those days. The majority of Internet marketers were very fair, helpful and went out of their way to over deliver on the product or service they sold to their customers. They realized that this was just one key to long-term business success.Each and every one of us in the Internet marketing field can take the imitative to change the rising trend of online marketing dishonesty. We each have the power to make sure that we operate our online business systems in a positive manner that will stimulate online Internet business growth and trust in these hard economic times.I don’t want anyone reading this article to get the wrong impression. I do believe that there are many honest, ethical and trustworthy marketers online. For those of you who are you are to be commended for operating your businesses in this way.I want to say that passing on the ethical methods, techniques, and systems to those new to our industry will also go a long way in creating a more reliable, robust, and financially stable industry for us all. Take the opportunity to teach your affiliates the honest way to operate online. New marketers seeking assistance will also benefit from learning the right ethics from you with JV (joint ventures).Sometimes trying to show the newer marketers the ethical way to run an online business may not work. The newbie will want to do things his or her own way. The point is at least they will know the difference. They will realize sooner or later after they have lost enough valuable customers, reputation, and customer trust that if they really want to have success online for the long-term it will be best for them to follow your good example.Using and operating an online business system in an ethical and honest manner is the foundation of customer trust. Running your online business honestly not only benefits the customer by making them happy and satisfied with the product or service you provide it also benefits you in the long run with customers who will continue to business with you, trust your advice, and build a solid, positive reputation for your online business. The bottom line is it will lead to more profits for you and the internet marketing industry as well.So if you feel that good ethics and honesty is a thing of the past by marketers using online business systems then just remember what you can do to bring it back in the future.
Are You Fearful of Your Finances in Your Retirement Years?
Sadly, most women will answer ‘yes’. That said, you have more control over your financial situation than you probably think. And if you don’t think you have any control then it’s time to be proactive and take some action. This is your life. This is your future.I know how easy it is to be complacent and figure it will all fall into place when the time comes. Or that your husband, father or brother will keep you financially safe and you don’t have to worry your pretty little head about it. Hint: Men are not a retirement plan. Or, like me, your husband passes away and you have big decisions to make about Social Security. When to take Social Security is a big decision and not to be taken lightly.You are a smart, savvy and talented woman. You have a good head on your shoulders. You are a ‘take charge’ woman in almost all areas of your life.Does that include your finances? The reality is men are much better about this than we women. Finances can scare you and when you are scared or intimidated you have a tendency to do nothing.You can’t afford to do nothing! This is your future we are talking about. Do you really want to have to live with your children because you have no other option?Do you know that women lose 60% of their wealth after a death or divorce? (This is from Bob Melville, an economist that teaches at the University of Denver’s Women’s College.He suggested what he considers an informative and easy read book. “Your Money or Your Life” by Robin, Vicki, Dominguez, Joe, Tilford, MoniqueHere are some other tips he recommends:
Take out 4% in your retirement fund to keep up with inflation
Best to take out your Social Security at age 70 if you can wait that long. That will yield you the highest monthly payments made to you
If you have an Annuity, does it have ‘cost of living ‘ riders? Not all do.
This was news to me: if you are divorced and were married at least 10 years you may be eligible for half of his Social Security. And don’t worry, he will never know you are getting a monthly check and it will not hurt his Social Security. This is true even if he has remarried.
Please don’t dilly dally on this. If you have been putting off getting the straight ‘news’ about your retirement situation, it’s time to start.Do you have a financial advisor? I have been with mine for over 25 years. Do you need one? Are you doing all your retirement investing on your own? That’s fine if you are confident you know what you are doing.I am really not trying to frighten you. I want you to be informed. I want you to have happy and financially safe retirement years. We live longer than men so we need to plan well.To our long lived, financially free retirement years!