Content 911

Mobile Marketing Basics

Implementing a mobile marketing plan into your current marketing strategy really isn’t all that difficult and it’s actually less expensive than you think. It can’t be stressed enough that mobile marketing is about consistency and commitment. You have to think about what you want to offer your customers, how you want them to react to the offer and what you will do to see it through.

Business is about building relationships and mobile marketing is no different. In order to be successful in offering your customers what they want, you have to first know what they want.

To help you on your way, here are a few steps that you can take to begin implementing mobile marketing in your business today:

• Learn the basics first. You have to crawl before you walk and walk before you run. If you're planning to go this alone and not hire an agency that specializes in this field, you must learn the basics. The Mobile Marketing Association’s Best Practices Document is a good place to start. Unless you're a computer and Internet guru, some of the information may seem over your head when you first start reading. It’s okay--take your time, do a few tests, refine your approach and you’ll catch on in no time. Practice is the best experience.
• Case studies are excellent examples. Case studies help you to see what other businesses are doing in the mobile world. They can also help get your creative juices flowing and give you ideas about what you can do in your own business. Study what other companies are doing and pay attention to mobile marketing campaigns that you receive every day.
• Walk the walk. Use mobile devices to browse the web or read email and texts frequently. There’s no better way to learn something new than by putting it into practice. Subscribe to as many text messaging campaigns as you can find. If you aren’t already on an unlimited data plan, now would be a good time to change that. You have to use the technology if you expect to sell your customers on its benefits.
• Determine how you’re going to get your offer out to your customers: text messaging, a mobile version of your web site, mobile coupons, mobile advertising or some combination of these.
• Find companies who can provide the technical support that you’ll need. You may need to utilize various tools or service providers to make it all come together, but it doesn't have to be expensive.
• Never stop learning! Mobile marketing is a relatively new technology and just like everything else, it will continue to evolve even in its formative days. Learn what your competitors are learning--but try to do it first or do it early instead of lagging behind the competition now or a year from now.

Like it or not, mobile marketing is the wave of the future of the Internet. The yellow pages and other forms of traditional marketing have run their course. It’s now time to embrace this technology and discover what it can do for you and your business. Contact us or request a quote to find out how we can help.

Lisa Kirschner
Managing Editor, Content 911 Blog
Managing Director, Flair Interactive Services Inc.

Using Online Videos To Promote Your Business

Are you a small business owner or web manager? If so, how is your business doing?

Many companies spend thousands, if not millions, of dollars on advertising without seeing a good return on their investment. Be careful before you dish out thousands of dollars to promote your business, and keep in mind that there are numerous free or low-cost ways to get the word out (although it should be noted that you need to account for hidden costs such as your time).

One of the best--and least expensive ways--to promote your business online is through the use of videos. Now, you may be saying that you don't know anything about video, that you don't know how to use a camera or webcam or that you don't have time to learn. But look at it this way...wouldn't you rather invest 10-15 hours and a couple hundred bucks upfront for an extemely high ROI, rather than continuing to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars per month for NO return? Besides, once you get over the initial fear factor, learning and shooting video can actually be really fun.

There's a good chance that you're already fully aware of online video web sites--such as YouTube and Vimeo--and what they do. If not, you'll want to learn. The best way to do that is to just visit them and type in topics in which you're interested, such as online marketing, cooking, writing or virtually any other topic.

Free online video web sites are sites that allow internet users to watch videos that are hosted on their web site for free. Most will also allow users like you to make, upload and share their own videos. Regardless of what type of business you own or manage, you can use videos--and these web sites--to your advantage. (And, no...don't say that your users aren't interested in videos...almost all users prefer to learn in an interactive format such as video instead of reading pages and pages of text. This applies to you, too, B2B businesses!)

We've outlined a few steps below so you can get started on creating business videos in no time:

Step One: Understand the Tools

First, you'll want to familiarize yourself with the video web sites that are currently available. You can easily do this by performing a standard internet search for "video web sites." Your search should produce a fairly large number of results. Before making your video for a particular service, you'll want to examine its rules and restrictions to ensure that you're adhering to any policies. Also, spend some time browsing that particular service--particularly videos that are similar to your own--to become familiar with its content and audience.

Step Two: Pick a Topic or Niche

If you sell products, you should make videos showcasing each product and any applicable accessories or parts. For instance, you may want to show how to use your products or how they are made. Be sure to focus on the issues that your product will solve for your customers--make it about helping them as opposed to why your product is the greatest widget ever made. If your product would make a great gift, mention that. Videos are also a great way to showcase any seasonal specials or promotions.

You'll want to refrain from making your video seem like spam or too "sales-ey." Although you may want to mention the price, remember that it shouldn't come across as an infomercial. Provide tons of value--in the form of knowledge, tips, advice or "how-to" info--and your video will be shared (which is one of the main purposes of making videos available online). At the end of your video, you should offer instructions about how to make a purchase or learn more information, but only AFTER you've given the user some form of info or knowledge for free.

Although products are the easiest to showcase in an online video, you can also use your video to help promote a particular service that you sell. For instance, if you offer assistance to people or businesses that are in debt, you'll want to provide an overview of what debt is, who it hurts and how help can be obtained. Providing general information on debt is a great way to keep your video from appearing too pushy. As mentioned above, you should include information about your business at the end of your video. This may help to increase the number of clients you receive, especially if you provide a service that is used and needed by many.

Step Three: Video Production

You'll need a few pieces of equipment to make your video, including a recording device or method. If you're shooting products or something offline, you'll need to use a camcorder, phone or webcam. Online recordings can easily be made with a webcam or with one of the many screen recording services available, such as GoToMeeting or Webex. These services are great if you're going to be recording webinars or Powerpoint presentations that describe a service or if you need to showcase a software or digital product.

Video editing software is important, as well. Most computers already come equipped with movie making or video editing software, so check out what's available on your system already. More frequent video producers will want to look into more robust video editing tools, such as Camtasia Studio (my personal favorite for the PC platform).

Step Four: Uploading Your Video

After you've made, edited and saved your video, follow the instructions for the online video web site where you wish to publish that video.

If you're using a phone or webcam, you'll most likely see a prominent link to share your video to popular platforms such as YouTube, Facebook or other social networking tools. Camtasia users should use the "Share to YouTube" link that's built into the software.

Regardless of where you publish it, be sure that your video is tagged appropriately for search engines, so users who are looking for that topic can find it. Again, check out the instructions on the video web site to learn how to tag your videos.

Step Five: Publishing it to Your Web Site

Once your video is online, you can very easily embed it into almost any web page using the "embed" code that is provided by the video service. In YouTube, click on the "Share" link and then cut and paste the "Embed" code into your web page's HTML. If you don't have HTML experience, ask your webmaster or web manager to do this for you.

Follow the steps above, and you could have your first video online in less than an hour. I suggest that you take it slow and produce one or two videos using the most convenient method available before you commit to doing a large number of videos. It's best to start out slow and do one or two right, instead of trying to do 25 and not getting anything done.

Let us know if you need Flair's help with setting up a YouTube channel for your business, creating or editing videos, or creating a realistic video or online marketing campaign. We'd love to help!

Lisa Kirschner
Manging Editor, Content 911
Managing Director, Flair Interactive Services Inc.

Understanding SEO Techniques

Search engine optimization (SEO) should be an integral part of every business owner's or web manager's marketing arsenal. You can significantly boost your traffic, conversions and sales by following the right SEO methods and techniques, which I've described below.

Commitment to the Process

SEO needs to be consistent and requires a lot of work in your part. Search engine algorithms adjust regularly, so it is important to stay updated with the latest trends and approaches, since some of your methods may no longer work after a few months. You have to be prepared for the long term and view how your business will continue to grow through SEO. Your methods may not seem to be working at first, but you'll notice results as you continue to enhance the steps and process. Commit to learning everything that you can about SEO, and then put together a plan to make SEO a regular part of your workflow.

The Importance of Content Strategy

One of the most effective methods for optimizing your site is to ensure that it's easy to navigate and that users can find the high-quality content that they need. You need to give users a reason to come to your site and then come back later--so make sure you provide fresh content (via blog posts, web site promotions, landing pages, new products, events, videos or other engaging content) to your users regularly.

You can also join online forums and discussion boards to talk to your target customers, and be sure that your company has a presence on social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

Find out which keywords will most likely be used by your target customers and use these wisely throughout your articles and the above-mentioned content. Don't get overwhelmed by the seemingly large amounts of content needed for all of these channels--it's easy to hire freelance writers or agencies to help you make relevant and useful articles in a short span of time.

Stay Visible

Include a site map page on your web site and make sure that you utilize modern coding techniques so spiders can see your web site and its content. Spiders cannot index your pages if they cannot be crawled. Make sure you have an easy-to-crawl navigation menu and utilize alt tags for your images. Any good developer or webmaster should be able to help you improve your site's visibility for search engines.

If you have a big web site, you may need to create multiple site map pages, and make sure that each one has less than 100 links.

Also, keep in mind that your URLs and file names should be search-engine friendly. Avoid using complicated parameters and use hypens--not underscores--in your URLs and filenames. Hyphens are considered a "space," unlike underscores.

Relevance Matters

Always ensure that you have a relevant title and meta description on each web page. The page title is the most vital factor of on-page SEO. A page is unlikely to rank very high for a primary term without the word being included in the page title and within the page. Rewrite the keyword meta data completely if you find that these are not relevant--but keep in mind that search engine algorithms do not currently give as much weight to keyword meta tags as they previously did. It's better to ensure that the primary keywords for a page are included in the meta title and within the body content. Always write your content for visitors and tie your page content to accurate keywords that are specific to that page.

These are just a few of the most critical SEO techniques. Contact us to get an SEO analysis of your web site or if you have questions about SEO. We look forward to hearing from you!

Lisa Kirschner

The Perils of Perfectionism in Web Development

Finding work/life balance in today’s busy and highly competitive world could never be described as easy.  For most perfectionists, however, it is downright impossible. I see this play out every day when I'm working with busy web and marketing managers who have huge To Do lists and virtually no personal lives.

Although many people tend to think of being a perfectionist as a positive thing, true perfectionism can be extremely counterproductive. Not only does the need to attend to every last little detail waste unnecessary time and lead to tasks and projects taking MUCH longer than they need to, but it typically means that perfectionists end up allowing work to eat into their own personal leisure time. And even worse...once the job is finally complete, the perfectionist may feel that he or she has not completed it well enough, leading to intense feelings of frustration and low self-esteem. This can lead to a downward spiral of negativity and a lack of motivation at work and at home.

Striving for excellence is something that can benefit ourselves and our employers, but there is a world of difference between this and trying to achieve the impossible. As human beings, we are not built to be perfect; trying to achieve perfection is a certain road to unhappiness. By all means give everything your best shot, but know when to stop because your best really is good enough!

If you're a perfectionist and you're trying to do too much or get everything PERFECT in your web site or online marketing initiatives, it's time to sit back, take a deep breath and...LET IT GO.

Strive to remember the Pareto Principle--basically aim for 80% perfection and don't sweat the other 20%. There will ALWAYS be something that you can do better with your web site and online marketing campaigns: more content that you can write, more pages that you can add to your site, more marketing campaigns that you can run...but do your best and aim to do just ONE thing at a time (and do it well!). When you free your mind of clutter and focus, you'll be amazed at what you can accomplish. Complete that single thing well, and THEN move on to the next thing on your list.

Until next time,

Lisa Kirschner
Managing Editor, Content 911
Managing Director, Flair Interactive Services Inc.

What are SOPA and PIPA?

So are you hearing a lot about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) today?

Flair's hosting partner, Siteground (which is against these pieces of legislation), has a great video that explains why they're opposed to this controversial legislation:

http://blog.siteground.com/stop-censorship/

As a content manager and author, I have mixed feelings about SOPA, which is the U.S. House bill, and PIPA, which is the U.S. Senate bill. Both of these bills are mainly aimed at overseas companies, but U.S.-based companies and individuals would also feel the impact.

If I have to choose one side, I oppose these pieces of legislation due to the proposed ability to shut down or block sites and domains (by actually accessing domain registry records), the proposed ability for the government to force advertisers and others to cut off funding to companies in question, and some other penalties and proposed solutions.

HOWEVER, as an author and content manager, I am also VERY FIRMLY opposed to unauthorized piracy of any kind of content (articles, music, videos or any other content) without the explicit written content from the copyright holder. Still, I think sending an individual user who has sung one of their favorite artists' songs in a FB post or YouTube video to jail for five years is a little ridiculous.

PCWorld also has a more objective article about this:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/248298/sopa_and_pipa_just_the_facts.html

Seems like we could have avoided all of this if the government noticed the rampant unauthorized use of content about 10 years ago. There has to be another way...

I don't think that these bills will pass in their current state, but I also don't think that this debate is over (nor should it be). Unfortunately, I suspect that artists (the people whose creative genius inspired them to create such works of art) will end up being the ones who suffer either way--not music companies, corporations, newspapers, magazines, hosting providers, search engines and directories, or Internet companies.

What do you think of SOPA and PIPA? Let us know!

Lisa Kirschner
Managing Editor, Content 911
Managing Director, Flair Interactive Services Inc.

Interesting Video about Google Panda

As 2011 comes to a close, we at Flair are getting slammed with frantic calls from potential clients who want to know why they've seen a decrease in traffic to their site during the last few months. While Google's Panda update (a change to their algorithm earlier this year) may not be the cause of all traffic changes, it's certainly had a huge impact on many sites and businesses this year.

SEOMoz has released a great video entitled "How Google's Panda Update Changed SEO Best Practices Forever." Anyone who's grappling to understand Panda and what it might mean should take a few minutes to watch this video.

Contact us at Flair Interactive if you need help understanding how your site ranks, why you have those rankings, how Panda has impacted you and what you can do about it.

We also frequently work with new startups who don't have any previous rankings and want to increase traffic to their sites as quickly as possible. (However, keep in mind that it's best to look at SEO as a longer-term effort than a quick band aid.)

We look forward to helping you with your SEO and online marketing needs in 2012.

Lisa Kirschner
Founder and Managing Director, Flair Interactive Services Inc.
Managing Editor, Content 911 Blog

EXCERPT: Customizing SharePoint: Start with the Solution or the Business Problem?

Before you begin adding customization tools to SharePoint to create a solution for your business, you must understand your company’s business problem. In this article, I cover a few important areas you need to address before you look at technology...

via www.cmswire.com

Hear, hear! I couldn't have said it better myself!

In this CMS Wire article, author Jennifer Mason is really just providing a gentle reminder that "You have to know where you're going in order to figure out how you're going to get there" or "Don't put the cart before the horse."

This is a problem that I see businesses struggling with all the time. I've had dozens and dozens of conversations with clients who really want to select a technology language or tool before they've really determined what they're trying to do.

Study this article carefully if you're planning to customize SharePoint or any CMS. You'll save yourself lots of time and frustration, and your end result will be better because you've taken the time to think through your business goals carefully.

Lisa Kirschner
Managing Director, Flair Interactive Services Inc.
Managing Editor, Content 911 Blog

Email Marketing Comparison Chart from Top Ten Reviews

Looking for a new email marketing program for your startup or SMB?

There are dozens on the market that are geared toward small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs). If you don't have time to sift thorugh all of their web sites and compare features, use this handy comparison chart and awesome video reviews by Top Ten Reviews:

Top Ten Reviews - Top 15 Email Marketing Vendors for SMBs

This site will save you a lot of time and help you narrow down your short list. We at Flair have worked with a number of these vendors over the years, including Constant Contact, Vertical Response, iContact and others--so let us know if you need help with your email marketing efforts.

Happy reading!

Lisa Kirschner
Managing Director, Flair Interactive Services Inc.
Managing Editor, Content 911 Blog

Getting Past Writer's Block

Most of my clients tell me at the beginning of a project that they'll write all of the content for their web sites, landing pages, blogs, newsletters and other online marketing efforts themselves. I always take this piece of info with a grain of salt, because it usually never happens. Deadlines come and go, clients promise that the content is "almost done," but it never comes to fruition. Nine times out of ten, they eventually hand off all of the content development to us here at Flair.

Have you ever wondered why even seasoned marketing professionals and writers struggle with writer's block? Why is that a task that seems like it should be much easier than more technical tasks always falls by the wayside and takes a long time to get done?

In my experience, it can happen for a few reasons. First, most people tend to underestimate or OVERestimate the amount of time needed for content development. They might set aside too little time in the beginning, start getting into it and realize that it's a much bigger job than they had anticipated...or they might keep putting it off because it's turned into a gargantuan effort in their mind. In either scenario, better project planning, time management and a "just do it" attitude can help.

But what about when it runs a little more deeply than that? What if you're feeling unmotivated due to the nature of the content that you're writing? If you're employed as a writer at a large company and you need to feed your family, you might just need to suck it up and do it anyway (sorry--but you're a pro, right?).

However, if you're self-employed or a change agent at your place of employment, you should be taking this opportunity to ask, "Why are we producing these massive amounts of uninspired and uninspriing content? How on earth do we expect to sell our products and services if there's no passion in what we're communicating to our audience?"

There are numerous books and articles out there about bringing life back into your online content by focusing on engaging your audience and telling a story. I recommend Ann Handley's Content Rules in particular.

Karl Staib also provides some practical tips in "6 Ways to Supercharge Your Writing" on his popular Copyblogger blog. Check it out...and then step back to evalutate how you can reenergize your writing time and your content.

Lisa Kirschner
Managing Director, Flair Interactive Services Inc.
Managing Editor, Content 911

Typical Projects Handled by Flair Interactive

Flair Interactive is a web agency specializing in content management, but we often receive questions about exactly what we do for our clients.

Watch this brief video to find out about the typical projects that Flair handles:

Contact us via email or phone at 888-932-0004 to learn how we can help with your web projects today.

Lisa Kirschner

Managing Director, Flair Interactive Services Inc.

Managing Editor, Content 911 Blog