12 Writing Prompts for Business Blogs

Welcome to Business Blogging 101. Today’s assignment? Start blogging more regularly. Before we begin, we’ll give you a quick pop quiz. We hope you have your pencils sharpened.
Fill in the blank: Businesses that regularly blog _________.
A) Gain authority in their industry
B) Create quality con...
12 Writing Prompts for Business Blogs

Creating Email Lists for Marketing Campaigns

If you plan to do some internet marketing to promote your business endeavor, you should seriously consider email marketing as at least one tier of your internet marketing campaign. Many business owners shy away from email marketing because they believe all email marketing campaigns are purely spam. However, this is not true and not partaking in this type of marketing can cause your business to lose out on a great deal of business. By not appealing to potential customers via email, your business may lose a great deal of business to competitors who are using email marketing campaigns to reach customers around the world. However, the first step of an email marketing campaign should be creating an email distribution list. This article will discuss some popular options for doing this and should help to the reader to learn more about what is acceptable and what is not when it comes to email marketing.

Once you have made the decision to start using email marketing to promote your business you are likely facing the dilemma of compiling an email distribution list. This is essentially a list of email addresses to which you will email your advertising and promotional materials. One common way to gain a list of email addresses is to purchase a list from distributors. However, this method is not very effective at all and we do not recommend it. The problem with purchasing an email list if you have no way of knowing whether or not the members of the list would have any interest at all in your products or services. This is very important because while you want to reach a large audience with your email marketing you also want this audience to be members of your overall target audience.

When you purchase an email list you may be sending your email messages to some users who might be interested but this is largely coincidental and is not likely to be well received because the message was not solicited.

Internet users are very quick to delete materials they believe to be spam without even opening or reading the emails. In fact some Internet service providers include spam filters which may automatically delete your emails if your messages are deemed to be spam. These filters run complex algorithms on the subject heading and content of the message to determine whether or not it is spam and are quite adept at weeding out spam. Therefore you run the risk of having your email marketing effort turn out to be a complete waste if the majority of recipients never even read or receive the message.

A far better way to create an email distribution list for your email marketing campaign is to ask current customers as well as interested potential customers to register with your website to receive additional information and periodic updates about your products and services as well as other information which might be of interest to them. This provides you with a database of email addresses from current customers as well as potential customers who have a genuine interest in your products and services and who are interested in learning more about these products and services.

Once you have a list of interested customers or potential customers you can send emails or create e-newsletter for distribution to the members of your email list. These documents should contain a wealth of valuable information as well as a soft sell pitch for your products and services. This information will be valued by the readers and may help to persuade them to try your products and services.

You might also want to include useful links to either your website as well as other websites which may be of interest to your readers. Your content should also contain a portion which urges the reader to take a specific action such as making a purchase or at least investigating a product further.

Social Media Tips: Recipe to Increase Traffic to Your Blog (and Back Again!)

You have a blog (check!), and you have a social media presence (check!). But did you know it was possible to grow both your blog and social media engagement with a few savvy moves on your social posts and your blog?
First, we’ll give you a recipe for an irresistible social media post to p...
Social Media Tips: Recipe to Increase Traffic to Your Blog (and Back Again!)

Instagram Video & Vine: Micro-Videos with Maximum Potential

We just blogged about the often forgotten potential of YouTube as a social media tool. We hope we (deftly) proved that the question of YouTube video marketing should not be “How?” but “Why?”.
Why? Well, we believe that brands are missing an opportunity if they ignore the chance to generate and sh...
Instagram Video & Vine: Micro-Videos with Maximum Potential

Social Media Guidelines: How-To Create a Polished Twitter Profile

If you are just getting started on Twitter (or wanting to refresh or kickstart your online presence), it could be time for a profile review. Ask yourself a few quick questions to decide if your business needs a profile tune up.

Is your profile as polished as it could be?
Is your profile...
Social Media Guidelines: How-To Create a Polished Twitter Profile

Engaging Social Media Copywriting 101

We hope it’s obvious. We are passionate about quality content. And helping you and your business produce enticing copy on your site, company blog and social media accounts is one of our top priorities. Whew! Glad we got that off our chest.
Let’s say you’ve mastered generating search eng...
Engaging Social Media Copywriting 101

Your Local Marketing Ideas Can Take Shape with the Help of Your Local Marketing Company

You own a small business and you have a lot of local marketing ideas, but you do not know how to put them across? No need to worry! Your local marketing company is here to help you bring them to shape with excellent results for your company’s development!

You have thought long and hard on how to bring new customers to your company and marketing ideas are piling up in your head. Still, you cannot bring yourself to put them into practice and you realize you need someone with the skills to properly market your business. No problem, there are plenty of trained marketers who can make your business plans come to reality.

If your local marketing ideas are about taking advantage of the opportunities the internet has to offer, web marketing companies can help you target audience and gain new customers. Whether it’s Facebook, Google or Yelp, a professional agency will focus your clients’ attention on your business and put all the effort necessary for your online campaign to be successful.

But there are other methods you can use to gain visibility on the market and make your local marketing ideas fruitful. And marketers can provide specialized assistance for that too.

If you thought of sponsoring one of your community’s events, be sure it is a great idea. Your business’ name will be advertised along with the event‘s promotion and it will be also mentioned on the website of the event. This is beneficial for your company, especially when it comes to SEO. Plus, you will earn a good reputation for supporting the community.

Networking events are always a good way to make the business environment aware of your reliability and seriousness as a business owner. Gaining recognition on the market is essential for the future development of your company and finding new partners and collaborators.

People first have to eat to live. There is nothing more truthful than this statement, so promoting your business in restaurants is always a good idea. Think flyers, banners or barters. You can condition gaining a free meal at a local restaurant on buying a product from your company.

Contributing to non-profit organizations may also prove a wise idea. Pro bono work can bring your business a great deal of pluses in terms of connections. Remember most NGO’s are founded by local leaders.

However, when it comes to making your business strategy work, the best idea you could have is to hire a professional local marketing company to guide you. Contact us! Whatever local marketing ideas you have, we are here to make them happen!

Evaluating the Response to Your Internet Marketing

Starting an Internet marketing campaign is only the first step in the battle. Sure it is a good idea to start an Internet marketing campaign if members of your target audience are likely to use the Internet to research or purchase the products you sell or the services you offer but these marketing efforts may turn out to be a complete waste of time if you are not diligent about evaluating the response to your Internet marketing. This means each time you implement a change to your marketing strategy; you should evaluate the results of the change to determine whether or not it generated a greater profit for you. This is important because it can help you determine what is working and what is not working for you.

Evaluating the response of your Internet marketing can be done in a number of different ways. Customer surveys and embedded HTML code are two of the most popular methods of evaluating the effectiveness of an Internet marketing campaign. Customer surveys can be as simple or as complex as you like depending on the amount of feedback you would like to receive. However, one of the most effective ways to find out how well your different marketing tactics are working is to include a question asking the consumer where they first learned about your products or services. This is important because if you find a great deal of your customers are learning about your products or services through a particular venue, it is a good indication this method of advertising is working quite well for you.

Embedding code into your advertisements for the purpose of receiving feedback is also a popular method of evaluating the response to your Internet marketing strategies. Advertisements can be coded so the business owner receives feedback each time an Internet user clicks through a particular advertisement. This is useful for letting the business owner know which of his advertisements are attracting the most attention. If the business owner is using two different designs for his advertisements he may discover one design is attracting more attention than others and may make the decision to convert all of the advertisements to a more effective style. Similarly a business owner who is running the same advertisement on several different websites may discover he is receiving more traffic from one website than others. He may also discover some websites are not attracting much attention at all. This would give the business owner an indication of which advertisements to cancel and which ones to keep running.

Finally, the response to an Internet marketing campaign can be evaluated by carefully reviewing website traffic statistics after implementing changes to the marketing strategy. This information is useful because an unusual spike in the amount of website traffic immediately after implementing a stage of the marketing campaign can provide positive feedback that the change was well received by potential customers. While this method of evaluating the response to an Internet marketing campaign can be effective it is important to note implementing multiple changes at once will make it difficult to determine which changes were the most effective. Therefore if you plan to use website traffic as feedback for how well your marketing strategy is working it is important to only implement one major change at a time so they can each be evaluated separately.

Are You Already Marketing On The Internet?

Take a moment to think about how you would really answer this question. If given enough thought just about any business owner who utilizes the Internet for any purpose will likely find that whether or not they intentionally organized an Internet marketing campaign, they may already be marketing their products and services on the Internet. This article will examine some subtle ways business owners may already be marketing their business on the Internet.

Do you have a website for your business? 

Business owners who answer yes to this question are already marketing their products or services online just by virtue of the fact that they have a website online. Having a live website means there is the potential for curious Internet users to access your website. You may not be actively promoting your website but you may still find that your website generates interest in your products despite the lack of promotional endeavors; this is a form of passive marketing.

Do you participate in message boards and include a link to your website in your signature?

Again business owners who answer yes to this question are already marketing their website online. Savvy business owners realize the importance of participation in industry related message boards to create an interest in their products and services, establish themselves as knowledgeable about the industry and offer a link to their own website even if it is in the signature line of their posts. However, even business owners who do not realize this may already be inadvertently enjoying the benefits of Internet marketing which result from message board participation just by doing something they enjoy and may be doing as a form of leisure activity. 

Do you include keywords which are relevant to your business in the content of your website?

Business owners who answer yes to this question are also already marketing on the Internet by optimizing their website for these keywords. These search engine optimization (SEO) affects the websites whether or not they were even aware of the concept of keyword density and how it can help to SEO a website. Business owners will likely use certain words often depending on the type of products and services they offer just because it is natural and logical to do so. This tendency, however, can result in search engines boosting your website rankings for these particular keywords. The concept of SEO is much more involved and complex than simply using keywords frequently but business owners can gain some benefit just by naturally applying relevant keywords to their website. 

Do you solicit feedback from your customers online? 

This is yet another example of how business owners may be accidentally marketing their business on the Internet. Most business owners realize the importance of soliciting feedback from customers for business purposes and business owners who offer products online might solicit feedback in the form of online surveys. Although the business owners may be doing this simply for a business purpose the fact that it is done online makes it fall into the category of Internet marketing.

We have already discussed several ways in which business owners may already be marketing online but what about business owners who want to have an increased online presence? Business owners who may already be marketing online accidentally may wish to launch a full scale Internet marketing campaign. The best way to do this is to hire a consultant with experience in Internet marketing to assist you in creating a campaign which is effective for your target audience. 

Choose a Local Marketing Company to Build an Effective Marketing Strategy

How Effective is Your Marketing Strategy?

It you happen to change your strategy and intend to shift from the global market to a narrower, local business environment, you should consider the opportunity of hiring a local marketing company to adapt your marketing plans to the new situation. Professional help is needed, because, otherwise, you would probably not be capable of creating profitable opportunities and significant cash flows for your business.

If you accept counseling instead, your way from a crippled economy like the one we are facing these days to a successful business is open. You will be able to enjoy financial security and will build a solid reputation as a business owner.

Use the Services of a Local Marketing Company to Boost Your Search Engine Ranking

One of the easiest ways to approach the local marketing world seems to be through organic local SEO. You have to perform specific keyword research to find out what people in your community are looking for. The information you get must then be used to find geo-targeted keywords that are able to convert at impressively high levels.

This way, you will enjoy faster results from the search engines and, also, as weird as it may seem, reduce competition. You just cannot ignore this aspect, because the actual business environment is the most competitive ever seen. Think that anyone could create a global business without needing anything else but a computer and an internet connection. The help of a local marketing company is essential if you want to boost your business at the highest level possible.

Joint Venture Opportunities Are Welcome

If you really want to make your business very profitable in a short time, you should increase the number of joint ventures that you are doing with non-competitors. This will allow you to build a real flood of paying marketplaces and customers that you would not be able to create otherwise.

You can partner with other business owners who have assets that you could use, and split the profit with them. This sounds like getting some free money, because you will provide your customers with other products that they need and probably buy from your competitors. This is a sure way to attract more customers to your online store.

All you have to do in order to be successful on the local market is to consult a local marketing company like City Web.

Are You Blogging? Do You Know How to Blog?

Blogs have a more extensive history than most people realize. Despite being around since the mid-90s, blogging didn’t become a mainstream phenomenon until around 2004. Since then, blogging has been the go-to source for seeking out viral content in a given niche. If used correctly, blogs can be a ...
Are You Blogging? Do You Know How to Blog?

Internet Marketing with an E Newsletter

One very popular Internet marketing strategy is to publish and distribute an e-newsletter on a regular basis. E-newsletters are essentially emails which may contain content, graphics, links and subtle forms of advertising. In general e-newsletters should be informative in nature and useful to the recipient but should also serve some type of marketing purpose as well. This article will examine e-newsletters and explain how they can be used effectively as a marketing strategy.

The first item to consider when attempting using an e-newsletter as a marketing strategy is the distribution list for the e-newsletter. This is very important because you want to ensure you are distributing your e-newsletter to recipients who will be interested in your products and services and will likely view the e-newsletter as worthwhile instead of viewing it as spam. Using deceptive tactics to harvest email addresses and sending out your e-newsletters blindly to a large audience is not a good marketing strategy. This strategy is not worthwhile for a couple of reasons. Most importantly this type of strategy does not help you to reach your target audience. You may reach some members of your target audience by accident but are not likely to reach a large population of this intended audience.

Additionally, sending your e-newsletter unsolicited to a large audience with no interest in your products and services will likely result in your e-newsletter being viewed as spam. This can have more serious consequences than simply being a wasted effort. Specifically, recipients of your e-newsletter may block your email address or even report you to their Internet service provider as a spammer. This can have damaging consequences such as loss of business or even harsher penalties.

A better way to establish a distribution list for your e-newsletter is to set up a forum for interested potential customers to register to receive additional information from you. This could include registering with your website online and requesting to be added to your email distribution list or providing an email address and requesting additional information in some other manner. Sending your e-newsletter to recipients who have specifically requested more information is a good idea because these Internet users are already interested in your products and are likely to appreciate the e-newsletter instead of viewing it as spam.

The content of your e-newsletter should be considered next. This may include the actual copy contained within the e-newsletter as well as graphics, links and advertisements. Keeping direct advertising to a minimum is ideal but it is acceptable to use soft advertising techniques to promote your products or services. The copy in your e-newsletter should insightful information which will be useful to your readers. You may wish to include objective articles, product reviews or shorter articles containing useful tips. Links to your own website or to other websites which might be of use to your target audience can also be included. These links may come in the form of direct advertisements or the links may be embedded in the copy of the e-newsletter when appropriate.

If you plan to utilize an e-newsletter to promote your products or services, you should consider hiring an experienced writer to create the content for your website. This will help to ensure you are providing your readers with top quality content. Likewise if you intend to include graphics you should have a graphic designer assist you to ensure your e-newsletter looks professionally put together.

Social Media Image Guidelines: The Facebook Profile Picture

We just finished our five-part social media series on how to engage with your core audience on each of the top networks. We hope our tips helped! If you had a chance to read even one of those posts, you probably picked up on a major theme: Be Visual. Stats say that a well-placed image can...
Social Media Image Guidelines: The Facebook Profile Picture

Under the Hood SEO: Why Web Design Counts More Than Ever for Internet Marketing

A website is a lot like a vehicle. For a lot of people, they know how to drive a car but don’t have the slightest clue how to check under the hood. A website is not a whole lot different; the laymen can navigate a website and admire the images and text but know next to nothing about the process t...
Under the Hood SEO: Why Web Design Counts More Than Ever for Internet Marketing

Interview with Chris Garrett: How to Build Authority by Blogging and Inbound Marketing

The beauty of a business blog is that any company and business owner has a chance to show knowledge and authority in a chosen industry. Marketer Chris Garrett certainly knows plenty about this. Chris is the authority blogger, the go-to person for business marketing, blogging, and business...
Interview with Chris Garrett: How to Build Authority by Blogging and Inbound Marketing

Making Use of YouTube: Getting the Most Out of the Forgotten Social Network

While most people may not consider it as one, YouTube does fit the definition of a social network. It allows users to share content in the form of videos, enable users to subscribe to channels, post comments and freely embed and distribute videos to other sites and networks.
For the casual user,...
Making Use of YouTube: Getting the Most Out of the Forgotten Social Network

February 2014 Newsletter

February 2014 Newsletter

A Few Ideas on How to Market Locally

Many small business owners don’t know how to market locally, which results in a low client base and many related problems. Being visible on local searches is what internet marketing is all about, but in order to be visible, you must optimize your website for search engines.

Claiming your listing on top search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing is extremely important when it comes to local internet marketing. This will greatly help your website even if you don’t do anything else to optimize it. Many people who don’t know how to market locally overlook these extremely important details.

In order to claim a Google Places listing, you need to sign into your Google account. If you don’t have one yet, what are you waiting for? Go and make one ASAP! Next, you need to search on Google maps for a link which says “Business owner?”.  You should be able to locate it on the top right corner, just above the map. If you don’t have a listing, you will need to make one on Google Places. After you’ve claimed your listing, Google will send you an automated message with a code which will be needed in order to verify the listing. Make sure you add as many details as possible, and you can also add photos and videos.

Claiming your business listing on Bing Local is pretty straightforward, and can be done by searching for it in the Local Listings. In case you can’t find a pre-existing one, you can create one from scratch with the help of the Bing Business Portal. Just like with Google, try to add many details in order to increase the chances of ranking higher than others on Bing.

Knowing how to market locally is very important, and claiming your listing on as many search engines as possible is advised. A third popular search engine is Yahoo. In order to claim your listing, you just have to sign into your Yahoo account and search for it on Yahoo Local. To add more details and media, click on the Enhance button.

Besides these basic things, there are numerous other tweaks which can be done with the help of a professional such as the City Web Company. We are specialized in optimizing websites in order to make them more visible on local searches. If you are confused and wonder how to market locally, be sure to give us a call and ask for help.

Easy Social Media Tips to Try Today Part 5: LinkedIn

With today’s LinkedIn rundown, we come to the end of our five-part social media tips series. In each post, we started with a quick 101 section to give you a better idea of each platform’s audience and unique features. Armed with this knowledge, you and your team should be able to…
A) Dec...
Easy Social Media Tips to Try Today Part 5: LinkedIn

Google Glass Search: How will Wearable Tech Change the SEO Game?

If you thought surfing the Web via smartphone was convenient, how about having the Internet accessible hands-free and literally a quarter of an inch from your eyes? With the release of the Google Glass slated for a fall 2014 launch and a hefty $600 price tag, the question remains whether the...
Google Glass Search: How will Wearable Tech Change the SEO Game?

DuckDuckSEO: How Do Privacy-Based Search Companies Affect SEO?

In previous years, people ranting about government spying were often stereotyped as conspiracy theory-crazed individuals with tin foil hats that live “off the grid.” However, the very same people that the public may have once perceived as cuckoo may have actually been on to something. With the re...
DuckDuckSEO: How Do Privacy-Based Search Companies Affect SEO?

Easy Social Media Tips to Try Today Part 4: The Power of Pinterest

Time for part four of our try-them-today social media tips series. Woo Hoo! We hope you’re excited as we are. Quick! What have you learned from our Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ guides so far? If we were going to answer (and we will, you’re welcome), we’d say be visual, be enticing and be infor...
Easy Social Media Tips to Try Today Part 4: The Power of Pinterest

Two-Way Twitter: Why Twitter Should Be The Tin Can Between You And Your Fans

Facebook appears to be the default network of choice when it comes to leveraging social media for marketing gain. There is nothing wrong with this as Facebook rightfully earned its title as the alpha male of social networks. However, companies are severely limiting the scope of their business if...
Two-Way Twitter: Why Twitter Should Be The Tin Can Between You And Your Fans

What Blog Writing Can Do for Your Business

Marketing your business online doesn’t need to be hard. In fact, it can be positively easy. Every aspect of your business success – traffic, leads, and even customers – can be improved by using one powerful tool: a business blog. As we’re about to illustrate, blog writing...
What Blog Writing Can Do for Your Business

Kick-Start Your Inbound Marketing in 2014 with Insights from Ahava Leibtag

Today, I’m thrilled to catch up with Ahava Leibtag, a web content strategist and author. She leads AHA Media Group, a web and content consulting firm, and writes the blog Online it ALL Matters.
Ahava is passionate about content and prides herself on tackling the toughest content p...
Kick-Start Your Inbound Marketing in 2014 with Insights from Ahava Leibtag

Easy Social Media Tips to Try Today Part 3: Getting Started on Google+

Hello, and welcome to part 3 of our gotta-try-them-now social media tips series (whew, try saying that three times fast). We hope you’ve had a chance to test out some new Facebook and Twitter strategies that we presented last week. Overall, we still think upping your engagement (and eventually c...
Easy Social Media Tips to Try Today Part 3: Getting Started on Google+

One of the Best Local Marketing Companies Can Help You with You Social Marketing Strategies

By hiring one of the local marketing companies to help your local business, you can increase traffic to your site, traffic which translates into profit in the end. Many business owners ignore the fact that traditional marketing strategies are no longer as useful as internet marketing. But in order to get people to see your website, there are things you must do.

One thing you could do yourself, without asking for help from one of the local marketing companies, is to take advantage of Twitter’s functions. Using Twitter to advertise your company can offer numerous advantages, since it is a powerful business tool. By using Twitter, you can interact with people without having to wait for them to follow you. You can be the first to follow and interact with them, which might spark their interest and make them eager to find more details about your business and the services that you offer.

A feature that makes Twitter such a powerful internet marketing tool is its advanced search. It allows you to pinpoint people twitting on various topics within a distance of up to 1000 miles. That means that if you are a roofing contractor and spot someone tweeting about a roof replacement, you can easily join in.

By using Bing’s Twitter Maps application, you can have a more detailed and visual map of people tweeting about specific topics in a region. In order to do so, go to Bing Maps and search for the Map App box which can be found on the bottom left sidebar. Once you have located it, select Twitter Maps and type in the search box the keywords you’re interested in, which will allow you to see where the tweets related to your search are located.

You can use Twitter in another way before calling one of the local marketing companies. By using the Twitter Grader, you are able to target the most influential Twitter users in a specific area, since it will show you the most popular ones in the top 100 cities. If you’re interested in finding more users in more cities than the ones listed on the Twitter Grader, you can use Wefollow, where you can find the most popular or most followed Twitter users in a specific city.

Using the social networking sites to advertise your company and make it known can yield great results, but there are other things which you can do to optimize your site for local internet searches, for which you should call a professional. If you need any help with your website, you should contact City Web Company, as they are one of the best local marketing companies on the market, and they will greatly help your business obtain better visibility on the internet.

Monetizing Your Corporate Tumblr: Can Microblogging Really Give the Same Benefits as Other Social Media Platforms?

http://www.citywebcompany.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Monetizing-Your-Corporate-Tumblr-Can-Microblogging-Really-Give-the-Same-Benefits-as-Other-Social-Media-Platforms.jpg


There is a laundry list of social network sites. Some like Facebook and Twitter have achieved global status while others remain somewhat obscure. Tumblr is one such site and has yet to fully come out of the woodworks. By no means is Tumblr an unknown entity; after all, it has been ranked among...
Monetizing Your Corporate Tumblr: Can Microblogging Really Give the Same Benefits as Other Social Media Platforms?