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!