Strength In Business with Krisz Rokk

Facebook advertising can help you drive targeted traffic to your website, get quality leads and make more sales. To squeeze the best juice out of your Facebook ads and stop spending more than you should on a campaign, you need to have the right components in place. There are plenty of experts and marketing pros sharing best practices and lessons to learn from that will help you cut the learning curve and speed up the process while steering you away from the common mistakes that hold many small businesses and startups back. Here are three common Facebook ad mistakes you need to avoid when setting up your next big Facebook advertising campaign: Facebook Ad Mistakes #1: Targeting The Wrong People Targeting everybody that has a pulse is probably one of the biggest mistakes people make with Facebook ads. If you want to show your ad aka promote your business to an audience that is highly relevant, you need to leave most people out of the targeting party. Instead focus on: * Existing fans * Email subscribers * Website visitors * Laser focused interests: Be very strategic about what you include under interests. Focus on businesses that have the EXACT same target audience as yours. Put your ads in front of the right demographics. Don’t pick generic categories and don’t target a broad group of people. This increases the likelihood of your Facebook ads NOT being marked as unwanted or spam. Furthermore, if you don’t keep a close eye on this rule, the level of engagement and the number of clicks will be low. This again will lead to a lower relevance score thus damaging your ROI. RECOMMENDATION: Put your ad in front of the right people. Get as specific as you can about your ideal customer. It’s time to stop throwing away money with poorly targeted ads. Facebook Ad Mistakes #2: Not Testing Images, CTA, Copy and Landing Pages The first element that Facebook users get hooked to are your images. Assuming that a certain image will get more clicks than another one is a very bad idea. Test your assumptions (!) and let the results speak for themselves. If you don’t split test your Facebook ad images, you’re missing out on some key marketing opportunities. The next thing you want to test is your copywriting and the call-to-action, or CTA. Always test a few different versions of copy and include a CTA to make your ad compelling and ensure ample follow-through. Furthermore, do yourself and your audience a huge favor, and stop sending them to a crappy landing page. If you want to increase your conversion rates make sure that the content on your landing page is supported in your Facebook ads. RECOMMENDATION: Start your copy with a question and see how it works. Also, test different copy elements for the desktop news feed and right column. Publish your landing page as a separate Facebook tab and set up an ad set that drives traffic to this tab. Create a second ad set and drive traffic to the landing page outside of Facebook. Keep everything else unchanged and see which one of the two options mentioned above converts better. Facebook Ad Mistakes #3: Not Tracking Performance Guessing, hoping, neglecting and speculating – this is how NOT to go about Facebook ads. Don’t wait until you spend hundreds of dollars on Facebook campaigns to discover you targeted the wrong people, chose the wrong images and used bad copy.

Whether you’re a small business owner or a marketing pro working for a corporate – you use the same social media channels Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. The difference between the small guy and the big boys lies in the marketing tools they use. Corporates may afford to spend millions on fancy CRM systems but the rest of us are in the market for something easy and cost-effective. Are you looking for social media marketing tools to perform tasks more efficiently? Running a small business requires time and energy. You need to keep an eye on your team, ensure you have a steady stream of cash coming in, focus on attracting more of the right customers and increase client retention, develop new products and services, and so on. And than there’s social media marketing to help you spread the word and make more sales. All this can be pretty overwhelming, right? Well, to help you minimize the time you spend on social media networks and maximize your outcomes, I’ve put together a small set of social media marketing tools that are straightforward and easy to use. See which ones resonate best with you. Social media marketing tools for entrepreneurs and small business owners To make it easier to navigate through I grouped the tools into three categories: * Visual content tools * Content generation tools * Analytics and monitoring tools Let’s get started. 1. Create and resize social images with Canva Canva is a simple, yet intuitive and powerful online photo editing tool for all non-designers. This design tool has saved me hours, if not days of work. Instead of waiting for my team to design all those fancy images in Photoshop I can use Canva to create my own “non-designer” images. The online tool has a drag-and-drop interface allowing you to add text, symbols and icons, use templates, or even upload and edit your own images. Canva is a free tool and it takes less than two minutes to create an account. If you decide to use something from Canva’s library of stock images you’ll need to pay $1, but other than that, everything is free. There are two more things that I totally love about Canva and that is: * The interactive design tutorials – each one takes about three minutes * The done for you image, text and social media templates – Example: Twitter Header, Google+ Cover, Facebook Post Using Canva helps make the process of creating and resizing your images much less labor-intensive. It’s a great social media marketing tool to boost your productivity and allocate your valuable time for other important tasks. 2. Resize and retouch social images with Social Media Image Maker Social Media Image Maker is another great tool to help you resize your images so that they match the preferred dimensions of the most popular social networks including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Tumblr, Vimeo, YouTube and About.me. Let’s face it, finding suitable images and than resizing each to fit the requirements of all the different social channels can be very time-consuming indeed. Use these two social image tools and put all those worries behind. 3. Discover content ideas and identify key influencers with BuzzSumo For those of you reading my blog posts, the tool I’m going to mention next will sound very familiar. BuzzSumo is my go-to search...

Blogging takes time. First, you need to do some research in order to come up with a relevant topic. Then you need to write a catchy headline, use your knowledge and experience to compose a great article, source images and work out your SEO. Wait, that’s not all. That was just the creation part. Once you’re done with that, you need to promote and share your content on different social media channels and spread the word. Running a successful blog requires time. Creating valuable and highly relevant content can be challenging indeed, especially if you’re not making use of the amazing blogging tools that are listed below. To help you go through the blogging process more smoothly, I decided to put together a list of blogging tools that have helped me cut my writing time by more than half. See what they can do for you. Essential blogging tools 1. BuzzSumo When it comes to content research, BuzzSumo is my very first stop. You simply type in your keywords or the URL that you want analyzed and hit the search button. The tool will list the most popular articles and the websites that perform best. Here’s an example: Let’s say you want to know more about what’s trending for “marketing tools”. Add the keyword in BuzzSumo and see the potential this has in regards to social media shares. In this particular case, you’ll notice that the top 3 influencers are Social Media Examiner, Entrepreneur and Buffer App. 2. Feedly I came across Feedly a couple of months ago and since it’s become the place I go to keep up with what my favorite bloggers write about. Instead of hopping from HubSpot to Copyblogger and QuickSprout to Mashable, I get all my content in one place. Pretty awesome, right? Feedly allows you to search by title, URL or topic. Furthermore, you can explore sites and publications based on their niche. 3. Quora Quora is a fantastic resource for bloggers, entrepreneurs, techies and marketing professionals. Quora is basically a simple Q&A website where people post their questions on different topics and get answers from insiders & Co. Have a look at some of the most frequently asked questions within your specific industry. This alone will give you a pretty neat understanding as to what people’s needs are aka the problems they have and the solutions they are looking for. See if you find questions that are relevant to your target audience and use them to create blog posts, newsletters, or podcasts for example. 4. Portent Headline Generator Admittedly, this is one of my favorite blogging tools. Portent’s title maker is super easy to use and a great resource to fill your swipe file with click-worthy headlines. For example, if you type in the keyword “marketing tools”, one of the results will be “What the Amish Can Teach You About Marketing Tools”. Just out of curiosity, you would click on that title to see “what on earth can these Amish people really teach me about marketing? I thought they were stuck in the 17th century”. 5. Canva If you’re looking for an easy way to create stunning blog images with a click of a mouse, you should definitely checkout Canva. The drag-and-drop interface allows you to add images, icons and text. Nothing fancy,

Coming up with relevant topics and creating original, high-quality content can be a pain in the butt — especially, if you don’t have a proven content marketing system in place. However, it doesn’t have to be that painful process you need to go through every time you sit down to write your new blog post or article. There are some strategies to generate content in a more productive and effective way. In today’s blog post, I’m going to highlight four steps aka strategies that will help you get from random content creation to a systematized approach that consistently delivers results. Content marketing isn’t a short-term thing. It’s a long game. And it will work best, if your content is useful, educational and inspiring. So, if you expect to write a couple of blog posts and boost your traffic — you might wake up pretty quickly and realize that this simply doesn’t work. Successful content marketing means developing and executing an effective content marketing plan. Last year, 93% of B2B marketers used content marketing in their promotional campaigns. This number alone indicates that content marketing is no longer nice to have; it’s a requirement. I started blogging four years ago. During this time I’ve been inspired by Business2Community, Quicksprout, HubSpot, Jeff Bullas and other popular online content websites, whose lessons have taught me amazing ways to improve my content marketing strategy and generate good content faster. And if I can do it, so can you. So, let’s have a look at four techniques you can instantly apply to your own business. 1. Create and document your content marketing strategy. Developing a content marketing strategy is one thing. Documenting it, another. Actually, documenting your strategy is what makes you become more effective and productive. You want to KNOW what content works and what not; you don’t want to guess and hope. This is one of the major benefits of having a content marketing system and process in place. Recent research from the Content Marketing Institute found that 83% of B2B marketers have a content strategy, but only 35% have it documented. And than you wonder why so many marketers struggle to gain traction… How do you expect to write relevant content and reach your ideal customer, if you don’t have a plan? Stop wasting your time by releasing content with broad appeal. Focus on the content and topics your audience wants to consume and needs. Keep an eye on the following elements: * Determine objectives * Define your strategy * Create a content marketing plan (document) and layout the type of content that resonates with your target audience * Implement the plan, monitor progress and review Think content calendar. Nothing fancy; a simple excel spreadsheet can do the job. 2. Swipe it – Maximize the use of your filing cabinet. One of the most challenging ingredients of content marketing is coming up with a new topic or idea; generating a new piece of content that will resonate with your audience. This was one of the challenges I had early on. How did I overcome it? I introduced swipe files in my daily routine… Swipe files are super powerful when used strategically. Every time I read an article about a topic that I think would resonate with my target audience I put it into my idea filing cabinet. When I attend conferences, trade shows and live events I gather ideas and write them down into my notepad.

Podcasting is on the rise. Podcasts are undeniably popular, entertaining, educational and informative.  On iTunes, podcast subscriptions top 1 billion. Obviously, podcasts are not exclusive to iTunes. Many other apps and services, so called podcatchers are eager to share the latest and greatest podcast episodes. When I launched my first podcast episode back in April 2012 I never imagined the amazing impact this marketing weapon podcasting is going to have on education per se. As a marketer, time-efficient educational strategies and methods were always of great importance to me staying on top of trends. What fascinated me most about podcasting (especially audio podcasts) right from the start was the fact that I could multi-task while listening. Driving the car was no problem. Cooking and listening was great fun. Hitting the gym, training and educating myself at the same time has a lot of benefits. Why do business people love podcasts? Here are five reasons why you should reap the benefits of podcasting for your business: 1. Quickly reach out to new markets and gain a worldwide loyal audience. If you want to be successful in business, you need to know how to gain and more importantly, keep attention. By creating valuable content that is targeted towards your specific customer avatar, you can get listeners fast. Furthermore, once you upload your very first episode, you basically reach out to a worldwide audience. Podcasting allows you to connect with your audience on a deeper level. And the beauty lies therein, that people have chosen to listen to you because they’re interested in your topic, the way you present it, your standpoint, or even your voice. In a world where differentiation is key, podcasting gives you the flexibility to explore all the facets of both your persona and the topic you’re sharing with your community. 2. You’re in control of the game. Few business people have included podcasting into their overall marketing strategy and approach despite their time and cost-efficiency. You can do daily, weekly, or even monthly shows. You can do audio, video, or mix the two formats as you please. You pick the topic and content you’re going to share with your audience. You can choose to upload your podcast to iTunes and other podcast directories, or give access to your show to a select few within your membership area. The possibilities are endless. 3. Interview experts and thought leaders from different industries. Build joint venture partnerships. If you want to connect with key influencer in your industry, share different ideas and insights with your audience, podcasting is definitely the right marketing tool to accomplish just that. You can invite experts to discuss hot business topics on the show and put forth views of people your audience is most likely to trust. Furthermore, you can review books, movies, talks, and all kinds of products and services. You’re only limited by your imagination. 4. Boost credibility and brand awareness. Podcasting is a powerful marketing tool that enables you to build a strong customer base. If you deliver value to your audience, you will build trust with them. Remember, people do business with aka purchase from people they like and trust. Becoming a recognized expert in your chosen niche has the positive side-effect of attracting more consumers and experts to your show. This is how your podcast can help you gain credibility and increase brand awareness across multiple channels and ...

Have you ever thought of combining podcasting with your dental practice, travel agency, or real estate business? Well, that’s exactly what Jason Hartman did a few years ago. He used podcasting to spread the word, gain trust and position his real estate investing business strategically and intelligently. Obviously, it turned out pretty well for him – $10 million in revenue is good money. Podcasting tidbits In this episode you’ll discover: 1. From the large bouquet of online and offline marketing tools available, why should a business owner pick podcasting? What is so special about this medium? 2. “Well, that stuff works in the US, it doesn’t work in Europe and it most certainly doesn’t work in Germany.” 3. How is podcasting going to benefit you and your business? 4. How can you use podcasting to gain trust, credibility, and position yourself as a leading authority? 5. How can you use podcasts as an effective marketing tool to boost revenue and increase client retention? 6. Audio vs. video podcasting: What are the benefits? 7. What are some of the biggest mistakes people make when it comes to podcasting? 8. The future of podcasting: Where is podcasting going to be in 5 years from now? Jason’s answers to all these questions including his golden nuggets of wisdom and advice after eight successful years of podcasting waiting for you in today’s episode. Key Takeaways 02:23 – We gotta make sure the content is really, really valuable for the consumer. 03:58 – There is a very different mentality in Europe versus the States. No one would deny that. But I think the reason it might be more difficult to do what I’ve done in Europe is because the real estate deals there just don’t work as well. 06:38 – Podcasting can be very narrowly focused and I would recommend that for most people. 09:57 – YouTube isn’t portable. And with people becoming very busy… In one day people receive MORE communications and MORE marketing messages than our grandparents received in their lifetime. … It’s pretty hard to break through the noise. 19:56 – I would not want to be the owner of a terrestrial radio show now. I think they are in trouble. Podcasting will grow dramatically, and there’s a big opportunity. 25:30 – It’s a much higher quality lead because it’s a self-selected lead. Mentions Websites mentioned in this podcast episode: www.JasonHartman.com www.HartmanMedia.com. Where to listen and download Here are some of the options you have: * Listen to the show on iTunes. * For all Android users, hop over to Stitcher or check it out on Soundcloud. Enjoy the show.

How are you going to stand out from 347 million users on LinkedIn? What are the must-haves for a great LinkedIn profile? Your LinkedIn profile is a fantastic place to showcase your best assets and greatest successes. Furthermore, it’s the fastest way to make a great or not so great first impression. Whether it’s a potential client looking at your past work experience before meeting up with you, a headhunter searching for you on the Internet to see whether you match his contractor’s requirements, or a marketing professional looking to connect and network with like-minded people just like you, LinkedIn is most certainly the perfect place to search for you. Therefore having a killer profile that enables you to stand out from the crowd is obviously a great thing in this environment. So you’ve got a LinkedIn profile but it’s far from being “perfect” — what’s next? How do you optimize it? A few simple and creative tweaks can go a long way. To help you optimize your LinkedIn profile page, the marketers at Link Humans have created the following infographic. The tips and tricks provided below will help you optimize your profile and make it outstanding. 7 Facts About Your LinkedIn Profile Here’s a quick summary of the tips and stats from the guide: 1. Adding a profile photo could result in 14x times more views than someone without. 2. A summary of 40 words or more makes you more likely to turn up in a future employer’s search. 3. Members who include skills get 13x times more profile views. 4. Adding an industry can get you 15x times more profile views. 5. Your profile is 5x times more likely to be viewed if you join and are active in groups. 6. Members who have an education on their profile receive an average of 10x times more profile views than those who don’t. 7. 42% of hiring managers surveyed by LinkedIn said they view volunteer experience as equivalent to formal work experience. Publishing Posts on LinkedIn Last year, LinkedIn rolled out a new feature and that is the ability to publish posts. You can now publish original content on your LinkedIn profile to share your knowledge, experience and interests. These posts are displayed at the top of the page, right after your profile pic and contact details. Once you publish your new content it gets shared with your connections and followers. Other members who are not connected to you can now follow you from your posts and receive updates when you publish your next piece of content. Another great benefit is that your posts are searchable both on and off of LinkedIn. Pimp Up Your Profile Adding a profile pic can result in 14x more views than someone without. Why not take it a step further by adding videos, slides, audios, book covers etc. to your LinkedIn profile to make it stand out. All these visuals matter when it comes to marketing yourself. It’s time to shine. Furthermore, make sure you add the industry you work in, your education and more importantly, your skills. Reorder and place the more important skills at the top of the corresponding section. Check out the tips below and find out how little tweaks can take your LinkedIn profile to the next level.     Your Turn What are your key takeaways? How would you build a strong LinkedIn profile that makes you st...

One billion heartbeats… As humans, we get an average of 2.2 billion heartbeats out of our bodies and we live more than twice as long as our heart rates would indicate. When we exercise, our heart rate increases. When we are frightened, our heart races. When we listen to music our heart tries to sync with the music. When we watch commercials that touch us deeply – like a baby, or a cute animal – our hearts are softened. Smart marketing and advertising agencies have figured this out. Marketing campaigns that feature storytelling instead of a product are highly successful. Why is that so? When you watch these commercials you feel you are NOT being sold! We relate to other people’s lives. When someone shares their struggle with us, we recall our own obstacles. When a person shares his / her victories it gives us the feeling of “Yes, I can do that too; I can accomplish that too; it’s possible.” It all comes down to connecting deeply with your audience. Feelings, emotions, Endorphins. This cocktail causes a connection that can never be gained by a sales pitch. Marketing campaigns that trigger deep emotions in the viewer have a far higher reach and influence. Three Highly Successful Marketing Campaigns That Attract, Dazzle And Convert Customers Here are some great examples of commercials that generated millions of clicks and led to growing the business. 1. TVC Thai Life Insurance 2014 Watch this amazing ad campaign from Thailand and notice what’s happening to you. And in your life? What is it that you desire most? 2. Friskies DEAR KITTEN The following ad has more than 19 million clicks on YouTube – by the time I’m sharing this with you. A cute kitten joins the household and needs some proper education. Big changes ahead. What will your cat do? 3. John Lewis MONTY THE PENGUIN Enjoy John Lewis Christmas Advert 2014 #MontyThePenguin. What melts your heart? Successful marketing campaigns evoke strong emotions. These emotions could be negative (fear, anxiety, anger) or positive (joy, awe, excitement). They can go both ways. Emotions drive us to like, share and buy. Great brands know how to use a story and connect with their target audience. They understand the power of stories and are very adept at developing ad and marketing campaigns that touch our hearts. Needless to say, that the three commercials featured in this article evoke strong emotions. Whether you love children, animals or you enjoy helping other people, there’s always a story waiting for you to connect and resonate with. How is this relevant to you? Just like Friskies, John Lewis, or Apple, you have to put your energy and focus into moving your customers a lot more than simply buying your stuff. The real power relies in using stories to move people’s minds and hearts so that they get what it is they want and you are rewarded with customer loyalty for life. Tell a story instead of giving a sales pitch. People like and want to know WHY you do what you do, and how you can help them. Remember, people do business with those they know, like and trust. When you have all your marketing pieces in place and you come from a place of integrity and trust, you won’t need to venture into the chaotic mire of a sales pitch, or close hard.

The Babylonians were the most powerful state in the ancient world after the fall of the Assyrian empire. They built the most famous city in ancient Mesopotamia, in the fertile plain between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and created the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, which was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Now, what’s all this got to do with marketing campaigns? Let’s dissect the paragraph above and see what we’ve got. So there are these ancient people who manage to build the most powerful capital in the ancient world. They know exactly how to harness the power of two rivers and use the fertile soil to feed the city’s inhabitants, and on top of that, they are creative enough to build one of the seven wonders. Hm… makes you think, right? How to build successful marketing campaigns using a Babylonian king’s strategy Today, I’d like to share with you 6 things I learned from King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon to help you develop powerful marketing campaigns that engage your audience and generate more business for you. 1. Are your marketing campaigns strong enough to withstand the storm? If there’s one thing that the mighty warrior-king and ruler Nebuchadnezzar II understood early on, it’s the following: In order to consolidate your power and build a city that one day will be recognized as a wonder of the world (and, indeed the great kings’ hopes were realized, the Ishtar gate and the Hanging Gardens were added to the list of the Seven Wonders of the World) — you need to control all the trade routes across Mesopotamia. Furthermore, Nebuchadnezzar spent the tolls and taxes he collected to surround the city with super thick walls thus making it nearly impossible for enemies to climb over or destroy. How is this relevant to you? To be able to cut through all the noise and clutter, and reach the right audience, your marketing campaigns need to have a strong foundation. The key elements have to be in place. Your marketing message needs to be compelling and you have to know exactly who you’re targeting and where they’re spending their time. You can’t expect to yank out a campaign where you have put little to no effort and be rewarded with great results. Good marketing doesn’t work that way. Create strong marketing campaigns. 2. Do you have a strategic approach? This one derives from the story above. The Babylonian king put some serious thought into building his empire. He controlled money. He collected tolls and taxes, and he used the money to build the most powerful city-state in Mesopotamia. These proven systems and processes enabled the Babylonians to live a very prosperous life. How is this relevant to you? Stop random acts of marketing. Stop random acts of advertising. Put marketing systems and marketing processes in place that eliminate guesswork, so that you can focus your valuable time and energy on increasing client retention and profits. 3. Did you allow your creative genius to come up with great ideas? Despite no definitive archaeological evidence, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon attributed to king Nebuchadnezzar II became one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The magnificent city of Babylon was a center for the arts and intellectual pursuits. The Ancient History Encyclopedia writes as follows: Women enjoyed equal rights with men under Nebuchadnezzar’s rule (though, certainly,

Are you ready to solve complex problems with everyday materials and become the next MacGyver of marketing resources? Unlike MacGyver, you don’t really need to possess an encyclopedic knowledge on marketing to achieve your goals but you certainly have to tap into your resourcefulness. So, how can you accomplish this task? Whether you’re new to marketing or have years of experience, you probably realize the tremendous impact of the Internet on business, education and society. The key relies in harnessing the power of this new distribution channel that revolutionized the way we interact and do business today. A somewhat different perspective on marketing resources Today, I’d like to share with you 13 ways to help you maximize your outcomes and grow your business without spending thousands of dollars on expensive marketing resources. 1. Focus obsessively on your target audience. A lot of businesses waste valuable marketing resources because they haven’t spent enough time on getting to know and understand their target market. Get crystal clear about who your audience is. Choose the right market for your products and services to maximize results from all your marketing. 2. Stop competing with other businesses. Invest time into creating a strong unique selling proposition (USP) and positioning strategy that makes your business the only choice for your customers. 3. Create appealing products and services. Appealing to whom? To your audience; to the right customers. Bundle products. Group several products you are already selling and offer packages. Increase your average transaction value. No extra marketing resources required to do that. 4. Pick marketing channels strategically. Don’t spread yourself all over the place. You don’t need to be everywhere. Be where your audience is. If your audience is on LinkedIn, be there. If your customers like to hang out on Facebook, make sure you’re there too. 5. Choose your marketing weapons wisely. Use both online and offline marketing tactics. Don’t focus exclusively on social media marketing and other online channels. The power is in the mix. Organize live events, send out print newsletters, or mix print advertising with mobile marketing. 6. Improve your email marketing campaigns. Create relevant and compelling marketing messages consistently. Educate your subscribers. Make them want to look forward to reading your next newsletter. Do A/B split tests to see what increases the level of engagement and what not. Segment your list. Track your reports. 7. Use audio and video to promote your valuable content. If you’re doing podcasts, use Audacity to record and edit your shows. It’s a free software. If you love doing videos, use your smartphone and upload your educational material to YouTube. You don’t need to invest in expensive technology to promote your business. 8. Create a website that sells. There’s more to a website than great visual design, pretty colors and a couple of ads displayed in your sidebar. Build a website that engages your visitors and turns them into leads aka sales opportunities. Use WordPress, pick a theme and keep testing and tweaking as you move ahead. 9. Learn to write good copy. If you want your marketing messages to cut through all the noise and clutter and reach the right people, copywriting is a must have skill. This translates to: better content marketing and advertising w...

Are you a business owner or marketing professional looking for new ways to generate leads? Do you want to get more customers through the door without overspending? Well, it’s time to use those marketing resources more wisely. Whether you are a marketing pro or an entrepreneur, you’re constantly looking for potential clients. No clients means no sales and no sales means sooner or later no business. In this blog post you’ll find a selection of marketing resources to help you generate leads and close more deals. 1. Start Blogging There are loads of ways to build rapport and trust with visitors who come to your website. Blogging is without doubt one of the most powerful marketing tools for a business owner. It’s relatively easy to set up and it’s amazingly cheap. Blogging is a long-term investment that requires commitment, strategy and marketing resources to make it work well. Therefore, if you’re looking for short-term gains… you’ll need to skip blogging. So, what do you need to set up your own blog? The first thing you’ll want to do is to register a domain (e.g. Namecheap, GoDaddy) and decide on hosting for your blog (e.g. Bluehost, Hostgator, WP Engine). Once you’ve chosen your domain name and your hosting provider, you’ll need to add a blog. There are a variety of blogging platforms you can choose from: WordPress.com, Tumblr, weebly, Blogger, Squarespace, Typepad, WordPress.org, Drupal or Joomla for example. However, WordPress is the most popular blogging system in use and probably one of the best options for a business blogger. The next thing you’ll want to do is pick a theme. You can pick a free theme from the vast collection of templates offered by WordPress, or purchase your preferred theme at Themeforest, WooThemes or Elegant Themes for example. The last thing you want to do before you start planning the content and writing your articles is to install several amazing WordPress plugins that will help you get the most from your blog. Say you’ve accomplished everything above and now you’re sitting in front of a blank sheet of paper with an equally blank mind, wondering how to begin the first sentence. Not to worry. Here are a few marketing resources I use to overcome writer’s block. Buzzsumo allows you to analyze what content (articles, videos, guest posts, infographics etc.) performs best for any topics or competitor. Just type in your keyword and hit the “Go!” button. HubSpot, The Huffington Post,

We all know that the Internet, the rise of Facebook, Twitter and all those other social media platforms have changed the way we do business. The marketing landscape continues to shift and budgets aren’t exactly exploding – to say the least. With all this, it has become quite difficult for marketers to know how to best allocate their marketing resources. To understand which tactics no longer work and which ones have staying power, the team at Software Advice has conducted an awesome survey among 200 business-to-business (B2B) marketing professionals. What are the most effective marketing channels when it comes to generating high-quality leads? Which ones generate the highest quantity of leads? What content types and software systems fuel their demand generation programs? Which channels yield the lowest cost-per-lead? Maximize Outcomes With Limited Marketing Resources To shed light on these questions and share the key findings of their latest study, I invited Jay Ivey – a Market Research Associate at Software Advice, a firm that evaluates marketing software. Jay reports and conducts research on technologies, topics and trends in B2B marketing and sales, with an emphasis on the rapidly evolving world of CRM and marketing software. “A lot of small businesses and mid-size businesses in particular, really rush the appropriation of technology. They will buy a license for one of these great up and coming marketing automation, or email marketing, or social media monitoring or marketing software….There are a lot of excellent options on the market, cloud based options, affordable options for these smaller to mid-size companies… and they will rush at options, but they will not necessarily document and plan out a clear strategy as to their goals: what they want to achieve, what they can achieve and how these technologies really fit into their industry and what works for their customers.” – Jay Ivey [21:30] In this episode we delve into the secrets of word-of-mouth marketing, face-to-face marketing, and in-house email marketing just to name a few. Furthermore, Jay reveals the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs, small business owners and marketers in general make when it comes to picking the right marketing channels. Enjoy! * Listen to the show on iTunes. * Download it as an MP3 by clicking here and choosing “download”. Key Insights From The B2B Demand Generation Report 2014 Big ideas, small marketing budget? Even with limited marketing resources, you are still able to develop and implement advanced campaigns. For more inspiration, check out the slides below. The following SlideShare presentation outlines the key findings of the annual IndustryView. Trade shows & events, referral/ advocate marketing and in-house email marketing are the top three marketing channels to generate the highest quality leads (more on slide 5). Enjoy the slides!   QUESTION OF THE DAY: What was your biggest takeaway? Did you enjoy this podcast? If so, please leave a short review here. It keeps me going… Subscribe to The Strength In Business Podcast on iTunes.

Where’s the real benefit of having a newsletter marketing system in place? Why are newsletters such a great way to increase client retention? What are the key ingredients of a great newsletter campaign? The topic of today’s interview is How to Increase Client Retention With Newsletter Marketing and my amazing guest is business building expert Jim Plamer from Pennsylvania, USA. Jim is best known internationally as “The Newsletter Guru”. He is a marketing and business building expert with more than 30 years of experience. Jim is the host of the hit weekly Web TV show, Newsletter Guru TV and also host of the Stick Like Glue Radio, a weekly podcast on smart marketing and business building strategies. How to Increase Client Retention With Newsletter Marketing: Interview with Business Expert Jim Palmer * Download this episode on iTunes. * Listen to the show on Stitcher. Listen to this amazing interview and discover how you can use newsletter marketing to increase client retention and maximize profits. If you want to connect with Jim visit his website at www.TheNewsletterGuru.com. What’s your newsletter marketing strategy? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below.

Do you have a branding strategy? How do you brand yourself? What brand-building strategies do you use to position yourself & your company? What are some of the best brand-building principles that separate great brands from the rest? The topic of today’s podcast interview is What Great Brands Do and my amazing guest is brand-building expert Denise Lee Yohn from San Diego, USA. Denise is a leading authority on building and positioning exceptional brands. She developed her innovative brand-building philosophy while working with such companies as Burger King, Oakley, Frito-Lay, and Sony. Denise is the author of the new book, What Great Brands Do, and she has contributed to outlets including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and the Harvard Business Review. What Great Brands Do: Interview with Brand-Building Expert Denise Lee Yohn * Download this episode on iTunes. * Listen to the show on Stitcher. Listen to this amazing interview and discover how you can use the seven brand-building principles to develop a standout brand that fosters customer loyalty and increases profit margins. If you want to connect with Denise visit her website at DeniseLeeYohn.com. Are you inspired by What Great Brands Do? What was your biggest takeaway? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

What is Google Plus and Hangouts all about? What are the best strategies to position yourself on Google (Plus and Hangouts) and become an expert authority? What are the biggest mistakes people make when they use this social media channel? The topic of today’s podcast interview is Google Plus and Google Hangouts and my amazing guest is online communications and Google specialist Carol Dodsley from the UK. Carol is a Google Plus Top Contributor helping you to raise your visibility online and attract more leads & clients by using Google+. Google Plus and Google Hangouts: Interview with Google Specialist Carol Dodsley * Download this episode on iTunes. * Listen to the show on Stitcher. Listen to this amazing interview with a Google Plus Top Contributor and discover what works and what doesn’t from a trusted source. How do you use Google Plus and / or Google Hangouts to increase your visibility online? Share your thoughts in the comments below.