You can't ignore your web presence if you want to get noticed by potential customers, but simply being active online isn't enough.

According to research compiled by Reach Local, an online marketing firm, 97 percent of consumers conduct online research before making a local purchase, and 90 percent say online reviews influence their buying decisions.


So how do you make the best impression with your target audience? For three simple ways to build a killer online reputation, take a look at the infographic below.

If you want to be a successful email marketer, it's essential that subscribers open your messages. After all, if your audience isn't opening your emails, it's impossible for them to take action, such as clicking through to your website or making a purchase.

But how do you keep them opening your emails on a regular basis? There are four primary ways: solve a problem, save them money, make them smarter or entertain them.


Here are some tips for crafting these types of successful marketing emails:

1. Solve a problem. 

If you knew that an email marketing newsletter would help solve a problem you were having, would you subscribe to it? If the sender set expectations up front and promised that every email would lead you closer to solving that problem, you'd open those messages, wouldn't you?

One example of a company that does this right is Quibb, a professional news site that allows people to share what they're reading for work. It helps its subscribers solve their problems by digesting news and allowing readers to quickly catch up on what's relevant in their industry. Quibb's problem-solving approach translates into an average open rate on its daily digest email that ranges between 50 percent and 70 percent. That's significantly higher than the average marketing email open rate (in North America) of 25.6 percent, according to the Direct Marketing Association.

2. Save them money.

Groupon and other daily deal emails have proliferated by offering subscribers the opportunity to save money. Sure, you have to spend money to save, but it can be enticing to get 50 percent off a dinner at a restaurant you've always wanted to try or 40 percent off the oil change you've been putting off for months.

Similarly, business-to-consumer marketers often put words such as "free," "save," "sale" or "free shipping" in their subject lines. Many people -- my wife included -- save such emails in their inbox for the next time they're shopping in a store or online. Then, they search their inbox for the promotional offer.

For your own marketing emails, test different types of offers. Sometimes free shipping can be more effective than a percentage discount. Other times, a dollar amount savings may work best. Try a subject line split test to see what resonates most with your audience.

3. Make them smarter.

Some of us embrace the "always be learning" motto. To hone our skills, we read business or trade publications, or we take courses. Many marketers exploit this desire to become smarter by sending emails that promise just that.

An example is social media expert Chris Brogan's weekly Sunday email. Brogan shares what's on his mind with the goal of making his subscribers smarter. In a recent email with the subject line "The Sidewalk, The Storefront and the Back Room," Brogan talked about "touch points of opportunity" -- essentially, how your potential customers can find you. His open rates are often higher than 40 percent, and many of his weekly words of wisdom are shared on social networking sites, helping him attract more potential customers to his email list.

If your emails tend to be focused on selling, try mixing it up next time. Don't sell, just inform.

4. Entertain them.

Some emails include an entertainment component to try to increase readership and sales. For example, MarketingProfs included a fun video in a blog post and email last fall to promote its annual B2B Forum. While it's uncertain exactly how effective the video was in terms of open rates, MarketingProfs did sell more forum passes after the email went out.

I've been doing this with my weekly email for several months. The video is consistently the most clicked -- and shared -- link in the entire email, often resulting in more email sign ups.

It's possible to craft an email that both entertains and saves subscribers money, or one that can both make people smarter and save them time. But most emails focus on only one of the four themes.

Take a look at your recent email marketing messages. Can you identify which of the four reasons your subscribers are reading your emails? If your answer is "none of the above," you might want to reconsider your approach.











































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By now, if social media isn't a critical element in your online marketing strategy, it should be. Having a presence on sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn can add value to your product, to customer service and ultimately to your brand.

But simply having an account and broadcasting company news isn't enough. To attract and keep customers -- and to build a strong brand online -- business owners need to be active on social media. They have to provide valuable information and engage with their followers.


Here are four things businesses should be doing on social media in order to grow the brand online:

1. Engage with followers and provide customer service.

Your customers are engaging with your brand wherever they are -- including over social media. Don't miss this opportunity to listen to what they're saying to and about you, and to provide the best customer service.

Why is this so important? Responding to customer questions and resolving issues over social media shows everyone who's following you -- and potentially anyone who is online -- that your company cares about its customers, potential customers and goes the extra mile for people.

Tools like Hootsuite and Tweedeck can be handy for monitoring mentions of your brand over social media. As for when and who you respond to, set the tone early. If you reply often, people will expect it. If you don't reply a lot, people will see that as well and might stop engaging with you as often.

2. Crowdsource ideas.
 
Use social media as a marketing research tool. Just as people can reach out to you, follow you and stay connected with you, business owners can do the same with their customers. Social media is a two-way street.

Say, for instance, you're getting ready to launch a new product. You can ask your fans and followers what they think about specific details like which colors they prefer or what types of features they want. Not only can you get real, valuable market research at no cost, you're involving the consumer in decisions. Asking customers for their opinions can help show that they matter, and when they see their ideas become a reality, ideally you create brand and product champions.

3. Keep an eye on the competition.

Remember the old saying: Keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer.

When it comes to business, it's good to know what your competitors and other companies in your market niche are doing. By keeping an eye on their social media feeds, you can learn a lot about a company -- what it is doing differently, what it's good at and what it's bad it. Use this information to implement things in your strategy that you might be missing such as contests, giveaways or forms of content that their followers respond to most.

4. Establish yourself as an industry expert.

Nobody can know what you know unless you share your knowledge. By sharing information like tips, advice and answering questions about your industry, you can position yourself as a valuable resource.

Develop a content-sharing strategy where you respond to questions daily, provide unsolicited tips and share your perspective on industry news. Over sites like Twitter and reddit, also consider scheduling events such as question and answer sessions. Let your followers know that you'll be hosting the session, set the date and time, and determine the theme or topic you'd like to discuss. Then let your followers know that you'll try to answer everything they ask.











































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Call it an epiphany: Social is officially mobile.

Several weeks ago, I was looking at the user data for one of the brands that I manage and one statistic stuck out more than others. Nearly 60 percent of the people who interact with that brand do so via smartphone, tablet, or other mobile device. I started checking other brands, and the numbers were all similar.


The majority of people interacting with our content were doing so from a mobile device.

Nielsen’s State of the Media: Social Media Report confirms that our brands aren't alone.

In 2012, the time spent accessing Facebook via mobile increased 85 percent, Twitter 140 percent, LinkedIn 114 percent, and Pinterest 4,225 percent. That’s a staggering increase. Forty-six percent of social media users say they use their smartphone to access social media; 16 percent say they connect to social media using a tablet.

Here are a five easy tips to help you optimize your social media content for mobile readers:

1. Be much more thoughtful about when you’re posting.

The average Facebook post gets 50 percent of its reach and engagement in the first 30 minutes of being posted, according to Socialbakers. It’s all downhill from there.

Start asking yourself: Where is my audience going to be in the hour or so after we post this? Is there an opportunity to capture them where they are at that moment and inspire action or tap into an emotion that you know a large number of your fans are experiencing at that time?

Don’t limit it to experimenting with when you post, either. If you have an assumption about where your audience is consuming your content (specifically, where they are on Earth), you can create some calls to action and inspire them to engage that way.

For instance, Instagram, where the mobile engagement is close to 100 percent, is great for this: “Show us what you’re doing now and how our product fits into that.”

2. Add value to the mobile experience -- which differs from adding value to the desktop or laptop experience.

The greater the distance you make your fans travel in mobile, the worse the experience becomes. No one wants to hop from one app to another—to another—to download your app that, let’s be honest, isn’t all that cool in the first place. On a desktop or laptop, people are more forgiving when it comes to bouncing around the Web. You have to be more respectful of the mobile experience.

Similarly, if you’re in the Facebook or Pinterest app and you click on a brand’s link, it’s going to send you to a website. Unless you’ve checked that link in social, you’re not 100 percent sure where you’re sending them. It might look great on your laptop, but on mobile it could look like a Geocities site and do your brand a huge disservice.

Keep your posts simple and undeniably specific to your brand.

3. Design for mobile first.

Keep your font sizes legible on your graphics. If you’re tapping through to a photo, you don’t want to have to zoom in on something just to read it. If you’re taking the time to design an asset, make sure you’re taking the time to design it so that mobile users can read it.

The default has been to design social assets for the desktop or laptop experience and back into mobile. Reverse that. Design for mobile, and it will back into the desktop experience.

4. Test different mobile platforms to understand the differences.

If you post a photo album on Facebook, you can’t click on the links that you've put in the captions of the individual photos if you’re using an iPhone or Android phone. However, those links work when you’re using most tablets. That’s good to know if you want to drive traffic in mobile.

Of course, that’s just one of the many quirks and intricacies when it comes to presenting social content in mobile. Understanding the user experience across devices is important in making sure your posts are accomplishing their desired outcomes.

5. Check your analytics.

Every brand is different, and every audience is different. Before you completely shift the way you’ve been creating and posting content, take the time to dig deep into your metrics and understand where your engagement is coming from. Certain demographics will use mobile more than others.

For the brand I mentioned earlier, males 18-34 had the highest instance of engaging with our content through mobile (nearly 75 percent). We were able to make some assumptions based on that and test some content around those assumptions.

Test, measure, analyze, optimize, rinse, repeat.

















This story originally appeared on PR Daily

The demand for fresh and high-quality articles on websites is at an all-time high.

Since Google’s Panda and Penguin algorithm updates in 2011 and 2012, content that uses spam SEO practices has been penalized and quality is ever more crucial. Although keeping a news site or a blog up to date with fresh daily content is important and an effective way to generate traffic, your website must also have a solid backbone of  ‘evergreen’ content – or stuff that will not go out of date so easily – to stay relevant.

Evergreen content is content that has endurance and longevity.


What is evergreen content?

You have perhaps heard about evergreen content from industry experts who seem to have fallen in love with the term. They will tell you that it is vital to your blog’s overall success. Evergreen content  covers topics that are always relevant whenever they have been posted. It is written with the goal of driving traffic to a website for a long period of time. Examples of these would be “Tips” and “How-to” posts that retain their value, unlike news content which relies timeliness.

Importance of evergreen content to business?

Most small businesses find it difficult to stick to a blogging schedule, as it takes time and money. As a result, people often write a selection of articles when they get the time and then post them over the coming weeks, without having to worry about tying into the day’s news. It thus sounds more practical as well as business-like to create articles that have no expiration date.

From a blog management standpoint, evergreen content is effective as these posts will continue to be relevant and receive visitors. Creating evergreen content is a powerful way of building your business’ online presence and audience.

Writing perpetually relevant content is not that difficult. It’s just a matter of searching for an interesting topic that fits your business.

To get you started, here are some guidelines to consider:

#1. Choose timeless topics

When choosing a topic for your evergreen post, remember the K.I.S.S rule (Keep It Simple and Sweet). Never choose topics that are too broad, as they must be thoroughly explained, which can make them far too long. Take note that a typical online reader will scan your website looking for keywords and sentences that match the information they are seeking.

In 2008, Nielsen reported that “79 percent of searchers scanned Web pages and they only read 20-28 percent of the words on the page.” Thus, if the readers found that your article is not relevant to them within the first few seconds, then expect them to be clicking the back button.

#2. Give the content depth

Research extensively about your chosen topic. Start by reading up on the subject on Wikipedia, then see what else the web can turn up. Although you’ve done your research, this does not mean that you can confuse your readers with jargon. Remember to write for your market. If your content is for beginners, avoid technical terms that could scare them off. Simplicity is the key to all effective writing. Consider reading 8 Essential Habits for Effective Writing on how to be an effective writer
for a more productive writing experience.

#3. Present your content with visuals

As the online marketing game becomes more competitive, business marketers are finding that interesting content isn’t just about what you say, but also how the information is presented. Content that includes appealing visuals such as photos, videos and graphs (to name a few) will help tell the story you are trying to convey.

In fact, in a study conducted by Florida’s Poynter Institute in May 2004, researchers found out that “images (photos and graphics) were viewed more than text. Photos attracted more attention than graphics. Sixty-four percent of the photos were viewed for about one-and-a-quarter second, on average. Graphics (other than banner ads) were viewed 22 percent of the time, and received about a second’s attention.” So if you’re planning to write tutorials or tips then consider searching for videos or photos to make your content more effective.

So what are you waiting for?

Maintaining a blog for your website often entails a lot of decision making, especially when it comes to deciding what topic to discuss. Remember that “creating content that is just as useful five years down the road as it was the day it was published is not easy, but it’s possible.”

So start investing in evergreen content now to build your brand’s online presence.





















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