To finish off the year, as usual, I’ve picked out a bunch of articles from over the last 12 months which I think still have a point to make. So this week I’ll bring you ten articles a day which you may like to dip into before launching yourself into your 2014 marketing. Enjoy! (I hope).
ABOUT US
If somebody wanted to find out where you were, would they go to Google and type in “how to find us”? Of course not, that makes no sense.
ADVERTISING ROI
If you’re still just doling out advertising budget willy-nilly to websites which insist on fixed rates and don’t charge you solely for what they deliver, perhaps 2014 is the time to start spending your money more wisely.
BLOGS
(A company blog costs) a fraction of the monthly fee from a bad “SEO company” which – if it had any scruples – would be suggesting that the first thing you do, for better SEO, would be to put more content on your website. Like a blog.
BUDGET APPROPRIATELY
A good website will surely get you more business than a salesman on the road, who (all in, with commitments and expenses) might cost the best part of £100,000 a year. Yet how many companies are prepared to invest that in what’s still considered “an IT project” rather than the core of their marketing to the world? Only a few. But if the others saw the website visitor stats of all the companies which I do, they might reassess their attitude.
BUYING EMAIL LISTS
The names on a bought-in list available for an “email blast” have been a complete waste of money ever since email stopped being a novelty.
BUYING EXPOSURE
The only reliable way onto the first page of Google is to pay for it.
CASE STUDIES
Unless you ask customers the right questions, you run the risk of them clamming up and giving you no information of real interest.
COMPETITORS
Look at your own website as a prospect, and your competitors, then ask yourself: why my company and not the others?
CONTENT MARKETING
Content marketing is all about writing good, original material for your website, and drawing attention to it. It could – and should – be your big marketing initiative for 2014.
DESCRIPTION META TAGS
Writing good description (meta tags) for every page on your website might be an unfeasibly long job, but if it is, doing it for the main pages remains nothing short of essential. What should a perfect description look like?