SEO-Focused Web Content Writers
jhaynes
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Posts by jhaynes
Online Marketing that Works
1 year
by jhaynes
in Uncategorized
Online Marketing and Creating Urgency with Customers
The role of Hat Trick Associates, and any online marketing
professional in general, is generating revenue for the client. Now, of course I believe that means a strong SEO campaign, great content, and a good social media presence. But anything that makes the client money - I don’t care if it’s hot air balloons - is more money that they can spend on promoting their business online.
Here is a general marketing tip from HTA: Marketing is about creating a sense of urgency to fulfill an immediate need, immediately, in most cases. One of the best uses I have seen or heard of this happened just now on Pandora. “Take a picture of this coupon on the screen right now during this ad to get X off or Free whatever…”
The actual offer didn’t matter much, they had me scrambling for my phone to get the Camera app open to take a pic of the screen before I even knew what the offer was…I didn’t want to miss out.
And I *just took the photo in time. It was almost exciting. They created the sense of urgency they needed to (It was Sport Clips, in this case). The offer is pretty good, actually, as well…so I might really use it. This is a perfect example of a marketing piece that works. Stand on the shoulders of giants - and take note of what works for competitors or those in different industries, and shamelessly steal from them.
Local SEO and Your Local Online Presence
2 years
Where Local Search Results are located on the first page
What is Local Search and SEO?
You may be familiar with the traditional definition of SEO, or “search engine optimization”, certainly if you are a reader of my blog. This includes the things I’ve talked about for years, such as on-site variables (right title tags and meta descriptions on pages, and great content for examples), and off-site variables (such a linkbuilding to your site). These items are and will remain critical pieces towards maximizing your site’s visibility. These variables are still important no matter who you are, where you are located, the size of your business, etc.
However Local SEO is specifically geared towards businesses that: 1) have a physical location they expect local people to visit, or 2) have offices, warehouses, etc. that are contacted by people in nearby neighborhoods and the surrounding community.
So any business that gets the majority or all of its customers/clients locally should strongly consider Local SEO services. This could be a local restaurant, retail shop, doctor, gym, dentist, lawyer, landscaping company, auto repair shops, consumer services companies and hundreds more of course.
Because Local SEO is just starting to grow and many businesses aren’t on-board yet, you have a big advantage – at least for now. But that will change, especially when others realize the things I’m talking about here. Your opportunity, to strike while the iron is hot and take advantage of what Local SEO does for your business, is now.
Almost 50% of searches done in 2014 triggered “local listings” according to how Google categorizes their product or service, and this year that number will grow. The next stat to consider is that 94% of consumers select a link from the first page. 94 percent! And since the Top 7 Local results are featured prominently on the first page, often times higher than all organic results, being here if possible should be a primary goal for most local companies.
How can I be in the Top 7? I do both Local SEO and Organic (traditional) SEO work, described as follows.
Local SEO
Is all about ranking for searches such as my personally local “St. Louis”-based ones. This is done through CITATIONS – or having accurate and consistent information in as many directories and aggregators as possible. These are any place online where we can use your company NAP (name, address, phone number) all on the same page, in the precise format as your local listings. There are many thousands of potential directories to be listed in, some of the most critical and most popular include a robust Google+ page, Yelp page, Acxiom, Infogroup, Localeze, Foursquare, Facebook, Twitter, Bing Local, Google Maps, Yahoo Local, Factual, Apple Maps, Mapquest, TomTom, Whitepages. Yellowbook, Manta, Merchant Circle, Brownbook, Mojo Pages, Hotfrog, CitySquares and many, many (up to 30,000!) more. Each of these increases Google’s confidence in you and your business, which helps you move up “St. Louis”-based searches.
The other critical part of Local SEO are REVIEWS of your business, done most critically on your Google+ page. This is something we can work together on to solicit these great (five-star) reviews from your current and happy customers when you partner with us.
Organic SEO
Focuses on both on-site and off-site optimizations, and is still vital for top rankings too. On-site is primarily built through the addition of unique, high-quality content added to the site frequently, in addition to some of the structural aspects of the site.
How your site is STRUCTURED is key for you. When we build new sites, or work with existing ones, all these key issues will be addressed, so there is no need for additional comment here, other than to say we will also teach YOU to add content and images in a way that follows the best practices of SEO. This ensures that you are getting the maximum value for your site’s online presence.
The other vital piece of Organic SEO is CONTENT. This can be in the form of blog posts or static webpages. But you need to add unique, frequent content on a regular basis for Google to know you are “with it” and that folks are busy minding the store for lack of better terms. This can be in form of blogging as mentioned or continually adding new photos – with very detailed descriptions (Google likes 500 words or more per page) - *regularly. I am an MBA-level writer with a strong marketing agency background, so our clients receive top quality work that is designed to convert as well.
Then for off-the-site, we need to focus on back-links. Backlinks are links to your site from others, which essentially count as one “vote” for the value of your content to others, since they are willing to share your site with others. There are numerous strategies that we use to create high quality backlinks to your website.
These are the main services that we offer at Hat Trick Associates, with a strong focus on Local SEO in 2015. If you are interested in becoming part of the Top 7 and being included on the First Page of results, please give me a call at: (314 494-3494 or shoot me an email at: [email protected]. I’d be happy to set up a quick phone consultation to find out more about your business, your online goals, and how we can work together to help your rankings and ultimately grow your company through increased web traffic.
How to Create the Perfect White Paper
2 years
From: Perfect White Paper Online Marketing Resource
This document on eight tips to crafting successful perfect White Papers as online content materials was originally written in 2005, but the marketing writing points made here are so elemental - and like most writing advice and tips are still spot on - that I wanted to share with you my loyal Hat Trick Associates readership. White Papers can be an incredibly valuable tool when used correctly, with a very high success rate when it comes to prospect-development & engagement when utilized in an optimized manner. In other words, they create great Return on Investment for your online marketing dollars.
One of my favorite seconds of this PDF concerns the ever-twiddling amount of attention that ANYTHING online will get these days. (In fact, are YOU still reading? Then I’ve done part of my job at least….in getting you past the 3-second mark. See how quickly that time passes?) In fact, I hold true to the contention/concept that attention is the new online “currency” in today’s Internet marketing tech-driven environment.
Tip#3 - Follow the 3-30-3 Rules
Decisions are made through a series of thought subsets, or what is called “thin slicing,” and often the most important information leading to the best decisions comes from the very first “slice” of thinking. In three seconds of glancing at your white paper (or post, or webpage, or direct mail - whatever - but this case we are focusing on just white papers of course), a prospect will make the first “snap” judgment about your company: do you have something meaningful to say, and are you a credible source? If you use your three seconds well, readers will move on to the next thin-slice of their decision, and grant you an additional 30 more seconds.
In that time they will decide whether or not your message deserves more calculated consideration. Here, the first few paragraphs are key. A powerfully written introduction that speaks to the reader about his or her business need, and delivers the payoff of opportunity or improvement that can be gained through manageable and well-defined action, is absolutely necessary to win the next slice of the prospect’s time. Remember, you must do this quickly. You have only 30 seconds of reading time. Assuming you’ve written a succinct, on-target introduction, your prospect now will grant you three more minutesto make your point.
Here’s where many white papers fall apart. No matter how complex your product or service, no matter how challenging the business issue is, you need to build your case in the first three minutes. If you get more time, great. But don’t create a white paper that needs ten minutes’ time to make its point. Your prospect simply isn’t going to give you that much time. technical folk have a bit more patience, but anything over 8 pages or so is starting to push it in the views of many seasoned pros.
At Hat Trick Associates are more than happy to run you through the entire prospect of YOU creating the white paper on your own, or working in partnership with us to get this invaluable online marketing piece created. You can always reach us at (314) 494-3494, or by reaching out via email to jhaynes@hattrickassociates.
And may your next white paper project be a smashing success, regardless of how it’s created!
Jim