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Facebook Places Page Verses Regular Profile Page

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 01:26:13 +0100

Many of you are already aware that Facebook has made some major overhauls to the time line, and news feed on your personal accounts. They are also overhauling the way business's, organizations, and celebrities communicate on the site as well. Make sure you are aware of these changes so you don't miss out on the great traffic and interactions you will get with Facebook by not having the right page for your business.

Read the full story on our Free Online Marketing Training Site at http://www.freeonlinemarketingblog.com/2011/10/businesss-need-facebook-places-page-not.html Right now our site builder is acting up so you will have to copy and paste in your web browser.

Do I have To Be Confused By Google Panda

Sun, 03 Jul 2011 19:25:43 +0100

The new Google Panda Search algorithms are not something you need to be confused about. If you are posting genuine content that is true to a belief and you are not copying other peoples writing, and you are using link building properly your site will be fine. What we will talk about in this blog post is what to do and what not to do, so your site will pass the Google Panda.

What Not To Do:

1. Do not post duplicate information on your site. If your going to do a story about a subject already on the internet, then you need to make sure the information you post is in your own words and not verbatim from a post you read.

2. Do not use link farms to build your link backs to your page. This will put up a red flag and you will run a high risk of having your site un searchable.

3. Right now currently do not market your site with online article promotions, as these sites are overhauling their posts to get in compliance with Google Panda.

4. Do not over use key words and key word terms that are related to your site. Using these terms in an abusive way will get your site marked for spam, and will hurt your search results.

5. Do not over use key words for the main sense of using Google Adsense. Adsense farms are on high risk of being flagged as un legitimate sites and will be banned from search. You will also run the risk of loosing your adsense account permanently.

To Do :

1. Link Building - This is still a number one SEO technique, but make sure you are link building with quality reputable sites that are related to your site.

2. Post Fresh Content: If you are reporting or posting information that you discovered on the internet make sure you write it in your own words, and post a view of your own to make it fresh.

3. Market your site on Facebook, Google, and Twitter. Online forums are also a good way of getting word of your site out and to build back links. Just stay away from article writing at this time.

4. Make sure that you have no broken links on your page. Go to google.com/webmastertools and utilize the free tools that Google puts out there so you can optimize your site.

If you follow the basics of what we put on this post, your site should fair weather the Google Panda updates that are happening now and coming in the very near future.

We will keep you posted of new changes as we learn about them and how to adapt to them.

Are you looking for a way to recruit more reps for your business? The wait is over, check it out and see what is working now!

Do You Know What Yoru Digital Foot Print Says About Your Brand

Sun, 03 Jul 2011 19:04:24 +0100

As we all know Social Media is becoming main stream, and even more its becoming a back ground to who we are. Every day people are tweeting, blogging, and posting status updates online. This then becomes a permanent fabric of the internet, also referred to as a digital foot print.

Employers are turning to Social Media sites to do another look at applicants, and business's are now looking at these sites as well to see who they are contracting out for a job. One thing you want to make sure is that you watch what you tweet, status update, or YOU TUBE about, and you might want to consider creating a personal Facebook account or Twitter account that is just tied to your closet friends and family and make it non public. This way your messages and digital foot print aren't being blasted out to the search engines for someone else to find.

When your on social media sites for your business or if your in the position of looking for a new job, remember to be as professional as possible. We are seeing more and more marketers being unprofessional with their accounts and frankly some personal information should stay just that way, instead of being announced to the world.

Remember once something is on the internet, it barely ever goes away. Its there for almost a life time. Have you googled yourself to see what your digital foot print says about you?

Market Your Business in 30 Mins A Day

Sat, 02 Jul 2011 00:45:42 +0100

Your proably one of those professionals that own or manage a small business and do not know how to market your business in less then a half n hour a day. You also are stuck in the common mind set that you do not have time to market your business, because you dont have the budget, and you need to stayed focused on operations. That is all fine if you want your business to just perform the way its performing, and something you will want to keep in mind is that your competition is marketing, and they will eventually gain some of your peice of the pie.

If you follow this simple recipe of doing just a little bit each day for only 30 mins, you will see results with in a resonable amount of time.

Monday- Spend at least a half hour on Monday by searching Linkedin and Facebook for your competitors connections. Some of the people and business's they are connected too, could be great leads for you. Write down at least 10 of them. Read the local news papers and find out what is going on in your local area. You will be surprised of the leads you will find of people that would want to use your services of purchase goods from you. Write them down, and your done today.

Tuesday- Create a blog post about a new product of service that your company is offering, find another blog by another company such as a competitor or another company that is not in direct competition with you and read a post or two and comment on them. Make sure to leave a link to your website on the blogs that allow you to do so. Your done. This might take an hour or two to complete but were going for an average keep reading.

Wednseday- Take those contacts you had from Monday and contact them via email, phone or direct mail. Introduce yourself, and try to keep it personal.

Thursday- Tweet and Facebook a little. Post some of the blog posts that are on topic of your service or the goods you are selling, and start building a following of future customers and retain your current ones by showing them your an expert on the subject. Again this might take an hour or so to effectively do, but lets get to Friday.

Friday- Look back and note everything that you did for marketing that current week, and then start thinking about what your going to do next week. This usually takes 15 mins to get the creative juices going into the next week.

Make your own schedule, and know the morale to this plan, is there is always time that can be spent to market your business consistently and effecetively and with a resonable amount of time, you are branding, and people know of your value.

JC Penney Busted By Google

Sun, 13 Feb 2011 21:17:09 +0100

Apparently JC Penney was doing a paid link scheme to make sure that search queries of the styles of clothes they offer would get preferred ranking by Google. Well it worked for them for a while, however Google found out and is now penalizing their websites.

Darcie Brossart with JC Penney's said they did not authorize this, and Google is saying they will take action until JC Penney's is able to remove the links. Their Black Hat SEO Company that JC Penney's was using has been terminated.

Remember it does not pay to do under handed SEO Techniques to get up in rankings, as you will get caught!

Start of 2011 With No Major SEO Changes

Mon, 10 Jan 2011 02:47:48 +0100

So far we are well into January of 2011 with no major changes so far coming from Google, Yahoo, and Bing as far as changing things on how they look at websites. This is a time that as online marketers we can breath, but its not a time to be lazy and not clean up our websites and directory listings.

You want to make sure your local online marketing is set, and that your site is cleaned up and ready because there will be more changes coming in the future, and you want to make sure that your with the game and not behind. Here are some things that you can do, so your caught up with the game.

1. Back Links- Use Google Webmaster Tools, by installing it on your website and check all of your back links. Make sure they are not broken, and any link trades you did this past year, make sure they are still valid.

2. Make sure you have a Google place page for your business and website. This will make sure you come up in local searches in your area. This is espically important if your business depends on the majority of its business from your local area.

3. Google your business and see where your information is listed. If you kept a list of directories that you submitted your business too, check those and verify the information to make sure its all correct.

4.Review your website and start optimizing it. Spend more time on Keyword focus, moving pictures, think about color changes, add fresh content etc. If your not using Google analytics then your missing the boat. Just dont guess at things, use the free technical tools that are available to you.

Make sure your ready for the changes that will come in 2011 by having the basics down, and your site ready to go. If you do not do this, you will be falling behind very fast, and your competition will be getting the traffic and sales that you were suppose to get.

Setting Goals For Your Business

Sun, 12 Dec 2010 06:23:48 +0100

Over the last year and a half we have always preached about making a Sales and Marketing plan that has monthly to do's for your business in marketing and sales. Now we are going to talk about setting goals. Making a great sales and marketing plan is just the 1st step. The 2nd step is holding yourself accountable for that plan.

You can make a plan, but if you do not have goals tied into it, then whats the point? I have seen many people make great sales and marketing plans, but they do not set goals to reach for that year. You want to make sure that you are measuring your efforts, and setting goals is a good way to do that.

When you set your goals, you want them to be high but realistic. If you set them for average, then you most likely will get unaverage results. In this very competitive world you cannot just settle for the average 15 to 20 % increase in business. You want to set them higher so you will get close to them if not exceed them. We have always told our clients to set a goal of a 35 to 38% increase in sales from last year. What happens is that they work really hard to reach those goals and they either meet them or they do a 28 or 30% increase which is nothing to sneeze at.

When we set goals, we set the goals and then put the action steps to reach those goals. Then they are posted on the office wall for that month. Not only is the Yearly sales and marketing plan on the desk in plain site, but up on the wall is January's goals and the action steps to reach them. The sensible way of doing business, is plan and then execute the plan.

If you do not have goals to reach, then what is the point of having a plan?

Social Networking Policy for Your Employees

Tue, 07 Dec 2010 07:32:26 +0100

As everybody knows Social Networking is becoming more and more important when it comes to branding and marketing your business online and now in real life. People are more connected then ever with the popularity of social networking sites such as Facebook, Myspace and Twitter. Not knowing the actual number on this, we roughly guesstimate that at least 6 out of 10 people utilize these sites for business or personal use. So the question is, do you allow your employees to use Social Networking sites and allow them to connect themselves with your brand?

It all depends on your business and employees. I strongly encourage you to get your staff involved as it can help you grow your network to new customers. One major thing you need to address though, is when your implement such an idea is that your employees know the proper way to communicate with a customer compared to personal communication with a friend.

Your star front line employee might be well groomed, speaks very well, and sets a great example for your brand and business. However on their Facebook page you might find pictures of tattoo's, or that they are friends with known felons, or they have people on their page airing out their dirty laundry. Now this star front line employee has listed as their employer your business. One of your major clients comes across your employees Facebook page and remembers the good experience they were given and decides to add them as a friend. Once the friendship is accepted they now see what is on your employee's wall. Do you want that to reflect on your business?

That is one of the cons, there are so many pros as well. You could have a stellar front line employee, and that employee is really out promoting your business to their contacts, then their contacts promote to theirs etc, etc. These are just somethings you need to ask before creating a Social Network Policy.

Making a careful Social Networking policy can help you protect your brand, and help grow your business. Check with your local HR laws before implementing such a policy as you do not want to infringe on someones rights. I am sure this will be coming up as a major question in the next few months with employers.

New Site Format

Fri, 03 Dec 2010 22:49:51 +0100

We are currently listening to our clients, and website readers and we are undergoing another overhaul of the New Simple Marketing website. The New Simple Marketing website will be bringing you more information on SEO, Online Marketing, Offline marketing, business trends and more. When you reach our home page you will be see more up to date information that we have compiled as things change in the world of marketing.

You will be able to visit the site almost every day and see new articles, new tips, new blog posts, and more new information posted as we get it.

The reason for the overhaul is due to the ever changing world of marketing either offline or online. We hope you continue to keep visiting our site and keep giving us your input. The new site will launch with in a week or sooner. We will also be launching a new page and blog that is geared to the hospitality industry to help in keeping up with online marketing.

We are very excited about these changes, and look forward to being a better information source for you in the years to come. We would also like to thank everybody for the 2 years we have been in business. Thanks to all of you we continue grow.

Marketing Check List for A New Business

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 00:16:45 +0100

Opening a new business can be very fun, and stressful at the same time. The major thing that is on every new business owners mind is "When I open are they going to come?" Getting the word out on your new business is a large task and there are some things you need to start working on at least 3 months prior to opening the doors.

The reason I say 3 months is that you want to start creating talk about your new business, and you want people to know its coming. Now depending on what type of business your opening will determine if you need to start marketing earlier then 3 months or not. You don't want to build up so much hype about your business 6 months out and then loose steam on marketing it and have people forget your opening date.

Were going to give you some very easy steps to insure that people will be able to find your business and with doing this during a 3 month time period you will still have plenty of time to over see what you have to do to make sure your dream opens with out a hitch.

So lets say we have 3 months until the opening date of your business. Its very important that these things get done. Sometimes you look at these things before you even think of putting your business plan into motion but just in case you have had this dream and you dove right in, here is what you need to do.

Month 1
A. Research your competition- See what your competition is doing in the area as far as price point, promotions, and what other services they offer. You need to figure out how your going to make sure you stand out from your competition. Pick 3 major points on why your different and focus on them.

B. Join Your Local Chamber- Now some business people think that their business is too small to join their local chamber of commerce and they are just flat out wrong. Chamber of Commerce is a great way to start networking and introducing your business to decision makers of other companies. Remember Networking is KEY to any business's success. Joining a Chamber usually won't cost you that much. Most chambers have a fee structure that goes by how many employees you have or a flat fee for the type of business your opening. They are also a great tool in helping you with ideas on how to promote your business, not to mention most chambers will do a ribbon cutting ceremony for new business's that belong to their chamber which is a great way to showcase your business.

C. Build Suspense- Depending on your business or services you will want to start creating suspense. Do a mailing to local business's with a post card that will have your logo, the services or product your offering, but do not put your business name down. Just say more information to come soon. This will build suspense on your new venture. Depending on your budget you might want to run some ads with what you put on your post card in your local news papers.

Month 2

Ok now you have pretty much started suspense with your area on your new business, and if you joined the chamber you should have a list of companies and contacts that you can start reaching out too.

A. Marketing Manager- You need to decide if your going to have one person that does nothing but sales and marketing or is it going to be up to you? Or are you going to have it be your business managers duty? Either way you need to hire, or get the person involved now. Make sure this person understands your business's mission statement, and what your vision for the business. This is very important because this is going to be the front line person that is responsible for building your business.

B. Website- Are you going to have a website? I strongly recommend in this day and age that all business's have a website of some form. If your going to have a website you need to get this up and going now. It takes lots of time and effort in making a good quality website not to mention marketing it.

C. Yellow Pages- Every business needs to be listed in the phone book. This is still one major way that when people are looking to purchase something, they either go online to the yellow pages or pick up their local phone book. Now don't get carried away with all the Yellow Page phone books that are out there. You want to pick your cities major phone book and advertise in that. If you want other phone books that is totally up too you but not a must.

D. Prepare For a Grand Opening- Some business's really miss the bus with this one. They either plan a Grand Opening too late in the game, usually after the store or business has been opened for 3 months or so. This is too late. You want to start preparing for one now, if your going to do promotions, offerings, how long you want to run the grand opening etc. Once you get this done, then you need to start making a list of people that you want to invite to your first day of the Grand Opening. Lets say your business is open Monday through Friday 9-5. Well for the first day of your Grand Opening why not have an evening open house that you invite key people from your community too. Remember the best form of marketing is still word of mouth. Mail out those invitation at least 1 month prior to the date that you want to have this open house and your Grand Opening should be at least with in your first month of operation.

Month 3

Now your really under pressure and there are so many things to do to make sure that your business opens successfully. This is also the time to let the cat out of the bag about your business.

A. Online Directories- Whether your going to have a website or not, you need to start submitting your information to online directories so your business will at least show up in online searches. Over 70% of people today start there research online. There are over 2,000 directories out there with more coming every day. I am not saying its important to be on all of them but its important to be on the major ones such as Yahoo, Google, Yelp, Merchant Circle just to name a few. Just do a query on free online business directories. Make sure to put your website URL if you have one, business address, phone number, hours of operation, business description, etc.

B. Sales Calls- Depending on what type of business your starting you want to get out in the public eye to let them know what your doing. Lets use a bakery for example. You go out to local business's and pass out fliers with your store name, logo, address, list of services, etc. If your opening a bakery make some of your special goodies and pass them out to the local business's. Give them a taste of what your going to be offering. Make sure that you don't get lazy with this, and only hit a few places. You really want to canvass your area to get the excitement going and the word out.

C. News Paper Ads or Radio - Now advertising in your local newspaper and radio can be very expensive sometimes, but when your opening a new business you might want to consider doing this form of advertising for your opening. Make sure your news paper ads run the Sunday before you open. Sunday newspapers are read by more readers because of the coupons and specials from retailers. Some people get their news paper on Sunday only. Radio can be very simple by doing a few 15 sec radio spots about your business. It does not have to be fancy, and long. Run these a week prior to opening and make sure to ask the Radio station what there demographics are. If your business caters to 40-60 year old males you do not want to advertise on a station that their main demographic is 18 to 24 year old woman.

With these simple steps you will be amazed that people will know your business is opening and what your all about. Marketing efforts should be consistent and ongoing in order to build any business. This is why I strongly suggest that all business's make yearly marketing plans.

Good Luck ! Remember you can't be successful overnight, it takes time and hard work. If you don't try you will never know.