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Articles by Rhonda Bavaro
6 Search Engine Optimization Services Your Business Needs
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a long-term solution for any business looking to grow through organic search traffic and online visibility. Given that the top organic search results receive a third of the clicks, a decline in ranking could be detrimental for your business. Implementing SEO best practices on your website will help to ensure that your web content is seen by as many potential customers as possible.
What Questions Are Your Customers Searching? 3 Ways to Find Out
Google continues to focus on user search intent. If you want your content to be served up in search results, it needs to match the intent behind your customers’ search queries. Search intent is the “why” behind someone’s search for information and the “what” they are hoping to find. To that end, the search engine has become increasingly sophisticated in its ability to understand search queries semantically.
Increase Lead Conversions With a Marketing Automation Audit
When was the last time you conducted a marketing automation audit? If your contacts are not converting to qualified leads, your marketing automation may be out of sync with the needs of your potential buyers. Improve your lead conversions with a marketing automation audit that uncovers missteps and gaps in your marketing content and lead nurturing. What is a Marketing Automation Audit?
Content Marketing for Customer Retention and Advocacy
A happy customer yields dividends over time in the form of repeat purchases, referrals, and helping to build a positive brand reputation. How do you keep customers coming back for more? Content marketing is essential to your customer retention strategy. Consider the final stage of the buyer’s journey – Delight.
The #1 Demand Generation Rule You’re Breaking
Demand Generation is the process of telling your brand’s story and generating demand for your products and services. As an integral part of inbound marketing, the strategy is to make potential buyers aware that you have the solution to their problem and direct them to your website where you can build a relationship with them. Simply put, you’re letting people who have a problem know that you 1) exist and 2) add value to their lives by solving that problem.
6 Ways to Expand the Reach of Your Infographics
If you use infographics in your content marketing, you know the time and expense involved in creating them. You also understand their value in visual storytelling. To achieve a high ROI on your investment, you must get as many eyes on your infographics as possible. They have the potential to drive traffic to your website and earn shares on social media if you follow the tips below to distribute and promote them. Infographics should never be a one and done visual design project.
30 Visual Content Tools to Increase Engagement in 2020
If “content is king” then the crown jewels are visual content. The last time you were scrolling through your favorite social media channel, what made you stop in your tracks? Odds are it was a stunning visual that made you pause, think and react. In the social media world, good visual content is marketing gold. Like a good first impression, an image that is on-point and attractive makes us want to know more. It draws us in and can be the key to starting a relationship with our target customer.
Why Pillar Pages are a B2B Tech Marketer’s Best Asset (if Done Right)
B2B tech marketers, you play a crucial role in the growth of your company. And, your task is a challenging one: Increase your company’s search engine rankings, educate buyers about your technical products or solutions in a way that is easy to understand yet adequately communicates the benefits of those solutions, while generating and converting leads. That’s a tall order when you consider the cutthroat competition for top spots in the search engine results pages (SERPs).
How to Write Better Headlines and Engage your Audience.
Share this Article: Headlines are read more that 4 times as much as the rest of your copy. While the term "headline" often refers to traditional ad copy, headlines can still be found across all digital channels and mediums. In this video, I'll share how to create better headlines that will pull your audience deeper into your story. Video Transcript: Thanks for checking out this video.
Inbound Marketing on a Budget: 12 Tools You Should Be Using
Sticker shock! I’m sure you’ve experienced the same feeling when you see the prices of some Inbound Marketing tools. As a marketing agency that serves high-growth companies and small businesses, we are always on the lookout for effective tools to manage and measure the marketing efforts of our agency and our clients. There are thousands of inbound marketing tools on the market. How do you know which ones to choose? Did you know that the average organization has 91 MarTech tools?
Digital Marketing Tips Start-ups Can Learn From Seven-Figure Bloggers
What makes some blogs so wildly successful, earning seven-figures per year? And, what can start-ups learn from these seven-figure bloggers? High-level bloggers know how to reach their audience with valuable content and nurture relationships with their readers. But, without digital marketing, seven-figure bloggers wouldn’t have a business. Judging by their success stories, they are digital marketing pros. Seven-figure bloggers have perfected digital marketing and the inbound marketing methodology.
What is Digital Marketing? Breaking Down the Basics
Digital marketing is the use of the internet to market your products or services. Digital marketing campaigns may include using social media, email, search engines, and a website or landing pages to engage with current and future customers. People are spending more and more time online, searching for information and consuming content. It has become the backdrop of our lives. Need to find the answer to a question? Google it. Want to connect with family and friends? Interact with them on Facebook.
How to Find Your Niche as an Online Business Owner
Regardless of whether you pronounce it neesh or nitch, one thing is certain; the riches are in the niches. (Actually, that only sounds right if you pronounce it nitch.) In this article, I’ll guide you through the process of finding your niche as an online business owner. This will be most helpful for expert-based businesses, such as course creators, digital marketers, coaches, freelancers, virtual service providers, and bloggers.
How to Find Your Niche as an Online Business Owner
Regardless of whether you pronounce it neesh or nitch, one thing is certain; the riches are in the niches. (Actually, that only sounds right if you pronounce it nitch.) In this article, I’ll guide you through the process of finding your niche as an online business owner. This will be most helpful for expert-based businesses, such as course creators, digital marketers, coaches, freelancers, virtual service providers, and bloggers.
Best Places to Find Handwritten Script Fonts
When mainstream media starts following a digital branding trend, you know that trend is hot. The trend of the day is handwritten script fonts. Also known as calligraphy fonts and brush script fonts, you’ve undoubtedly seen them used on social media graphics and on Pinterest images. A few months ago, I started spotting them in print and television ads, magazine covers, and even my cereal box.
Increase Conversions on Your Blog (3 Powerful Calls to Action)
Are you leaving your blog readers hanging or do you tell them how to take the next step with you? The purpose of your blog is to attract new followers or new customers. Are you letting your readers know how to become followers or customers? It may sound like common sense, but many blogs don’t invite the reader to engage with them. To increase conversions on your blog you have to point your readers in the direction you want them to go. Every blog post should be written with a goal in mind.
How to Write Your Website’s About Page (Hint: It’s Not About You)
What’s one of the first pages you click on when visiting a website for the first time? I’ll bet it’s the About page. You want to know more about the person or business so you can judge whether or not to spend your precious time on their site or give them your business. If you’ve tried to write an About page for your website you know that it’s not as easy as it seems. We want to make a great first impression. It’s one of the most visited pages on blogs and business websites.
6 Signs It’s Time To Hire A Digital Marketing Agency
Whether you are a start-up or an established company, there will come a time when you realize you need help marketing your business online. If you take an objective look at your current marketing efforts, your website, and your lead generation (or lack of), you may come to one conclusion – you aren’t getting the results you want. A lack of leads and customers will make you re-evaluate your current marketing strategy.
Turning Blog Posts Into Videos is Easier Than You Think
You know that awesome blog post you just wrote that isn’t getting the digital traction it deserves? Maybe a little content repurposing would help it reach a larger audience. Video content gets higher engagement than images and links. If you could easily turn that post into a video by investing just a few extra minutes of your time, would you try it?
What Is The Purpose Of A Blog And Do I Need One?
When we begin working with a business owner to strengthen their online presence and expand their reach, we will encourage them to have a blog on their website. Many of our clients fall into three categories: When working with new clients, we frequently get this question: What is the purpose of a blog? If this sounds like you, what you are really asking is, These are legitimate questions.
Tips for Working with Freelance Writers
Once you’ve embraced inbound marketing and content marketing and get to work developing a game plan for your business, you’ll soon realize that you’re going to need lots of high-quality, engaging content for your website. The truth is that many marketing agencies and their clients don’t have the in-house staff, time, subject matter knowledge, and/or skills to write about all of the topics that will yield their desired results (i.e. leads, conversions and high search engine rankings).
How I Survived my First Year at an Inbound Marketing Agency
“Hello Rhonda. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to support Ryan Shelley, owner of Shelley Media Arts, as he grows his inbound marketing agency.” A year ago I joined Shelley Media Arts and while the job offer wasn’t phrased exactly like that, I certainly was about to embark on a mission that would challenge me and allow me to play an important role in the growth of the agency. But first I had a question, what was “inbound marketing”?
How to be an Awesome Inbound Marketing Agency Client
When you enter into a relationship with an inbound marketing agency, those first few weeks are a lot like dating. You and your agency are getting to know each other, your communication style, your likes and dislikes, and your goals. It takes a while to develop trust and to know you’re ready to fully commit. You want to be sure that this is “the one”, that they “get you” and that you make a great team. What makes a great client/agency relationship? The bottom line is communication and leadership.
A Beginner's Guide to Blogging
Blogging can be an inexpensive way to distinguish your individual voice within your areas of expertise. Whether you use your platform to promote a product, share recipes, or teach a skill, blogging gives you the freedom to create and share as much information as you desire. Several decisions will need to be made before you set up your blog. Which platform will you utilize? What will you title your blog? Color theme? Graphics?
Kick These 9 Social Media Bad Habits in the New Year
9? Why not 10 Social Media Bad Habits? Number 10 is reader’s choice. I have a love/hate relationship with social media. I’ve seen it bring out the best in people, revealing their softer side – their positive worldview, loyalty, and kindness. I’ve also seen it bring out people’s less than admirable qualities – passive aggressive tendencies, anger, negativity. Social media has the ability to drain my time (because I let it) and suck the soul right out of me (because I fall prey to the cynicism).
Best Practices for Using Mentions and Hashtags on Twitter
Recently one of our clients asked about the difference between mentions (@) and hashtags (#) on Twitter. I left the conversation thinking about how they are used and misused, and how they can be added to tweets more effectively. I also realized that there may be other clients and subscribers of ours that would like to know more about this topic. It seems as if mentions and hashtags are often confused by novice Twitter users.
10 Ways To Bring Old Content Back From The Dead
Going back through your old blog posts can be like walking through a graveyard. It’s an eerily quiet and deserted wasteland of forgotten words and ideas. If you’ve been blogging a while you undoubtedly have old content that is sitting on your website gathering dust. You probably wrote it when you were just starting out and, although it’s great stuff, your writing has grown and developed. It’s time to show those old blog posts some love; to clear the cobwebs and bring it back from the dead.
6 Ways to Win the Video Marketing Game
In the 80’s people wanted their MTV. Many of us have grown up on short, entertaining videos that capture our imagination and pull at our emotions. Marketing studies show that we still have an appetite for video and prefer it over other types of content. Internet users are increasingly more interested in visual content than written content and are more interested in consuming content from social media than from blogs (Hubspot).
Rock Your B2B Marketing With Video
I recently read that, according to Dr. James McQuivey of Forrester, it is estimated that one minute of video is equal to 1.8 million words. After I picked my jaw up off the floor, I started digging into this topic. Come to find out, video has the potential to make a huge impact on the effectiveness of a company’s marketing strategy. Perhaps that’s why so many social platforms are taking their cue from YouTube and developing more ways to reach audiences through video.
Social Selling: The Case For Marketing & Sales Alignment
When you read the statistics on the benefits of aligning marketing and sales for B2B organizations, you can’t help but sit up and take notice. Here are a few that caught my attention recently: Companies with aligned sales and marketing generated 208% more revenue from marketing. (MarketingProfs) B2B organizations with tightly aligned marketing and sales achieved 24% faster revenue growth and 27% faster profit growth over a three-year period.
5 Online Tools That Are Grammar Police Approved
Do you love to write, but hate the time it takes to proofread your work? Do your fingers and brain work at different speeds, resulting in grammar errors and typos? It’s common to work so long on an article that you become blind to your own grammar mistakes. Sometimes it takes a fresh pair of eyes to read your work and spot grammatical inconsistencies and typographical errors. Don’t you wish you could just call 911 and have the grammar police arrive to check your work?
Finding Your Voice as a New Blogger
The phrase “finding your voice” is used frequently in content marketing and blogging. But what does it really mean? To me, it means sharing your knowledge and views in an authentic way and having the heart of a teacher. Our wisdom and talents aren’t ours to keep to ourselves. They are meant to be shared. When I first started writing for the SMA blog, I’ll admit I didn’t know much about blogging.
Creating Buyer Personas - A Beginner's Perspective
I love a challenge. This week, I was asked to do something completely new to me – creating buyer personas. I have a psychology degree so it would seem that writing buyer personas would be easy, right? After all, I kind of know what makes people tick. Well, it’s more difficult than it would seem at first glance. I’d like to share what I learned in the hopes that it will help others who have to create personas (which is really anyone who is doing business online).
How Engineering Firms Can Maximize Their Influence On LinkedIn
How does a small to mid-sized engineering firm even begin to be noticed online within their industry? The answer: Increase your online presence where your customers and employees hang out. That place is LinkedIn. As a platform for social networking, LinkedIn has become an incredible source of new business and new talent in the B2B market. According to Statista.com, as of the spring of 2016, LinkedIn had 450 million users.
Top 7 Team Collaboration Tools We Can’t Live Without
It’s no secret that the trend toward flexible work arrangements and hiring remote staff is on the rise. In 2013, 34 million Americans worked from home and that number was expected to increase to 63 million by 2016. (Source) That’s 43% of the workforce working from home in some sort of flexible arrangement be it part-time, full-time or split-time.
How to Rock Your Virtual Assistant's World
A lot has been written recently about the YouEconomy, side gig economy, side hustle economy, virtual work and all the ways that working independently, from home, has its benefits. (As a “side hustler” myself, I can tell you it’s the bomb!) You can also find many articles about the benefits of hiring a virtual assistant. But what isn’t often considered is how to get the most out of your relationship with your virtual assistant. And, rarely will you find articles written from the VA’s point of view.
Miles Teller Uncertain If He Will Return With Shailene Woodley To Divergent
Miles Teller is unsure if he will return to end the Divergent film franchise when it moves from a planned theatrical release to TV screens. Stars Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort have both said that they’re unsure whether they’ll be returning for the planned TV movie, and now, Teller is saying the same.
8 Ways to Sabotage Your Social Media Marketing
Social media can be a powerful tool in your marketing strategy, but it’s only effective if you know how to use it in a focused way that connects with your target audience. It’s easy to get overwhelmed when you are a small business owner and unsure how to get started using social media to market your business. Going in with a plan and adjusting your plan as you start to see results will help you reach your goals. Try to wing it and you’ll find yourself spinning your wheels or veering off course.
Add Flavor to Your Content Strategy With Guest Bloggers and Curated Content
If you’ve been blogging a while you may start to notice that your writing is getting stale or you go through periods of writer’s block. If you’re also running a small business, trying to balance a multitude of business development tasks with producing engaging content for your blog can be a challenge. Perhaps you’re running out of ideas and you don’t have time to brainstorm new topics. Take a good look at your blog. What’s missing?
5 Time Management Tips to Help You Enjoy Summer
It’s summer! Your kids are sleeping in while you trek off to work each morning. You’d rather be enjoying the slower summer pace along with your family, but there’s work to be done! What if you could get more done in less time? Wouldn’t it be great to be finished with work by 2 and hit the beach with the family by 3? So, some of what I’m about to propose does assume that you are a solopreneur so you set your own schedule.
The Do’s and Don’ts of Email Campaigns for Nonprofits | Part 4 of 4
Last week we covered the fundamentals of fundraising and the best emails to send to get your donors to take action. This week we’ll examine the right emails to send to maintain and engage your donor base. In this four-part guide, you’ll find do’s and don’ts for every step of the email marketing process: To keep donors engaged with your nonprofit, send emails that will maintain your relationship.
Things to Keep in Mind While Doing an Internship
Doing an internship is a great opportunity to see what it is like to work in that position and company. It helps you to understand whether you are a good fit for the position and whether you want to do this as a career. However, there are things to keep in mind while doing an internship and below you can find them:Be Professional: You are not in a school setting anymore and your coworkers are not your friends. Those are your colleagues. Thus, you need to be professional.
10 Ways Brick-and-Mortar Business Owners Can Improve Their Online Presence
Local businesses have a huge advantage in that they have authentic interactions with their local community. Use photos, videos and testimonials from your brick-and-mortar location and share those on the web. The customers you feature will share with their friends and family, while prospective customers will feel like they’re part of the community even though they might be across the country.
How Retail Giants Have Changed the World of Loyalty Programs So Far in 2016
Why is it worth connecting your loyalty program with a mobile app? How should brands focus more on what their customers really want from their loyalty programs? I’m sure that you heard (or maybe even felt) the anxiety of customers who were angry about how Starbucks and American Airlines changed their reward mechanisms. Or maybe you were surprised about the sudden announcement that McDonald’s also wants to have their own slice of the loyalty program pie.
10 Biggest Email Marketing Turnoffs for New Customers
First impressions are key, and if your new customer email has a formatting error or broken link you can likely say goodbye to their business. Quadruple check your email template to be certain information like names and phone numbers pull correctly and all images and hyperlinks direct to the correct location.
Master Copywriting Essentials & Brand Your Business
We get it—not every company has the budget to hire a copywriter or marketing pro. But that doesn’t mean you have to miss out on the magic that the right words and the right marketing strategy can work on your branding and business. Case in point: our Marketing Copywriter Bundle, packed with lessons in copywriting, data analytics, Facebook ad campaigns, and Twitter strategy. Right now, you can pay what you want for it at the B2C Shop. Set your price depending on what you need to learn.
Slow Down to Speed Up
Have you heard this before? Are you at your best when rushed? What if you could just slow down? The idea for “Slow Down to Speed Up” is not new and it’s certainly not my idea. For thousands of years there have been practitioners of this art. The idea has resurfaced in the last few years. It seems counter-intuitive, but there’s a lot of logic and science behind it. Generally, when someone is rushed they make mistakes.
5 Easy Online Tools to Create Awesome Infographics
You don’t have to be a graphic designer to create compelling and unique infographics. Creating an infographic that tells a story in a simple and visually appealing way, that’s easy to understand, is something that even an inexperienced visual content creator can master. Keeping in mind the main elements of an awesome infographic from last week’s post will help you stay on target.
5 Excellent Infographics and How They Made the Grade
If a picture is worth a thousand words, an amazing infographic is worth a thousand shares. Infographics have seen an increase in popularity over the past few years as we search for unique and captivating ways to tell a story online, capitalizing on our audience’s limited attention span and desire for quick bites of information. An infographic can tell a whole story or it can summarize an article in a way that leads the reader to want to click on the entire story.
How to Achieve Work-Life Balance: The Power of No
When you are a hungry entrepreneur starting your new business, your work-life balance can seem out of whack. You’re working so hard to get your business going that you sometimes forget what it is you’re even trying to achieve. You may even start to ask yourself, “Is it worth it?” That’s when you know you need to sit down and map out a strategy that’s going to sustain you personally and professionally.
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