6 Tips For A Great Landing Page

Turn website traffic into revenue by using six proven techniques for your website’s landing page.

1. Use Customer Testimonials

Testimonials are compelling stories that tell a visitor what they can expect when using your product or service.  Let your customers speak for you on your landing page.

2. Talk About The Benefits

Customers really don’t care about your products or services. What they care about is their own problem. Because they have probably already done research online, your prospective customers already know the solution to their problem. You can mention the solution on your landing page because your visitors will know they are in the right place, just don’t only talk about the solution. Talk about the benefits because that will set you apart and that is what your visitors are looking for. 

3. Keep Your Writing Simple

Simplicity sells. Use simple sentence structure and keep them short. Use short words that are easy to read quickly. Be clear and describe what you do using the most basic words.

4. Be Human

Just like having conversations with your customers on social media, use your landing page to start that conversation. Don’t let your content sound mechanical and forced. Write like you speak, in a friendly tone.

5. Use Numbers

People like believable data. Use specific numbers to promote the benefits of your products or services.

6. Have A Call To Action

If you don’t ask readers to do anything, they won’t. What do you want your visitors to do when they are at your home page? Start writing the content of your home page with the end goal in mind – what action you want your visitors to take. Do you want them to sign up for your free white paper? Do you want them to contact you for a demonstration? A call-to-action button should reflect the action you want them to take and your content should easily bring them to the button and make them want to click through. 

8 Marketing Strategies To Increase Your Reach (Part 2)

On Tuesday, we posted Part 1 of this article. Here are the last four marketing tips to help you increase your company’s visibility.

5. Use Social media to market your business – You need to be where your customers and potential customers are. They are on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and many other social media sites. Research which one(s) your customers use most often and participate in the conversations. Post about what’s happening at your business, post your blogs and let your followers in on what new products you have coming out. If you don't have the time to manage a robust social media campaign for your business, hire a marketing firm to handle that for you.

6. Build a great website – You know your business because you are the expert in what you do. Unless you are an expert in web design, you should not attempt to build your company website. You don’t want to direct your potential customers to a website that looks homemade. You want and need a website that reflects your professionalism and expertise. If you do not have the necessary skills to build a website that represents your brand, hire a marketing firm to design and build it for you.

7. Create the right copy for your website - Your website should not be all about you. Your website is a tool that should talk about your target market’s pain points and how you can solve their problems. Your content must to speak to your ideal client in a way that connects with them emotionally and convinces them in a matter of seconds that they have found the exact solution they are looking for. 

8. Launch your product, program or service – You are ready to let the world know about your awesome products or services. How do you share this information? Some great suggestions are to write an e-book and offer it for free on your website. You can offer free webinars to introduce people to your services and give them some introductory level information for free. If they want more, they can hire you. A business coach can help you decide upon the best way for you to launch your particular business.

Did you notice a common theme through many of these marketing tips? Hire help to get your marketing done for you while you do what you are good at. You can try to do all these things on your own and missing out on opportunities or you can hire a skilled and experienced marketing team, like Blue Dog Marketing, to do the work for you.

8 Marketing Strategies To Increase Your Reach (Part 1)

You started your small business because you are good at what you do and you have great solutions or products to offer. You may be struggling with how to reach your target market. The answer is to consistently get your message out.

How can you do that? Here are 8 smart marketing ideas that will help you spread the word about your company and increase your sales. You may have tried one or more of these already but haven't stuck with them the way you should for them to work. Follow the suggestions Blue Dog Marketing is sharing in this post today and Thursday to drive traffic to your website, create visibility with your ideal clients and solve problems for your target market.

1. Blog about the problems your ideal client is facing – If you are not blogging you should be. Blogging is one marketing strategy every business owner can and should use. You position yourself as an expert in your field when you blog. You don't have to be a writer to have a great blog. Your posts can be short or long. They can be short video snippets of a webinar that you deliver. Your blog can be whatever you would like it to be. Just remember to have your content relate to the problems your target market is experiencing. Pick a schedule to blog and stick to it. If you don't have time to maintain a blog yourself, hire a marketing firm to do it for you.

2. Promote your blog – Once you have a blog up and running, you need to let people know about it. Attach the blog to your website, include a link to your blog in your email signature and put your blog link on all your marketing materials, including your business cards. If you don't let people know your blog is there, no one will read it.

3. Send your clients an email newsletter – You want to stay top of mind with your customers and prospects. An email newsletter is one of the easiest, least expensive and most effective ways to do this. Regularly publish an email newsletter, once a month or once a quarter, whatever works best for you and your company. When you choose a publishing schedule, be consistent. If you do not have time to create, write and send out an email newsletter yourself, outsource it to a marketing firm.

4. Following up from networking events – Networking is a wonderful way to increase your visibility in the community. You can make some great business connections at networking events. Don’t just collect a bunch of business cards. Follow up with the people you met to turn those conversations into opportunities. Call or email them to set up a time to meet for coffee so you can each learn more about the other’s business.

Check back on Thursday for tips 5 through 8!

How to Better Understand Your Marketing Efforts: 5 Questions to Ask

Doing a self-assessment of your marketing efforts will keep you on the right track and stop you if something is not working. Here are five questions a small business owner should ask themselves to get the most out of their marketing efforts.

1. Are your sales and marketing efforts working well together? Sales and marketing have to support each other within a unified strategy centered on your customers.

2. Do you really understand your clients and your target market? You may say “yes”, but in today’s constantly changing market, it is not always easy to keep up with your clients’ needs. We can break this question down to some relevant sub-questions that can assist you in better assessing your answer:

- How well do you know the needs of your clients?
- Do your employees share information about clients’ needs and use this data to modify your products or/and services?
- To what extent is your team proactive about building customer loyalty?
- How well do you anticipate the needs of your customers?
- Are you able to successfully impact their purchasing criteria?
- Do you take the time to think about how your company’s products or services create more value for your customers?

3. Do you know who your competitors are and what they offer? Constantly gather up-to-date information about your competitors’ products, marketing activities and even their company structure because this data helps you see where your market is going, what your customers really need, and which tactics used by your competitors have a positive impact.

4. How do you handle negative comments about your products or services? The negative feedback you receive can be a great marketing opportunity. Learn how to deal with negative feedback in a constructive customer-oriented fashion.

5. Are you using the latest marketing tools to promote your company? Evaluate if you are making the most out of the must-use marketing tools available. Social media, a great website and email marketing all provide excellent ways for small businesses to get their products or services noticed.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

Pi Day of the Century!

Today is an epic day! It is a once-in-a-century thrill for math geeks that will not occur for another 100 years.

Today is 3.14.15 and at 9:26:53 the date and time will be the same at the value of pi.

Just a fun, geeky factoid for today!

3.14.15 9:26:53

How To Respond To Angry Customers On Social Media

Social media is a wonderful tool for promoting your business and building your brand. But what do you do when you receive an angry complaint from a customer?

You may want to ignore the complaint or delete it. Don’t! You must respond to complaints. Studies have shown that customers’ buying decisions are influenced by negative online reviews. Clearly, dealing with a customer’s complaint on social media is important. But more important is how you respond. For many small business owners, a complaint is taken personally and you might be inclined to respond with an angry retort or even delete the comment. That will only make the customer angrier and the situation worse.

Before you delete or respond here are some things to consider:

Determine if the complaint is valid. Are they a customer? Did they purchase what they said they did?

If the complaint is from a customer, then it is important that you respond quickly, but only after you have taken the time to fully understand the situation.

When possible, remove the issue from the public view of social media and respond offline. If possible, contact your customer by phone to discuss the problem. When speaking with your unhappy customer, validate their concerns. Most people write complaints in the heat of the moment and really only want to be heard. Empathize with them, even if they are wrong.

Next, take responsibility, even if you are not completely at fault. We all admire companies that step up and take accountability.

Online, you can provide information for the person posting the complaint and those reading it that gives direction on how to contact you directly, your phone number or email, to discuss the issue further or even point them to an FAQ section of your website where they can find more information.

If you cannot delete the complaint online after you have resolved it over the phone, post how you resolved the issue to show that your business can calmly and appropriately handle complaints. If you are able to resolve the issue satisfactorily, ask the customer to post a follow-up message about how you resolved the situation.

Always take the high road when dealing with customer complaints. Responding to complaints on social media is unquestionably essential for a business. Just be sure to put more effort into your response than the customer who posted their complaint. 

Business Cards Are a Great Marketing Tool

 How do you create a memorable impression with prospective customers? When networking, how do you effective communicate what your company does? Business cards can give your small business an edge and the personalization of the cards can make you memorable.

Great business cards do not have to be expensive. Hiring a marketing firm, such as Blue Dog Marketing, to design a card for you will help you stand out from your competitors. There is nothing worse than giving someone a card that you had printed by an online business card store that looks just like the card they handed you. That occurs more often than you think with so many people using online business card companies.

You and your business are unique, so a card that clearly expresses that uniqueness and lets people know what you do is the best way to compete in today’s business climate.

Here are some ideas for creating a stand-out business card:

Consistency

Your business cards and all your other marketing materials should have the same look. This means your website, brochures and newsletters must have the same logo and color scheme. This branding lets customers recognize your business and helps you stand out from your competition.

Logo

If you do not have a company logo, get one right away. Pick your company colors. A marketing design firm can educate you on the meaning of certain colors so you make a smart choice for your business. A great logo will help people remember you company and what you do. Use your logo on all your marketing materials.

Message

What is your mission statement? What do you want people to know about your company? You can use your mission statement to create a tag line that will let your customers know what you do.

Use your business cards as a foundation of an overall marketing program to build relationships and create opportunities for your small business.

If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door.

5 Blogging Tips to Boost Your Marketing

Are you blogging because everyone else is doing it? Blogging has become increasingly popular so you may think you should have a blog too. Well, you are correct in making the decision to blog. Blogging could be the next window of opportunity for your small business.

Blogging can definitely boost your current marketing endeavors. Here are some tips on ways to use blogging to enhance your current marketing efforts:

Tip One: Commit To A Schedule

At Blue Dog Marketing we blog twice a week, which may seem like a lot for your business. It does take time to build a blog to the point where it draws a lot of traffic. To get there, you must commit to a regular schedule of blog posts. You can post your blog daily, weekly, twice a month or even monthly, the choice is yours. I recommendation you choose a frequency that you can stick to because your followers will learn your schedule and return to your blog expecting to see a new post. Blogging will get easier once you are in a routine and your readers will be coming back for more.

Tip Two: Stay Up-To-Date On What is Happenings In Your Industry

The best way to make sure you have something to write about is to keep informed about what is happening in your industry. Remember, content is king when it comes to having a successful blog.  

Tip Three: Give Your Readers Value

Blogging is about establishing yourself as an expert in your field. When you blog you also build trust and rapport with your readers. But you also need to find a way to share your knowledge with your readers without “giving away the store.” Sharing information that solves a customer’s problem or answers questions they may have will keep you top of mind in with them and present you as the expert they should turn to.

Tip Four: Promote Your Blog

Having a blog online is great, but how will your customers find it? One way is to attach your blog to your website. Promote your blog through social media such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Posting your blogs on social media sites allows you to extend your reach. Put a link to your blog in your email signature. You should also promote your blog on all of your marketing materials such as brochures and newsletters.  

Tip Five: Keep Blogging!

It does take time to grow your blog and generate a regular readership. So it is very important to stick to your blogging schedule and be persistent. Have fun while you blog and you will see positive results.