7 POWERFUL WAYS TO BOOST YOUR LOCAL SEO IN 2021

Local SEO is more important than ever before. As we’re going through a global pandemic, people are looking for businesses closer to where they live and work. 

Local searches are when people search for things like ‘cafes near me’ or ‘doctors in Appleton’. People have a specific physical location in mind and typically want to visit the place or interact with the business directly. 

You need to make sure that your business’s online presence is optimized to appear for local searches. And how can you do that? That’s what this blog post covers. Check it out. 

Add your business to directories and listings

When Google gets a query for businesses or services near a specific location, it often presents information from directories and listings to users. Business directories and listings are websites that are built to provide local business information. They’re the digital version of yellow pages. 

Your first step can be to add your business to these listings, especially ones that are local to your region. You should also add your business information to industry-based directories. 

For example, you could reach out to your local chamber of commerce, add your business to Yelp, and other directories. 

And of course, make sure you own or claim your business on Google My Business. The information you provide in your Google My Business profile will appear in a knowledge graph in the right sidebar of a search page.

A knowledge graph for a local business

Your presence on different listings helps create a complete profile of your business and establishes that it’s a real business. 

Provide complete information

Aside from being present on multiple platforms, it is also important to provide detailed information on all of them. 

This means adding details about your address, store timings, product and service offerings, and more. While this can be a tedious task at first, if done correctly, you only need to do it once. And the results are that you stand to get picked up for local searches. 

Remember to maximize the information you offer. Use relevant keywords, post store images, products available, a phone number, and more. 

Provide accurate product information

So far, we’ve focused on providing information about your overall business. But remember that people typically look for specific products and services together with the location aspect. Meaning that information about your products matters as much as where you’re located. 

If you own an electronics store in Augusta, a person looking for a specific brand’s speakers in that area will likely be interested in your business. By clearly adding your product details on your website and by mentioning them in listings, you make it possible for search engines to show your business as a useful result. 

One helpful strategy is to use a keyword tool to find out what people are searching for online in relation to your business. By understanding the kind of keywords and phrases people are using, you can refine the information you provide and get more customers. 

Add structured data

Adding structured data to your website will help your business appear prominently in knowledge graphs or panels. 

A knowledge panel or graph is a feature where Google displays information in a carousel or in a large panel in the right sidebar area. 

These knowledge graphs usually appear when people search for things like ‘things to do near my city’ or ‘best restaurants in the area’. By adding structured data or schema, Google will pick up relevant bits of information and display them. 

Schema markup for things like menus, opening hours, cuisines, business names, and other things helps your business classify content on your website. And this kind of markup makes it easy for search engines to understand the content on your site. 

Note the ‘property’ attribute inserted in the HTML tags. This is schema markup

Build your social media profiles

Another important way to add information about your brand online is to create social media profiles.

Facebook allows you to create local business pages where you can add information about your store. Here also, you need to fill in all the details you can such as store timings, location, images, and other details.

People often look for products on social media. And they tend to do their research on a company by looking at its social media profile before they make a purchase.

When your social media information is consistent with content on your website and on business directories and listings, it creates a coherent image of your brand and also makes your website appear more trustworthy to search engines and people.

Do your keyword research

One area where businesses can make mistakes is by targeting the wrong keywords for their business. This is because businesses view their own products and services differently from the way customers do.

Doing keyword research using an SEO tool will help you get data that clearly shows you what people are looking for online in relation to your business.

Something as small as mentioning parking space availability around your business can impact whether a customer decides to visit your premises. And an SEO plugin or tool could help you find small details like these that lead to significant conversions. 

Manage your reviews and ratings

Another way that Google rates your business is by taking reviews and ratings into consideration. 

Encourage your customers to leave positive reviews if they are happy with your services and products.

And whether you get positive or negative reviews, be sure to respond to them with your business account. It gives you the opportunity to highlight your professionalism and empathy towards customers. 

Encourage reviews and respond to them in a professional way

Good reviews and high ratings go a long way to boost your brand image and the chances that your business appears as a relevant search result. 

Over to you

It’s clear from this post that taking on local SEO is a time-consuming process that requires a lot of work.

But the outcome is more than worth it when Google and other search engines send traffic to your website or highlight your business in a knowledge graph.

Using the tips here, start giving your small business a boost. Over time, track your business’s position for search results and you should see more traffic and more customers.

PEOPLE ARE COMPLICATED AND THEIR LIVES ARE COMPLEX

I can still recall many pieces of wisdom Robert Berra, one of my mentors, shared with me. This one has held up over time: “Paul, just remember one thing when you are in any circumstance when people are not being their best selves. Everyone is a little bit scared and a whole lot proud.” 

I think the phrase resonated because it described me. Growing up, I felt as if I was the only one who was scared. When I remember the phrase, I am kinder and more respectful to others. Recently I saw a quote by Steven Spielberg that brought this perspective back again:

I never felt comfortable with myself because I was never part of the majority. I always felt awkward and shy and on the outside of the momentum of my friends' lives. 

I remember pulling into the parking lot of the motel where I was to teach a program on personal effectiveness. I parked next to a VW bus covered with flowers and bumper stickers. Half an hour later, as I was setting up the room, the obvious owner of the VW walked in—a big guy with a long ponytail, bandana, cut-out sweat shirt, and soiled jeans. Thinking he was lost, I asked if I could help. “Yes, are you Paul? Well, I go by ‘Barbed Wire,’ and I’m here to be fixed.”

Long story short, Charles was a welder in a factory and had a reputation for being difficult—hence Barbed Wire. Once he had the reputation, he didn’t know how to get beyond it. Charles sat through the class, didn’t say anything, but participated in all the exercises and seemed to have fun with the participants, who were mostly young people from an insurance company. A week later, Barbed Wire’s supervisor called and thanked me. It seems Charles went back to the factory, apologized for being difficult, asked to be called by his given name, and asked to start fresh. Now, I don’t think he had some eureka moment in class. Charles simply wanted a fresh start, and the class gave him permission to ask for it.

Charles also taught me a lesson that I have relearned many times: Don’t make up stuff about people based on how they look. 

Here is the most profound idea I have for you with respect to understanding people: People do exactly what makes sense to them in the moment. I’ll use a baseball analogy because I love the sport. Think about hitting a baseball. There is no time to analyse a pitch and decide to swing. All major league hitters swing first and then stop the swing if it is not a good pitch to hit. Notice how many checked swings there are—lots. Now think about the difference between a batting-practice fastball and a game-time fastball. One looks hittable, and the other can actually look like a threat if it’s too far inside.

When people feel good about themselves, their lives and circumstances, they usually do the right thing. They tend to be at their best.

When people feel threatened, they often get defensive and do things that are not consistent with being at their best. They take things personally, say things they don’t mean, and justify their behaviour—anything to deal with the threat they are feeling. They are not at their best.

If people are reacting to the moment, they are in part reacting to you. And you can be safe and catchable or you can be a threat—like a high-and-tight fastball that makes people duck. 

How can you be safe? By slowing down, always having time, listening far longer than you might want to, not trying to fix anyone or their thinking. Just be there—home with the lights on—and realize that if anyone can make a difference with this person, it is you, right now. 

Thanks for reading,
Paul 

Every single person has a story that will break your heart. And if you’re paying attention, many people…have a story that will bring you to your knees. Nobody rides for free.
Brené Brown, American researcher 

- Paul Axtell, author of Compassionate Leadership

INSTAGRAM SEO - EASY WAYS TO RANK HIGHER IN 2021 AND BEYOND

Instagram has evolved to be a massive marketing platform that can help you increase your visibility and create brand awareness for your business.

By improving your visibility on social platforms like Instagram, you can build credibility and gain trust amongst your users. When people start trusting you, they won’t mind buying from you. This means you can boost your sales to reach your conversion goals and increase your profit.

But how do you boost your visibility? The best way to do that is to work on improving your Instagram SEO. This will help you rank higher and gain the best results for the success of your business.

But not everyone knows how to improve their Instagram SEO. So here are some of the easy ways to rank higher through Instagram SEO in 2021.

1. Optimize your Profile for Search

Optimizing your profile for search is one of the main steps towards improving your Instagram SEO. Just like you type search terms in different search engines, in Instagram, too, you have a search bar using which you can use search terms to find accounts, hashtags, posts, etc.

Now, whenever you use this field to search for a term, Instagram will display various results depending on the people you follow, who you’re connected to, and what images and videos you like. You’ll notice that Instagram uses your search terms as keywords to filter millions of accounts. It will then display the most relevant results.

So use this concept to optimize your profile. You can do that by incorporating relevant keywords into your display name. This will help you appear in top search results. The best keywords to use in your display name are words or terms that describe your business perfectly.

Similarly, you can optimize your bio too. Many marketers use clickable hashtags in their bios to boost their chances of appearing in search results. You, too, can try out this super-efficient strategy to improve your Instagram SEO.

2. Use Hashtags as your Keywords

You must have seen Instagramers using various hashtags on their post captions. Some people use it to run different marketing campaigns, sourcing UGC(user-generated content), etc. However, the main idea behind using these hashtags is to boost the visibility of your post.

More visibility means more engagement. This can also bring you more followers and more customers for your business.

Just like using relevant keywords can boost the visibility of your posts on Google, using relevant hashtags, too, can increase your visibility on Instagram.

When you use specific hashtags on your posts, it appears along with other corresponding hashtags search results. So it’s important that you learn how to use hashtags efficiently on your posts and make your marketing strategy more effective.

But remember that your profile will show up only if you set the visibility status of your account to public.

3. Be Consistent

Optimizing your Instagram posts is a lot like optimizing your posts for Google. Just like being consistent with your posts can boost your search ranking in Google, on Instagram too, you have to post consistently to boost your visibility.

Social media is a fast-paced platform by nature. So your posts can quickly become obsolete. By posting consistently, you can keep yourself active and remind your followers about your business. This creates a memorable and lasting impact on your followers.

Also, when you have a consistent posting schedule, your followers understand your posting pattern and know what to expect from you. This will build a consistent experience for them, and they will come back to your profile more often. As a result, your engagement rate will also be higher.

When you have more engagement, your posts will become more visible too. This again will help create brand awareness and build trust amongst your audience. However, make sure that you don’t overpost. This will annoy your users, and they might even stop following you. Ideally, you should post once a day and not more than 3 times a day.

4. Write Descriptive Captions

Another brilliant way of optimizing your Instagram account is to write descriptive captions for your post. Instagram being a visual platform, will attract tons of engagement if you post high quality and engaging posts and videos. However, simply attracting engagement won’t help if you can’t convert your audience.

If you want to convert your audience, you need to add a descriptive caption to your post. This will help you give a clear message to your followers, and they will understand what exactly you want to tell them. To help them take action, you can also add a clear CTA(call-to-action) to your captions. This will guide them on where to go next in order to take the action that you want them to take. It’s a great way to encourage your audience to respond to your conversion goal.

5. Use Secondary Keywords in your Posts

Secondary keywords are those keywords that are directly or indirectly related to your primary keyword/keywords. For example, if your primary keyword is ‘Saloon’, your secondary keyword will be anything related to it. So you can use terms like spa, haircut, pedicure, manicure, facial, and other such related terms. Just use them strategically on your posts to boost your visibility.

However, in doing so, make sure not to use random secondary keywords just to make your post visible to more people. They need to be relevant to your posts too. Popping up in irrelevant search results can damage your reputation and hamper your credibility. That’s not something you want to happen to your brand.

So these are some of the easy ways to make your Instagram posts rank higher on search results. Many marketers think that SEO is important only for your website. But you can also use it to boost your visibility on social media. So do your best to take advantage of it.

MOVING YOUR GOAL POST

Why do you do what you do? Why do you want to do the thing that you want to do? For many of us, particularly bloggers and other self-employed entrepreneur types, it’s critically important to set both short-term and long-term goals. However, if you’ve been in this game long enough, almost regardless of how much or how little success you’ve achieved, you will have likely gone though the “moving goal posts” experience. What can we learn from this? Keep Your Eyes on the Prize Let’s use YouTube as a particularly timely example. Whether you’re more interested in “making it” as a “big time” YouTuber as your main gig or you want to utilize YouTube as a powerful marketing tool for your main business, you know that it can very much be a numbers game. Having so many metrics and analytics at your fingertips makes it so much easier to set S.M.A.R.T. goals, since you have actual quantifiable data to track your progress. So, let’s say you want to make that sweet, sweet revenue share through the YouTube Partner Program. To qualify, you need 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours in the past 12 months. So, you set those up as your two main goals for the next 12 months.  You work toward building up those subscribers. You implement a number of strategies to increase both the number of views and improve your average watch time, working toward those 4,000 total watch hours. Then, one day, you cross the threshold. You’re in. You’ve made it… except you haven’t. But I Want the Bigger Prize Not long after hitting those magic numbers — 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours — you feel a little deflated. Sure, you’re in the YouTube Partner Program, but you’re still not making much money and your videos aren’t getting the kind of attention you really want them to get. You want more. You want more views, more subscribers, more money. Somewhere along the way, you learn about the YouTube for Creators program and its various benefit levels. You’ve already hit Opal level with your 1000+ subscribers, but then you see that you can achieve Bronze level with 10,000+ subscribers. That unlocks YouTube Spaces production access, the channel consultation program, YouTube NextUp content eligibility and more. Before you know it, you’ve moved the goal post. Hitting 1,000 subscribers is no longer good enough, so you reach and strive for 10K subscribers. Then, you want 100K subscribers. Or you want to have a video get one million views. These goals are largely arbitrary, but they keep you reaching for more and more, because whatever you achieve, as soon as you achieve it, isn’t really good enough anymore.  Look at those even bigger YouTubers doing even bigger things. Goals, right? Playing the Right Game When you set these sorts of goals for yourself, you’re realistically setting yourself up to move those goal posts as soon as you get there. It’s like trying to chase down the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. You think that as soon as you reach it, you’ll be happy and fulfilled and satisfied… except you never really get the pot of gold. You just keep reaching for it, and it’s always just out of reach.  I just need another 1000 subscribers. I just need to make an extra $500 a month in AdSense. You just need this or that, but none of that stuff is really going to get you there on their own. It’s not about the pot of gold or what you get when you cross the goal line at all.  Instead, it’s about learning to embrace the process. To love playing the game, so to speak, more than you would love to win the game. This is how you have to go about approaching the world of YouTube, just as you should approach blogging, podcasting, Internet marketing, digital publishing, or whatever else you “love” to do. It’s about finding the joy and fulfilment in the work itself and not just in the mythical pot of gold. The Winning Drive Now, I don’t want you to take this the wrong way. Goals are absolutely still very important. Rewards and achievements and accolades are all still very important. They can be great sources of motivation, for starters, but more importantly, they can provide you with a sense of direction and purpose. You’re working toward something and you know which way you need to go to get it. And when you do, enjoy the moment, and then be ready to move those goal posts to do it all over again.

HOW TO ASK FOR WHAT YOU WANT

I was speaking with a group of college students recently who were interested in what we learned early on that served us throughout our careers. For me, it was about asking for what I wanted. A senior manager visited a small factory in New Jersey where I was the production supervisor. During a tour of the factory, he asked me why I had not submitted any capital or project improvement requests. I said that I wasn’t sure they would be approved. “Well, we’ll never know, will we?” was his response. Over the next six months, I submitted eight requests that were all approved immediately. From then on, asking for what I wanted was at the heart of my success.
This reminds me of a Blondie and Dagwood cartoon. In one frame, Blondie sets all the stuff for fixing a leaky faucet down next to the couch where Dagwood is resting. She then leaves the room. In the next frame, she comes back and drops Dagwood’s toolbox next to the couch. She leaves the room again, and Dagwood says, “Whew, for a minute there, I thought she was going to ask me to fix it.”

Most of us are not asking for what we want.

• We hint.
• We wait for the right time.
• We are indirect.
• We ask for what we think we can get rather than what we want.
• We don’t ask.

When you and I are not asking for what we want or need, we are not being effective. At these times, we usually let our concern for comfort—our own or someone else’s—displace our real needs. Take a look. In your staff meetings, with your team members, with your boss, with your employees, at home, in restaurants—are you asking for what you want?
One of the fundamentals of being an effective organization is having a way to exchange commitments. Work gets done when people ask each other to do things. This is dependent upon people having both the willingness to ask and the ability to ask in a way that works. It seems so simple. What if we truly had the freedom to ask for what we wanted and needed on both sides of the relationship? And what if we also had the freedom to decline and negotiate until we arrived at a place that worked for both of us?
Where would asking for what you want would move your interests and projects forward?

Regards,
Paul

Learn to ask for what you want. The worst people can do is not give you what you ask for which is precisely where you were before you asked.
—Peter McWilliams, American writer
 
People who ask confidently get more than those who are hesitant and uncertain. When you've figured out what you want to ask for, do it with certainty, boldness, and confidence. Don't be shy or feel intimidated by the experience. You may face some unexpected criticism, but be prepared for it with confidence.
—Jack Canfield, American author

 - Paul Axtell, author of Compassionate Leadership

TIPS FOR DESIGNING AN EFFECTIVE LANDING PAGE

Your landing page is one of the most important pages of your website that can help you boost your sales and reach your conversion goals. So it’s extremely important for you to design it effectively for the best results.

Many marketers think that a homepage can work as a landing page. While you definitely can use your homepage as your landing page, it’s important for you to know the difference between the two before you get started.

A homepage is the main page of your website that gives your visitors all the relevant information about your business. So it will have an about section, your contact details, social proof, etc.

A landing page, on the other hand, is a stand-alone page on your website that focuses on converting your visitors with a single goal. It is designed specifically for a marketing or advertising campaign with the of boosting your conversions.

So it should be good enough to convince your visitors to take the plunge on your site. If you’re a marketer who frequently needs to design landing pages for your marketing campaigns, knowing how to design an effective landing page can be super helpful.

So here are 6 important tips to remember when designing a landing page for more conversions.

1. Go Minimal

The most important point to remember when designing a landing page is to keep it as simple as possible. The main aim of creating a landing page is to convince your visitors to take a specific action. This can be to make a purchase, follow you on social media, download a file or do anything that can help you reach your goal.

So make sure that your page is designed in such a way that it is capable of conveying your message without distracting your users. The best way of doing that is to use a simple design. For example, instead of using a very bright colour, you can try using subtle colours for your landing page.

Similarly, make sure not to unnecessarily make your message too long. Stick to your point and be specific in what you want to tell your users. You might also want to ditch all forms of distractions that can divert your user’s attention.

For example, you might want to remove your header navigation or any secondary conversion option. Adding them can create decision fatigue and decrease the possibility of your landing page to convert.

2. Optimize for Mobile

If you think your visitors will view your landing page only on their desktops, you’re sadly mistaken. They might want to open it on their mobile phones and tablets as well. So it’s important to consider different screen sizes when you create your landing page. This will help you come up with responsive pages that look equally amazing on all screen sizes.

If you’re not sure how to create a responsive landing page for your website, you can try using SeedProd. It’s a brilliant drag-and-drop page builder that helps you create stunning and fully responsive landing pages with just a few clicks.

3. Offer Value Above the Fold

Another important tip to consider when creating your landing page is to add the most significant content above the fold. When you do that, your visitor gets to see the most important message right when they land on your site without having to scroll down.

But if you add your content below the fold, your visitors have to scroll down the page in order to read it. But many of your users may opt-out of your site even without scrolling any further.

In that case, your message will remain unread, and your marketing efforts will not be fruitful. So make sure that your message is above the fold. This will ensure that your message is read. When that happens, the chances of your visitors taking action on your site increases to a great extent.

4. Add the Right CTA

As mentioned above, the main aim behind creating a landing page is to boost your conversion. But in order to do that, you have to give your users a way to take the desired action. For that, you need to add the right CTA(call-to-action) to your landing page.

Without that, your visitors will be confused as to how to get what you’re offering. So make sure you add a nice catchy CTA to your landing page. Make it big and add a contrasting color so that it quickly catches people’s attention.

Instead of using generic terms like ‘Submit’ or ‘Click here’, you can use something more specific like ‘Claim your Discount Now’, or ‘Download the eBook for Free’ to make it more effective.

5. Pay Attention to the Images

One single image can speak a thousand words. So use this concept to boost the effectiveness of your landing page. Instead of just filling it up with texts, you can use images to make your message more relevant and clear. This will also help you make your landing page more engaging, which, in turn, can help you retain your visitors too.

But in doing so, make sure that your images are of good quality. However, high-quality images can affect your website performance. To stop that from happening, you should consider optimizing them before uploading them.

6. Keep Your Forms Short

Another important tip to remember while designing your landing page is to keep your forms short. Using long forms on your landing page can annoy your users and encourage them to opt-out.

If you don’t want that to happen, make sure to keep your forms short. Add just one or two fields to ask questions that you really want them to answer. If your forms are short, it’s more likely for your visitors to take action.

So these are a few important tips to consider when designing a good landing page. Remember, a good landing page can help you boost your sales to reach your conversion goals and increase your profit. So do your best to make it as effective as possible.

SIX QUALITIES OF WILDLY SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE

Do you want to be successful? If you think the way the most successful people think and adopt the same habits they have, you can be.

But what makes someone a master achiever? Here are six characteristics:

1. They are ambitious.

They see themselves capable of being the best. They see themselves with the capacity of being really good at what they do.

This was a really big thought for me. It held me back for many years. When I saw people who were doing better than I was, I naturally assumed they were better than I was. And if they were better than I was, then I must be worse than them. So that would mean they were superior and I was inferior.

That’s a big problem in our society—we have feelings of inferiority, and these feelings of inferiority are often translated into feelings of undeservedness. The word “deserve” comes from two Latin words meaning “from service.” You deserve 100 percent of everything you make and enjoy as long as you get it from serving other people. If you serve better and serve more and serve at a higher level and serve more enthusiastically and serve a higher quality, then you’ll have a wonderful income—and you’ll deserve every penny of it.

You just must see yourself capable of being the best.

2. They are courageous.

Successful people work to confront the fears that hold most people back. The two biggest enemies to our success are fear and doubt.

When you do something repeatedly, you develop a habit. Make a habit throughout your life of doing the things that scare you. If you do the thing you fear, the death of fear is certain.

So face your fear. The ability to confront your fear is the mark of the superior person. If you have high ambition and you decide to be at the top, and you can confront your fears and do the things that are holding you back, those two things alone will make you a great success.

3. They are committed.

The top people in every field are completely committed. They believe in themselves; they believe in their companies; they believe in their products and services; they believe in their customers. They have an intense belief.

We know that there is a one-to-one relationship between the depth of your belief and what happens in your reality. And if you absolutely believe in the rightness and the goodness of what you’re doing, you become like a catalyst. You create what is called a transfer, like an electrical transfer of enthusiasm.

People who are not committed to what they do lead very empty lives. Caring is a critical element in life—all men and women who enjoy great lives care about what they do. They have passion about what they do. They love what they do.

4. They are prepared.

Successful people review every detail in advance. They do things that the average person is not willing to do. They make sacrifices the average person is not willing to make. But the difference it makes is extraordinary.

Before you go into a meeting, do your homework. Before you give a speech, research the information and practice your talking points. Dive in deep to review every detail of every situation before you take it on.

Successful people are more concerned about pleasing results than they are about pleasing methods. There is nothing more complimentary to your team, your client, your audience than the feeling that you have thoughtfully prepared.

5. They are continuous learners.

High achievers recognize that if they’re not continually getting better, they’re getting worse. They read, they listen to CDs and they take additional training. The professional never stops learning. So read, listen to CDs and take continuous training.

Never stop learning.

6. They are responsible.

The top people in our society have an attitude of self-employment. That’s essential, because 100 percent of us are self-employed—we are presidents of our own personal services corporation. You work for yourself, and the biggest mistake we can ever make is to think we work for anyone else. The person who signs our paycheck may change, our jobs may change, but we are always the same. We are the one constant.

The fact of the matter is that this is not optional—it is mandatory. You’re the president of your own career, your own life, your own finances, your own body, your own family, your own health. You are totally responsible.

We have to be responsible. No one will ever do it for us. It’s the most liberating and exhilarating thought of all, to think, to realize, that you’re the president of your own life.

DEVELOPING A FAR-REACHING MARKETING STRATEGY

Are you interested in reaching a broad audience and growing your business? If so, you’re not alone. Business leaders and marketers across all industries want to reach their target audience so they can show off their latest content, products, and promotions.

In order to maximize your lead generation efforts and revenue, you need to have a far-reaching marketing strategy in place. It doesn’t matter if you have the best solution on the market; if your intended audience doesn’t know you exist, you’re going to have a difficult time growing your brand.

Today, we want to show you several strategies you can use to reach as many potential customers as possible. We will go over content marketing techniques, ways to improve your SEO ranking, how to promote your business off-site, and much more.

Ready? Let’s dive in!

Diversify Your Content

All businesses that hope to grow should regularly post content to their company blog. For context, a whopping 77% of internet users read blog posts. Couple that statistic with the fact that 47% of people read 3-5 pieces of content before buying a product, and it’s easy to see the value of building a robust content marketing strategy.

We suggest creating value-packed posts that resonate with the pain points and goals of your target audience. If you need help deciding what to write about, spend some time researching your market. Once you understand their issues and what they ultimately hope to achieve, you can create content that reflects these ideas.

Creating written content is a great start, but not the only piece of the puzzle. Publishing diverse content is a crucial component of a far-reaching marketing strategy. Consumers interested in your product or service may have different preferences regarding how they consume content.

You’ll find some people that like visual content, like videos and infographics. Others prefer audio, like podcasts. You’ll also notice that, yes, a large portion of your audience prefers written content. However, diversifying how you reach users will ensure that there’s something for everyone, which will ultimately improve your ability to connect with first-time visitors.

Work on Your SEO

Now that you know how to use your blog to extend your reach, it’s time to talk about search engine optimization (SEO). SEO and content marketing go hand-in-hand because you need to use specific words and phrases to rank on popular search engines, like Google.

Consider that 68% of all online experiences start with a search engine, and it’s clear that businesses need to improve their SEO if they want to reach more people.

Google’s Keyword Planner is an excellent tool that can help you discover new words to use to improve your ranking. For instance, if you have a sporting goods store and find out that there’s a high search volume for “golf trick shots,” you may want to write an article featuring that keyword.

If you consistently improve your SEO, users will begin to find your company when they are casually searching for information, products, or entertainment.

Don’t forget to monitor the progress of your ranking after you hit one of the top spots. You have to proactively take steps to stay at the top, especially if you’re trying to rank in a competitive space.

Offer a Broad Range of Subscription Options

Next, let’s talk about how to keep new site visitors engaged with your brand. Let’s say someone finds your website for the first time and is intrigued by your content. If your only subscription option is email, you could miss out on plenty of potential customers.

There are now new opportunities for keeping in touch with your target audience that doesn’t involve asking for an email address. One of the quickest and easiest ways to grow your lead list outside of emails is by using push alerts. In the US, push alerts result in an impressive 15.75% subscription rate. In other words, it’s easier than ever before to send users new content and offers directly to their desktop or smartphone.

You can also grow your social media channels by including buttons that allow visitors to follow your account on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. Consumers that don’t use email are likely to respond to your posts on social media. If you’re wondering how much this addition will affect your reach, consider that 34% of consumers prefer to get promotional offers from brands on social media.

Use Dynamic Ads on Social Media

While we are on the topic of social media, let’s talk about how you can create promotions that help spread your reach. Over half of the global population uses social media, and on average, users spend 2 hours and 29 minutes every day. Platforms like Facebook and Instagram have a feature called Dynamic Ads, and they are worth looking into if you want to increase your leads and sales.

Essentially dynamic ads require you to upload snippets of different promotions. You can include photos, text, offers, and more. The artificial intelligence behind this ad program takes your information and creates ads designed to appeal to different segments of your audience.

For example, let’s say you own an online pet store and want to spread brand awareness. You could create dynamic ad snippets for cat, dog, and bird owners. Now, the system will put the cat-related pieces together and create an advertisement that will get pushed out to people that fit specific requirements, such as following cat-themed groups on Facebook.

This tool gives you the option to send personalized promotions to prospects without tracking people down one at a time. If you’re short on time but want to introduce a far-reaching marketing strategy, dynamic ads are a must-have tool.

Connect with Other Brands

Our last tip for reaching more potential customers is to connect with other brands. We know that most business owners like to feel that they can make it to the top of their industry alone. In some cases, that statement is true. But typically, you want to partner with high-profile businesses and influencers in your industry.

When partnering with other businesses, you could bundle your products together, write guest posts, or even do a live event where both brands collaborate for one audience. There are other possibilities, but these three are what you will typically see when brands join forces.

Influencer marketing is also extremely popular on social media. If you need evidence, think about this; 130 million people tap sponsored posts on Instagram every month. Partnering with brands and internet personalities requires you to know who they are and who they want to reach.

The goal is to find brands with similar target audiences but different products. For example, a hosting company might partner with an email marketing SaaS. Both products are helpful for new business owners, so this type of cross-promotion makes sense. If someone finds the hosting company first, they may need an email marketing service. Similarly, someone looking for an email marketing service may realize they need a hosting company.

Think carefully about the partnerships you form and ensure that there are standards set before you start promoting. We also suggest that you form several partnerships so you can comfortably work with multiple brands to reach more potential customers.

FORWARD MOMENTUM

Happy Spring! Can you see the stirrings of new growth in nature? The seeds germinated during the Winter fallow period and are now cracking open with seedlings bursting forth. This is the energy of new beginnings and the perfect time to take the first steps towards your goals.

In January, we planted the seeds of inspiration, and in February we imagined manifesting them as though they were part of our lives. Now, March is the time to take action and leverage this time of year to benefit from being in rhythm with nature.

March is a time of the archetype of the Warrior/Warrioress. This means that it’s the perfect time of year to take action and progress towards your goals.

I invite you to break down the next steps towards your most meaningful goals, and start checking off the boxes. If you feel any apprehension, observe it and stay in a state of wonder about why it came up. Sometimes, fears and doubts arise as we embark on new things. Just acknowledge them and focus on all of the reasons why you want the end result of the goals you’ve set out.

This month will be the month of the Lover archetype and it will be time to continue to manifest your desires,  and take time for self-care and embodied pleasures to reward yourself for going for your goals.