Successful Blog

5 Compelling Reasons to Comment on Blogs

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Rosemary O’Neill

Blog commenting is the broccoli of the social media world, an important part of a balanced diet.

In contrast, it’s so easy to pop out a Retweet, hit the “like” button, or re-pin an infographic—those are the Krispy Kreme donuts. A quick rush and then you’re hungry again.

The ROI of Blog Commenting

The other day, I asked someone who was considering a major purchase from my company how they found us. What he said blew my mind. He found me through a blog comment I made on Jeremiah Owyang’s blog THREE YEARS AGO. I happened to be the first commenter on the post, and because of the post’s content, it had surfaced in a Google search by my new friend. (Yes, that’s the sound of angels singing.)

If you can craft a blog comment that contributes to the conversation, adds helpful information, or draws others in, then you’ve done something useful with your social media time investment. If all you have to say is, “great post!” then don’t bother.

Be brief, be witty, be on topic (or all three) and you will attract the attention of the blog writer as well as your fellow readers. Then it’s not only broccoli, it’s doing P90X while eating broccoli.

Start eating your broccoli today.

5 Compelling Reasons to Comment on Blogs

  1. Puts your hat in the ring – Every time you make a helpful comment, you have “shown the flag” for your personal brand. Some commenting systems even allow you to carry points or likes on your comment content, so they become a “body of work.”
  2. Follow you back – I frequently check out other commenters on blogs I frequent. I’ll check out their personal sites, recent posts, and their company pages. Even if the blog uses the “no-follow” for your link, you can still have people follow you home.
  3. Gives back to the blog writer – Commenting and extending the conversation is a small way to give back to the author of the post. Getting validation that someone is reading and that the post resonated with them is something even “famous” bloggers crave.
  4. Exercises your writing muscle – Blog comments can be a disciplined way of distilling your thoughts and practicing expression. If you’re not ready to write an entire blog post of your own, try routinely commenting for a while. It’s great exercise!
  5. Networking with other commenters – There are plenty of blogs where the discussion in the comments is even more stimulating than the blog content itself. Check out Social Media Examiner’s excellent commenter banter, or the established community within SpinSucks comments. If you show up frequently, you can become part of the community too.

So, have you had your broccoli yet today?

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Thank you, Rosemary!

You’re irresistible!

ME “Liz” Strauss

Your Social Media Deficiency Could Be Costing You Business

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What is your small business doing to set itself apart from the competition?

If one of your answers is using social media, a pat on the back to you. If you’re not using social networks to promote your brand, why are you being so resistant?

Despite a number of reports that indicate more and more companies are getting it when it comes to social media, there is still significant lag time when it comes to small businesses talking about social media and actually employing it.

During a small business summit held earlier this year, Godfrey Phillips, VP of research at The Business Journals, noted the following from a study based on 2,200 interviews of business owners and top executives of companies with less than 500 employees:

* Approximately 80 percent of small business owners and major executives indicated they are now using a social network, yet just 57 percent reported doing so in conjunction with their marketing strategy;

* LinkedIn was singled out as the site most utilized for business functions (50 percent) and the least when it came to personal use by those high up in the company (9 percent);

*  Facebook was rated the least used for business purposes (12 percent) and most utilized when it came to personal functions (30 percent).

As you can see by the numbers, less than 60 percent of company owners and top execs not using social media as part of their marketing strategy means countless businesses are missing the boat. In fact, you could even say they are somewhat adrift when it comes to properly reaching out to current and potential customers.

So, you’re in charge of marketing your small business or doing just that for your boss, and social media still seems like a foreign subject at times, why should this matter be rectified?

The reasons include:

* Your brand needs social media – Given the fact that more and more consumers are using the Internet to browse for and purchase goods and services, you need to be alive and breathing social media. With a presence on the major social media sites, you can not only be promoting your brand, but also engaging with consumers, seeing what is being said about your business and staying up to speed with the competition. Not have a social media presence for your business in 2012 is akin to living in the dark ages;

*  Saving money on advertising – When you actively promote your brand on social media, think of the advertising dollars you can be saving. While there is a good chance you will still be doing some of the standard forms of promoting your company like print, and radio/television ads, social media is in essence free advertising. The time and effort required for social media advertising can prove a great return on investment (ROI) for the wise marketer;

* Customer expectations – While your business still may do a sizable portion of marketing via word-of-mouth, traditional advertising and being active in the community, social media exposes you to an infinite number of people who could be your next customers. The days of the customer waiting for you to come to them via catalogs, flyers, phone calls, etc. is in essence a thing of the past. Now, your goal is to market your business via different forms of digital marketing, including social media.

With all that social media has to offer your business, why would you avoid it in the first place?

Photo credit: blog.socialmaximizer.com

With 23 years of experience as a writer, Dave Thomas covers a wide array of topics from finding the right gutter guard for your home to starting a home business.

7 Email Marketing Strategies to Build Your Subscriber List

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Steven Taylor

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7 Email Marketing Strategies to Build Your Subscriber List

Email newsletters are one of the cheapest and easiest ways to stay in contact with your readers and customers, but like any other marketing technique, they must be used in the right way to grow. Here seven ways to grow your subscriber list.
1. Offer something for free – It’s an amazing phenomenon – consumers generally will subscribe to anything for a “free” gift. Write an ebook about you industry and offer it to your new subscribers for free. Promote your ebook on your blog or website sidebar, encouraging your new and old readers to sign up for exclusive access. You’ll be able to capture email addresses to build your subscriber list while positioning yourself as an expert in your niche or industry. If your ebook is valuable enough to subscribers, they will be more likely to come back to your blog.
2. Offer exclusive content – This one is a great way to encourage return readers of an already active blog or business website community. If your readers love what you write, offer additional “bonus” content on a regular basis through your email subscriber list. Another idea is to offer quarterly bonus tips or tutorials for users who sign up for your subscriber list.

3. Offer a discount – In the same way customers will sign up for anything to get something free, they will sign up for an e-newsletter for a discount. Promote an offer – a small discount or free product at signup – and watch your subscriber list grow.
4. Make it easy – Subscribers don’t want to jump through hoops to get your content. The more difficult it is to subscribe, the less likely people are to sign up. Luckily, there are some free email newsletter services that make it simple. Mail Chimp offers an e-newsletter service that lets you add an easy-to-use form that you can place on your sidebar. Place this close to the top of your page so it’s one of the first things your visitors see when they stop by your blog. To make it even more clear, create a big, bold image that says “subscribe” that leads to the form.

5. Ask for referrals – Sometimes the best way to get something is to ask! Your subscribers might not think about forwarding your newsletter to their friends and colleagues unless you mention it. As an aside in your content (for instance, in the sidebar with a cool, eye-catching graphic) write “If you loved it, share it!” or something similar that asks for a referral in a casual way. Also, make sure you have share buttons visible for email, Twitter and Facebook. Create an HTML version with a subscription box visible so your newsletter content can be spread more easily through social media.

6. Offer point-of-sale opt-in – If you own a small business or an online business, offering point-of-sale opt-in is a simple and very effective way to build your subscriber list. This doesn’t have to be advanced – if you have a brick-and-mortar store, ask for a name and email if your customer is interested. If you have an online store, ask if your buyer would like to subscribe as they are checking out. Bloggers can even join in with the point-of-sale technique: at the end of a blog post, ask your readers if they’d like to join your list.

7. Don’t abuse your list – Your customers are giving you their personal information in exchange for your content, so make sure you don’t take advantage of it! Keep your enewsletters to a reasonable amount, and send our your newsletters in regular intervals and at a predictable time. Readers are generally overwhelmed with email, so your content has to be short, valuable and infrequent. Write short, catchy subjects so your readers know exactly what they will be getting, and never use “bait and switch” measures to get them to open. Offer what you say you’ll be offering.

Which of these 7 Email marketing strategies would work best for your business?

Author’s Bio:
Steven Taylor has been writing about technology and small business solutions for nearly a decade. When he’s not writing, you can find him reviewing Time Warner Business Class Internet services. View their website for more information about Steven’s work.

Thank you for adding to the conversation!

4 Ways to Increase Average Order Value of The Shopping Cart

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Colin MacDougal

With algorithmic changes across the search engines becoming nearly a weekly occurrence, it’s been a perpetual hell for businesses this past year, especially when it comes to getting targeted customers to buy from them. When you’ve lost your organically grown traffic resources due to faulty content or linking incidents, the creative side of increasing the average order value needs to come out to play, and level the losses which occurred because of Pandas or Penguins scolding your content. Here we’ve taken into account that normal traffic flows have slowed, whacking part of your organic sales, and have provided you with some creative ways to increase the net profit without increasing the COGS (cost of goods sold). By working on ways to increase order values, you’ll improve overall sales once your organic placement has been successfully arbitrated by Google upon completion of content overhauling or other improvements, which previously prohibited natural sales without upselling.

Ship ‘Em Free

On the surface, one may believe that offering free shipping would decrease overall profit margins; you’d be happy to know it’s actually the opposite. Temporal sales can increase to epic proportions if you offer free shipping codes across your sales pages, social media drives and search engine marketing ads. Consumers have been known to ditch $1,100 shopping carts simply because the cost to ship goods floored them. With ingenuity and logical pricing, you can leverage free shipping offers in numerous ways, including:

  • Time-sensitive offers: Historically works well with seasonal shopping items which you wish to unload. Offer free shipping on certain items you wish to clear out of your warehouse to make room for the next shipment or season.
  • Flat rates: Provided your customer meets a certain purchase threshold, offer flat-rate shipping costs which are slightly less than you’d normally charge. This increases shopping cart sizes and allows you to eat shipping costs you’ll never miss.
  • Free shipping IF: One of the greatest, and easiest, shipping methods to increase AOV is forcing the overall dollar amount spent to rise where you want it, in which then you’ll slap free shipp.ing on those items. Works well with small items which can be slammed into one flat-rate box via USPS
  • Eligible products ship free: Here you can concentrate your sales pushes on higher margin items by offering free shipping if “x, y or z” is purchased. You can do the same with items which go well together (free shipping on coffee and coffee pots, etc.).

The costs of shipping goods become arbitrary when you push the overall consumer spend to more comfortable thresholds, allowing the profit margin to exceed shipping rates.

Up-And-Cross Selling

Ever shopped for some service or product and seen that to get what you really want, the next package higher needs to be purchased? Sure, it may cost $10 extra, but the value merited the increase expenditure. The keys to making an upselling or cross selling campaign happen effectively is clearly identifying items which can be placed in higher categories along with accessories to inflate the worth to your customers. Once clarity is witnessed in what each customer will receive, through a warranty, extra customer support, or free music downloads, the upgraded purchase is normally made. Inhibitors to sales that aren’t made are directly related to the lack of value in the next package or product above the one that is desired. Purchases that increase self-efficacy through larger purchases are also historically effective, especially when customer support is adequate enough. There are definitely some don’ts that come with suggestive upgrading, which include:

  • Suggesting products outside of customer’s chosen parameters;
  • Black boxing items which would have little companion use with products in shopping cart;
  • Offering extended warranties from outside companies which, inevitably, mean the customer must spend more money elsewhere.

The goal of product co-suggestion and upselling is to provide increases in value and tangible receivables; if companies suggest unrelated or non-plausible items, the customer will more than likely ditch the cart and move onto the next vendor or service provider.

Find Strength In Volume Priced Items

Another highly effective AOV tool at your disposal is offering volume priced items in groups that appeal to customers based on historical visitor interests. This is generally accomplished by offering two similar items, grouped together, and tossing in the third one for free, or something similar in nature. You’ll still profit from all items, regardless of how you accomplish the volume pricing model. Other useful ideas to propagate sales though volume pricing include:

  • Kitting: This simply means putting several items together which increases value and can be sold with slight discounts; when broken apart, the customer can see they are getting value.
  • Bundling: This usually takes a kit and throws in accessories to increase the usefulness of the kit. This could be extra clasps for necklaces, creamer packets with coffee, etc.

Volume priced items can still proffer excellent AOV during times when organic search traffic has severely halted natural sales.

Offering Free Gifts

This, by far, is the best way to introduce up and coming product or service innovations: give sneak peeks or free goodie bags when “x” amount of dollars are spent. You accomplish several key business ideologies simultaneously: first, you are selling and profiting off regular items and second, you are offering your new product lines a showcasing before new customer eyes, which can bring them back for more purchases, or even bring new buyers to your storefront. You can also give away free eBooks with site subscriptions, giftcards with larger purchases and more; the possibilities are nearly endless when you seek innovative free gift giveaways as the means necessary to increase AOV. The free gifts could have been ‘throw-away’ items that sales representatives left for you to sample; they may even be eBooks you’ve been dying to give away.

Multichannel Lead Capturing

Now that you have multitudes of ideas to begin your quest for AOV leveraging, you need to harness the power of social suggestion to push these offers along. You can accomplish this through Wildfire contest application integration, Tweets, Facebook fan page pushes or anything you feel would spread the word about your freebies, gifts or shipping values. Once it becomes viral—if the deal is excellent, it will—social media will naturally circumvent your offer and increase your AOV immeasurably.

Test Them All First

Since so many different methods work for different brands and business models, you may find it easier to test various AOV methods on smaller scales before throwing down the gauntlet in an all-out media frenzy. Test which offers seem to work better than others, especially during periods when you are relying on anti-search traffic to appear on your website. You aren’t losing any more or less revenue by testing various offers since organic traffic has slowed down. While you are waiting for solvency of these issues, take the time to put up some great deals that would attract a social following. Once several dozen people have purchased items and left testimonials, they’ll naturally share that purchase with others and grow your AOV without the assistance of search engine optimization. Heck, you may be able to slow your aggressive SEM efforts if your deals are consistent, worthwhile and value-packed.

Photo Credit: Flickr

Author’s Bio:
Colin MacDougal works with www.HostPapa.com company serving over 100,000 customers around the world. Since launching in 2006, HostPapa has offered reliable, budget-friendly, easy-to-use web solutions for small to medium-sized businesses. You can find HostPapa at http://www.facebook.com/hostpapa

Thank you for adding to the conversation!

Social Media Decoded for Small Business Owners

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Kenneth Javellana

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Social Media Decoded for Small Business Owners

Every small business has a chance to become a bigger fish in a bigger pond, but this opportunity is always tied in with your ability to take full advantage of social media. Unlike other marketing platforms, social media consists of numerous ways to advertise about your business effectively but without paying a single penny for such services. More importantly, social media is a platform in which you rarely require third party services like an advertising firm or a marketing consultant to create and handle your company’s online marketing campaign. Social media is yours to conquer but only if you are willing to work hard at learning its fundamental principles and continuously hone the skills required by online marketing.

Always have a specific goal in mind.

When people talk about social media, you often hear people say it’s incredibly important to be “creative” and “unique”. That’s all well and good, but at the end of the day, social media marketing is still about making money. You still need to establish goals that would result into higher profit margins. As such, the same principles for goal setting still apply. The best goals are still SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound.

Prepare a solid foundation.

At present, every small business should have a consistently active account on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Having your own private-domain website and blog are also critical components of the foundation of your social media campaign.

Be where your market is.

You also hear a lot of people saying that Facebook should be the hub of your social media campaign. That may be true for most markets, but it’s not always so. In the end, you should focus on the websites which your target market spends most of its time in. Are they really active on Facebook or do they prefer LinkedIn?

Knowing which websites your target market frequents allows you to allocate your time and resources more effectively. Of course, this does not mean you should ignore other aspects of your social media campaign. Rather, it just helps make your priorities clear.

Make good use of feedback.

Feedback is incredibly important in social media. It’s the best basis for determining whether a particular technique is successful or not. You can create opportunities for receiving feedback by inviting readers to comment on your posts or email you their opinions. As for unsolicited feedback, you can configure search settings of Google so that it will notify you every time the name of your business crops up in the Internet.

Prioritize quality over quantity.

It’s been said over and over again, but it’s remarkable how so many small business owners still ignore this all-important social media tip. If you want your presence to matter online, then you need to give people a very good reason to follow you on Twitter, like your page on Facebook, and link to your website or blog. For that to happen, you need to consistently provide them with high-quality posts instead of simply maintaining a specific number of posts each week.

Social media success is ultimately dependent on the consistency of your efforts. As such, it is important that you spend as much time online as needed. For this to happen, you may want to contact a broadband expert about upgrading your current Internet service plan.

Author’s Bio:
Kenneth Javellana is a writer on technology, lifestyle and businesses at Broadband Expert. During his free time, Kenneth writes for relevant blogs in order to share his ideas on his favorite niches.

What Social Networks Can Do For Your Small Business

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Alex Summers

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What Social Networks Can Do For Your Small Business

If you’re a small business owner, you can use social media networks to establish your company’s presence on the Internet. These tools can help you keep in touch with current customers and help you find new clients. Your business must adapt to the online marketplace to take advantage of the Internet.

How to Connect With Your Audience

If you already have a website for your business, you can improve it by adding a blog. A blog allows your regular visitors to easily see your latest news and updates. Additionally, visitors can use the comment portion of your blog to give you instant feedback. Be sure to save backup copies of your blog files to an external hard drive. This will help you get your blog running again after a server failure or other technological catastrophe.

Social networks give you another way to directly communicate with your customers. Twitter and other similar networks allow you to strike up a conversation with a customer through a series of short messages. Your customers can use these networks to get help with your products or services.

Many Internet users today have their own Facebook account. Creating a Facebook account for your business gives your customers a new way to reach you. Your Facebook profile can share important information about your company, including contact details and special deals.

The Benefits

Using these tools helps you to establish yourself on the Internet. Today’s Internet users expect their favorite businesses to have an online presence. Many customers want to have the ability to talk to a company representative when they need help with a product. Some consumers will forget about a company that lacks an online presence.

Social networks also provide you with easy ways to advertise your business for free. Through Facebook and Twitter, you can talk to thousands of people at no charge. You can use these tools to tell people more about your business and your story.

Additionally, when you communicate with a regular customer through these networks, your potential customers can see how you publicly handle your business. Through positive online interactions, you can help generate buzz for your company. You may even attract new customers just from responding quickly to your current clients.

Social networking tools can help your small business find a place in the modern business world. Learning how to use these tools effectively will take time, but your company may find new customers due to your efforts.

Author’s Bio:
Alex is a blogger, freelance writer and recent college graduate. She currently performs market research for an online marketing firm when she is not contributing her own thoughts and observations to the online community.