Merry Christmas
iMi Associates wishes you a very merry (and optimized) Christmas to you and your family!
We are very thankful for all of our clients and for the hard work our internet marketing team has put in this entire year. We have gone through a lot of internal changes and we are looking forward to the new year.
See you in 2012!
Facebook Facts [Infographic]
I did a little digging in the archives to come up with an interesting infographic from Mashable.com about Facebook usage. This image and the stats quoted on it are from 2009, so the numbers quoted would be higher now. What astounds me is how local businesses have taken to using Facebook. As of the time of this infographic around 700 thousand pages for business had been created. Is your business represented in that statistic? If not, check out what we can do for your Facebook page (Nelco Products Facebook Page, iMi Facebook Page), and then connect with us using the form on the right.
3 Gifts Small Business Owners Should Give Themselves For Christmas
Most small business owners I have ever met are very generous people. They are good to their employees and that goodness manifests itself particularly at Christmas. It is rare for small business employees not to get something from their employers even if its only a modest gift card or a ham.
In demonstrating their kindness to their employees, however, some small business owners fail to give something to themselves. This may sound a little selfish but there is absolutely nothing wrong with giving yourself a gift especially if that gift will greatly improve the future of your business. So in the spirit of giving I propose that there are three really crucial gifts that every small business owner should give themselves if they haven’t done so already.
1. The gift of blogging – Just the mention of the word blogging may cause some of you all to cringe. Before you start looking for the exits, consider the following statistic: businesses that blog get 88% more leads than those who do not. 1
Tip: Add a blog to your site. Blog on topics that are relevant to your business. Let people know both your expertise and your personality. People would rather do business with someone they know than a faceless entity. Also make sure that your blog or site has social media buttons that link to your Facebook page and Twitter profile if you have them.
2. The gift of Facebook – When I last checked, Facebook had over 800 million users. That means that if Facebook were a country it would be the 3rd most populated in the world. Also 67% of businesses surveyed in a recent report claim that they had gotten leads through Facebook. Do you really want to miss out on that? 2
Tip: Create a custom Facebook profile that is consistent with your brand. Make sure that your blog posts are automatically posted on your business Facebook wall and that you engage with those who like your page.
3. The gift of Twitter – Tweets, tweeting its all for the birds, right? Not so fast, bucko. Did you know that businesses that use twitter on average get twice as many leads? 3
Tip: Set up a free twitter account. Have your blog posts set up to automatically get sent out as tweets through a service like twitterfeed. Be sure and follow people who might contribute to your knowledge and who are fun to follow. They might just follow you back. Also, make sure that your email signature and business card have the address of your Facebook page and your twitter account.
So how generous do you plan to be to yourself this year? Leave a comment and let us know.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Top 5 Ways To Waste Your Marketing Budget
Maybe there are a few of you out there who have tons of cash that you need to dispose of quickly. If that is your situation, then do exactly what I am about to tell you and you will find quick relief. If, however, you have tight budgets like the rest of us then make sure you avoid the following cash intensive and very inefficient marketing methods.
- Telemarketing – Who doesn’t love getting a robo-call advertising Caribbean getaways for the low, low price of $199.99? Nothing says you can trust us like having your dinner interrupted by a cold call. As of 2010, over 200 million households had joined the national do not call list 1
- TV Ads – Okay, some of them are down right entertaining but how cost effective are they really? Well, when you consider that 86% 2 of TV watchers tend to skip the ads, that audience of thousands suddenly shrinks down to Grandpa Joe and Aunt Margie.
- Direct Mail – Have you heard about the bloodletting that is going on with the U.S. Postal Service currently? People aren’t using snail mail anymore. Besides, 44% 3of direct mail never gets opened.
- Print Ads – Paper is expensive and fewer people are buying it. 4 Almost all of the major national newspapers have seen sharp declines in their circulation and ad revenue. On the bright side, newspaper is still the preferred medium for lining bird cages.
- Trade Shows – What used to be an annual pilgrimage out to Vegas for the B2B crowd is now a surf on the net. 5 Many businesses are opting to save on costs and introduce their products online. But if you and your team cant do without the midnight buffet trips and stints at the blackjack tables between seminars, then by all means book your tickets now.
If you are serious about making your marketing dollars count, then fill out the form in the right hand column and let us show you the power of generating leads through inbound marketing.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Whatever You Do, Don’t Visit Our Site
It is amazing how site owners and site visitors differ on how they judge the quality of a site. Without fail many site owners have a much higher opinion of the design of their site than the poor folks who have to visit it. As a site owner, you may think your site is saying “welcome, come on in,” when in fact it may be saying, “whatever you do, don’t visit our site.”
With hundreds of thousands of sites vying for visitor attention, its absolutely crucial that you remove any barriers to keep potential customers from bouncing. At most, your window of engagement with a potential customer is only a few seconds. You have to make those precious seconds count!
Listed below are 5 common mistakes that small business owners make that will definitely blow any opportunity for visitor engagement:
1. Choosing a complicated URL – A url is your website’s address. The simpler and clearer it is the higher probability that someone will visit your site. Don’t challenge a visitor to a typing contest to enter your url. If you need help choosing a url try using a free domain naming service like namestation.
2. Choosing a url that has absolutely nothing to do with your site content – Nothing is more irritating than to type in a url like www.carrepair.com and it take you to a site about home decorating. Also avoid using shadow urls and be careful about using deceptive url redirects.
3. Overloading your home page with too many images or too much text – When someone comes to your site, they need to be able to have a clear attractive place where their eyes can focus. Too many images interrupt the ability of the eyes to focus. Too much text distracts the eyes away from the brand or messages that you need them to see. Remember that in such cases less is definitely more.
4. Having a background color that makes your text hard to read – If a visitor has to strain or squint to understand your text you have lost them. Black text on a light colored background is always a safe bet. Also be sure to bold certain keywords and phrases that pertain to your product or service. This enables visitors to quickly scan the page to understand what you are offering.
5. Not having a well crafted call to action – Without a well crafted call to action, your site is nothing more than a pretty digital business card. You need to craft an offer and then put a clear, attractive call to action of that offer in a prominent place on your site. Sometimes it may even be helpful to have more than one call to action on the same page.
These are just a few tips that can transform your site from projecting a stop sign to projecting a green light. If you would like to talk with one of us here at iMi about how we can help your site generate leads, fill out the form in the right hand column of this page.
The Psychology Behind The Power Of Social Media [INFOGRAPHIC]
Internet marketers have known for a while that social media is a force to be harnessed and applied. What may not be as commonly known are the psychological factors that propel social media especially in respects to social commerce. The folks at tabjuice have created an infographic that explains social commerce psychology and how social media empowers satisfied customers to be influential sales channels. Armed with the following information, you can begin to see how using social media to generate leads is crucial.
HT: Hubspot
Our New iMi Inbound Marketers
At iMi, we are driven by our core values. They are not just a plaque on the wall. One of those 5 core values states that at iMi we are…
Obsessed with getting talented and inquisitive employees and positioning them to be successful professionally
An example of our commitment to this value is the recent completion of the Inbound Marketing Certification by two of our key employees:
Alex Choi – Client Services Lead
Alex is responsible for managing all of iMi Client Service accounts. He has shown a strong interest in broadening his internet marketing skills and in improving our level of service. Alex is is passionate about making sure that we remove obstacles and create opportunities for our clients to generate leads through their internet marketing.
Mike Hall – Content Writer
Mike is responsible for researching, writing compelling content, and providing strategic marketing input. He has had extensive experience in business and semi-professional blogging using the WordPress platform. His ability to take complicated things and make them simple makes him an invaluable internet marketing asset.
This certification is administered by HubSpot.
About InboundMarketing.com
InboundMarketing.com is an online community and certification program for marketers. The site’s content teaches a new style of marketing that emphasizes business uses of social media, content creation and search engine optimization for marketing. InboundMarketing.com is hosted and moderated by HubSpot, Inc. Register for InboundMarketing.com at http://inboundmarketing.com/user/register.
About HubSpot
HubSpot, Inc. provides Internet marketing software that helps businesses get found online, generate more inbound leads and convert a higher percentage of those leads into paying customers. HubSpot’s software platform includes tools that allow professional marketers and business owners to manage search engine optimization, blogging and social media, as well as landing pages, lead intelligence and marketing analytics. Based in Cambridge, MA, HubSpot can be found at http://www.hubspot.com. HubSpot’s free marketing tools can be found at http://grader.com.
