Now, businesses have recognized social media as a powerful marketing tool. They use it to engage with customers, show their personality, and get new eyeballs on their brand. This new frontier can be difficult to navigate, since it’s rapidly changing, and each site performs a unique function. It’s important to understand what each site does, and what stage of brand awareness they create.

Twitter:
Twitter is a great way to reach potential customers, locally and worldwide, and provides one of the first stages of brand awareness and recognition. It’s a great way to reach a niche market, promote new products or services, and respond to your customers in real-time. Twitter is limited to only 140 characters per message, so think of each tweet like your email subject line—make it catchy, memorable, and to the point!

Facebook:
Those that “like” your Facebook page already like you (surprise!) Maybe they’ve done business with you, or plan to, and are thus far pleased with their experience. Think of them as friends, and treat them as such. Share deals, contests, and events. Entertain them with articles and funny photos related to your industry.

LinkedIn:
LinkedIn will help you with your B2B marketing, and to foster relationships with other business owners. Think of a LinkedIn connection as a public business recommendation. Having a profile and many connections can add to your reputation as an established and professional business.

Other Tips:
Don’t let your account go dormant—make sure to add fresh content 1-3 times a week. Users are less likely to follow or like you if you haven’t updated recently. And the more active you are, the more people will find you. I always tell clients “If you tweet, they will come.”

It’s not all about the hard sell—promoting sales, events, and products is perfectly acceptable on social media sites. However, don’t let that be all you write about. Show there’s a human sitting behind your computer. Remember this helpful rule: for every 1 marketing post or tweet, there should be 3 non-marketing posts or tweets.

Return the favor: If someone comments on your Facebook post, like that comment. If someone retweets you, thank them. You get the idea.

Don’t get discouraged: If engagement is lacking at first, you may think no one is listening to what you have to say. Trust me, they are. It may take some time to nurture your virtual relationships.

Have fun, and be real! You want to increase you leads and revenue, but if you treat all of your customers like a number, they will quickly see right through you. Have fun, be yourself, and don’t be afraid to add a little humor.

Write Good Questions
If you intend to make your survey useful, write good questions. Know your purpose and write the questions accordingly. Be clear when creating the survey about its intent, the time it will take to complete and how the data will be used. Do not get greedy with information and ask customers unnecessary questions. The quality of your questions and the brevity of the survey will increase your chances of attaining quality information. By keeping the survey brief, you will raise your return rate.

Interpret Data
Raw data is great to have, but how do you make sense of it?
• Look for recurring themes.
• Identify outliers
• Quantify open-ended responses

Present the Data
After processing the data, put it in a form that you understand. Begin by identifying the primary themes from the data. In our client’s case, there were two primary findings.
1. His customers wanted better communication about what was new and fresh with his company.
2. His customers identified the strength of his company as the highly trained and experienced employees.

Follow that by sharing secondary themes and information that the customers shared, particularly around very direct questions that you asked. Avoid focusing on the outliers or getting lost in the most negative or most positive results.

Customer Outcome
After seeing the data from his survey our client knew what he needed to do in order to reconnect. He asked us to use the good, the bad and the ugly to formulate a strategy that will direct his current customer relationships and his marketing efforts to prospective ones.

Calvert Creative is available to help you with your survey needs, from creation to analysis. Contact us and see how we can help.

Autoresponder campaigns can be extremely profitable and boost your income month after month. What’s more, an autoresponder course is probably one of the most effective list-building systems out there. You can gain thousands of highly targeted leads just by utilizing the power of a series of emails!

Here’s the best part: all of this happens on complete auto-pilot.

This means you can spend more time fine-tuning other aspects of your marketing strategy in order to maximize your overall profits and propel your business forward.

Here’s a powerful formula for creating a profit-pulling autoresponder course in six easy steps.

Step 1: Choose A Theme

First you want to decide on the theme or topic of your autoresponder series. You can either opt for a niche topic or go for a general theme, but either way, your course should be designed to connect with the product you intend to sell. Here are a few examples:

Niche topics would include:

• How to choose the right flowers for the right occasion (you could do one for each major holiday, but send them all over a period of one to three months)
• 7 easy tips that help you deliver a brilliant and unforgettable best man speech (this could be done over a week or a 7 week period)
• A step-by-step plan on building a garden shed on a shoestring budget
• 365 ideas for adding romance to your life (you could send one each day)

Generic themes would include healthcare, real estate, sports, online marketing, and so on.

Once you’ve decided on a topic, it’s time to create your content.

Step 2: Content Creation, The Easy Way

Creating content for your autoresponder course need not be a difficult task. In fact, here is a simple method you can use to come up with unique, interesting content quickly and easily:

Outsource it to an expert.

Why spend time writing content from scratch when you can simply have someone else do it for you?

Contact Calvert Creative toll free at 877-495-6851, and take advantage of having a virtual copywriter working to improve your business.

If you plan to write your content yourself, here are some of our resources that may help:

How to Write Incredible Online Copy

25 Questions to Help You Get Started Writing

How To Write for Online Readers

Step 3: Grab Their Attention!

Once you’ve got your content ready, it’s time to brainstorm a bunch of powerful headlines for the title of your autoresponder course. Your aim here should be to craft a headline that instantly hooks the attention of the reader…a headline that will draw them in and literally compel them to sign up for your email series.

Assuming the theme of your course is “Internet Marketing,” here is a list of possible headlines you can use:

• How to create a profitable internet business within 60 days
• 7 steps to generating a regular online income on a shoestring budget
• Discover how to set up multiple online income streams without spending a single cent!

After you’ve written down some headlines of your own, choose the single most persuasive one to use as the title of your autoresponder series.

Step 4: Formatting And Layout

Each of the articles in your series should have a similar design and layouts. Your email service provider will have templates, but the basic flow should look something like this:

__________________________

[The headline/title of your autoresponder course goes here]

Hi [firstname],

Welcome to Part 1 of your free 7-part email series.

[Place article here. Insert a product recommendation within the body of the article. Do it subtly though!]

[Provide them with a teaser preview of the next article. Be sure to include some benefits of remaining subscribed. For example: "In Part 2, you'll discover..." and then go on to list a few benefits.]

Talk soon,

[Insert your name]

PS: [The PS is often the most-read part of any email. Make sure yours gives the synopsis of the entire email and a call to action with a link, so that if this is the only thing your viewer reads, they can still convert! ]

You are receiving this course on [insert title of your email series] because you subscribed to our list. Instructions to unsubscribe are given below.

[Removal link]

__________________________

Step 5: Create An Opt-in Form

It’s time to create an opt-in form to capture the email addresses of prospective subscribers. This can be done within the members area of the email marketing service you’re currently using.

Once you have a final version that works well, upload everything onto your site. Now when people sign up to your mailing list, they shall automatically receive your autoresponder course.

Want help setting up your autoresponder course? Call Calvert Creative toll free today at 877-495-6851 and we’ll do all the work so that you can sit back and rake in the profits!

It would be nice if you could hit the giant green “improve” button and it would all magically happen for you. Unfortunately it’s not quite that simple. But there are top factors you can consider in order to begin the process.

Landing page conversion rate optimization is the process of fine tuning your pages in order to generate better results from the traffic you receive.

And a superior conversion rate = more leads = higher profits.

Optimizing your conversion rate is also the quickest and easiest method of boosting your revenue without having to shell out more money to increase the levels of traffic to your landing page.

The most successful companies online always make it a point to test every aspect of their business. For example, according to a case study conducted by MarketingSherpa.com, GoToMyPc.com skyrocketed their conversion rates by an impressive 400% after tracking and testing the following elements:

• Headlines
• Body copy
• Graphics
• Testimonials
• Location of the button
• The text and design of tabs/buttons
• Images
• Call to action
• Flow through process
• Pricing structure
• No links
• (And much more)

Think about it…a phenomenal 400% hike in conversion rate, without any increase in the advertising budget! That’s why tweaking and improving the conversion rate of your landing page is considered a fantastic, cost-effective way of hiking up your leads and income.

If you take a look at your log files (otherwise known as website stats), you’re bound to notice the following things are affecting your landing page conversion rates:

1) Only a tiny percentage of visitors convert
2) The majority of your visitors are leaving your site within 5 seconds after briefly checking out your page copy
3) A tiny percentage of visitors do click on your ‘call to action’ button, but fail to complete the process.
4) A large percentage of visitors leave when they decide your copy is not relevant to what they’re seeking

With that in mind, here are the top 3 components that ought to be rigorously fine-tuned and tested for maximizing your landing page conversion rates:

1. Title/Headline

Since the headline is the very first piece of copy that visitors to your site usually see, it’s a crucial element in determining whether or not they continue reading what you’ve got to say. Which is why you want to make sure the title of your landing page is powerful, persuasive and attention-grabbing. What’s more, it needs to answer the single most important question prospects are asking themselves when checking out your page: “What’s in it for me?”

So clearly state exactly what they can expect. Tell them the biggest benefit they’ll gain by staying on the page or purchasing your product.

2. Call to Action

You might be surprised to learn that many businesses fail to specify the action they want their visitors to take. Your headline and body copy may be fantastic, but if you don’t spell out what you want your readers to do next (sign up for a newsletter, purchase a product, fill out a survey, etc), you’re going to confuse your visitors and lose out an opportunity to convert them into paying customers.

3. Design And Layout

According to research carried out by Stanford University, 46% of online sales are lost on sites lacking the vital elements that build trust and value in the eyes of users. The study indicated that the main reason why visitors wouldn’t purchase from a particular website was because they felt the site had a unprofessional design and layout that lacked credibility and screamed ‘untrustworthy.’

Takeaway point?

Ensure the look and feel of your landing page is simple, yet professional. You may also want to consider including popular, trust-building signs such as a padlock, VeriSign or other security logo, and anti-spam promise. These are all proven to significantly boost the trust and credibility factor of your site.

Overall: Test, Test, Test!

You’ve got to consistently test, track and tweak the crucial components of your site if you’re serious about maximizing your landing page conversion rate. Schedult your A/B testing on a regular basis; make it a standard part of your marketing budget and practice.

Want help testing and improving your landing page results? Call Calvert Creative today toll free at 877-495-6851 for a free consult. We can save you time and put your profits back where they belong: in your pocket!

It’s easy to make the mistake of thinking that because you believe in your product, others will be swayed by the same things that influence you. It’s important to get out of your own mind and into theirs to know what will really move your potential clients to engage with your brand.

Here are 3  techniques you can use to gain a more in-depth understanding about your customers:

Method 1: Categorize your main group of clients

Customers differ greatly. Stefan Grafe, founder and managing partner of the brand engagement consultancy mext, says their research has uncovered four main types of consumers. These are:

1. Impulse buyers – more often than not, they purchase things on a whim. They also end up buying more than they originally intended to purchase.

2. Explorers – this particular group finds shopping an exciting experience. They are swayed by recommendations and take their time to browse through products.

3. Flutterers – these folks are easily influenced by brand new offers and promotions; as a result, they usually find shopping a tad overwhelming.

4. Strategists – just like a chess player maps out a strategy before making a move on the board, these shoppers make a list of exactly what they want to purchase before entering a store or site. Hence, the customers that fall under this particular category are not swayed by new influences, nor are they distracted by the latest fads and trends.

Determine what type of group the majority of your customers belong to. Then tailor your marketing to match their needs, tastes and budget. Once you do this, you’re likely to notice an increase in sales.

Method 2: Listen in on their channels

Monitoring the conversations your customers are having online will enable you to identify their emotional hot buttons, their likes and dislikes, their shopping preferences, and so on. You can then use this info to adjust your marketing accordingly.

For example, one savvy retailer managed to learn that young male skaters favored night-time skating. This prompted them to change their promotional message, resulting in a boost in profits.

This is where social media becomes extremely useful. Use sites such as Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter and various other niche forums to gauge customer behavior and gather plenty of valuable data.

Method 3: Consider becoming (or hiring) shoppers

Sometimes, small business owners can become so focused on their internal marketing progams and systems that they tend to ignore what their company looks like from a shopper’s viewpoint.

According to Daniel Banick, co-founder of digital ad agency August, it’s vital that businesses consider what their customers experience when they shop at an online store or site.  That’s why this agency makes it a point to do a bit of “mystery shopping” before building an e-commerce site for a client.

Recently, when working with an outdoor equipment supplier, they patronized their online store, purchased several items from the selection on display and then shopped with competing sites. Finally, the agency organized a camping trip to determine the quality and durability of the equipment they bought.

This may sound like a bit much, but carrying out research like this will enable you to appreciate what it’s like from a consumer’s point of view, which may in turn lead you toward a better understanding of just what could be improved or changed in order to increase sales.

Have other ideas to contribute? Leave us a comment and let us know!

The better your copy, the higher your conversion rate is likely to be.

A powerful marketing message can even turn complacent browsers into paying customers.

Let’s say you are a real estate agent, just passing through your local bookshop or news stand in order to get a cup of coffee.

One of the magazines on the stand has a headline that says:

Exposed: How To Uncover The Best Real Estate Deals In Town!

Another says:

7 Mind Control Tricks (Don’t Worry, They’re Legal) That Literally Compel Buyers To Snap Up Your Property!

Yet another makes this promise:

Want To Make More Money As A Real Estate Agent? Here’s How! (Turn To Pg 14)

You’re probably going to pick one of these up and start to flip through, right? And your chances of walking on through with your cup of coffee and no other purchase are slowly fading, as the copy claims your attention.

Great copy is essential for conversion

Top copywriters are routinely paid thousands of dollars to come up with the attention-grabbing headlines (as well as the rest of the copy) you see on magazine covers, web pages, and sales letters.

Regardless of how great your product or service is, if your sales message fails to have a positive impact on your prospects or does not encourage them to become buyers, your profits are not going to be substantial.

That’s why it’s crucial your sales copy does a fantastic job of selling your product or service. By the time prospective customers have finished reading it, they’re clicking on the order button and reaching out for their credit cards.

Are you hesitant to create your own copy?

Many business owners are uncomfortable creating their own marketing copy because they don’t consider themselves to be proficient wordsmiths. Do you happen to fall into this category? Well then, let me assure you…

you do not have to be brilliant at writing to craft compelling sales letters!

The best copy is written just like you speak. You do not want to sound like a college professor or a car salesman. Instead, you need to sound just like you would if you were having an urgent, face-to-face conversation with a close friend.

Here are a few techniques you can implement to give your copy that extra edge…

Tip 1: Match your copy to the target market

Before you actually sit down and put pen to paper (or fingertips to keyboard), set aside some time to think about who your ideal prospect is. Not only should you target those you wish to help, but also those who’d be a good fit for your business.

For instance, your interior designing service may dramatically improve the interior of any home (small or large) and make them look elegant and beautiful…but your premium rates might mean that high-end clients might be more receptive to your marketing copy.

You also want to think about the personality of customers you want to attract. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that all your prospective clients have the same preferences and interests that you have.

If you know your ideal buyer has a great sense of humor, your copy can sound bubbly, fun and offbeat. But if your target audience is reserved and intellectual, your copy must be serious and extremely attentive to detail.

Tip 2: Sell the benefits!

What are the main benefits of your product or service? Begin your copywriting work by creating a prioritized list of primary benefits as well as a secondary list.

Let’s say your product is a 2-week coaching class for health professionals that want to market online.

The product’s primary benefit might be “Providing health professionals with actionable blueprints that enable them to build a successful online business in the healthcare niche.”

What are the secondary benefits?

• An online presence could lead to more clients
• More clients will obviously mean a rise in profits
• More exposure may lead to other engagements (eg: guest speaking opportunities at health conferences, co-authoring a book, etc.)

While secondary benefits should always be stated in a web page or sales letter, include them in the text at a later stage. Instead, keep the focus on the main (primary) benefit of your offer, and you will not overwhelm your readers. This way, you’ll also be able to stress on your selling point and create a bigger impact overall.

Tip 3: Show that you understand their “pain”

Your readers want to know how you can help them. They want to know how your product/service can help them solve their problem.

They aren’t really interested in knowing how many employees you have…how many offices you own…or how adorable your pet is. All your customers care about is what’s in it for them!

Here’s a general outline for doing this in your copy:

• Acknowledge their problem
• Empathize with them
• Tell them how you’re going to help (in other words, state your offer)
• Go into detail about how your product’s going to solve their need (highlight main benefit + primary benefits)
• Explain why they should purchase sooner rather than later
• Tell them how they can order
• Remind them about their problem once again and how your offer can help solve it for good

Maintain a light and helpful tone, and keep the spotlight on your customers. Demonstrate to them how you and your product and service can benefit them and have a positive impact on their lives.

Tip 4: Focus on features, and why they help

Of course your copy will include some of the top features of your product or service. However, don’t forget to remind your target market *why* a particular feature will make them feel good, or address their need.

Here are some quick examples:

• We offer a 24 hours-a-day, 7-days-a-week, 365-days-a-year live support system, so if your pet suddenly takes ill in the middle of the night, we’re just a phone call away from help!
• We know not everyone is a visual learner. That’s why, in addition to our cutting-edge video training, we’re proud to provide you coaching via email, skype, telephone and pdf documents that you can easily print and download.
• We can deliver your order within 24 hours so you don’t have to worry about not having an awesome costume to wear at your last minute party!

Tip 5: Tell them what to do next (clear call to action)

Always, always, always make it clear what you want the reader to do next.

For example, if you’re putting up a landing page to encourage visitors to sign up to your ezine, make sure you specifically tell them to enter their name and email address in the subscription box and click on the ‘Enter’ tab.

If you’ve created a sales letter, don’t be afraid to let people know that you want them to click on the ‘Order’ button once they’ve read about the benefits of investing in your product/service.

If you want folks to re-tweet your blog post or share it with their family and friends on Facebook, simply say so!

You’ll never regret taking the time to create a clear call to action.

Calvert Creative can put the money where it belongs: in your pocket.

Still feeling queasy about handling all of your own copywriting? We have ace copywriters on board who can get you copy that converts to revenue. Call us today toll-free at 877-495-6851 and we’ll get your project underway in record time, leaving you free to do what you do best.

Say, every single week. Maybe even twice a week. (Possibly six or seven times a week.)

What would you have to pay for that kind of sales opportunity? Imagine what kind of powerful tools and budget you might need if you wanted the chance to easily and quickly (and with very little staffing power)…

• spend almost no money to promote your service and products
• create multiple opportunities for clients to purchase from you every week
• utilize “push” marketing (you go to them, rather than them coming to you) to quickly and easily share something connected to your brand
• drive heavy streams of traffic to your sites for very specific conversion-based reasons
• easily allow your customers to forward your marketing messages to others
• promote your brand’s authority to people who are already interested
• interact with your customers and potential customers on a narrow channel (only you and them)
• incorporate social sharing (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and so on) into every marketing message you send
• steadily grow loyalty to your brand
• track and measure exactly who is reading and responding to your messages – and know precisely how they are responding

Welcome to the world of email marketing.

Email marketing is a phrase that covers many business marketing practices, but in general, it means any email you send to a customer for marketing communications.

It’s the electronic equivalent of direct print mail and print newsletter mailings, but of course you have only a tiny fraction of the cost and waste, and your response rates can be exponentially higher.

There’s proof in the data:

The 2011 Magill Report puts email marketing’s ROI for 2011 at $40.56 for every $1 invested.

A ForeSee Results report on the effectiveness of social media showed that promotional emails were the second biggest influence on retail website visits. (The biggest influence was brand familiarity.

A 2011 Pitney Bowes survey of small business owners showed that 68% of small businesses use email as their preferred marketing channel.

A 2011 survey by BtoB Magazine found 63% of respondents likely to increase spending on email in 2011 (second only to website spending).

The Digital Marketing Outlook Survey of 2011, conducted by the Society of Digital Agencies, showed that 70% of brand marketers planned to invest in email marketing in 2011.

It’s so simple

There are only a few basics to invest in, and a few rules to follow. The rest is about giving your target market the things they want the most from you – the very information you happen to know the best!

In addition, there are at least three things you’ll want to know as you consider email marketing for your small or mid-sized business:

First, any business serious about doing email marketing will need to choose an email service provider. These powerful companies can handle your database of names and emails, provide templates for your newsletters, emails, and subscription forms, allow you to schedule your messages, and track all of the results for you.

Depending on the size of your email list and the frequency of your messages, an email service provider may cost you as little as $20/month, and the return – as the stats and reports listed above – can be incredible.

And second, most smart businesses use opt-in email marketing, meaning the customer has the option of asking to receive your emails. It’s a much better business practice to use opt-in emailing so that your business never gets branded as a spammer.

Finally, the single most common form of email marketing in the corporate field is by means of an electronic newsletter. You’ve probably received your share of these; in fact, some people open separate email accounts simply to contain all of their email newsletter subscriptions.

That doesn’t mean that there aren’t many other ways to stay in contact with your list, but it’s certainly an easy and commonly-expected form.

How is your business using email marketing?

Interested in getting help creating a strategy for starting or improving your email marketing campaigns? Need a content writer to produce material for your business newsletters? What are you waiting for? Give Calvert Creative a call toll-free TODAY at 877-495-6851 and let us help you get going!

And if you already know the incredible value and benefits of email marketing, but you’re just now getting started, you may have a number of questions about what to look for in an email marketing service.

Apart from their long-term stability and reliability, professional email services also offer plenty of fantastic features their free counterparts do not.

For instance, most offer a user-friendly dashboard that shows you the real-time status of each mail you send out to your list. This means within seconds of kick-starting your email campaign, you’ll be able to see exactly how many have opened your mail, forwarded it and clicked on the links within the body of the message.

You will also gain access to a wide range of  well-designed opt-in forms, customizable email templates, a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor, campaign report stats and other great features that will make sending an email to your list of subscribers a breeze.

Here are 6 more features you should look for in your email marketing provider.

1. Unlimited Autoresponders

This is an extremely valuable feature if you plan on managing several email campaigns simultaneously. As you may already know, an autoresponder series is a great way to get in front of your subscribers on a completely controlled and timed basis. You will also be able to create special messages to be sent out on certain occasions, such as when someone signs up for your e-newsletter or clicks on the links in your emails.

2. Social Media Integration

You can now connect with your existing customers and subscribers and gain even more leads by including social ‘share’ buttons in your newsletters. You may either share/tweet your content on Facebook and Twitter the manual way, or schedule for automatic updates to be posted on these sites. You should also look for the ability to include a web form on your Facebook page.

3. Custom Templates

You want plenty of eye-catching, professionally designed templates you can customize and use as you see fit. If you have a marketing team or designer on board, that’s great, but if you’re handling everything yourself and don’t have the luxury of a staff member, your email service provider should offer a range of well-designed options for you to choose from.

4. Split Testing

You want an accurate split testing platform that enables you to craft multiple emails, each with different subject lines (or other differing content), in order to see which one performs best. The system will then test them for you and let you know which email is likely to pull in the best conversion rate.

5. Advanced Segmentation

As the name indicates, this particular feature allows you to divide (segment) your list according to a subscriber’s interests, location, activity level, spending ability, etc. You can then create custom emails to send to that segment.

6. Stats

Any email service provider worth their 1s and 0s should provide you with an extensive array of stats as well as an in-depth analysis of your email campaigns. You should be able to track the number of opened emails, percentage of clicks within an email, the number of sign-ups per day and much more. You should also able to analyze data in real time and adjust your campaigns accordingly.

Finally, you want great customer support for all of it. Getting started can sometimes be overwhelming, but if you have solid support team members working with you it can make all the difference.

Calvert Creative sets up and manages email marketing services for small and mid-sized businesses. We can set up your account, create your forms, write your content, schedule your newsletters, and much more.

Contact us toll-free at 877-495-6851 and see how awesome it feels to have a virtual marketing staff working to build your business revenue!

Elections and voting are a good way to think about link building.

Sites that secure top positions in the search results often have the highest number of backlinks (votes). In fact, it’s no secret that major search engines (especially Google) use high-quality links as a means of measuring the authority of websites. If a site attracts links from a diverse range of reputable outside sources, the importance given to that site automatically rises and there’s a great chance it’ll be considered a ‘heavyweight’ in the eyes of the search engines.

The Anatomy Of A Link

Good links are like official votes. According to Google’s algorithm (the ranking formula they use to determine the position of a website), if site A links to site B, then the former is probably suggesting the latter is a reputable, relevant website.

Notice the use of the adjectives above. If your site is getting links in from spammy junk sites, you aren’t helping yourself. All links are not equal. The link must come from a site that is not only reputable, but also relevant to your site.

Here’s an example. If your site provides source materials for affordable, modern furniture and you get a backlink from Ikea, you’ll be likely to see an improvement in your site’s search engine page results (SERPs). However, if Ikea were to link to your site selling lawn fertilizer, you probably won’t see the same rise in ranking.

Other important factors in backlinks are

• keyword-rich anchor text
• long-term link (that won’t be removed in a few days)
• both are active sites
• “good neighborhood” link (neither site is also linked to spam, pharmceuticals, etc.)

How Do You Get The Right Type Of Backlinks?

Here are two simple, fail-proof link building strategies you can use to ensure you get tons of powerful, high quality links linking to your website…

Technique 1: Create Something Worth Linking To

Great, linkworthy content is commonly known as ‘linkbait.’ Your aim should be to come up with something (this can be in the form of text, audio or video) others are eager to link to. Whatever you create should be unique and engaging, and most of all, relevant to your field.

For some useful resources on how to create the perfect linkbait, check out the websites below:-

1. http://www.distilled.net/linkbait-guide/#Brainstorm-Linkbait-10-Steps

2. http://www.seomoz.org/blog/a-simple-guide-to-creating-linkbait

Take your time to create an outstanding linkbait and don’t forget to share it with the online community. Then sit back and watch as your site attracts high quality links!

Technique 2: Set Up A Manual Link Exchange

There are two ways to make this work – you can directly contact the webmasters of authority sites in your arena and offer a link exchange. Or, you can try the following method…

For the purpose of this example, we’ll assume you’re in the laptop repair niche.

Now, let’s say there’s a website called Laptops For Cheap. They have a range of powerful laptops at reasonable prices. Their website has an impressive portfolio of links and Google always ranks them in the top 10 when people carry out laptop related searches.

Your website, Expert Laptop Repairs, offers customers a solid laptop repair service at very affordable rates. Since you’ve only set up business recently, you are trying to attract quality backlinks to your site in order to increase its authority, gain more traffic and achieve better rankings in the search engines. Now, there are several other competing sites offering laptop repair services and there’s no particular reason Laptops For Cheap should link to you. Emailing them and requesting a link simply because you’re in a related niche is pretty pointless, as they probably receive many similar requests every week.

Since Laptops For Cheap specialize in the sale of reasonably-priced laptops, you could create a useful consumer guide on how to purchase a high quality laptop for cheap. You could also recommend Laptops For Cheap as your No.1 trusted choice for purchasing laptops online. However, at this point, you don’t actually link to the latter – you only mention them.

Next, publish your guide on a separate page on your site. Then you can email  Laptops For Cheap and invite them to link to your newly created page. If they review your guide and recognize the value of linking to it, they’ll be happy to oblige you, and you will have secured a top-notch link to your site from a respected authority website in your niche. (Don’t forget to return the favor and link back to them!)

Getting good backlinks does require work, but if you’re interested in rising in the search engine page results in your niche, the end result is worth it.

Interested in getting help designing and creating some outstanding linkbait for your website or product? Contact Calvert Creative toll-free at 877-495-6851 and get started today.

A blog enables anyone (from stay-at-home moms to corporate execs) to create their very own space on the web – within minutes – and with zero technical skills required.

What began as an outlet for individual expression and independent, grassroots journalism has transformed into a profitable and highly effective tool for Fortune 500 companies and small businesses alike.

How can you can make use of corporate blogging to enhance the visibility of your business and increase your overall profits?

Here are 5 simple and effective rules for starting and managing a powerful corporate blog.

Rule #1: Keep it Real

While a fantastic corporate blog will greatly benefit your brand and business, a blog is not meant to be used as a tool for blatant advertising. Instead it’s crucial to maintain a friendly, genuine tone right from the start, and make an effort to truly connect with your audience.

In other words, keep it real.

Talk to real people and you’ll make real connections. Which results in real revenue.

Rule #2: Keep It Fresh

Top blogs are usually updated regularly.

And since several popular blogging platforms out there come with simple publishing interfaces, it’s easy to upload fresh new content on a frequent basis.

To ensure your readers keep coming back, update your blog with relevant, interesting and high quality posts.

Content can include anything from ‘how to’ articles, job openings, product releases, contest announcements, giveaways…the sky’s the limit.

Rule #3: Set up Key Performance Indicators

Before implementing a corporate blogging plan for your small business, you need to determine exactly how you’re going to measure the effectiveness of your blog. This will depend on your main business objective and your goals for the blog.

Some areas you might want to consider include

• traffic/visits to your blog
• number of incoming links
• number of unique visitors
• total list sign-ups
• purchase rate
• positive online mentions
• increases in product sales
• position on search engine results page (SERPs)

Rule #4 Decide How You’ll Moderate Discussions

One of the biggest mistakes you can make when managing a corporate blog is to remove a critical comment made by one of your readers.

Not only does it scream censorship (something which is abhorred in blogging circles), it also throws a shadow on the trust level of your business.

Your best bet is often to edit out offensive language and respond calmly to criticism with a clear plan of action.

You have every right to moderate the comments made on your blog – just make sure you’re being fair and honest about it!

Rule #5: Make the Outside Reflect the Inside

Make full use of your corporate blog to relect your company’s inner soul and reinforce the core values of your business – its goals, its direction and its mission and vision.

A blog is just another mode of communication you utilize to directly interact with your customers and fans. It’s also an important part of your overall brand experience. Hence, it must be consistent with the image you want to project to your target audience.

You might also find the following resources helpful:

http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/2003/02/26.html

http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2006/03/seven_rules_for.php

Looking for more help getting your corporate blog up and running? Call Calvert Creative toll free at 877-495-6851 and find out how easy it can be!