Digital Marketing for Companies

In my last episode I discussed the 8 elements of an effective business proposal including:

1. Cover Page

2. Objective

3. Scope of Services

4. Process

5. Timeframe

6. Pricing

7. Terms

8. Signature or Acceptance Section

In this podcast episode I’ll go through some extremely important things related to getting your proposal accepted and winning more business.

If you want an easy way to write your own business proposals, please check out Propfire.com.

In my last episode I discussed the 8 elements of an effective business proposal including:

1. Cover Page

2. Objective

3. Scope of Services

4. Process

5. Timeframe

6. Pricing

7. Terms

8. Signature or Acceptance Section

In this podcast episode I’ll go through some extremely important things related to getting your proposal accepted and winning more business.

If you want an easy way to write your own business proposals, please check out Propfire.com.

Do you want to know how to write an effective business proposal?

In this podcast episode I’ll go through the steps you need to write a winning business proposal.

Here are some of the things I’ll cover:

1. Cover Page

2. Objective

3. Scope of Services

4. Process

5. Timeframe

6. Pricing

7. Terms

8. Signature or Acceptance Section

If you want an easy way to write your own business proposals, please check out Propfire.com.

What is the Google Ad Grants program?

Google Ad Grants is part of Google For Non Profits, a program created by Google to help non profit organizations. As part of the program Google gives qualified non profits $10,000 per month ($329 per day) in Google Adwords ads. That means a non profit using the grant can display $329 worth of Adwords ads to drive visitors to its website each day. The maximum bid for a keyword or phrase is $2.

Do you need this Google Grant?

Will having an extra $10,000 a month in advertising help your non profit? Just about every non profit can benefit from some free advertising, but some will benefit more than others.

If you represent a cause that appeals to a relatively large audience that isn’t concentrated in a small, very local geographic area, then Google ads can drive visitors to your site who are interested in your cause but who otherwise might never have heard of your non profit. Once they’re on your website you’ve got the opportunity to educate about your cause, add them to your mailing list or even get an immediate donation.

The Google Ad Grant gives you the opportunity to get exposure for your organization that you would otherwise no be able to do without paying for it. Let’s face it, no one wants to spend donation dollars on advertising. With the Google Ads Grant, you don’t have to, at least on Google.

How do you qualify for the grant?

To qualify for the Google For Non Profit program you must be registered as a 501C3 with the IRS (or your country’s respective regulatory body) and have a website. You also need to register your non profit with techsoup.org and be located in the US or other eligible countries.

Setting up Adwords

Once you’re approved (which usually takes a day or 2) you’ll have to create an Adwords account and a campaign. Then you’ll need to choose your keywords and write your ads. Once your ads are approved they’ll start appearing for relevant keyword searches.

Your ads can only contain text (no images) and they’ll only show up on Google search result pages (not on Google’s Display Network). They’ll also show up below ads that are being paid for with real cash (not grants). Depending on your particular cause, there might or might not be paid ads. But even if there are, if you play it smart you’ll be able to spend your budget even with the paid competition.

The beauty of Adwords is that it gives you the opportunity to display your ad at the exact time that someone is searching for your particular keywords.You can easily blow your entire budget each day on getting irrelevant traffic with the wrong keywords. That’s why you want to make sure you choose the right keywords that are directly relevant to your non profit.

Just because your ad shows up at the top of the Google search results page doesn’t mean users will click on it and reach your website. Your ad copy needs to be engaging or interesting enough to convince users to click on it. Google helps figure out which of your ads is working best and shows that one more often. The higher your click thru rate the more Google will show your ad as opposed to your competitors for the valuable ad space.

Each ad received an Adwords Ad Rank which Google calculates based on your bid and your ad relevance. Google takes your Ad Rank into account when deciding which ad to display and in what position (at the tope of page 1 or down on page 3). While there isn’t much you can do about your bid (it’s set at $2), you can improve your Ad Rank by choosing relevant keywords, writing good ad copy and creating a relevant l...

In a previous post I showed you how to use Linkedin as a sales prospecting tool to generate new leads. The primary technique revolved around locating your target customers, finding their email address either on Linkedin or with another tool, and then contacting them either via an email campaign or by messaging them directly on Linkedin.

I also mentioned that you can use Linkedin to expand your network and extend your reach through organic posting, sharing and commenting. In this post I want to dive deeper into this topic and tell you exactly how to actually do it.

Linkedin is fundamentally a social media platform, meaning that it’s designed to allow people to share status updates, original posts and other published posts. Therefore, you’d assume that if you post and share interesting content, you’ll have a good chance of getting noticed by people in your own network and beyond. Unfortunately,  you’d be making a wrong assumption.

The truth is that the chances that more than a few people will end up seeing the stuff you post or share are pretty slim. The reason for that is because Linkedin’s algorithms decide who will see your posts, and they are much more inclined to display posts that they feel will get lots of engagement and that will keep users on the platform.

So users who are already getting lots of engagement on their posts, like influencers, are more likely to get love from Linkedin while the overwhelming majority of users get to hear the sound of crickets. In addition, posts linking out to external websites are less likely to be displayed than posts without links, because Linkedin wants to keep its users on the platform.

The only way to ensure that people will see your posts (the “right” people) is to pay for that privilege, which is exactly what Linkedin would prefer that you do. That’s how they make a good chunk of their revenue: advertising.

But this post is about using Linkedin for your business organically — without paying for advertising. And although that’s become increasing very difficult, there are still things you can do to give yourself a fighting chance at getting yourself or your business noticed on Linkedin.

Comment on other people’s posts.

This is what they mean by engaging. Take part in conversations on posts by influencers in your industry, but try your best to add some value and sound intelligent.

Asking relevant questions is a great way to get involved and show people in your industry that you exist. They’ll start checking out your profile and maybe even reach out to connect. You can do the same. In this way you’ll slowly expand your network and start positioning yourself as a thought leader.

Write interesting posts without including links

You don’t always have to be promoting an article or blog post. Just operate within the Linkedin platform. Add value to it by writing stuff that people will actually find interesting, and Linkedin might just reward you with some exposure.

The more time people spend on Linkedin, the more money it can make, so if you can help them do that by creating content that people want to read and engage with, then they will love you for it. Maybe not right away, but eventually, as they see you getting more engagement.

Share content written by influencers and tag them in your post.

Everyone loves recognition and even popular influencers like having their content shared. If you tag them in your post, they might share that post with their own audience. I’ve done this before with success. It does work. No, not every time or even most of the time. But I’ll take once in while.

In this podcast episode I’ll go through the steps you need to take to start a new web project. I’ll use, as an example, my own project that I just launched  — Jewish Wisdom.

Here are some of the things I’ll cover:

* Choosing a domain name

* Getting your domain name

* What makes a good domain name

* Where will your website live

* Setting up Google Console and Bing Webmaster tools

* Getting links

* Content, Content, Content

When people refer to social media they usually think of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest (and there may be some others I’m not even aware of). If your company sells directly to consumers (B2C) or is looking to build brand awareness in the consumer market then these social media platforms are the way to go.

There are, of course, major differences between the platforms on how to use them and what demographic groups each appeals to. But in general, each platform has the potential for you to reach a mass consumer audience. I’ll dive deeper into each one in later posts.

In this post I’m going to discuss Linkedin — and yes, Linkedin is a social media platform (and not just a place to post your resume and find a job). If you’re a professional, or simply part of the workforce, you most probably have a Linkedin profile with a few sentences about what you do and your work experience. It’s basically your resume.

You probably view Linkedin as a place to potentially find a new job or opportunity, if the need should arise. If you’re lucky enough to not need to use it for that purpose, you probably don’t, other than checking in once a while to waste some time and occasionally click on an interesting looking link.

All that stuff about job searches is true. But that’s not how you use Linkedin for your business.

How do you use Linkedin for business?

The first step to making Linkedin into a useful marketing and sales tool for your business is to view it as such. Stop thinking about it like a massive job board. From now on you need to see Linkedin as the greatest free opportunity to generate business.

Your Profile

The first thing you need to do to take advantage of this amazing tool is to update your profile. If it looks like a duplicate of your 1 or 2 page paper resume, you’re doing it wrong.

Your Linkedin profile should be your unique selling proposition. It should communicate the benefits that you can provide to potential customers or clients. It’s your opportunity to sell yourself.

It starts with your profile photo. Have one. People relate to other people, not placeholders. They want to see that you’re a real person, hopefully presentable and trustworthy looking.

Next comes your headline. It’s the line that people see directly below your name. This a valuable piece of marketing real estate, because it’s very likely the first, and possibly last, thing that people will see when they come across you in a search or in their feed.

You should not just put your job title in your headline — like manager or VP business development. These titles don’t really describe what you do and how you can help the person you want as a customer or client. Instead, tell them exactly how you can help them.

Here’s my own profile as an example:

In addition to my profile photo, I’ve added a cover image with some text on it to take advantage of the opportunity to expand my real estate holdings on the page. Beneath my photo and name I’ve listed the benefit I can provide. I’ve also included a non profit project I’m working on, so that when I reach out to connect with people related to that project, they’ll know who I am.

You should also include your correct contact info in the “see contact info” area, so that people can actually get in touch with you. I’m surprised how many people either leave it out totally or include outdated info or bad links. Not a very smart sales practice.

The next section in your profile is a section where you summarize what you’ve got to offer in greater detail. Include some concrete examples, some links, and even a video.

The next thing on your profile that Linkedin will show people depends on their degree of connection to you.

In my last post I gave a quick intro to the basics of SEO along with some practical tips you can implement on your own website to get it indexed by Google and appearing in your local search results. That might even be all you need if you’re exclusively targeting your specific local market.

But if you’re looking to be found by a larger target audience located outside of your immediate locality, then simply applying the SEO basics probably won’t help you rank on page one (or even page 2 or 3). The reason for this is a combination between competition and time.

Competition

If your business is in a competitive market, and your competitors are also investing in SEO, then how you rank in Google search is going to be directly related to what they do. Even if you try and copy exactly what it is that your top competitors are doing, you face the challenges of time and resources.

Time

Assuming that your competitors have been investing in SEO for a while now, they’ve had the opportunity to acquire links, possibly a great many. Even if they haven’t gotten much link authority, the very fact that they’ve had their website up and running could be a major advantage, especially if you are just starting up. That’s because the data shows that Google gives preference to older domains. Sort of like good wine or beef — the longer it ages the better it becomes.

All other SEO factors being equal, a new domain will have a hard time competing against one that’s a few years old. But all SEO factors are often no equal, and there are ways to beat those older domains — but it takes resources.

Resources

In order to rank higher than your competitors you need more authoritative links and better content.

You’ll notice that I said more “authoritative” links. When it comes to links, it’s not just a numbers game. Google is looking at the authority of the website that’s linking to you, because that shows Google how trustworthy and authoritative your site is. In other words, one link from the Wall Street Journal is going to be worth hundreds of links from low quality or unrelated sites. Having links from authoritative sites in your specific industry is huge, and can significantly boost your site in the rankings.

But getting those links is not easy.

* It requires building relationships with reporters and influencers who might, one day down the road, consider including your company in an article or blog post, along with a link.

* It requires creating content that is so informative that other writers feel compelled to link to it in their own articles. Of course, you’ll need to let those writers know about your content and persuade them to use it.

* It requires building a reputation for thought leadership in your field, so that you can get other website owners to allow you to guest post on their site (thus getting a link back to your own).

Relationship building and content creation demands a significant investment in time and resources. And if your competitors are doing it too, then it’s even tougher and more resource draining.

But Wait…

All this negative talk doesn’t mean you shouldn’t invest in SEO. You absolutely should, because your potential customers are using Google to search for solutions every day. The chance of driving some of them to your site is worth the effort.

But if you want, or need, to see immediate results, then SEO is usually not the strategy to put all your money on because it’s a long term process. I believe that it can eventually pay off big time, but you have to be able to wait for it to happen and continue working on it until it does.

For short term results,

SEO is that magic term that you’ve heard will unleash the flow of traffic from Google to your website. Take the SEO pill, sit back and watch the customers roll in. Not. At least not the magic part (or the pill). But SEO is important in getting Google to give you the love I know you deserve, so let’s take a closer look at what it actually is and how you can implement it.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. In other words, it is the process of optimizing your web or mobile content to allow Search Engines to find it and to convince those search engines to display it in their search results above all other relevant content.

How does SEO work?

Let’s say a person is looking to purchase custom kitchen cabinets. He types in “custom kitchen cabinets” in Google (or another search engine — the principles are pretty much the same for all, but since Google has over 90% of all searches, we’ll focus on them exclusively). Google has their minions of “spiders” crawling every corner of the web to create the most useful index of available content they can. When you type in your cabinet query, Google displays what they consider to be the most relevant answers from their index, ranked in order of relevance.

Google decides how to rank its search results based on its own proprietary algorithms, which they do not reveal. But Google has given us guidelines as to what they like (and don’t like), and lots of statistical tests have been run, which in total give us a pretty good idea of what we need to do to get Google’s positive attention. It’s called SEO.

Now back to our cabinet example. The first thing Google showed me when I typed “custom kitchen cabinets” are ads.

Yup, this is how Google makes billions of dollars a year. Each time someone clicks on an ad, the advertiser pays Google an amount of money. It’s called pay per click (PPC), and the price of a click is determined based on a competitive auction. The more competition for the particular keyword, the higher the price.

The “custom kitchen cabinets” keyword phrase happens to run around $5 per click. Some keywords can cost as much as $47 per click (mortgage, attorney). That seems a lot for a click, but it really depends on the price of the product you’re selling or even more so, on the lifetime value of a customer. We’ll talk a lot more about this in a dedicated post about PPC.

Once you get past the ads, you’ll see Google’s local listings along with a map.

This is where you’ll find results based in your local area. You’ll see the top 3 on the first page and a longer list by clicking on “More places”. If you have a company, it should show up in Google’s local listings when you search for your related keywords.

For example, when I type in “digital marketing agency” from my home (which is about 1.5 miles from my office), Onrush Digital Marketing is #1 in the organic listings (the first listing is an ad).

Now, even if you don’t do anything, Google will try it’s best to find your company and list it. You don’t even need a website. But you obviously have to be somewhere out there in the web to get found. The most direct and effective way to let Google know you exist and get included in your local listings it to create a Google Business Page. If your company has been around for a while, Google might already have created a page for you, which you’ll need to claim and update with your own copy and images.

Ideally, you’d like to see your website listed in the organic results, which appear beneath the local listings box. Here’s how those results look in our “custom kitchen cabinets...

Unless you’ve been hibernating for the last few years, you already know that the majority of internet users are searching, finding and viewing stuff on their mobile devices. Because of that, Google has decided to make mobile usability a priority when ranking websites. In other words, if there are two websites that answer the same search query, Google will show the one that is mobile friendly first — “Mobile First Indexing“. That could make a huge difference to your business if you’re trying to drive potential customers from Google search.

So now that we’ve established the importance of mobile, let’s get back to our discussion about whether you need a mobile site or app for your business. To recap, in my last post I discussed how to determine if you need a website for your business. The answer was that it depends on your business, your business objectives, target market and competition.

Assuming that you’ve done the analysis and decided to build a website for your business, the next question you need to answer is what to do about mobile. How are you going to accommodate the 50%+ users who will be viewing your website on a mobile device?

There are several options:

* Responsive Website

* Mobile version of website

* Native smartphone application

Responsive Website

Responsive design means that your web pages will look good on devices of different sizes. The same page will look good on a laptop, ipad and iphone. The way that you accomplish this is by making the elements on your web page scale, and by hiding and displaying elements, based on the size of the browser that is rendering it. The actual coding involved in making this happen is beyond the scope of this post and, frankly, probably not something you’re very interested in knowing.

The important thing to understand is that a responsive website will look good on mobile, and thus satisfy users as well as Google. Therefore, when you build your website, it’s imperative to make sure that you make it responsive.

Building a responsive website is pretty standard these days, especially if you use WordPress, Wix, Sqaurespace or any other platform with professionally designed themes or templates. But surprisingly enough, I still see plenty of websites that are not mobile responsive.

There could be several reasons for this:

* You (or your designer) did not properly utilize the built in settings for responsiveness included in the theme you’re using.

* You should either hide or display a mobile compatible version or certain elements on your web page. You haven’t done either.

* Your web page has a custom design that simply doesn’t work on mobile. In this case you’ll have to either modify the design or create a mobile version it.

* You haven’t even bothered to view your website on phone. If you did you would have immediately noticed that your website sucks on mobile, and fixed the problem.

Before you build a site make sure you or your web design team know that it MUST be responsive. If you already have a site, take a look at it on mobile — and then fix it.

Mobile Version of Website

In most standard websites you”ll be fine using the same site for both desktop and mobile by using responsive design. There are, however, cases where you’ll need to create a full mobile version of your website.

Here are a few possibilities:

* You already have a huge website with hundreds of unique pages that would need to be updated to be made responsive. In this case you can either modify each page, which could end up breaking the site as a result of human error (which happens qui...