36 Tried-and-True Ways to Promote Your Blog Posts

There are lots of things you need to do to have a successful blog. Not only do your posts need to be well-written, helpful, and relevant to your target audience, but you've also got to make sure you're promoting them correctly so they get in front of people who could become your fans -- and maybe even your customers.

 

Luckily, you have many creative options when it comes to promoting your blog content.

 

In the infographic below from ReferralCandy, we hear from over 40 marketing experts about their favorite blog promotion tactics -- everything from relationship building to email segmentation to social media. Check it out.

 

 

http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/blog-promotion-tactics

 

The Ultimate Social Media Marketing Checklist Every Newbie Must Follow

Are you just starting out on social media as a platform to market your business? Are you unsure about what you should be doing in order to be a success?

 

Take a look at these handy checklists from Andrea Vahl to see how you are getting along. There’s one for Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, LinkedIn, Pinterest and YouTube.

 

 

 

http://blog.red-website-design.co.uk/2014/08/05/the-ultimate-social-media-marketing-checklist-every-newbie-must-follow/

 

How Often You Should Post on Twitter and Other Social Media Networks

If you’ve been using multiple social media networks to market your business you’ll know that they aren’t all created equal. What is the norm on one network would be frowned upon on another, especially when it comes to the frequency in which you post updates.

 

For the recommended guidelines for each of the major social media sites take a look at the infographic below from Constant Contact.

 

 

http://blog.red-website-design.co.uk/2014/07/28/how-often-you-should-post-on-twitter-and-other-social-media-networks/

 

What Are The Best Times to Post on Social Media?

Are you sending out your social media posts at the right time? Do you feel your posts aren’t getting noticed?

 

The best time to post on social media is very common question but is quite difficult to answer. There are a number of factors that can affect this such as the type of business you are, the social networks you are using, or even your target demographic.

 

There are certain noticeable trends when it comes to timings though and QuickSprout have put those together in the infographic below.

 

 http://blog.red-website-design.co.uk/2015/01/07/faq-what-are-the-best-times-to-post-on-social-media/

 

The 7 Top Social Media Trends That Will Impact Your Marketing In 2015

2014 saw the world of social media take some new turns; some for better, others for worse. We’ve seen mobile use skyrocket; activity on social media during TV shows rise (according to research by Virgin Media) and the arrival of shopping via Twitter.

 

 

But with the year coming to a close, it’s time to have a look at which of these social media trends will take centre stage in 2015’s social landscape.

 

1. Mobile as Priority

 

According to Roger Katz of clickz.com, carriers’ shelf space for mobile handsets with screens sized 4.7 inches and over has grown from 4% to a third, whilst the number of daily active mobile users on Facebook has grown 15% in 2014 alone. If these stats aren’t enough to send a clear message, consider that the number of mobile-only users on Facebook grew by 34% – a startling spike that suggests mobile is no longer a secondary channel. It’s fast becoming first-choice.

 

Taking Facebook as a guide, Katz suggests ‘mobile-aware’ should become ‘mobile-first’ and think about how their social presence can cater to the mobile user. Big platforms have already been doing this, with Facebook creating its separate Messenger app and purchasing smaller mobile apps like WhatsApp, Instagram and Karma.

 

Twitter, on the other hand, recently purchased the MoPub ad exchange platform in 2013 and even Google Adwords is focusing more on mobile-centred display ads.

 

2. Paid Amplification

 

A recent Forrester report stated that organic interaction on Facebook brand posts has shrunken to just 0.073%. For a while now, Facebook has been pushing its promoted posts feature as a way to further monetize the platform and allow businesses to increase their outreach. And Twitter’s promoted tweets, have become more prevalent, attracting more users with each quarter (Thomas Armitage, site-seeker.com).

 

Katz believes brands ought to “ditch thinking about social media as a free-place market”, and instead take the time to think about audience segmentation and the needs of their particular audience.

 

Once brands have chosen carefully which social platform(s) to focus on, they can invest money into expanding their reach; capitalising on promising demographic and/or encouraging engagement from otherwise passive users.

 

3. Social Shopping

 

The idea of shopping via social media is probably an obvious one in hindsight, but it wasn’t until Twitter rolled out the idea earlier in 2014 that marketers started to consider it as a realistic possibility. With the integration of a ‘Buy’ button in certain tweets, visible only to a small segment of users, Twitter was able to test out the service through select brands like (RED) and Rihanna.

 

Facebook soon followed, rolling out a ‘Buy’ button trial of its own, and even microblogging site Tumblr recently announced it will try out the feature.

 

If engagement rates are satisfactory and there’s no decline in user-base, the chances are companies could be making more of this new feature. And for good reason too – social ‘buy’ buttons would potentially enable them to increase their sales; acquire concrete revenue figures from specific social media activity, and involve users in their brand in a whole new way.

 

4. Vlogging

 

Vlogging is becoming an increasingly common advertising channel for brands both large and small, giving blogging a run for its money as consumers’ go-to platform for reviews and advice. With the growing emphasis on unpolished, human-centred and consumer-generated content, companies are realising that customers want to hear the truth from other customers – not so much brands themselves.

 

YouTube is a platform with over one billion unique monthly visitors, and the second largest search engine according to Laura Harrison of Socialnomics. It has a wide demographic of 18-54, and videos are known to be shared “12 times more than links and text posts combined”.

 

A brand can either host its own vlogging channel or offer indie vloggers free goods in exchange for reviews and exposure. With the rise of young ‘celebrity’ vloggers like Zoella, Alfie Deyes, Tyler Oakley and Lily ‘Superwoman’ Singh, it’s now a strong contender for engagement that brands would be crazy not to take advantage of.

 

5. Social Wallets

 

Earlier in 2014, a Stanford student leaked hacked photos that revealed a line of code in Facebook’s Messenger app that suggested a payment and transfer platform could be on the cards. The payment system would allow Facebook users to not just make payments for goods over social media (hence the integration of a ‘buy’ button) but also send money to friends via direct debit.

 

The concept yet remains inactive, but if it were to come to fruition it would make social media a financial arena as well as a social one. Were users to trust Facebook and other networks with their money, these players would certainly enjoy increased power as a result (and brands would no doubt be able to cash in on this new relaxed willingness of users).

 

When we consider the rise of mobile contactless payment systems such as Apple’s iPay and EE’s Cash On Tap, combined with social media users’ shift towards mobile, the idea of social wallets makes perfect sense.

 

6. Interest-Based, Not People-Based

 

The last couple of years have seen a wave of new social platforms enter the foray; from image-based sites like Instagram, Pinterest and Tumblr; to Google+ and Ello. The changing trend here has been in how we consume our updates (images over text-based; short GIFS and videos etc). But a new trend emerging is altering the kind of updates we choose to consume.

 

Newer platforms like Foodie, Fitocracy and PlantWorking are geared towards individual audiences rather than taking a ‘everything, everyone, everywhere’ approach. While Foodie is a place for chefs and cooks to share and explore recipes, Fitocracy allows gym bunnies to share workout plans and talk fitness, while PlantWorking is a social network for gardeners.

 

The main takeaway here is that new social networks are likely to be more interest-focused in 2015, uniting users through common hobbies and passions.

 

7. Continued Quest for Personal Privacy

 

With an increasing level of publicity surrounding data sharing and privacy on the internet, several platforms have tried to step it up a notch in 2014 by promising more privacy to their users.

 

Newcomer Ello, for example, promises never to sell user data, whilst Snapchat, Whisper, YikYak and Telegram have each taken a different approach to the social stratosphere. These platforms allow users to engage in conversations privately among their friends, or in some cases, connect with strangers while still keeping their identity private.

 

However, incidents such as the Snapchat hacking and Whisper’s secret compilation of posts and locations (for use in its own search database) have proven that the battle for privacy is not yet won. Ryan Holmes of Time.com has commented that the pressure for privacy will only grow stronger in 2015.

http://www.jeffbullas.com/2014/12/24/the-7-top-social-media-trends-that-will-impact-your-marketing-in-2015/

 

6 Ecommerce Design Mistakes That Can Cost You Heavily This Holiday Season

The Christmas and New Year holidays are a real lottery for Ecommerce businesses. Some of them earn as much as 40% of their annual revenue during the last quarter of the year.

 

With such a big occasion approaching, you need to make sure your website and online store is in the best possible shape to benefit from the additional customer influx.

 

But this can only be done if your store and website design is tailored for this visitor surge.

 

Even seemingly small design mistakes can cost you heavily because of the sheer volume of Ecommerce traffic generated during the New Year holidays.

 

 

Here are 6 design and user experience mistakes that you should look to correct before the surge begins.

 

1. Using the Same Store Color Theme

 

Your website looks great and you’ve branded it properly with your distinct color combinations. But you can’t leave it untouched during the holiday season.

 

A different color and design theme for the holiday season would immediately get your customers interested in what you have to offer for this holiday season. You need to become a part of the celebrations. You can incorporate holiday colors, videos and a festive logo to create the right atmosphere.

 

2. Not Using Responsive Design

 

Using a mobile friendly website design and online store is not an option anymore, it’s an absolute necessity. A mobile friendly or responsive design adjusts according to the dimensions of the device it’s viewed on.

 

If you’re using a custom developed Ecommerce website or online store, make sure it’s built using responsive design. You can also hire professionals to create a mobile friendly version of your website.

 

3. Placing the Email Opt-In Box at the Wrong Place

 

Email list and subscriber base is the backbone of any Ecommerce website. Throughout the year, you should make a conscious effort to find different ways of building your email list and subscriber base.

 

But during the holiday traffic surge, list building becomes even more important. A large mailing list gives you the opportunity to work on your subscribers, build a relationship with them and generate repeat sales.

 

But for effective list building in Ecommerce websites, you need to use a multi-dimensional strategy. Instead of just placing an opt-in box in the side bar or the footer, aggressively promote it at the most prominent places of your website.

 

Use pop ups and offer holiday season discounts in return for the user’s email address. Add it to the main header of your website and in the sidebar. Also make sure your payment processor can be linked with your mailing list at the checkout stage, so that all the buyer email addresses are collected. Both Gumroad and Selz offer this functionality.

 

Remember, this traffic hike would go away in a few weeks. If you don’t add these visitors to your mailing list, you’ll be losing thousands of dollars in potential sales over the next 12 months.

 

4. Using Multiple Redirections in the Check Out Process

 

Using multiple redirections at the checkout and payment stage is the prime reason for shopping cart abandonment. Sometimes buyers get frustrated with the number of redirections involved. Other times, they don’t complete the transaction because of slow internet.

 

Whatever the reason, multiple redirections are known to increase incomplete checkouts. There are two ways you can counter this.

 

• Use a payment processor that uses Java script and completes the payment process in the same window. (eg. Selz and Ecwid).
• Route the buyers to a reliable third party payment service that can handle the payment for you (eg. PayPal and Stripe)

 

Whichever service you choose, make sure it involves minimum redirections and offers the most flexible and widely accepted payment options.

 

5. Not Integrating Social Media Sharing on Product Pages

 

According to research, almost 80% of Ecommerce purchase decisions are influenced by word of mouth or recommendations from close friends. To maximize your Ecommerce sales this holiday season, make social media sharing and discussions on product pages as easy as possible.

 

Here are a few things you should do.

 

• Add a social media sharing widget to the individual product pages and encourage sharing. You can use widgets like AddThis or DiggDigg.
• Enable Twitter cards on your ecommerce website. Twitter cards display additional product information like price and stock details when your products are shared on Twitter.
• Enable Rich Pins in Pinterest. Similar to Twitter cards, Rich Pins also display additional product information when products are shared on Pinterest.
• Embed Facebook comments in the product pages and encourage discussions.

 

The holiday season traffic surge offers a great opportunity to maximize your product reach with social media websites. Failing to take advantage can cost you significantly in terms of referral sales.

 

6. Not Creating Holiday Specific Blog Content

 

Apart from attracting 200% more inbound links and almost 400% more indexed pages, blog content also has a huge impact on Ecommerce purchase decisions. According to Neil Patel, an entrepreneur and content marketing expert, almost 61% of US customers read a blog post before making online purchases.

 

But surprisingly the majority of Ecommerce websites and online stores ignore this highly effective form of marketing. Creating content does take time, but it offers much higher returns and attracts additional customers. You can simplify content creation to an extent by hiring professional freelance writers. Wrapping It Up Almost all Ecommerce businesses benefit in the short term by the additional traffic and higher sales during the holiday season. However there are very few online stores that approach this occasion with a long term strategy.

 

http://blog.fiverr.com/5-ecommerce-design-mistakes-can-cost-heavily-holiday-season/

 

8 Pinterest Marketing Tips for the Holiday Season

In the past, it might have been tricky to decide where to focus your energy during the hectic holiday shopping season. For me, Pinterest is an obvious choice — it’s the third largest source of traffic to my Etsy jewelry shop, HappyGoLicky. And, through coupon codes and other strategies, I can track my efforts. According to social analytics tool Piqora, sales generated by Pinterest on Black Friday and Cyber Monday in 2013 were triple the amount of sales generated during the 30 days prior.

 

Photo by Print Smitten

 

Interestingly, there wasn’t more Pinterest traffic on those days, just more sales. During this time, pinners were in “buy” mode, instead of just gathering attractive images. And most purchases were made from pins that were between two days and four weeks old, which means buyers are shopping now, even if they have yet to step foot in your virtual shop. With that in mind, check out the following tips for using Pinterest to boost your holiday sales.

 

1. Include Prices and a “Call to Action”

 

Let shoppers know your item is for sale by including the price in the written description. Pinterest will recognize that a price has been entered, and might even include your product in a gift guide email, resulting in free publicity for your shop. Then, prompt viewers to make a move with a call to action like “Click here to buy now,” or, “Click today to see details.” In The First Quantitative Study of Brands on Pinterest, Piqora found that “rich pins,” including pins with price info, are repinned 82 percent more often than regular pins. Chalk it up to the power of persuasion; these “call to action” pins show increased engagement.

 

2. Offer Coupon Codes

 

Adding a coupon code to your pin entices potential customers to make a purchase and allows you to track your marketing efforts. I started including the code PIN10 for a 10 percent discount on pins in November 2011. In 2014, I have seen sales that used that code every month. Holiday shoppers might search the term “coupon code” to find great deals, so keep your code simple and consistent so it’s easily remembered. Since pins don’t expire, your coupon codes shouldn’t either. No expiration date ensures that even if your product is found long after the season has past, you can still reap the rewards.

 

3. Join Group Boards

 

Only have a few followers? Instantly enlarge that circle by joining a group board, like the Etsy Group Board of Handmade Art, which is followed by more than 17,600 people with more than 2,100 guest pinners. Ask for an invite for immediate access and start pinning your own product for exponential exposure. All group boards have different guidelines, so be sure to adhere to the rules posted or risk being banned by the owners. To find a group suitable for you, search for a particular theme and filter the results to see relevant boards. A tiny gray icon depicting three people will appear in the top right corner of a group board listing. Click and follow the instructions.

 

4. Launch a PR Board

 

A board of testimonials is confirmation of happy customers and can give apprehensive first-time buyers much-needed reassurance. Pinning links to blogs or magazines where your work has been featured is another effective way of establishing your company as reputable.

 

 Lisa Anderson Shaffer of Zelma Rose created a Love & Press board to showcase her San Francisco-based shop, where she sells hand-stitched jewelry and accessories. “I can expand the story of my brand and show customers how I’ve been vetted, helping them put their trust in me,” she says. Cultivating that connection with customers is key. “It reaffirms I’m a real person,” Lisa says.

 

Uploading photos that offer a peek into your studio space or a photo of you immersed in your craft will also encourage familiarity.

 

Lisa Anderson Shaffer, founder of Zelma Rose, created a Love & Press board on Pinterest to collect rave reviews and press clips about her embroidered jewelry.

 

5. Create Gift Idea Boards

 

Title the boards specifically so they are readily found in searches. “Stocking Stuffers for Teens” or “Gifts for the Foodie” tell viewers exactly what to expect. Incorporate your products in small doses to retain a fresh and diverse collection or viewers will lose interest. Adding key words or #hashtags will optimize search results for more hits. A good trick to avoid being spammy is to collect images you want to pin on a “secret” board, then dole them out to your public boards gradually during the day. This way, you don’t have to spend time curating great pins every time you want to add something new to your followers’ feeds. If the process sounds too time-consuming, try scheduling pins on Viralwoot.

 

6. Put Items on Sale

 

When you lower the price on items from your Etsy shop that you previously pinned, Pinterest sends an email to people who pinned it alerting them of the drop in cost. This is an incredibly easy way to refresh the memory of someone who liked your product enough to save it for future reference or share it with others. The notification might be just the nudge they need to buy it as a gift this season. Think of it as a second chance to seal the deal. Before offering your products at a discounted price, make sure your pricing strategy is taking your time and effort into account.

 

7. Announce Promotions

 

Use Pinterest to tell holiday shoppers about your special offers. Sydney MacIntyre and Richele Penner of print shop Anewall in Vancouver, BC have been using Pinterest as an effective marketing tool for a year and a half. When promoting sales or special pricing on Pinterest, they create a graphic with one of their crisp, clear images, adding eye-catching text, such as “Thanksgiving Weekend Sale,” that calls attention to the deal. Adding text to the image itself matches their shop’s neutral, simple aesthetic and grabs the attention of those who may overlook a wordy description below the image and linking directly to their shop makes it easier for followers to make a purchase.

 

Sydney and Richele from wall decor shop Anewall use Pinterest to promote sales and discounts to their followers.

 

8. Pinterest Search Yourself

 

Find out which of your products are getting the most attention. Following members who have pinned your merchandise can lead to a mutually beneficial relationship, as well as remind them of your work. When I discover a pin that has an unusually high number of re-pins, I might offer that user who pinned it free product in exchange for an additional pin to her board. Currently, I have a rapport with a few pinners boasting followers into the millions. Since Pinterest is the third largest referrer to my shop, these prized liaisons will all be getting sparkly packages from me soon.

 

https://blog.etsy.com/en/2014/8-pinterest-marketing-tips-for-the-holiday-season/?geo=global&utm_medium=social_organic&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=help_support

 

How to Use Pinterest - The Basics

The beginners guide to Pinterest. Learn how to get onto Pinterest, how to set up your profile and Pinboards and how to use the tools on Pinterest. Learn how Pinterest connects with Facebook and Twitter and why it's a great idea to interweave your social networks.

 

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejaiNn5CmI0

 

How Photos Can Make or Break Your Marketing Campaign

I'm trying to find a word other than revolution to describe what's going on with the use of images online these days. It may sound overblown, but I can't think of a better term. More than 300 million photos are uploaded to Facebook every day, so in the five minutes it has taken me to write this, a million more were added--not to mention the charts, graphics, illustrations, doodles and other images that were pinned to Pinterest or posted to Instagram, Twitter, foursquare, Tumblr and Google+. The fundamental shift toward the visual was punctuated this year by Facebook's $1 billion acquisition of photo-sharing app Instagram.

 

image credit: Shutterstock

 

So how do you put visual content to work for your company? Rather than relying on boring stock photos, the smartest businesses are employing images that help them evolve their brand and tell a visual story of who they are.

 

Marketing is all about communicating your value. Tapping into the visual zeitgeist is an excellent opportunity to create messaging for your business that is, well … nothing short of revolutionary. Here are some guidelines.

 

Why go Visual?

 

Online publisher Mashable and EyeTrackShop recently found that participants in a webcam eye-tracking study spent less time looking at Facebook wall posts and advertisements and more time looking at the cover photo on brands' timelines. So this stuff matters. As every brand becomes a publisher charged with creating content to attract customers, the quality of that content becomes increasingly important. In other words, you have to produce stuff that helps you stand out.

 

Your own website or blog is an excellent place to start sharing images that craft your narrative. So are social media networks; some of the top platforms positioned for sharing rich visual stories are Pinterest, Instagram, Google+ and, of course, Facebook, whose Timeline update this past spring gave all of us -- including businesses -- the ability to produce more aesthetically pleasing pages.
 

See Content Moments Everywhere.

 

Many organizations have photographers they contact in times of need -- for events, product launches, etc. "That won't suffice anymore," says brand strategist Nick Westergaard of Brand Driven Social in Coralville, Iowa. "Photography can't be an afterthought."

 

The key is to see content moments everywhere. How about showing a behind-the-scenes peek of your warehouse before a big shipment, the way T-shirt company Threadless does? Or look at how the small U.K. company McKay Flooring gives itself a bigger digital footprint by using Pinterest, Instagram and its blog to display cool flooring materials such as leather, reclaimed bowling lanes and whiskey barrels.

 

This approach even works for business-to-business companies that sell inherently unphotogenic products: At MarketingProfs, we share photos on our Instagram feed of industry events attended by our staffers, or we give a peek into how the proverbial sausage is made by showing our webinar training videos from our point of view, documentary-style.

 

You have a great fount of inspiration right in front of you, if only you train your eye to look for it. Take active photos that show real customers or staffers doing real things -- as opposed to staged shots or logos.
 

Show How Your Product Lives in the World.

 

Consider how Ben & Jerry's integrates images on Instagram, Tumblr and Facebook to showcase the beauty of doing business in Vermont. The ice cream maker also uses Instagram to recognize customers by calling out a favorite pic on "fan photo Friday."

Even old-school General Electric has used online photo sharing to create excitement and build momentum. Last year, GE encouraged social media users to take photos inspired by the company's missions of Moving, Curing, Powering and Building. The fan with the best photo was awarded a trip to the U.K. that included a chance to photograph a world-class jet engine facility.

 

Embrace Images as Brand Art.

 

For a lot of businesses, content equals text. But photographs and other visual materials should be staples of your marketing mix. Share your company's history on Facebook Timeline with visuals from your archives, for example. Or better yet: Populate your e-mails, blog, website and marketing collateral with your own images. To capture attention and entice engagement and click-throughs, you need to have bold, unique visuals in your corner.

 

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/224229

 

4 Ways to Improve Your SEO and Increase Your Traffic on Etsy

We use Google, Yahoo, or Bing for hunting down a variety of places, items, and information and probably don’t really concern ourselves with how the info at the top of page one got there. Or why, for that matter, the sites that we expected to find aren’t there.

 

The art of getting found in a search engine’s results is big business. Depending on the type of site, organic search traffic is usually one of the biggest traffic drivers for all websites — the art of which is called Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

 

Search Engine Optimization is a mouthful, but don’t let the title put you off. Sure, if you read up on the subject, it can seem very overwhelming, but SEO is actually a simple series of steps that can make a huge difference to attracting free traffic.

 

Are you ready to get started? Here are four simple steps for increasing your chances of being found in search engine results pages.

 

1. Know That Content Is King

 

Search engines love unique content — they use it to determine what a web page is about and then match up a page to a search query. As an Etsy seller, there are several main content components areas you need to concentrate on:

• Create unique and strong product titles. Think about keywords that shoppers would use to search for your product and include them in your product titles. If you carry similar products, ensure that each product title is unique. For example, if you have two black tote bags featuring slightly different patterns, don’t call them just “black tote”; instead, add details, such as “Black Tote Bag With Blue Diamond” and “Black Tote Bag With Red Design.” Be obvious about what you’re calling something and use standard terms. Don’t use excessively long product titles — instead, aim for about 80 characters. If you’re unsure what people are searching for, Google’s keyword research tool can help you find out.
• Flesh out item descriptions. Use less obvious terms to describe your shop items and expand your product titles.
• Fill out your About page. This will tell the search engine all about your shop.

2. Get Link-Happy

 

Because search engines use links to determine ranking order, links have always been one of the most important elements of SEO. There’s no rule on how many links will help, as each link will have a different value. For example, a link from CNN to your Etsy shop might be worth more than 10 (or 100) small blog links. But all links (big and small) help. Here are some simple tips to help draw in links:

 

• Do you have a blog? Don’t be shy about self-promotion — don’t go overboard, but certainly link to your Etsy shop/listings where possible.
• See your items featured outside Etsy? If the blog doesn’t include a link to your item, contact the editor to request a link; they might say no, but no harm in asking!
• Link between listings on your site. Internal linking helps pass link authority from one page to the next, giving search engines signs that pages are also related or grouped.
• Network. If you know sites that are seeking content and guest blog posts, volunteer to put your content on other people’s sites.
• Don’ts: Never buy a link and don’t use spammy techniques such as third-party forum postings or directory listings — search engines can see through dodgy link building practices.

 

3. Put Your Social Media to Work

 

Social media’s not just great for being social; it’s a great way to showcase your shop listings. Using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Google+ are great ways to show search engines that people are talking about your shop or listings. Yahoo and Bing particularly use social signals as a ranking signal, so if you have one of these channels running, use them to promote yourself. The other secondary bonus is people may link to you from your social promotion.

4. Be Patient and Don’t Obsess

 

SEO can take time to take effect, so be patient. Also, you’re not the only Etsy seller tweaking pages, so you might see your pages start to rank slowly and see some ups and downs. While search engines like fresher content, don’t think this means you should tweak your pages each day. Keep pages reasonably static (for example, no changing unless you have to). Also, try to use pages several times; if your listing sells out and you’re able to restock, try to reuse this page when it’s back.

 

Importantly, don’t stress about Google’s PageRank value. This is a rather old way of viewing pages and is too generic to mean much in today’s SEO. PageRank is often misunderstood and not necessarily accurate now.

 

https://blog.etsy.com/en/2013/4-ways-to-improve-your-seo/

 

7 Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

Crafty, creative businesses like yours are making and selling unique goods people want to buy. But with millions of products to choose from, it’s critical that customers can find your shop — and understand what sets it apart. These common marketing mistakes could be keeping your business from reaching its full potential. Here are some tips for making the most of your marketing efforts.

 

Photo by Catshy Crafts

 

Mistake #1: Spreading Yourself Too Thin On Social Media

 

It can be tempting to want a presence on every social media platform out there. After all, more eyes on your message means more customers, right? But, trying to do too much can cause unnecessary stress and take away from creative work.

 

“Recognize that the time you spend on social media to connect with customers and promote your business is really different than the time you spend connecting with friends,” says Kari Chapin, author of The Handmade Marketplace. “Know what your end goal is. What value are you putting out there to your customers?”

 

Chapin recommends monitoring your traffic from social media sites in your Shop Stats and focusing on the platforms where your customers are most engaged (in other words, where they’re commenting, clicking and liking) and skip those that don’t work for your business.

 

“I market on Instagram and Pinterest, because I know that my customers are there,” says Marika Reppas of Love, Meeksie, an Etsy shop based in Los Angeles that sells handmade fabric button earrings and tiny studs. Reppas maximizes her time on Instagram by searching for hashtags that buyers of her gemstone earrings might be using and commenting on and liking their photos.

 

Mistake #2: Thinking Like Yourself Instead of Your Customer

 

When writing listing descriptions, titles or tags, ask yourself, “What does my customer need to know?” “Even if you think a detail of your product is obvious, you can’t guarantee that the customer does as well,” Chapin says.

 

Shannon Kennedy, founder of Winter Park, Florida-based Etsy shops Sass and Peril and The Paper Cub, turned to friends when she needed help marketing her whimsical, screenprinted baby goods and prints. “I didn’t have kids, so I wasn’t thinking about it as someone who has a child,” Kennedy says. “I consulted with my friends who had kids and asked them what they would type in if they were looking for baby gifts.” As a result, Kennedy made her titles and tags more descriptive, adding terms such as “new baby” or “shower gift.”

 

Mistake #3: Not Explaining Why Your Product is Special

 

Giving customers a peek into your process and telling your story on your About page and through social media are great ways to make your business stand out in the marketplace. “When people make a decision to buy something handmade or one of a kind, they’re looking for something more,” Chapin says. “That something extra is generally emotional. You’re giving them something from your own two hands that they can’t get anywhere else.”

 

Kennedy recognizes that customers might not be familiar with the process that makes her prints special. “Since a lot of my work is screenprinted, it is my job to convey that to the customer,” she says. “It’s the value of what I do.” In her listing descriptions, Kennedy describes the unique texture screenprinting gives her prints and cards and emphasizes that each piece is screenprinted by hand, which results in one-of-a-kind variations.

 

Shannony Kennedy’s listing description for this card in her shop, The Paper Cub, emphasizes that it is hand printed, and, as a result, no two are alike.

 

Mistake #4: Hiding Your Personality

 

Another part of what makes buying on Etsy special is that customers know they’re spending their money supporting a real person with a passion for creating. Make sure your presence is felt in your shop. Reppas of Love, Meeksie infuses her positive personality into her shop through the cheerful colors on her packaging, fast and thoughtful customer service, and even her shop name, a play on her nickname. “In my item descriptions, I use a lot of ‘I’ statements to convey why I love my products,’” Reppas says. “People think differently about an item when they feel like they’re talking to the person who made it.”

 

Marika Reppas of Love, Meeksie uses cheerful yellow packaging to give her shop a friendly vibe. Including her shop name and web address in the images without using a watermark is a creative way to increase brand name recognition.

 

Mistake #5: Focusing on One-Time Sales

 

Making a sale feels great, but turning a one-time buyer into a loyal customer feels even better. Including your brand name on packaging, or even on your product itself, will ensure that customers remember where they purchased something and keep your name on the tip of their tongue. Be sure to include business cards or other promos in your packages as well. “When I bought my first handmade bag, the seller asked if I would like extra business cards,” Chapin says. “Over the course of our 10-year relationship, I’ve had to ask for more cards. She empowered me to talk to other people about her products.”

 

Kennedy uses her design skills to create memorable marketing materials, including a bulletin-board-worthy “Thank You” card featuring her popular animal designs and stickers printed with her web address. She uses simple materials to keep the costs down.

 

Shannon Kennedy’s sweet fox postcard is a nice “freebie” customers can hang onto. A coupon code on the back encourages repeat purchases

 

Mistake #6: Falling Out of Touch

An email newsletter can be another great way to keep customers engaged with your brand or even turn curious observers of your shop into buyers. But many sellers worry about annoying their customers with too many emails. That’s a big mistake, Chapin says. “Not being able to stay in touch with the customers who purchased from you is a big impediment to continuing to sell or grow,” she explains. “If someone signs up for your list, it means they want to hear from you.”

 

Kennedy collects email addresses for her MailChimp newsletter using a link in order confirmation emails and on her Facebook page, and through a paper sign-up sheet at selling events. Her advice? “Keep it short, keep it sweet,” she says. “A big graphic above the fold will entice people to click.” Kennedy says she typically sends one newsletter a month to promote new product lines or promotions, saving smaller shop updates for social media.

 

Mistake #7: Looking Unprofessional

 

Just like a real-world storefront, your virtual shop should look like a place people can feel comfortable spending their money. One way Reppas instills a sense of trust in shoppers is by including customer feedback in the body of her listing description. “It gives buyers a feeling that other people liked the product, which makes them feel safer about buying it,” she says. It also has the added bonus of helping customers imagine how a product could be used — for example, one customer described the earrings she had purchased from Reppas as “perfect for daily wear.”

 

Having thorough Shop Policies is a great start to making your shop feel trustworthy. “People will see [your professionalism] in the care you put into your listings,” Chapin says. “If you have typos, or haphazard capitalization, people might feel like you’re not really into it. That’s definitely sending a message about how you treat your business.”

 

https://blog.etsy.com/en/2014/7-marketing-mistakes-to-avoid/

 

6 Uncomplicated Social SEO Tips for Small Businesses

Let’s start with what is SEO?

 

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. And the phrase improve your SEO strategy encompasses the actions taken to ensure your website can be found in a search engine’s results page (SERP) when searching for words or phrases relevant to the content on your website.

 

What does Social SEO mean?

 

Social SEO refers to the idea that social media links and interaction play a considerable part in a website’s search rankings. It sounds complicated (and, in reality it is) but basically SEO is all about optimizing content—whether it’s on your website or on a social media platform—in order to appear higher in search rankings.

 

Here are six uncomplicated Social SEO tips you can easily start implementing today:

 

1. Optimize Your Social Media Profiles

The key to an SEO friendly social media profile is to be descriptive as possible.  Always fill out the ‘About’ or ‘Information’ sections of any social media platform. Use words or phrases that describe your business and are also terms individuals would use to search for your business.

 

For example, to optimize your Facebook Page for local searches, it is very important to include your address, city, state, and zip. Always include links from your social channels back to your business’s website (and links from your website to your social channels).

 

Insider Tip: The “Category” field is often over looked on Facebook Pages but is important for Facebook mobile searches. Check to make sure your business is listed as the correct category while editing your basic information.

2. Optimize Your Social Media Content/Updates

To optimize your social content, always include some of the relevant search keywords you determined for your business in your Facebook updates, tweets, pin descriptions, etc. It’s important to remember to share content from your website or blog socially to give it an SEO boost too. Sharing new content on Twitter is especially important because it helps Google index it faster (indexing means Google adds this URL to their database).

Insider Tip: Use your business’s name in your social posts. This helps Google associate the keywords you use to describe your business with your business’s name.

3. Build Links by Making Your Content Shareable

 

A key factor in SEO is link building. Simply put, this means having good website to website relationships through links. When you have more quality sites linking to your website (inbound) and you are linking to other quality websites (outbound) the more authoritative Google determines your website to be. More authority equals a higher SERP rank.

 

Likes, comments, +1s, repins, retweets, etc., all play into the weight given to your links. If you create content people want to share, you can create more inbound links. “Content” doesn’t always have to be as elaborate as a blog post or whitepaper, content can also refer to tweets or Facebook posts as well. By posting engaging social content, you’re improving your SEO value. To review: Quality content equals more shares equals more links equals better SEO value. Simple right?

 

Insider Tip: A more advanced way to increase shares is to add social share buttons to individual pieces of content on your website or blog.

 

4. Use Pinterest

An easy way to create shareable content is by using Pinterest. Pinterest is great for link building and improving your keyword strategy. Google indexes pages from websites with heavy traffic faster and higher in a SERP. You can increase your content’s visibility in SERPs by adding keywords within the title of a Pinterest board, the board’s description, and you even have up to 500 characters to describe an individual pin so you’ll want to include keywords there as well.

 

Additionally, you can customize the pin’s link and point people back to your website or blog—further increasing the opportunity for your content to rank higher in a SERP. From an SEO perspective, Pinterest allows you to do a few things that other networks don’t, so take advantage of it.

Insider Tip: Google prefers high-resolution images, so use high-quality images on Pinterest whenever possible.

 

5. Sign up for Google+ and Spend 10-minutes a Day on It

No one loves Google+ more than Google. Sign up for a Google+ Business Page and complete as many fields as you can in the “About” section using keywords that describe your business. Google also allows you to add several customized links within your profile, you can use this as an opportunity to link back to your website, blog, and additional social channels. By spending 10-minutes a day sharing your content to your Google+ page, you’ll be more likely to appear within Google’s SERP. There are more reasons you should care about Google+ if you’re a Solution Provider.

 

6. Create a Google+ Local Listing

According to Google, 97% of consumers search for local businesses online. In order to perform well in local search results it’s critical that you optimize your Google+ Local listing (formally known as Google Places). A Local Google+ page is different from a Google+ Business Page because it allows customers to easily connect with that business’s physical location. Update the details about your business—address, phone number, hours, etc.—and you’re good to go!

 

Insider Tip: Be sure to keep your information up-to-date on Google+ Local and Facebook—it helps!

 

Here Are Some Common Mistakes to Avoid:

• Not making your business’s social media sites public.
• Creating a Facebook Profile instead of a Facebook Page (learn how to fix this here).
• Not customizing your Facebook URL. (Here’s how)
• Not using your business’s name as your Facebook Page name or Twitter name.
• Uploading images to your social channels with file names such as: Photo1 or IMG1287—images with meaningful file names can help you rank better.
• Duplicating another website’s content. Your time and resources are limited as a small business owner but Google doesn’t like this.
• If something appears to be a fast and easy way to improve your SEO it’s probably a black hat tactic (that means it’s bad), Google frowns on these unethical techniques and penalizes those who implement them.

 

Keep This in Mind Regarding Social SEO

Improving your SEO takes time and SERP changes don’t happen overnight. Always be as descriptive as you can and keep your info up to date. Ultimately, as a small business owner you shouldn’t obsess over SEO. Instead, focus on providing a WOW! experience for your customers and your business will benefit through natural word-of-mouth.

http://blogs.constantcontact.com/product-blogs/social-media-marketing/social-seo-tips/

6 Tips for Using Social Networks to Increase Sales

Social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ are a marketer’s dream.

 

When utilized correctly, you can get your products or services in front of a highly targeted consumer base while simultaneously building brand equity.

 

Here are six tips for getting the most from social networks and sales.

 

1. Choose the Right Network.

 

Because the demographic of social media sites can vary, you should focus on the networks where your target audience is. Before launching a campaign, perform some demographic research among top social networks to point yourself in the right direction.

 

2. Update Content Consistently.

 

With a healthy amount of competition in most industries, it’s easy to be overlooked or forgotten without a steady stream of fresh content. It also shows that you’re on the ball, and it can be helpful from an SEO standpoint. On Twitter, it’s smart to update almost every day. On Facebook and most other sites, anywhere from two to five times per week should suffice. Just be sure not to go overboard to the point where you’re clogging your followers’ feeds with excessive content.
 

3. Include Images.

Consumers are attracted to visual stimuli and it naturally captures their attention. Capitalizing on this phenomenon by including images whenever possible is often the first step in getting potential customers to explore your product or service further. With image-centric sites like Pinterest, Tumblr, and Instagram, this is a given.

On other networks like Google+ and Facebook, you should take the time to add an image with each post to maximize clicks and generate interest. Also, make sure you’re only using high-quality images, no matter which network you’re posting on.

 

4. Curate Content.

Besides sharing promotional content, provide followers with relevant content from other resources. This could include products or services from other businesses that your audience might find useful. Another idea is to add articles or blog posts featuring information from your industry that’s entertaining or useful to your followers. Doing so is an effective way to network, prove that you’re not entirely self-serving, and gain credibility. Just ensure that all content you curate is genuinely valuable.

 

5. Offer Social Share Buttons.

One of the most simplistic yet effective ways to maximize exposure is by making it convenient to share your content. Social share buttons allow people to quickly post your products, services, or any other content to their platform of choice with one or two clicks. From there, this will appear in the feed of everyone in their network, which means the potential for even more shares. If you’re a WordPress user, browsing through the social media plugin list will provide a wide range of plugins that will add sharing buttons to your content.

 

6. Use Relevant Tags on your Posts.

Another way to increase exposure is to include relevant tags whenever possible. Although the tagging systems will vary from network to network, it’s important to insert them when you can. When deciding which tags to use, think about what consumers would naturally be searching for and take keywords into consideration.

This will make it easier for users to find your content on social media sites and potentially on search engines. Twitter allows you take this one step further and include hashtags into posts. If you can correlate your content into a trending topic and use a relevant hashtag, this can lead to a brief surge of exposure.

Social networks and sales can go hand in hand and be an excellent marketing technique when used correctly. The best part is that this type of campaign can be executed on a shoestring budget while reaching a massive audience. Following these tips and delivering great content should ultimately get your products or services in front of the right consumers, expand your reach, and lead to a higher sales volume.

 

http://www.businessbee.com/resources/marketing/6-tips-for-using-social-networks-to-increase-sales/

 

15 Cool Tips To Help Your Business Master Pinterest

By now, you’ve probably seen numerous Pinterest boards floating around online. Whether it’s a friend of yours sharing her board full of wedding inspiration and desires or sharing recipes, it’s a fair bet you’ve been shown several Pinterest boards full of fun and interesting hobbies.

 

But is it just a fun way to create galleries of all the things you love and share them with friends or is there more to it? Can you actually capitalize on Pinterest’s popularity for your business? The short answer is yes.

 

With this post, I’m not only going to show you some compelling reasons on why you should be using Pinterest for your business, but I’m also going to give you some cool tips on how to master the platform.

 

Why You Should Be Using Pinterest for Your Business

Pinterest is a network that gives consumers the ultimate freedom: they can create boards and search for others based on their own interests and hobbies. By having a presence on the platform, you’re increasing the chance of your business being top-of-mind for consumers looking for certain interests, products or services AND the opportunity for them to pin images of your products and services to their boards.

 

According to comScore, Pinterest users spend more money on more products, more often than any other user on the other top 5 social media sites. Not only that, but Pinterest also receives an estimated 85,500,00 unique visitors in one month alone, according to eBiz.

 

Pinterest can drive web traffic back to your company website too. Placing the ‘Pin It’ button on any image on your company page will help drive traffic back to your website because every single one of your pins will include a link to the original source.

 

Convinced yet? Ready to create a Pinterest business account? Here’s how you do it:

 

How to Create a Business Pinterest Account

Go to http://business.pinterest.com to set up your business account and click the red button that says “Join As a Business”. Select a business type, add all the contact details, including a password. Then fill out your profile including a company logo, a description of the company, your username and your website URL.

 

Here’s a tip for the business type you choose: The business type you choose with help your account rank on more relevant searches and provide relevant fields on your page

 

Three easy steps to create a business Pinterest account. So now that you have a business Pinterest account, how do you go about using it to elevate your business?

 

Here’s the List of 15 Cool Tips to Help your Business Master Pinterest
 

 

1.) Promote Your Pinterest Account Across Other Platforms-Add the Pinterest button to your website and promote your account through your other platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn. Consider launching a Pinterest contest and writing a fun blog post about it on your website.

 

2.) Create a Board on a Specific Topic (Ie. Weddings, Brunch Recipes, Classic Cars)-Taking this approach allows you to attract users passionate about a specific topic. Create resourceful boards using a few core keywords that you already use in your SEO strategy. Having such a board means being ready to add other users’ pins to enhance your collection.

 

3.) Engage W/ Others’ Pins-Follow users that you want to follow you back. Like and comment on their pins; when they see you interacting with their pins, they might be more likely to follow you.
 

4.) Avoid Human Faces in Photos-Data shows that photos without human faces are shared 23% more than images with faces in them

 

5.) Be Selective W/ Your Color Choices-Data shows that images with dominant colors of red, dark green and pink are shared 3X as much as images that don’t have them. Red or orange images are also re-pinned twice as often

 

6.) Try creating a User Generated Board-Similar to the ideas I floated in my post about getting more sales through UGC campaigns; by allowing prolific users to contribute their own pins, you open up your marketing to an entirely new world of valuable content by involving fans.

 

7.) Highlight Happy Customers-Encourage customers to send you photos or take photos of them at your next event-using your product or service!

 

8.) Promote Your Blog Content-Use photos that could be successful on Pinterest for your blog posts. By pinning those images on Pinterest, you will drive traffic directly back to your posts!

 

9.) Host a Contest-Another idea plucked from my previous post, asking dedicated users to take the time to create their own boards demonstrating what they love about your brand, products & services gives your fans agency and tells them you valued their input in your marketing. They’ll love you even more when you tell them that the best pinboard will win a prize!

 

10.) Add the Pin It button to your website-Make it easy for people to share images from your website.

 

11.) Add Links to the Pin Descriptions-Adding links to the descriptions of your images on Pinterest will drive traffic back to your main website, which allows you to measure how useful the platform is compared to your other social media presences.

 

12.) Build a Video Gallery-YouTube and Vine aren’t the only places where you can share videos! Build a library of videos about your products and services along with relevant images to catch fans’ attentions.

 

13.) Use Hashtags-Hashtags make content more search-friendly and it can help you leverage a marketing campaign on multi-channels such as Facebook and Twitter.

 

14.) Feature Offline Events-Create a pinboard with the best photos and videos from your events to help promote buzz for the next one.

 

15.) Embed Posts on Your Website-You can easily embed a Pinterest post on your website and increase the visibility of your Pinterest account on other websites.

 

Hope these tips will help your business jumpstart new marketing campaigns on Pinterest.

 

http://www.business2community.com/pinterest/15-cool-tips-help-business-master-pinterest-0974431

 

How to Use Pinterest Rich Pins to Sell Your Product

As the holiday season approaches brands are considering new ways to ramp up their efforts to sell products directly to customers online. Aside from comprehensive eCommerce website optimization retailers and other businesses are tapping into social media more than ever before. Certain networks are very effective in delivering consumers from casual online browsing directly to your virtual shopping cart. In particular, Pinterest leads the way as this bridge that catches “window shoppers” and turns them into paying customers. The untrained eye may deem Pinterest to be nothing more than a place to post a great picture of your product and link to the page on your website where it can be purchased. While that may be the gist of it, there is certainly more to consider. Today we will take a look at Rich Pins and how they can be a very effective tool to help you sell products on Pinterest.



5 Points on the Importance of Pinterest Rich Pins and How They Can Help You Reach Customers

1. Recognizing the Necessity of Pinterest to Reach Your Customers

Last month’s social media pop quiz detailed some very important statistics regarding Pinterest. First of all, a number many of you have already heard is that 80% of Pinterest users are women. What’s even more one-sided is that over 90% of pins made/shared on Pinterest are by women. Now let’s consider the implications of these staggering numbers when matched with consumer spending in general. Recent statistics show that women account for 85% of all consumer purchases and 58% of all total online spending. Another interesting fact that speaks directly to daily activity on Pinterest is that 92% of women pass along information about deals or finds to others. Which social network should you as a retailer start focusing on? Yep, that’s right.

2. The Definition of Rich Pins

Traditional Pinterest pins display your product image and only provide additional information to users when they hover their cursor over it. Even then that is the extent of the engagement unless the users clicks through the link to the product landing page on your website. Rich Pins however provide extra information directly on the pin itself, requiring no extra effort from the user to view it. This information can include items such as price, brand/retailer name, and where specifically it can be purchased. Rich Pins take users further along the purchase decision making process. If a user clicks the pin knowing this information “going in” then you know at that point that they are more qualified and less likely to opt out.

3. Types of Rich Pins

Currently there are five types of Rich Pins. There are Place Pins, which include a map/address/phone-number and are applicable to vacation property rental sites such as AirBnB but also have clear implications for the likes of real estate agents. There are Article Pins, which include a headline, author and article description to help users discover and save articles that matter to them. Content publishers will want to take note of this Rich Pin. Recipe Pins include ingredients, cooking times and serving information along with recipe search filters that allow users to narrow items down by dietary restrictions and preferences. Anyone on the food industry can benefit from this Rich Pin. Next are Movie Pins that offer users access to ratings, cast information, and reviews. Then we have Product Pins, the item most relevant to today’s discussion. Product Pins offer real-time pricing, product availability, and details on where users can buy the item (your online store, Etsy, eBay, etc…).

4. Product Pins in Action

One of the coolest parts about Rich Pin’s Product Pins is the feature that allows Pinners to receive immediate email notifications when Product Pins they’ve added drop in price. This action takes away the need for users to proactively return to a product page on their own to investigate price adjustments. They’ve already expressed interest in the product by adding it to their Pinterest collection, so when they receive the notification of a drop in price they will not see the email as being spammy, and will be more likely to make the purchase. Popular eCommerce platform Bigcommerce reported this week that just after two weeks of testing, their retailers saw an average Pinterest referral traffic increase of 38% with many others evidencing an over 50% boost. They also state that when big brand Target implemented Rich Pins their referral traffic from Pinterest increased by 70%. Rich Pins work.

5. Implementing Rich Pins

Assuming that you have set up a business page on Pinterest, have verified your website (follow the links to each if you have not), and have installed a Pin-It function on your website’s product images, you are then considered prepped to begin the Rich Pin application process. First of all, you will need to have your developer either set up an oEmbed endpoint or have Semantic Markup with Schema.org as you would if set up for Google Structured Snippets. With that technical stuff out of the way you need to simply decide if your business offering benefits from either Place, Article, Recipe, Movie, or Product Pins and then proceed to validate your Rich Pins by entering a valid URL for approval. All that you need to do then is await your approval from Pinterest while preparing to reap the benefits of Rich Pins in time for the bustling season of online shopping.

 http://www.standardmarketing.com/2014/10/use-pinterest-rich-pins-sell-product/