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Get A Marketing Boost Using Linkedin

Can you visualize using Linkedin in your marketing, but not yet seen how to fit it into your campaign? Have you heard about the potential benefits Linkedin, but not yet joined the chorus? Do you feel that Linkedin is under rated, but are not sure how to build on the platform?

Linkedin has a bit of a reputation of being the social media underdog. But for business marketing, there’s a huge opportunity. As with all social media marketing, there are a few things you need to know

  • LinkedIn is great for networking; if you want to be discovered, put yourself where people are looking.
  • Make sure your profile describes your interests and activities. You want people like you to find you, so make sure they know what you do. A good profile will help you appear in keyword searches too.
  • Be consistent and use your LinkedIn profile to link to your business website or blog, so that people know what you do professionally.
  • Social media can help to build your image, so ensure that your websites, blogs, comments, profiles and tags contribute to your online business brand.
  • Maintaining an online brand as part of your marketing strategy requires sustained effort so be in it for the long haul.

If you are serious about your online marketing strategy, and want to use Linkedin to build a following around your brand, here is a check list of twelve things you need to do:

  1. Update your Linkedin Profile to include your brand message.
  2. Connect with others to build up your network.
  3. Join as many groups in your niche as you can.
  4. Post quality content to your groups.
  5. Participate in discussions to give back to the group.
  6. Answer questions in LinkedIn Answers area.
  7. Integrate your LinkedIn account with Twitter.
  8. Link to LinkedIn from Facebook and other social media.
  9. Let people know that you have viewed their profile
  10. Add the Linkedin share plugin on your websites and blogs
  11. Set a regular time slot to review and contribute LinkedIn content and stick to it.
  12. Consider using LinkedIn Ads

If you are dedicated to marketing using Linkedin, why not start a Linkedin Group for each of your products and start building a following around your brand. Like all social media, the secret is to post to it frequently so that it is always fresh and current.

If you can, make a habit of sharing an interesting piece of content every day, to build up your presence. This can take less than 15 minutes per day and you should consider that time as an investment in your personal online brand. Time on LinkedIn well spent!

Why not get a marketing boost by integrating Linkedin into your business strategy?

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Have You Updated WordPress?

Unbelievable as it may seem, there are plenty of WordPress users who do not upgrade their installations to the latest version when they are released. This post should encourage every WordPress site administrator to Update WordPress as soon as possible.

There may be a number of reasons why you might want to upgrade WordPress, including:

  • A security fix has been released
  • Some useful new functionality has become available
  • You have seen a message at the top of your Dashboard telling you that a new release is available

The latest version of WordPress (3.4.1 at time of writing) comes with an impressive array of improvements including embedded Tweets, custom header from Media Library, and performance boosts under the hood, and of course all the latest security patches to ensure that your Blog is as secure as it can be.

Twitter Embeds
This is a great new feature which allows you to share Tweets with style. You can now embed individual tweets in posts, so that you can make a feature of a reference to another author or micro-blogger, or just highlight one of your own. Great for your personal marketing!

It includes action links that allow readers to reply to, retweet, and favorite the tweet, all without leaving your site. To use the feature, all you have to do is paste a tweet URL on its own line. When you save the post, it will look something like this:


This works with URLs from some other sites, too. For more, see the Codex article on Embeds.

Choose from Media Library
This useful feature of Custom Headers allows you to choose header images from your media library to customize your theme, rather than having to upload the same custom header image every time you check out a new theme.

Live Theme Previews
It is now possible to try out new themes and update the header and background before the theme is activated. This removes the panic to update those details as soon as you activate a new theme. Please note that this feature is only available for installed themes.

You can also use the live preview mode to customize your current theme by using the Customize link on the Themes screen.

Flexible Header Image Sizes
If your theme supports the feature, you can now decide for yourself how tall or wide your custom header image should be. From now on, themes will provide a recommended image size for custom headers rather than a fixed requirement.

Please note that not all current themes will support this feature, so contact your theme designer and ask them for the latest version of your theme.

Performance Boosts
Among the Performance Boosts available in the latest release of WordPress are the following:

  • Faster WP_Query – Post queries have been optimized to improve performance, especially for sites with large databases.
  • Faster Translations – The number of strings loaded in the WordPress front end has been greatly reduced, resulting in faster front page load times for localized installations. Also provides better support for East Asian languages, right-to-left languages, theme translations, and more.
  • Themes API – Key procedures in WordPress (WP_Theme, wp_get_themes(), wp_get_theme()) are faster, uses less memory, and makes use of persistent caching.

For more information about WordPress see WordPress Codex – Updating WordPress

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What is Conversion Rate Optimization?

OK so we have seen SEO, so what is Conversion Rate Optimization or CRO? In the language of Internet Marketing, the process of improving the experience of the visitor in order to convert them into a paying customer is called conversion optimization, or sometimes conversion rate optimization.

So when we have just managed to get our heads round the idea of SEO, why do we need to think about Conversion Rate Optimization? Remember, the primary purpose of web advertising is to get people who might be interested in buying something from you to visit your web site. In other words, to get the greatest number of visitors to email you or call you with their contact information, and ultimately to buy your products and services.

Conversion Rate Optimization is the process of increasing website leads and sales without spending money on attracting more visitors by reducing your visitor attrition or bounce rate. Another way to look at it is to make more use of the visitors to your site by turning them into customers. Conversion Rate is the ratio of visitors to committed customers, and we optimize our page or site to improve this ratio.

There are two main approaches to conversion optimization, the first focuses on testing as an approach to discover the best way to increase conversion rates for a landing page, website, or campaign. The second approach focuses on understanding the audience and then creating a targeted message that appeals to that particular demographic. Both approaches are equally valid, and some CRO Experts advise us to use both methods as part of our strategy to convert visitors to customers.

Look out for future marketing postings where we will be taking Conversion Rate Optimization a stage further, and looking at some simple tools to help you turn your visitors into paying customers.

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Katie Freiling featured WordPress blog

The featured WordPress blog this week is the personal, coaching and marketing site of Katie Freiling, a social media, blogging, and personal development coach in the online home business industry. This one takes the headline position because of its balance between the personal blog style, and the content and panache of a marketing guru. It uses the Fresh News theme by WooThemes from WooThemes

The site is a must see for anybody who is considering setting up a blog for marketing purposes, including nonprofit organizations, associations or coalitions, or even just to promote a worthy cause. It contains tips on Video marketing, getting top rankings in search engines, list building and numerous desirable achievements. The included YouTube videos are textbook examples of the way to build your brand online, in small chunks.

Among her plugins, Katie is using the WP-FacebookConnect, WP-Polls and the ubiquitous Contact Form 7. WP-FacebookConnect adds Facebook functionality to WordPress using the Facebook Connect APIs. It provides single sign-on, avatars, and News Feed publication of comments. WP-Polls adds an AJAX based poll system to your WordPress blog so that you can easily include a poll into a page or post.

You can find the plugins to add to your own WordPress site by following the links below:

Click here to visit Katie Freiling’s blog

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The Battle of Fearlessness Is Released

As announced in the Tweet from Aleksandr Orlov, there is a new epic movie on release from Aleksandr Orlov productions in association with Meermax. Called The Battle of Fearlessness, it depicts the struggle between Aleksandr’s great grandfather Vitaly and the Mongis Khan, the evil Mongolian mongoose and his mongoose army.

In his inimitable style Aleksandr himself announces:
“New movie is now launch! For watching of ultimate display of fearlessness click here http://bit.ly/bAOi7P (not suitable for meerkitten)”

We know how treasures from Aleksandr Orlov are so eagerly awaited, so to assure you that this is not a late April fool’s joke, we are providing an embedded direct link to the source for you to enjoy:

Our verdict: the best Aleksandr Orlov film yet, a must see! The sound track also deserves a special mention, for it’s stirring musical qualities and crescendos. We will not spoil the cliffhanger ending, just watch it for yourself and enjoy. However, also check out the official site which provides links to reviews and a downloadable poster. Click here to visit the official site for The Battle of Fearlessness.

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Boost Your Web Marketing Strategy

Many self proclaimed gurus of Internet marketing will tell you that there are three main steps to your web marketing strategy:

  • Get More People to Your Site
  • Convert More Web Site Visitors to Leads
  • Convert More Qualified Leads to Clients

The problem with these general steps is that they are unqualified and in need of a reality check. In fact some of the activities recommended by some “experts” can serously damage your credibility, and ultimately your on-line business. As Matt Mullenweg pointed out in his post 6 Steps to Kill Your Community, short term measures to increase your traffic through such means may be short-sighted and harmful.

Take the intention to get more people to your website; you could for example write something controversial on your blog, and then advertise it on all your Social Networking sites. You may well get even more visitors by allowing unmoderated comments and ping-backs, so that your blog becomes the centre of a great debate. However, do you think many of those visitors will be interested in your products or services, and turn into clients? Not likely!

So the first step is not just to drive more visitors to your site. The real objective is to attract people who are interested in your products or services.

Next, in order to convert those visitors into leads, who your marketing machine (i.e. you!) call to chase up, the conventional wisdom is to force visitors to access the good stuff via a squeeze page. While this allows the visitor to get email notifications of new stuff, and targeted special offers, if this is too “in your face”, your conversion rate will be low.

The trick is to provide a reason for visitors to sign up for your mailing list. Give them useful information, even if they are not yet ready to commit their email address, to establish the attitude of gratitude, and when they do sign up, give them loads more. This sets the pattern of action leading to reward, and will make the next step easier.

Finally, to convert your qualified leads to clients, give them tasks to do, such as polls or surveys, to establish a pattern of responsiveness. You can also use open ended blog entries to encourage the responses. This increase your user engagement until they are ready to buy.

Remember, the primary purpose of your web site is to get the greatest number of visitors to email you or call you with their contact information, and ultimately to buy your products and services. The purpose of web advertising is to get people who might be interested in buying to visit your web site.

The three step boost for your Web Marketing Strategy is simply this:

  • Attract people who are interested in your products or services
  • Provide a reason to sign up for your mailing list
  • Convert your qualified leads to clients by establishing a pattern of responsiveness

Get more qualified people to contact you, and your sales could skyrocket within weeks.

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More Viral Marketing with Aleksandr Orlov

The latest episode in the viral marketing campaign Compare The Meerkat has aired, and of course has made it to YouTube. This time the advert (a short film called The Journey of Courageousness) even has a trailer!

The film called The Journey of Courageousness, by Aleksandr Orlov, documents the courageous journey of the Meerkats from their home in the Kalahari desert to finally end up in Russia. As usual for this sequence of adverts, the production is excellent, and the storyline is brisk and full of comedic moments. Check out Sergei looking seasick on the ocean crossing!

Compare The Meerkat Film Trailer

The Journey of Courageousness – Compare The Meerkat Advert (Jan 2010)

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The Power of Viral Marketing

Everyone has heard about viral marketing right? You know, where a marketing campaign uses social networks to increase brand awareness and boost product sales. Who would have guessed that a man in a gorilla suit playing the drums would have been one of the most talked-about ads of the decade?

The term viral comes from the spread of information, and hence brand awareness, by word of mouth or self-replicating viral processes, which is analogous to the spread of pathological and computer viruses. The power comes through fans downloading and forwarding the ad to friends. Some notable examples are:

Bear Fight – John West Salmon
Released in November 2000, and starting out as a nature documentary, this witty ad quickly turns into a fight between a man and bear over a salmon. The bear was in fact a stuntman in a 7ft-tall bear suit from Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. Written by Paul Silburn and directed by Daniel Kleinman, this was one of the first ads to use the viral power of the internet.
Click here to watch John West Salmon ‘Bear Fight’

Cadbury’s Gorilla
Cadbury’s Dairy Milk 2007 Gorilla advertising campaign was heavily popularised on YouTube and Facebook. This ad had a massive impact, being viewed more than 10 million times on YouTube, spawning numerous spoofs and winning a string of awards for its director, copywriter and art director Juan Cabral.
Click here to view Cadbury’s Gorilla Advert

The Return of Monkey – PG Tips
When PG Tips wanted to revise the Monkey character and reconnect with its advertising heritage, they called on copywriters Mark Waites, Ben Mooge and Al Maccuish, along with Mother creative directors, Rob Saville and Mark Waites to produce a witty storyline. In the first ad from January 2007, Monkey returns drenched and dishevelled as a mascot on the front of a truck. Ten thousand people signed up to Monkey’s MySpace page within the first few weeks of its launch.
Click here to watch PG Tips ‘The Return’

T-mobile adverts
Real-life aspiring musician, Josh Ward, has been challenged by T-Mobile to put together a band of hundreds or even thousands of musicians, using its free unlimited texts and internet on mobile for life rewards on pay as you go. Josh appeared in the first part of the campaign in September 2009 which saw real people being stopped in the street and asked what they would do with free texts for life. Josh, who was originally filmed on his way to a gig in London’s Brick Lane, said he’d use free texts for life to set up a superband – so T-Mobile challenged him to make his dream a reality. Since he started his quest, over 24,000 people have logged onto Josh’s MySpace profile and his videos have had more than 6,000 views on YouTube .
Click here to view T-mobile What would you do with free internet for life?

Comparethemarket: Comparethemeerkat
One of my personal favorites is the meerkat ads on TV from VCCP. Aleksandr Orlov is an aristocratic meerkat, and the founder of www.comparethemeerkat.com, which is constantly being mistaken for the other site, which is in no way similar! The character is voiced by Simon Greenall, and Aleksandr now has in excess of 600,000 Facebook fans, and 31,230 Twitter followers last time I looked. The insurance site increased its market share of UK insurance comparison site visits by 76% between January and August 2009. Not bad for some cute but simple puppets and a good idea. It even has a great jingle which just goes round and round in your head all day – com-pare-the-meer-kat, dot-com! Simples!
Click here for the Official Compare the Meerkat Advert
Click here for the Official Compare the Meerkat Bloopers

Although marketing experts acknowledge that the basic form of viral marketing is not infinitely sustainable, the successful campaigns can be spectacular and have world-wide impact. If you are planning a viral marketing exercise, you just better be prepared for it to be a success!