We often hear a similar story from new clients: “I’m not sure if search engine optimization is right for us.” And, we get it. It’s not tangible. It’s hard to digest. It’s not an easy process to understand even for those of us that do it every day. It’s technical, it’s confusing and it is also the most important aspect of your website.

Think about it for a minute. How do you find information? Where is the first place you go? When someone tells you something you don’t necessarily believe, what do you say? “I’m going to Google it!” It’s true. It’s our life. So, when someone needs your services or your products, you better make sure that when they search for it, your website is ranked at the top of that page otherwise you have just lost potential business.

First, it’s important to understand what keywords are relevant to your prospective customers. What queries are they using to find your company and/or services and products related to your company’s offerings? Once you understand what your customers are searching for, you can develop your website’s architecture strategically by: (1) adding pages of content tailored to these keywords and (2) ensuring your website will convert visitors to leads by having the right calls-to-action on your site.

Did you know that Google looks for “high-quality” websites by determining if the content is rich and useful for users? Here are some questions to help you assess your website’s quality.

Your website is much more than just space on the Internet. It can be your most affordable, effective marketing and business development tool. Let Pomerantz help unlock the potential of your website. Contact us today for a complimentary online strategy assessment.

Most people have at least one friendship that is one-sided. When you get together with this friend, all they want to do is talk about themselves. You’re lucky if they get around to asking how you are doing. It can be really frustrating.

The ironic thing is that this same one-sided dialog is practically the norm when it comes to marketing communications in today’s business world. Pull up your company’s website and take a look. Chances are, it’s all about how wonderful your company is and everything you do with little regard to the customers you serve and how you are improving their worlds. Think about that self-centered friend and then ask yourself: how is a prospective customer, employee or strategic partner supposed to connect with your company if they can’t even relate to you?

Here’s a simple formula to keep in mind: Relationships + Results = Revenue. So, what does this mean? In order to connect with your target audiences — whether customers, employees, strategic partners, resellers, distributors, or some other audience — highlight the relationships that you already have. Let these relationships speak for you. For example, if you’re trying to be relatable to prospective customers, showcase what you’ve achieved for your existing customers in mini-case studies or customer vignettes.

Within these mini-case studies or customer vignettes, cite specific results. Did you help them save money? Expand their business? Improve safety? Reach new markets? Highlight the results you achieved for them in a way that will resonate with prospective customers.

Instead of pontificating about how wonderful your company is, emphasize your existing relationships and the results you have achieved in a creative manner. This will drive revenue because it’s proof that working with your company is a worthwhile experience.

Here is how we used the Relationships + Revenue = Results formula for our client, RouteSmart Technologies, as the cornerstone of their marketing strategy:

The billboard on RouteSmart’s homepage is centered around results-oriented customer vignettes in each of their four vertical markets.

RouteSmart’s website contains a robust Success Center where visitors can view videos and read case studies about their customer successes.

Whether you’re prepared or not, the Digital Age of marketing is upon us. To avoid getting lost in the crowd, it is imperative to transition your brand into the digital world. Digiday “The Authority on Digital Media, Marketing and Advertising” published an article last week that explored the battle of brands to stay relevant and embrace digital. Here’s what we learned from their article:

1. BE CUSTOMER-FOCUSED

Building relationships and keeping the customer as your main focus has always been key in traditional marketing and continues to be true in digital marketing as well.

2. BE OPEN TO CHANGE

Be flexible to try to new things. Don’t get lost in the printed collateral clutter. Make your presence known online and off.

3. TAKE RISKS

No one is ever remembered for “playing it safe.” Sure, it might be a risk to try something out-of-the-ordinary —but all press is good press, right?

4. ANALYTICS ARE YOUR FRIEND

Don’t just make reports, read and learn from them. Listen to customer complaints and suggestions, then makes changes.

5. DIGITAL FOR ALL

Digitial should be infused into all aspects of your brand, not just here and there.

How is your brand keeping up with the Digital Age? What advice can you share for being successful? We’d love to read your comments — post below!

And if you’re interested in learning more about Brand Consistency, register for a FREE Online Seminar by Marketing Profs

Click here to read Digiday’s article entitled, “5 Habits of Unsuccessful Brands in Digital.”

1. Add social share buttons to the end of your blog posts
Make it easy for others to share your content with others. Scroll to the end of this post for an example.

2. Want others to share your content easily through Twitter?
Try http://clicktotweet.com/. Whoever clicks the link will have your customized tweet added automatically to their Twitter status box.

3. Post images anytime you can
Users are way more likely to notice and interact with posts that have a visual component.

4. Create custom YouTube thumbnails
Videos can be a great SEO boost for your company/product. Upload a custom thumbnail that let’s people know what they will find in your video.

5. Run a Facebook ad
Help drive your target audience to your Facebook page. If you’re selling something, make sure to offer a deal. Don’t forget to use images!

6. Quick networking through LinkedIn
Have LinkedIn import your contacts from Outlook, Gmail, Hotmail, etc. to make quick & easy connections.

Join LinkedIn groups.
Start by finding groups that are relevant to your industry and business, whether local or global.

Begin by listening.
Find out what the group environment is like to see how others post/respond/interact with the group.

Start the conversation by posting an introduction about your company and yourself.
Act as if you are meeting these members face-to-face. Be friendly and approachable but don’t try to sell anyone anything upfront.

Establish yourself as a helpful authority.
Share things that are valuable to the group. Answer questions or offer assistance when members ask. By doing this, you will be recognized as a helpful resource and other members will begin to build trust with you and your company.

Expand your relationships beyond the group page.
As you meet new people through LinkedIn groups, ask them to be a Connection. This will help expand your online reach and create new business opportunities.

Stay active.
Continue to post regularly. To make an impact and become a recognized group member, make a point to check in on group updates. This is more easily accomplished if you dedicate your time to a small number of groups that are most relevant to your line of business.

Resources:
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/use-linkedin-groups-company-10990.html
http://www.business2community.com/linkedin/linkedin-groups-how-to-use-them-successfully-0152020#Qh6M2iTHrkCLWV23.99
http://internetmarketerselite.com/how-to-use-linkedin-groups-to-establish-yourself-as-a-thought-leader/

Need help with your personal profile?
Click here to read about 5 Tips to Improve Your LinkedIn Profile!

Trying to plan local events with family and friends before the weather gets too cold?

How about heading to a pumpkin patch?

Getting lost in a corn maze?

Picking a bushel of apples?

Getting freaked out at a haunted house?

Have you ever seen Annapolis by candlelight?

What about a 3-mile run in a costume?

Ever participated in an intense, historical tug of war?

There is SO MUCH happening in and around Annapolis. Don’t miss out on all the fun!

What are you favorite fall things to do? Share your stories and plans with us below.

Trying to engage and win over prospective clients is always a challenge. You might be the kind of company that runs continual campaigns and events to gain new business. Or you might be a small business that is so overwhelmed that you may not even know where to start. Whether big or small, here are some tips to help you learn the art of hyper targeting.

TARGETED CAMPAIGN

• Focus on a highly targeted group of companies/individuals.
• Create a campaign that highlights an area of excellence for you.
• Target niche segments you have expertise in.
• Find your sweet spot—you need to have a right to win.

DIFFERENTIATION

• Demonstrate how your agency or company works rather than just results.
• Display immediate value to the prospect.
• Be relevant and stay focused.
• Check out the competition.

REPORTING AND ADAPTING

• Don’t expect immediate results; relationships take time.
• Reporting must always be a key aspect of any campaign.
• Always keep track of what works and what doesn’t.
• Adapt your program based on your findings, and be open to change.

These tips were gleaned from a webinar I attended last week entitled, Hyper Targeting Q4 Agency New Business, sponsored by The List.

Also, don’t forget about using LinkedIn to directly connect with prospects. Here some tips to help improve your profile.

Share your tips for targeting new business. How do you engage and build relationships with prospects? Post your comments below!

You know that feeling of putting on your clothes for the day and just feeling bored with yourself? There may even be the fleeting thought of pulling a Miley Cyrus and chopping your hair into some radical new do. Or, if you’re a guy, maybe you envision trading in your Prius for a Harley and hitting the road.

Well, when you’re in business, the same bored, blah feeling can arise about your website — especially if it’s been several years since you’ve overhauled it. That’s what happened to us, at Pomerantz. We’re in the creative business, and we are so busy recalibrating and revamping our clients’ brands and web presences that sometimes we neglect our website. Yes, we are guilty of this, too! And then, we start having these internal conversations about what we want to do to refresh our web presence and the job takes on a life of its own. It becomes this multi-faceted project-a-thon that will take months. We want to update our logo. We want to articulate the way we do web more effectively. We want to update our presentation. We want to create videos of the website makeovers we’ve done. You see what I mean?

Our way of breaking free from paralysis by analysis was to not try to accomplish everything at once. We decided to refresh our existing site without doing a major league overhaul so we could just feel better about getting up and working each day. We put our updated logo in it, jazzed up the color palette, streamlined the navigation a bit and enhanced our search engine optimization efforts and tracking. And now, we’re launching campaigns featuring our recent work.

The point of all of this is that, instead of being paralyzed by too much to do, we found a way to make a quick impact while we figure out the other stuff. It’s given us a jolt of new energy and has created a springboard for evolving further over the next six months.

So if you’re feeling blah about your company’s website and want fast gratification while you plan for the big overhaul, consider freshening it up. We’re doing a lot of this lately for our clients. Check out the before of Main Ingredient’s website and the after.

And, check out our before and after. 

Of course, we’re here to help if you want a professional touch.

Do you have a website? Then you better have analytics in place. Google Analytics is by far the best choice when it comes to affordable, reliable data.

With that said, just adding the tracking script to your website isn’t going to automatically make people visit your site or enhance the performance. When collecting data, it’s all about how you analyze it, move forward and work on improvements. Like we mentioned a few weeks back, web design and implementation is constantly changing and new, better features are being introduced. Websites will always be changing, and any good website should never stop changing and improving. One of your biggest online allies is learning to understand and analyze your data.

If you’re a total novice to Google Analytics, just want to learn more about it or hoping to get certified, there is a library of free videos, Google Analytics IQ Lessons that Google has published. They take you, step by step, through some of the most important and useful aspects of Google Analytics. To get certified, you can sign up to take the Google Analytics Individual Qualification (IQ) test. It’s $50 and there are tons of resources online to help you study for the exam.

Search Engine Watch published an article yesterday on the “4 Google Analytics Features You Probably Haven’t Used.”

Their list includes:

1. Page Speed
2. In-Page Analytics
3. The Network Report (AKA Reverse IP Lookup)
4. Visualize with Motion Charts.

Since I do a lot of work with social media, I am constantly using Google Analytics URL Builder to help me tag my URLs. It is such an easy and useful way to see who is actually interacting with your social media pages and visiting your website.

So what are your Google Analytics tips? How do you use your data to improve your online presence? We’d love to hear from you–post your comments below!

With new trends and applications popping up every week, it can be very overwhelming to stay in the social media loop. But if you are using social media to grow your business and potential clients, you need to stay up on your game.

Here are some of our favorite resources to use everyday:

Social Media Examiner, the world’s largest online social media magazine, is designed to help businesses discover how to best use social media tools like Facebook, Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn to connect with customers, generate more brand awareness and increase sales.

They always post very relevant easy-to-understand articles, podcasts and reports that anyone can learn from!

Here are some of my favorite articles and podcasts they’ve posted recently:
4 Tips to Evangelize Your Brand on Facebook
9 Facebook Marketing Tips to Improve Engagement
Google+ Marketing: Why Marketers Should Not Overlook Google+

MarketingSherpa is a research institute specializing in tracking what works in all aspects of marketing.

I’ve downloaded a bunch of their e-books and always find something relevant and insightful about their research.

MarketingProfs isn’t just a Web site. We certainly publish a site online (as well as tons of online newsletters). But we also produce live events, virtual seminars, and offer a stage for community interaction.

I LOVE MarketingProf’s e-newsletters. They consistently provide the most useful and enlightening information. I always looks forward to reading their emails.

Mashable is a leading source for news, information and resources for the Connected Generation. Mashable reports on the importance of digital innovation and how it empowers and inspires people around the world.

If you want to know what is happening RIGHT NOW in the social media world, look no further. Mashable offers the most recent (and quirky) social media news.

How do you stay in touch with social media trends? What resources do you use everyday? POST your insights below!