Online Marketing | Writing On The Web by Patsi Krakoff, The Blog Squad

Writing On The Web by Patsi Krakoff, The Blog Squad

Content Marketing Strategies for Smart Professionals

Archive for Online Marketing – Page 7

Razer Switchblade Wins CES People’s Choice Vote

By Patsi Krakoff

Sunday, January 9th, 2011

Confetti and balloons all over the office today at the Krakoff casa in Mexico: after five years as a finalist in the Las Vegas CES show, hubby and Razer Founder Rob Krakoff, aka Razerguy, accepted the People’s Choice trophy for best new gadget, a prototype, the Razer Switchblade.

The Razer company is a fine example of a community-focused marketing strategy. They design gaming peripherals “for gamers, by gamers.” They have passionate fans on Facebook who participate actively.

Their innovative people are always looking for ways to make the gaming experience better. Now, with the Switchblade, gamers can easily engage in their favorite games anywhere they go.

The Razer Switchblade is a portable gaming device with LCD keyboard. It’s hard to imagine, so I’ll direct you to this video of the product launch:

Congratulations to all the Razer guys!

Here are links to the awards on CNET:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjDSn7bxEOE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYZVrbwnR7M&feature=player_embedded

For all you who want to know what’s new in electronics from 2011 CES, here are the complete awards:

http://cnettv.cnet.com/best-ces-2011/9742-1_53-50098519.html?tag=api

Categories : Content Marketing

E-Newsletter Review: How’s Your Ezine?

By Patsi Krakoff

Wednesday, January 5th, 2011

You may be doing all the right content marketing things (e-newsletter, blog, articles, etc.) and still not get good results (get found, get known, get clients!) If all you’re doing is publishing good information, without personality, without offers, what’s the point?

I got an email from a client who lamented the poor results from her emailed newsletter. After a year she reported:

No new clients came to her after reading it
No new sign-ups were happening (or were rare)

She asked what she was doing wrong. Here were some of her questions, followed by my answers. This would be a good time to check your own e-newsletter for opportunities for improvement.

Could it be the article is too long?
Could it be I don’t know how to sell myself with my newsletter?
Could it be that I don’t choose the right article for my clients (they are small business owners and at time managers in various companies)?
Could it be that many people check their emails on their phone and do not have time to read my newsletters?

The person asking these good questions is an executive coach. She needs to “sell herself” by providing quality content that demonstrates her expertise in coaching matters and leadership and personal development issues. Read More→

Categories : Content Marketing, Executive Coach Ezine Article Topics, Getting Read, List Building Tips, Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks, On Writing Better, Promoting Your Ezine +/or Blog, Writing Better Ezines

Tags : Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, e-newsletters, ezines, Online Marketing, personal stories, personality

3 Easy Tips to Target Readers with Your Content

By Patsi Krakoff

Monday, January 3rd, 2011

This is a guest post from Sam Briones, a freelance writer, who explains how to get targeted traffic to read your online content.

You may be on your keyboard all day and night, writing about content that you are knowledgeable and passionate about. You know that what you are writing makes sense, and more importantly, your expertise could change someone’s outlook, or even their life!

However, you don’t seem to be getting responses. You check your blog, and the only comments are from your mother. What’s wrong, and how do you fix it?

While there are many writers out there who can really deliver, content-wise, the truth is, most of these writers aren’t marketers, or lack the marketing skills to get their work noticed by the people who may actually find the information they provide useful. If you’re one of those individuals, you can change that by following one or more of these easy tips.

1. Have the right domain name: You may love to write about web design, but if your domain name is something like Katlovesdogs.com, then nobody will ever associate your website or blog with design. In choosing your domain name, make sure that it states what your website is actually about. That way, it can also be searchable when people type in keywords.

2. Submit your work to article submission sites: You’ve gotten your domain right, but people are still not visiting your blog. Maybe you just need to inform a wider audience that you are indeed out there. Try taking a few blog posts or articles and submitting them to some article submission sites like ezinearticles.com or goarticles.com. Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing, Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks, Online Marketing, Social Media Stuff

Tags : Attracting Clients, blog content, blog marketing, blog writing, business blogging, Content Marketing, content marketing tips, Online Marketing, Writing for the Web

What Are Your Target Audience’s 5 Top Web Sites?

By Patsi Krakoff

Wednesday, December 15th, 2010

If you want to create content that engages readers, you have to know their online habits and interests. Yet how many of us scramble to post on a blog or upload a video to YouTube without taking time to survey our target audience?

Here’s a quick list of survey questions for your target audience:

What are the five top web sites you visit frequently in your work?
What are your online reading habits, blogs, websites, articles, videos, podcasts?
Do you use social media like Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn?
Do you access web content via RSS feeds?
Subscribe to e-newsletter and blogs?
Do you read web content from a smartphone?

You have about eight seconds to engage someone before they click away. Clever headlines will get them to click over to your content. But unless you know what your audience wants, you’re shooting in the dark. They won’t stay. Click and bye-bye.

Good content builds momentum and always has an objective, according to Ann Handley and CC Chapman in their book Content Rules. Therefore your content needs to trigger to action. That’s the way you engage readers to respond. Your content should be created with the end in mind: to further a relationship. Read More→

Categories : Attracting Clients, Brain Based Content Marketing, Content Marketing, Online Marketing

Tags : Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, content marketing with blogs, neuromarketing, Online Marketing, target audience

Content Marketing Tips to Get More “Juice”

By Patsi Krakoff

Thursday, December 9th, 2010

Here are some content marketing tips to save you time and energy while getting more visibility on the Web.

I began these writing tips when I wrote about taking one nugget of information, and instead of posting it as one blog post, you make a list of 3-5 sub-topics or issues. Then you expand each one into 3-5 blog posts.

The point is that as long as you are writing quality posts for your readers, use that content in multiple ways, at multiple points in time, and deliver it multiple ways.

For example:

Take a 300-word blog post, write an introduction, a conclusion and make it into a stand alone article of 450-500 words you can submit to article directories. Be sure to name it using a keyword-rich headline, and include your resource box with links to your blog, website and ezine sign up page.

Write one longer article (600-850 words) that ties together the 3-5 blog posts you used in your series. Write an introduction, a conclusion, and add your resource box including links to sign-up for your ezine and your blog. Submit it to article directories with different a title. Read More→

Categories : Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks, On Writing Better, Writing Better Ezines, Writing Great Blog Content

Tags : Attracting Clients, blog writing, Content Marketing, content marketing with blogs, online content, Online Marketing, web marketing, Web traffic, Writing for the Web

10 Ways to Use Facebook as a List Building Tool

By Patsi Krakoff

Friday, December 3rd, 2010

(Annalaura Brown is guest blogging this week, while Patsi’s on vacation.)

Facebook can be a powerful list building tool if you know how to use it properly as such. Here are ten ways you can use FB to build your email list and increase your online business income.

Share your blog posts.

You can do this automatically by using one of several tools such as ping.fm or networked blogs. Both of these tools allow you to post a blog post on your blog and then have the post automatically show up on your profile or fan page or both. Ping.fm puts it in your status update while networked blogs puts an image and a summary of the post on your wall. You will find that many people will read your blog posts from FB, comment, subscribe to your list etc.

2. Share your compelling opt-in offer.

You want to of course do this on your blog but they are additional ways that you can do it on FB too. Some examples of ways that work to do this are:

Include in a status update along with some cleverly written text
Put it as a link on your fan page along with an explanation
Put it with a description of a video that you upload to FB.

3. Use the notes application.

This is Facebook’s way of allowing you to write blog posts directly on FB. You can write notes with text and pictures and tag your friends to draw their attention to it. Make sure to avoid tagging too many people or tagging people who might not appreciate the gesture. You also want to always offer value with a link at the bottom to your opt-in offer. Avoid writing notes that may be seen as spam by others.

4. Share videos.

Videos are very popular on FB and if you do it right, your video may even go viral and be shared by others and create even more visibility for you and your offer. Make sure to include the link to your opt-in offer with the description part of your video.

5. Offer your offer as a solution to people’s problems. Read More→

Categories : Content Marketing, List Building Tips, Social Media Stuff

Tags : Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, Online Marketing, social media marketing, writing on the web

How’s Your LinkedIn Profile?

By Patsi Krakoff

Wednesday, December 1st, 2010

(Note from Patsi who is on vacation: This week I asked Phyllis Miller to write a guest post on social media resources. This is excellent advice you need to know and act on. And, if you haven’t already, connect with me on LinkedIn…)

I will be the first to admit that, when three years ago I received an invitation to LinkedIn.com, I joined without a clue as to what I was joining or doing.

Three years later I know that any professional who does not take the opportunity of a free and well-written LinkedIn profile is “cutting off his/her nose to spite his/her face.”

And this is true whether the professional plans to ever actually make connections on LinkedIn.

Why is this LinkedIn profile so important?

Let’s say you are a lawyer. You have written many legal articles for print publications (some with online sites) and you have served on various bar association committees.

If a prospective client were to “google” you, some of these legal articles and some references to you on bar association committees would appear in the search results.

Yes, if your firm has a website your firm profile will be there. But most of these firm profiles are one very long paragraph with rather stilted language.

None of the above provides a well-rounded look at who you are as a legal professional.

What you need is a well-formatted LinkedIn profile that people are accustomed to reading for others and would be able to easily read about you.

By setting up an effective profile, you can offer a range of professional information that will enable prospective clients to quickly learn about you – and hopefully do business with you.

And the good thing about your profile is that you can always add to it and revise it whenever you want. (In fact, if your law firm changes its name – due to a loss or gain of a partner, for example – remember to change the firm name throughout your profile.)

Be sure to include a good headshot of yourself and choose the option of your whole name appearing on your profile rather than just your first name and the first initial of your last name.

Bonus tip: LinkedIn offers company pages (still in beta as of this writing) and has just rolled out product and service tabs for these company pages. Here is a blog post to help you take advantage of these new opportunities: http://www.millermosaicllc.com/linkedin/new-linkedin-company-feature/

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) and her social media marketing business partner Yael K. Miller (@MillerMosaicLLC on Twitter) offer a Professional Setup service. See http://www.millermosaicllc.com/linkedin-professional-setup/

Categories : Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, Social Media Stuff

Tags : Attracting Clients, blog marketing, Content Marketing, Online Marketing, social media marketing, Writing for the Web

7 Mistakes Speakers Make with Presentations

By Patsi Krakoff

Monday, November 29th, 2010

We’ve often heard the brain can only hold seven things in mind. The brain research behind this is valid, and in everyday life we experience it with 7-digit phone numbers.

This week in Las Vegas, at Chris Farrell’s and Mike Filsaime’s Affiliatedotcom.com event, many speakers presented “7 Steps” to better internet marketing. But I think there’s a perception that an audience will listen and remember 7 things from a presentation which is wrong.

What’s true for phone numbers isn’t true for concepts.

Try 3-4 things instead. There’s no way anyone can remember seven tips from a presentation. No way. Especially when there are 6-7 other speakers on the podium per day, over two days.

Let’s get real, folks. The other things is, that to be effective, you need to repeat your message several times. Now some of the speakers were able to do this, even in spite of having 7 tips. But that makes for a lot of repeating and it’s still not going to be remembered.

But with 3 things, yes, you can drill them home. 1-2-3. Repeat at least 7 times, and you’ve got a message that will be remembered and associated with your name.

The more I think about this, this “rule of 3” should also apply to other content you publish and communicate: newsletters, blogs, white papers, ebooks, etc.

Especially in this era of information overload, we need to become more aware and considerate of our target audiences’ capacity to receive and retain messages. Only 3 main points or steps to your solutions. Not 7. Read More→

Categories : Brain Based Content Marketing, Content Marketing, Online Persuasion, Writing Speeches

Tags : internet marketing, online content, Online Marketing, persuasion, presentations, speeches, Writing for the Web

Print Consumer Magazines Score Big in Europe

By Patsi Krakoff

Thursday, November 18th, 2010

Print magazines are alive and well, but they’re in transition. The ones that are thriving are customer magazines, designed to be helpful and relevant to consumers while delivering marketing messages and building brand loyalty.

Yesterday I led a workshop in the Netherlands at Media Partners Group. They specialize in both Dutch and English language publications for large companies, like Shell Oil and Heineken Beer, among others. Here’s the way they describe themselves:

MediaPartners Group inspires with text and images. We build relationships, stimulate sales and promote loyalty. We reach clients or employees by performing the unexpected, but without being creative for creativity’s sake.

Our dedicated team of specialists in the areas of strategy, design, content, copy, account and project management provide clients with sponsored magazines, web design, direct marketing solutions, in store communications, advertising and loyalty programmes for internal and external target groups.

As almost everywhere in Holland, professional people all speak English. There were several staff members from the UK, which is why they are able to create high quality communications for huge global corporations. The other reasons are because they are a group of talented smart people who love their work. Read More→

Categories : Attracting Clients, Brain Based Content Marketing, Content Marketing, Online Persuasion

Tags : brain science, Content Marketing, customer magazines, Online Marketing, Patsi Krakoff, persuasion

Archive for Online Marketing – Page 7

Razer Switchblade Wins CES People’s Choice Vote

What Are Your Target Audience’s 5 Top Web Sites?

Content Marketing Tips to Get More “Juice”

7 Mistakes Speakers Make with Presentations

Print Consumer Magazines Score Big in Europe

Content for Coaches and Consultants

Serenity Virtual Assistant Services

Social Buzz Club

Archive for Online Marketing – Page 7

CoTweet

Content for Coaches and Consultants

Serenity Virtual Assistant Services

Social Buzz Club