December 13,  2012 by Mary Killelea

I am a huge fan of Amy Porterfield, she and I connected on Facebook
awhile back. We both love Facebook Marketing.
I am thrilled to help her promote her new
product that really breaks Facebook Marketing down into easy to follow steps!

Please watch her video!

In order to thrive in growing your business using online
marketing strategies you need a few KEY things:

1. The right tools
2. Traffic
3. Conversions

It’s simple when you know exactly what to do.

Luckily for you, right now there is one resource
you can to leverage to achieve these 3 things.

That resource is……… Facebook!

With close to 1 Billion members on Facebook
there is no question this is the best place online
to get more leads, traffic, and sales.

Are you making the most out of it right now
or letting your competitors take the leads from you?

Seriously you gotta see this video

You’ll learn exactly what you need
to do to create more fans on Facebook and how to
turn them into Super Fans!
Cheers to a prosperous 2012!

April 21, 2011 by Mary Killelea

Today I attended the 2011 eMarketing Summit and once again it was a wonderful event filled with useful sessions that highlighted areas in the world of Social Marketing, Search and Mobile Marketing.

The highlight for me for sure was the presentation on The Mobile Marketing Frontier by Aron Ezra, CEO Macroview Labs. It was hard not to be overwhelmed by the numbers and opportunity he presented in the Mobile arena.  Here are some of the interesting stats he provided. 

650,000 Smart phones are activated daily

over 350,000 apps are available in the Apple App Store

there have been over 10 BILLION downloads

mobile searches are up 500% in the last 2 years.

more time is spent by users on their smart phones browsing the web than talking on their phones

Ask yourself if you accidently left your wallet and your mobile phone behind some where like on a bus, which would you be more concerned about retrieving? The majority say their phone!

Another interesting take away from Aron’s presentation was and I am summarizing this is, that just like social media the value or motivation for a company has to be engagement with users not so much sales - sales will come thru user engagement, exposure of your business, and the interation you create. If you are looking to create an app don’t create for the sole purpose of making a buck. Create apps that are free, more peope will sample them and use them as opposed to even selling them for .99 cents.  There are ways to monitize it not at the expense of customers but think out side the box at partnerships or sponsors, while still making it accessible to users for free.

Each company is unique and each purpose and function and desired engagement from their audience is unquie - know your audience, test your apps, listen to feedback and study the anyaltics and if you can afford to test amoungst focus groups do so.

Developing a mobile site  is different from a regular website, KNOW what you’re doing or hire an expert in mobile development, there are compability & design issues that need to be addressed. Users use their desktops differently than they use their mobile phones — don’t just recreate your site in a mobile version. When designing think of of the users reason for looking up your site via thier phone vs. the desktop, understand their reason for engagement, help them understand and appreciate their reason for engagement. If you have a mobile site promote that from your website - share that info with your users to build your relationship with them.  Some of your users depending on your offering or business type might be android users vs. iphone users. This is valuable information keep this in mind when you are designing your mobile site or app. 

Lastly the biggest take away from Aron’s presentation which I don’t think people get yet is  MOBILE MARKETING should be a part of your marketing mix. I still believe as a business you should try and increase your web presence thru SEO and Social Media like facebook and seriously consider mobile marketing as another opportunity to build your brand!

QR stands for Quick ResponseApril 20, 2011 By Mary KilleleaQR Codes are two dimensional barcodes that can be decoded using web enabled mobile device with a camera.

1. Web Enabled Phone with a camera
2. QR Code App Downloaded to Smart Phone
3. Customer takes a picture of the QR Code
4. Phone reads it and either by

a. sending you to a link  to a web page or youtube video
b. it gives you a text message
c. saves as a vcard. 

Drawbacks
There are No standards
Have to download an app
Spotty Wireless connection possibilities.

Pros
If you offer them to your client you are perceived as a  foreword thinking company it’s an added value to your client
likely to become more and more popular

HOW TO CREATE IT:
A service for creating a QR code is called bit.ly-bit.ly  it will not only create a QR code for you, but will also track it. (Note: You have to create an account to track QR codes.)

Here are some questions to ask your clients before you provide a quote: 

1. What are you wanting the code to do when it was scanned?
2. Do you want it to go a your site?
3. Do you want it displayed on your site? If not on your site on what third party will it be placed?
4. Will it send a text, link to a video, link to a landing page? 
5. Do you want it to go to a unique landing page if so  will we be asked to create that and if so what does that encompass?
6. How do you envision your customers utilizing the QR codes?

After you get your client feedback then you can provide an educated estimate for the task. These are fun, new and innovative and soon will be utilized by the masses the sooner you get familiar with them the better it will be for you and your customer!

Check out this video by Don Crowther on ways to utilize QR Codes
 

March 14, 2011 By Mary Killelea

After reading a recent article by Nick Cobb from the Freelance Copywriter it inspired me to write this article. As he says when sites like Facebook and Twitter arrived on the scene not so long ago, they were viewed as a flash in the pants only being utilized by young kids and techno geeks. Social media marketing is now mainstream with fortune 500 companies investing thousands of marketing dollars on social media as part of their marketing mix. It’s undeniable of the potential FB, Twitter and other social media tools can have on your business growth.

Forward-thinking businesses that are utilizing these sites as promotional tools for their products and services see the value. This really is how social media marketing was born. An industry literally created for the purpose of maximizing these tools for your business.

As a result of this realization, the manner in which businesses communicate and interact with their customers has been completely transformed. And if you’re not utilizing FB and other social media tools as part of your business marketing mix you are missing out on a very valuable form of communication and brand building.

By signing up to these sites, you’ll be able to give your business greater exposure online, and post information about your products and services, offer discounts, share industry news, new product info and engage with your customers.

The goal is to post useful and high quality content that provides value for the reader, then more and more people will “follow” you (in Twitter’s case) or become a “friend” (on Facebook), which will help you to build positive, long-term relationships with customers who might not have previously found you. Studies show fans are more to buy your products or services than non fans.. so reach out and try and attract new fans!

Thru Facebook Custom Fan pages you can entice users to Like your page in a number of creative ways, you can offer videos, capture leads and offer ecommerce right on Facebook. Facebook Pages are being indexed in the search engines. The future of marketing is literally developing right in front of our eyes. This is a very EXCITING time, become a part of it …. there are no guarantees and it is somewhat unchartered territory, but for those that take a leap of faith and venture into the social marketing arena the rewards so out way the alternative.

http://www.facebook.com/webdesignandseo

November 17, 2010 By Mary Killelea

Learn how to utilize and leverage LinkedIn Effectively to help grow your business!

1. Utilize the status updates - tell the world what innovative business ideas, skills and tips you have. (this is a platform to “Strut your stuff - so to speak… don’t be shy)
2. Create a company profile — make it good it’s your first impression in many occasions to potential clients, collegues and your competition. Put your best foot forward.
3. Spend time in your network, take the time to interact and engage with those with similiar interests and those looking for info or help in your industry.
4. Take the time to contribute info
5. Ask questions (don’t think you know it all — those that stop learning will fail)
6. Reach out to those you know or those you know thru friends of friends… it’s Networking 101 — But better you don’t have anything to loose by being active and involved.
7. Join groups try and focus on groups that have more than a 1000 members – Unless it’s in your own niche.
8. Login in and be active at least 3 times a week
9. Don’t get side tracked and waste a lot of valuable time, stay focused on your daily tasks and move on.
10.  Promote your LinkedIn Profile on your website, on facebook etc.. let people know you want to connect with them.  Grow your linked in presence.

November 16, 2010 by Mary Killelea

6 great tips to making money with emails that you send out.

1. Respect your potential customers
2. Send out emailson Wed. or Thursday Avoid Mondays!
3. Be consistent
4. Write a descriptive, compelling subject (reveal who you are)
5. In the subject line Avoid using $, FREE, ALL CAPS, any punctuation that isn’t a period or ?
6. Set your margins narrow between 30-50 characters wide is best — tests show higher click thru responses just by utlizing these margins - granted your content has to be good.
7. Paint a picture with words.
8. Be truthful and trustworthy… don’t scam anyone every
9. Always allow users the ability to easily unsubscribe
10. Offer only product or services of value — you wouldn’t knock on someones door with selling them a product that wasn’t of value would you? (Hopefully you answsered no to this!)

Posted May 18, 2010, by Mary Killelea 

Wednesday, June 16, 2010 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM (PST)
Online Marketing Summit
The Online Marketing Summit (OMS) is coming to Portland on June 16! This is your chance to learn best practices and actionable strategies from the nation’s best online marketing professionals and practitioners from organizations like Intel, REI and Web Analytics Demystified. Connect with hundreds of your local marketing peers to learn, network and share ideas.

Learn all about NEW B2B and B2C case studies and social media integration tracks, unparalleled networking opportunities, and an exclusive Social Media and Content Marketing Workshop and Breakfast, brought to you by the Online Marketing Institute and the Wharton Interactive Media Initiative.

Online Marketing Summit
Full-Day Pass: $369 $314
15% discount good thru May 26. Use code EARLYBIRD
Social Media Workshop & Breakfast: $99

Registration & Pricing Details | View Portland Agenda

by Mary Killelea, Dec. 8, 2009 

The Criteria the search engines use to rank pages can be categorized into two groups:

On page factors:  You control this

Off site factors:  This is where a internet marketing strategy is crucial

Onsite SEO:

Factors:

• Title Tag
• Words on your page
• Domain Name
• HTML design
• URLS

Offsite SEO:

Factors:

• Incoming Links
• Anchor text links
• Page rank of sites
• Authority Sites

Your marketing mix should consist of both .. first your onsite has to be addressed and then off site has strategies need to be implemented.

– Call for a quote 503-997-6935

by Mary Killelea Dec 8, 2009

1. Decide on the one search phrase you want your page to rank for.
2. Title your page with a variation of the phrase you want it to rank for.
3. Create a headline on your page that re-enforces the title of your page
4. Write your page content for consumers, but do also keep in mind it’s important to give the search engines what they need to rank you correctly for the terms you are targeting, so use the key word term phrases you are targeting in your content.
5. Create links to your page using link text that contains variation of your search phrase.
6. Get external links to your page that also use variations of your search phrase.
7. Continue to do this through out your site on each and ever page, targeting a unique key word phrase on each of the pages.

Good Luck!

by Mary Killelea August 24, 2009 

Whether you are concentrating your seo on Local Search or not it is a very important segment of SEO that every business owner with or without a website should pay attention to if you want customers to find you.

Here is a link to David Mimh’s recent survey of several experts that gauged the factors most helpful for ranking well in the Google and Yahoo Local algorithms, as well as techniques to be avoided.  He has done a great job summarizing the survey and it’s a must read for anyone interested in gaining ranking in the local playing field. http://www.davidmihm.com/local-search-ranking-factors.shtml#results

When reading his article there were a few terms that I felt needed to be better explained for those not in the local search market trenches.  

survey glossary:

HCard Microformat – hCard is a simple, open, distributed format for representing people, companies, organizations, and places, using a 1:1 representation of vCard (RFC2426) properties and values in semantic HTML or XHTML. hCard is one of several open microformat standards suitable for embedding in HTML, XHTML, Atom, RSS, and arbitrary XML.   Want to get started with writing an hCard? Use the hCard creator to write up some contact information and publish it, or follow the hCard authoring tips to add hCard markup to your current contact page.

KML File - You can create KML files with the Google Earth user interface, or you can use an XML or simple text editor to enter “raw” KML from scratch. KML files and their related images (if any) can be compressed using the ZIP format into KMZ archives. To share your KML and KMZ files, you can e-mail them, host them locally for sharing within a private internet, or host them publicly on a web server. Just as web browsers display HTML files, Earth browsers such as Google Earth display KML files. Once you’ve properly configured your server and shared the URL (address) of your KML files, anyone who’s installed Google Earth can view the KML files hosted on your public web server.

If you’re new to KML, begin by browsing the KML Tutorial, which presents short samples of KML code that you can view in Google Earth and Google Maps. The KML Reference provides detailed syntax for all KML elements, with explanations and diagrams of how to specify them.  The Developer’s Guide contains in-depth conceptual material and examples.

Citations: a short note recognizing a source of information or of a quoted passage; “the student’s essay failed to list several important citations”; “the acknowledgments are usually printed at the front of a book”; “the article includes mention of similar clinical cases”  Or in the case of online Citations are mentions from other online sources.

UGC - user generated content

LBC - local business center

IYP - internet yellow pages

LBL - local business listings

Great resources to have handy: 

Most Important Data Providers + IYP Sites

1. infoUSA
2. Superpages
3. Localeze
4. YellowPages
5. Yelp
6. InsiderPages
7. Niche Industry Sites (BBB, Vertical Directories)
8. Acxiom
9. Yahoo
10. Citysearch

Other sites receiving significant votes: Niche Civic/Municipal Sites (Chamber of Commerce, Local Directories), Merchant Circle, UniversalBusinessListing, Yellowbot.

Most Important Review Engines

1. Yelp
2. InsiderPages
3. Yahoo
4. CitySearch
5. Google
6. Superpages
7. Niche Industry Sites (BBB, Vertical Directories)
8. TripAdvisor
9. Judysbook
10. Kudzu

Other sites receiving significant votes: Yellowpages, Merchant Circle, AngiesList. 

Also if you don’t know about it check out your site’s local listing on www.getlisted.org