Integrating the three main components of an interactive campaign (your website, social media and recurring communication efforts) can provide a powerful marketing force to establish credibility and loyalty for your brand online. Broadening your presence on the web and creating a regularly recurring communication strategy will keep your community involved and streaming back to your website where they’ll turn the conversation into the conversion.

Figure 1: The three tiers that make up a basic online marketing campaign

Asking for more information or acting by purchasing are two conversions you can measure. The more conversions you have, the higher the return on your marketing investment (ROI). The three-tier approach is a simple and accessible place to start an interactive marketing campaign.

Tier one:

The first step is to establish a home base—this will usually be a website, however many people just starting out can create a customized social media page (such as MySpace or Facebook) that can act as a central location for customers to visit. The first tier acts as a central anchor point for your presence online.

It is important to invest in a professionally-designed website or social media page to establish credibility for your brand. Your customers will base their first impression of your business on your site, so it’s worth doing right the first time.

Tier two:

The second step is creating a social media presence. Placement on popular social media sites is an easy way to position your brand in high traffic areas. You can find these sites by doing a little looking around online, or getting advice from someone who has already done the research. Social media can help you build brand recognition as well as link customers back your website.

Using social media to create a larger footprint on the web will build credibility in two main ways:

• Brand identity/familiarity—the more your brand is seen, the more popular customers assume you are.
• Increased ranking in search engines*—when you rank high, customers assume that your services are worth finding.

*Note: Search engine optimization (SEO) is the complex process of positioning the content of your website to be found more easily by search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing. There are two aspects of SEO. “On-site SEO” involves adding keywords to your site’s metadata as well as creating keyword-rich content, and “off-site SEO,” which involves backlinking, registration with search engines and more.

By increasing your presence online, you will also foster growth for your community by providing a place for them to gather. Create forums for discussions on Facebook, Yelp or Digg, and encourage happy clients to give positive reviews on Google Local, Merchant Circle and LinkedIn.

Tier three:

The final step is adding recurring communication, such as an e-newsletter or blog. This is the most proactive phase of the basic campaign. Recurring communication reaches out to your audience to keep your brand fresh in their minds. E-newsletters and blogs also reinforce your credibility by positioning you as an expert in your industry.

Intimidated by blogging? Take heart: Your recurring communication can be short and sweet—just a few sentences on what’s going on with your industry, and some information of value for your audience to take away with them. As I mentioned earlier, giving your audience something of value for free helps build loyalty and trust.

After you create your brand’s home page (your website), you create farther-reaching tiers that can capture traffic and bring it to your site. With a little love and a lot of communication, you can sit back and watch your community grow.

© 2010, Ann. All rights reserved.

Now that Joomla!, WordPress and other fantastic self-serve Web Content Management Systems (CMSs) are more widely accessible, some of my clients tell me they just have to have one to access their site and update their own information.

“But what is a CMS?” you ask.

It’s pretty simple—a Web CMS is any system that lets you add and edit your own site using an administrative panel. This means you can log in and change the content of your site in real time using rich text formatting (sometimes called WYSIWYG, or What You See Is What You Get), a la Microsoft Word.

A CMS can be great if you want to regularly update content, write a blog, or just be more involved in your site. But it can be a huge time vacuum or, alternatively, a source of frustration and guilt when you don’t actually have time to get in there and change things around.

So I often wonder if it’s really the best use of their (or my) time. Because while they’re easy enough to set up, the time commitment required to actually maintain your site can be overwhelming to the average user. This results in a very frustrated client, and a very high consulting bill from yours truly.

Tell me what you want—what you really, really want.

So I would encourage those of you considering a CMS to think long and hard about the intended purpose of your site. If you are a professional blogger or are experienced with web content development and have plenty of time to plan and implement your site updates, by all means—get in there, Sport.

Otherwise, you might want to think about hiring a web design professional who will make it their job (literally) to quickly and efficiently update your site with the latest and greatest, according to you.

It may seem like the more expensive choice, but take into account the time you’ll spend learning the system and updating your site, not to mention the updates that won’t get made when you just don’t have time.

Because doing it right the first time is always the more economical choice in the long run.

© 2010, Ann. All rights reserved.

This article is an oldie, but a goodie—I was digging through the post archives from the old site and decided that it might be a good time to bring ‘er back up. Enjoy!

The idea is pretty timeless, really: Place your marketing message at the point where your customers make the decision to buy, and with a little persuasive encouragement – POW! You’ve got the sale.

But if it’s so easy, then why aren’t more people jumping on the train?

Because online, the ideal point of sale is a little bit more complicated, and online is where we’re doing business. In retail stores, it’s easy. You have products, you have a cash register—you have a physical and exact point of purchase for customers, so you know exactly where to post your beautifully crafted sign saying, “These earrings would look amazing with that sweater!”

What is the point of sale?

By official definition, it’s the place where the transaction happens. (Pretty intuitive, right?) In your local grocery store, it’s the checkout lanes…ever wonder why it’s so tough to resist that pack of gum or celebrity gossip magazine while you’re waiting in line? It’s because you’re standing there ready to buy. And that, my friend, is the key to point-of-sale (POS) marketing.

But what about on the web—where is our point of sale?

In retail, it’s easy to direct customers to the register—you simply guide them by the layout of your merchandise. As they walk through the store, they pass all of your products, fill their carts and head to checkout.

But online, it’s quite a different story. Your merchandise and services are floating out there in cyber space, and your customers won’t find them if you don’t tell them exactly where to go. And for an added challenge, you’ve got the impatience and indecision of today’s online buyer working against you.

To counter this, your point of sale must be your entire website. Technically speaking, or course, it’s the page where your customers have to pay (or leave their email address). But to be sure, if each page of your site does not provide a compelling reason for your customer to keep reading, or keep clicking forward, you’re going to be left behind for greener pastures.

In other words, you have to make the sale on every page.

Make it easy for customers to buy.

Let’s face it—customers are spoiled. They’re used to getting what they want, when they want it. And if you can’t deliver, you’d better get out of the way.

We are only one broken link, one weak argument, or one convoluted message from being “back buttoned” into obscurity. But the good news is, our customers are even more motivated and ready to buy than the folks walking the mall.

They’ve come to your site for a reason, right? They searched specifically for what you’re selling, and now they’re here, just waiting for you to offer it to them.

That’s why it’s crucial to have a site that’s easy (and I mean easy) to navigate; clear, directive website copy; and a sales pitch that’s compelling enough to keep people on your site until the sale goes through.

Add a call to action on every page.

Like the rack of candy and magazines at the grocery store, don’t miss a single opportunity to appeal to your potential and returning customers about the great deal you’ve got going.

Each page of your website should serve as an active member of your sales team, urging your customers to “buy now,” “sign up today,” or “click here for more,” and should have a quick and obvious link to your transaction/email signup page.

Customers want fast, and they want now. So if they click on your sales promotion and there’s a broken link, it’s hello, back button…goodbye, sale!

Make buyers feel safe.

If you’re selling a product online, install a secure online order form using a web-based POS software system so your customers can shop with confidence. Today’s web-based POS systems are safe, secure and fast. Plus, the good ones integrate seamlessly with secure payment systems like PayPal, making it easy for you to leverage your customers’ motivation into a sale.

And if you don’t—well, I’m afraid your competitors already are, and you’ll be coughing up their dust before too long (that is—aghem—if you’re not already). As an added bonus, your POS system can help you track your customers, their spending habits, and your online orders. In fact, most systems link up to your accounting software, making managing your online sales a breeze.

By making a few simple changes to your website, you can add professionalism and quality to your online business.

So if you’re selling anything on the web, don’t wait any longer. Hire a professional web copywriter (that’s me) to streamline your online marketing message and your product will practically sell itself. Then enlist a POS system to create a simple and secure checkout form that makes buying online easy for your customers and makes running your business a helluva lot easier to boot.

But what if I’m not selling anything online?

You may not have a tangible product to ship out via e-commerce, but everybody’s selling something. Even if your ultimate goal is to collect an email address instead of a credit card number (although, wouldn’t both be nice?), all the same rules apply.

Your customer clicking “Sign up” is the same as someone else’s clicking “buy.” It’s all about that conversion. Just be sure to install an anti-spam protection system so your customers know their personal information is safe.

Follow these simple rules and before you know it, you’ll be turning browsers into buyers and sitting on a nice fat slice of that online market yourself.

Bon appétit!

P.S. Need help with website copy? Contact me.

© 2009, Ann. All rights reserved.

This is a response to my post “10 things I hate about twitter.” I figured since I did a little twitter bashing, I ought to set the record straight.

Twitter is one of my favorite social marketing tools. It’s also a guilty pleasure when it comes to personal communication, politics, celebrity gossip, and other stuff I want to know about without actually having to do any digging on the web.

So why did you write the “10 things I hate” article?

Because it’s important to play the devil’s advocate now and then. Because without seeing both sides of an argument, you can’t possibly form a reasonable opinion. So onto my 10 favorite things about twitter.

1. The 140 character limit.

Let’s face it—people have a lot to say. Twitter does a great job of keeping it short and to the point, which makes it much easier for our tiny attention spans to catch the gist of the message.

2. It’s easy.

Anybody can learn twitter. This may be good and bad, but one of the tenets of social media is accessibility. Twitter embodies that—I can just as easily receive messages from my sister as I can from the president.

3. Its reach.

There’s no limit to how many people you can reach with your tweets, and because your messages are so concise, people actually want to read them. Twitter is the best platform for sharing tips, articles and information—plus you can post links that direct people back to your site (see #9).

4. Trending.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t have time to watch all that much TV. Twitter’s trends can show you the hot topics and what your favorite people (famous and otherwise) have to say about them.

5. Fail whale.

One, it’s a cute picture. Two, you have to respect the brutal honesty of a system that can admit when it’s just plain overloaded. Who doesn’t need a fail whale of their own now and then?

6. Follow Friday + RTs.

Twitter is all about sharing the love and promoting users by helping us promote each other—talk about great karma.

7. Twit pics.

C’mon, you know you love looking at other people’s pictures, especially when “other people” are famous.

8. Customizable backgrounds.

Part of the magic of social media is the ability to have your own little spot on the web. Twitter backgrounds are an easy way to share your personality, promote your website and services or just show off a picture of you on that vacation to Tahiti.

9. Triangulation + leverage.

Your tweets reach hundreds of thousands of people. By linking back to your website, or other social media profiles, you can feed readers from twitter’s high traffic area to your blog or sales landing page.

Using twitter (ideally in combination with other social media platforms like facebook, LinkedIn or MySpace) to create a steady stream of traffic to your virtual storefront will increase your online traffic exponentially.

10. @ Mentions.

Twitter is all about community. Using @ mentions, we can share a conversation with the entire twitterverse. What’s the benefit to that, you ask? There are two, I say.

The first is that open conversations engage those around you. Ever overheard a conversation at a restaurant? It’s easy to get sucked in. The second is that @ mentions can link directly back to your page. So if you say something interesting, it’s easy to go check out everything else you’ve said. And now that we’re on your page, we might just go check out your website. See?

How do I learn more about twitter?

If you want to learn more about twitter, there are tons of resources available. Mashable’s Twitter Guide is a great start, and there are more written every day. My twitter e-book comes out this spring. Interested? Contact me to get your free copy.

Happy tweeting!

© 2009 – 2010, Ann. All rights reserved.

So, I just almost lost my lunch. Yeah, you guessed it (was it the title that gave it away?), I almost deleted my entire site. So here are a few key items not to forget when you do your next upgrade.

5 simple rules for upgrading your WordPress site:

1. Deactivate your plugins.

Can’t stress this one enough—and when you backup your files, be sure your most recent plugin files are there.

2. Back up your files.

Do I need to say this, really?

3. Get a decent FTP.

Using internal ftp plugins is fine, but it’s always better to use an external FTP (file transfer protocol) that you can count on. I like CyberDuck, but there are others that work just fine.

4. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.

It’s okay to ask a professional, especially if you’re new to WordPress. Although the upgrade instructions are pretty simple and easy to follow, there’s no shame in getting some help from an expert.

5. Do a separate post backup.

Just to be on the safe side, I always copy my blogs into a TextEdit application and save them separately from the rest of my backup files. That way, if (god forbid) anything should happen, you have the content you’ve worked so hard to create.

So relax.

If you’ve backed up your files correctly, there’s nothing to worry about. Always do each backup diligently, and you’ll never lose a file. Or your entire site.

Happy upgrading!

© 2009, Ann. All rights reserved.

The dichotomy of all that is good and evil about the internet and social media is bundled into 140 neat little characters called a “tweet.” It’s the site we all love to hate, yet it’s the site we all keep coming back to.

Sidebar: You remember the story about the tractor trailer that was going too fast and got hopelessly jammed under an overpass? All the town’s highway engineers, math teachers, and an astronaut came out to see if there would be someway to get it out without destroying the truck and the bridge. Then along came a little boy, holding his father’s hand.

The boy looked up at his dad and said, “Why don’t they just let the air out of the tires?”

So how does this relate, and when are we going to get to the hateful stuff?

Good question. Alright down to business (and I’ll get back to the tire analogy in a minute).

The 10 things I hate most about twitter:

1. Anybody can join.

Okay, call me a snob—but the millions of squealing teens and tweens chirping about what color hi-tops they’re buying and whether or not Johnny’s going to ask them to prom are ruining twitter for the rest of us.

Without fail, the #1 complaint I hear from clients about marketing on twitter is this: “But nobody wants to hear about what I had for breakfast.”

Guess what, folks—you’re right! Nobody gives a damn what you had for breakfast. But what we do want to know is whether you’re a regular person just like the rest of us. That’s what social media is all about—relating to CEOs, doctors, lawyers and celebrities just like they were you or me. Just keep the mundane details to a minimum.

2. It’s too trendy.

Yeah, yeah I know. If it’s so “trendy,” why do you do it? I do it because it’s a really easy way to get a bit of information to a huge number of people with very little effort.

The tough part is that twitter tends to carry the stigma of being a flash-in-the-pan solution, so it’s difficult to get people on board.

4. Some value quantity over quality.

Just because you have 12,769 followers does not mean you have anything of value to say. If you can look through your follower list and recognize each member as a valuable part of your market, then you’ve got a high quality community.

You should immediately block any spammers, including those racy “check out my vids” tweeters—even if it means taking a little longer to reach higher numbers. Remember: anybody can get a lot of followers, but it takes a good marketer to get good followers.

4. People can cheat.

Ever see an ad promising you thousands of followers instantly? There’s no way to amass a valuable following “instantly.” Ever. The groups and individuals who sell their follow back services are adding value to the concept that more is better (see #3).

The problem is, once you start sending your marketing communication to people who didn’t ask for it, now you’re the spammer.

5. Auto DMs

Three words: Don’t do it.

6. Spam.

Twitter is the wild west of social media. Anybody can tweet anything as many times as they want. And with the fools from #4 increasing follower lists by thousands a day, access to innocent spam victims is wide open.

Just be sure to check out each tweeter’s page before following—if a tweeter has 1 million followers, and only 20 tweets (unless he’s Ashton Kutcher), it’s probably spam.

7. People who pretend not to spam.

Many spammers will entice you to follow with quotes, fun facts, or seemingly personal information. Then once you follow, you get the dreaded teeth whitening DM.

8. Repeater tweeters.

These people want you to see their site so badly, they’ll tweet the link 20 times in a row just to be sure it shows up in your feed. Don’t bite, block them right away.

9. Greedy tweeters.

When 140 characters just isn’t enough, maybe it’s time to find a new platform. Facebook will let you have as many characters as you want. But please, for the love of all that is holy, please do not carry one sentence across 5 tweets.

You may think that your loyal followers appreciate all the goodness that you have to spread into the twitterverse, but the only thing you’re spreading is the desire to key your car.

10. The misconception that twitter can get you rich, quick.

Very few of us will ever “get rich quick.” If I had a dollar for every CEO who’s asked me to make them some money on twitter…well, okay I guess there is such a thing as getting rich quick.

But don’t believe for a minute that you can use social media to make a lot of money without being a spammer. To be a responsible member of the twitter community, you have to be legit. If people like what you have to say, then maybe they’ll buy your product.

Be real, be genuine, and most of all— be nice.

But what about the whole air in the tires thing?

The way to understand twitter is the same as understanding the tractor trailer conundrum. Just relax, take a deep breath, and let a little air out of your tires. Twitter isn’t meant to be the end all, be all solution to all your marketing needs, and it can’t legitimately make you a quick buck.

Just like the solution to the truck problem, the answer is simple. Twitter works for millions of teens, just ask one of them. And don’t try to read too much into it, you’ll just wind up scratching your head.

I offer social media consultation and coaching services. If you want to learn more about twitter and how it can work for you, get in touch and let’s see where we can go together.

© 2009, Ann. All rights reserved.