View the full “Optimizing your Website for maximum lead flow” Webinar at Hubspot.

Click here to optimize your site for maximum lead growth to the webinar.

Presented by Hubspot.

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Social media provides you with a platform to develop great relationships and nurture prospects into evangelists. But are you using this system to its full potential?

Do you know what are the best tools to identify brand evangelists and industry influencers? What if you lose important customer contact information from your Facebook fan page or LinkedIn account?

HubSpot, oneforty and Backupify unite in this ebook to walk you through the process of generating prospects and turning them into evangelists.

In this 27-page eBook, you will learn:

• How to generate leads in the first place
• How to efficiently monitor conversations and brand mentions
• What tools to use for rewarding advocates
• How to manage & document your conversations on social media

Download the Prospect-to-Evangelist eBook! here or from Hubspot directly.

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I get this question all the time from clients and people I work with. “Derek, what exactly is SEO, why do I need it and how does it work. More importantly, what specifically do I need to do about SEO?”

Well, let me explain it in very simple and easy to understand language so you can incorporate the right SEO strategy online for your business that will help you authentically build your list and get more clients.

What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

Simply put, SEO is the process of optimizing your website by improving the internal (behind-the-scenes web techy stuff) and the external (web content, pages, images, etc.) setup in order to increase traffic to your site from search engines like Google.

Why does my website need SEO?

The big commercial search engines – Google, Bing, AOL and Yahoo, drive a lot of web traffic. If your site cannot be easily found by search engines or your content cannot be put into their database, you miss out on an incredible opportunity available to websites who appear in the search engine results for the keywords you want to be associated with. As a result, less people who want to have what you have will be visiting your site. Whether your site provides content, services, products, or information, search engines are a primary method of navigation for almost all people online.

How does SEO work?

Search queries, the words that users type into the search box which contain terms and phrases best suited to your site, carry huge value. These “keywords” dictate what sites the search engines deem worthy of appearing in the results. To do that, search engines really have four main functions – crawling, building an index, determining relevancy & rankings and providing results. Crawling and indexing the zillions of documents, pages, files, news, videos and media on the Internet – and – providing answers to user search queries, through lists of relevant sites / pages via search results and rankings.

What do I do about SEO?

It comes down to doing what I call the ABC’s of SEO.

A is for Architecture

The architecture of your site is critical for SEO success. And, I don’t mean having tons of funky widgets and menu options on your site with flashy design or cool features. Your site needs to have the right framework – like a solid design and well-implemented architecture (i.e. like a house) to support the content and links within the site.

Think of the site like a house where the rooms, stairs and other internal parts of the house require a solid foundation – floors, walls, wiring, mechanics, etc. Without a solid internal architecture, the house (i.e. your site) won’t support it. Equally as important is the external architecture of the house to support the roof, siding, doors, windows, etc. The architecture matters on both the inside and outside.

B is for Back links

The more your site and individual pages are referenced by other sites – the more “back links” you have and the more the search engines will favor your site. It’s basically like other sites giving your site the “thumbs up” indicating they recommend or endorse your site.

One of the best ways to get back links is by submitting your articles to article directory sites. As a result, the search engines will “listen” to their recommendations based on the articles submitted on their site and linking back to your site and content. (Tip – always have a call to action at the end of your article to refer people back to your site so they can opt-in to your list!)

C is for Content

Any site won’t really amount for much in terms of SEO unless it provides good content. The content has to be keyword “rich” for the search terms you want to appear for and be extremely relevant and valuable for your visitors. Be sure to include the keyword terms and phrases in your content that would be relevant and valuable for your visitors.

For example, if you portray your site to be all about “skiing” in terms of the URL, site name and page names, etc. and you only talk about “underwater basket weaving” and nothing about skiing, people will click on your site and then click away. This tells the search engines your site is not providing useful content or relevant information for what it portrays to be providing. You have to provide high-content and high-value information using very useful and authentic content.

Follow these ABC’s of SEO and you’ll be on your way to improving the rankings of your site in the search engines and as a result – improving your authentic online marketing to build your list and get more clients!

Until next time… Learn It, Love It, Live It!

Your Assignment:

Follow my model of the ABC’s of SEO to review what’s in place for your site.

[A - Architecture] Do you have a solid architecture in place for your website with the right menu items, images and content? If you’re using a stand-alone website, can you easily change it and update the content with new and fresh information?

[B - Back links] I’m a huge believer in a solid article marketing strategy to ensure your high-quality and high-content articles are being distributed and picked up by high-profile article directories which the search engines love. Follow my recommendations for some of the article marketing sites above and ensure you have a call-to-action in each of your articles.

[C - Content] You’ve got to put out really excellent content – nothing else. Make sure you’re giving as much as possible in the content you’re putting out – don’t hold back or think you’re giving away too much. I’m a firm believer the better the free content you provide, the better potential clients you will receive.

About the Author: Derek Fredrickson, Authentic Internet Marketing Specialist, is founder of the Authentic Internet Marketing System, the proven step-by-step program that shows you exactly how to authentically market your business online, in record time…guaranteed. To get your F.R.E.E. videos and receive his authentic internet marketing articles on attracting more leads and converting more sales online to multiply your current revenues, visit http://www.derekfredrickson.com

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Organizations that blog regularly attract 55% more website visitors. So, what are you waiting for? Are you wondering how to get your staff organized and involved? This complimentary 24-page curated ebook, written by four business blogging experts and including case studies, will help you get your efforts off to a better start in 2011.

The Better Business Blogging in 2011 ebook covers:

• How to market your blog in 35 different ways
• How to blog with search engines in mind
• How to use social media to find new readers
• How to recruit guest bloggers for your business blog
• How to learn from case studies of social media savvy organizations

Download Your Complimentary Copy Now!

Ebook offered by HubSpot.

We also thought you might be interested in these free resources that cover blogging for business:

• How to Combine SEO, Blogging, and Social Media for Results
• The New Influencers: Blogging for Business
• Advanced B2B Business Blogging Webinar

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Are you able to deliver the most compelling message to each person at the right time, in the most effective channel?
Relevant, highly personalized, marketing campaigns across all on and offline channels – that’s what Interactive Marketing is all about.
You may have already taken some steps in the right direction, but the road to Interactive Marketing can be rocky and often ever-changing. And although there is no single roadmap to get there, the destination is clear: engaging, personal marketing driven by customer behavior that builds lifetime relationships, improves your marketing results and reduces costs.

Download “The Interactive Marketing eBook: It’s All About the Journey”, the first piece in a new content series developed to help you move along your path to Interactive Marketing success.

EBook offered by UNICA.

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The original event was broadcast on:

Date: Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Time: 1:00 PM EST | 10:00 AM PST
Duration: 60-minutes

Sponsor CoreMetrics:

You can view the SES event archive by clicking on this link.

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Are you overlooking some of the “essentials” necessary for success in today’s complex email marketing world?

Today’s savvy marketers must navigate through a complicated landscape of shifting customer expectations, challenging new technologies, evolving government regulations and other issues old-school direct marketers never had to face.

There’s a lot at risk for those who don’t follow the essential rules of email engagement – from undelivered emails and missed sales opportunities, to blacklisting and beyond.

Reduce those risks and conquer email marketing challenges with fundamental best practices that will help you get the most from your email marketing efforts. Let the 25 Essentials for Exceptional Email Campaigns be your guide to better email marketing ROI.

Download our Free Guide: 25 Essentials for Exceptional Email Campaigns now

EBook offered by LYRIS

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View the Recorded Webinar: Why Social Media Is BS

Integrating Social Media into a Successful Marketing Plan

Webinar offered by HubSpot:
Duration: 60min
Presenter: Mike Volpe

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30 things you can do today to start seeing results tomorrow!

Growing a small business takes time. You can’t expect to jump right in and start making millions of dollars (despite what you may have heard on late-night television). It takes
a sustainable, comprehensive marketing approach to build your leads, your sales, and ultimately your bottom line.

Many of the successful businesses you see (especially the larger ones) have a highly specialized marketing staff running their daily operations. Most small business owners can’t afford such a staff. They are on their own.

But with the right focus, you can become that specialized marketing department. You can get leads flowing in the door all by yourself…even though it will require a little bit of work up front. Invest some time in educating yourself on simple marketing strategies and resources. You will discover a whole new level of business growth you never thought possible.

Nobody’s asking you to get a graduate degree in marketing. If you can become proficient in a few simple areas, you will be well on your way to success.

We’ve put together a resource guide with the most important things you can be doing to grow your small business, starting right now! Don’t try to implement all of these steps at once… that would be way too overwhelming. Take them one step at a time and build as you go. Just choose a few of the strategies you want to work on now and start there.

Then, little by little, you’ll build up your marketing efforts until you can just sit back and watch the sales come rolling in.

Let’s get to it!

Download complementary ebook today!

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Digital Word of Mouth: Let Customers Transform Your Marketing Complimentary 21-Page eBook

Customer evangelism is one of the most affordable marketing channels; yet it provides some of the highest return on investment. More and more companies expand their reach thanks to the help of existing customers.

Have You Let Your Customers Transform Your Marketing?

Download the ebook to learn how word-of-mouth marketing has evolved online and how you can use these changes to your advantage. Ebook offered by HubSpot.

This ebook covers:

• Case studies about the changing character of WOM
• Ethical boundaries in the world of customer evangelism
• Measurement tactics for successful word-of-mouth marketing
• Opportunities to leverage customer evangelism

Click here to download.

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