What Brands Should Do to Win Without Competition

Reliance is part and parcel of our lives. Everybody makes his own choice who can he rely on and who can he trust. As we choose our recruiters, employers and friends, in the same way we choose trusted online relationships, including shopping websites, corporate sites, etc.

Do you believe in these new influencers? Or they just replace recruiters and advertisers?

"Influencer" is a discrete role, a great responsibility and a type of advocacy from an employer’s and individual’s perspective. Influence and trust are 2 capabilities, which allow employees and employers new tools to navigate the new world of weakly connected relationships and friendships. If done properly, this influence type is a strong method to connect to individuals and significantly grow faith in a brand. However, in case it is done quite poorly, you can be turned into a scammer.

Break down the barriers and establish trust

The "brand humanization" is essential for employers. This is a mix of culture, corporation and community that promotes development of social networks in order to attract employees and prospects that believe in and trust the brand’s mission. "Humanized" brands are aimed at the communities creation. Communities can help to engage employees and prospects and they in turn attract new participants.

When trust is in its place, it is high time to start working at influence.

There are necessary investments for brand humanization to ensure their corporate persona engages at a human level. Sometimes corporate persona may derive from a leader. For example, Virgin's Richard Branson is the persona and at the same time company face.

Also brands have to create communities of interest, where influencers, employees, brand advocates and others can conveniently interact. The community can reflect the interests of the brand’s shareholders, developers, employees, etc.

Trust in a humanized brand also requires that interactions are timely, relevant and appropriate in duration and frequency. Target each interaction to the right channel. Don’t forget to make sure the community share idea about frequency of interaction and contact.

Where influence begins

Influence is a type of currency, which requires certain reciprocity. If I give you something valuable, you should reciprocate. As a rule, it works wonderfully, when two parties share a nation of value. In today’s social world, influence is acknowledgment in another’s blog post of an idea you had, a link to one of your posts in an article, a hat tip on Twitter, etc.

We must not forget that we live in a trust-based economy. We should make arrangements not only about our behaviors but also our expectations. For example, companies have to be prepared to work with applicants and employees that do not provide absolute trust, increase motivation to humanize their brands and consequently connect with communities. Building trust provides a new value equation for the brand, its consumers, employees, and employee prospects.

Influence and trust in your brand is an asset with incredible value. Guard it carefully. 

Source:  http://rankwinz.com/

5 Ways to Remember Your Company

Today the majority of company managers wonder how to be memorable enough and what can they do for that.

Being memorable is crucial for every business operator. If people don’t even remember you exist, how they will fund you or buy from you?

Check out the following ways to make a firm and lasting impression:

1. Identify a commonality.

One of the most effective ways to get someone to like you is to use commonalities. People trust you more when they feel you share their standpoint. This effect also appears, when the client finds out that you are from the same home-town as he is or you attended the same school. The fact that you both are fond of cats or the turquoise color also matters. If they trust and like you, they will certainly remember you.

2. Stir interest. As a rule, we bury the conversation in the first 15 seconds. When you hear the typical: “What do you do?,” think of giving more interesting answer then “I own a business”.

Find a way to arouse their curiosity, making them want to know more and more. Say “I help brands become more famous” instead of “I offer marketing services”.

3. Develop your own style. Your wardrobe is one of the ways to stand out. However, if it does not feel natural to you, do not force it! In case you have your own peculiar style, take advantage of it. It may make a considerable part of your brand.

4. Ask many questions. It may sound paradoxically but asking many questions makes you more memorable. Each of us is an egoist a little and each of us loves to talk about himself. So jump at the chance to take advantage of it, asking a lot of thoughtful and interesting questions. It always makes people feel understood and appreciated.

5. Find a strong reason to follow up. People won’t remember you, if you give them weak opportunities. If you want to make a strong impression, you have to turn a brief meeting into a long-lasting relationship. Find ways to continue the conversation. Get the contact information. Maybe they will be interested in receiving some new interesting information about the conversation topic.

Making a strong impression is very important to your business success. By following these techniques, you can be sure people will take note. 

Source: http://rankwinz.com/

Building Trust by Means of Content Marketing

What content marketing is all about? If you think that the principal goal of writing good website content is telling the story of a company and services it offers, you are not right. Content does much more than that. Successful content marketing is aimed at building trust. It doesn’t matter what type of content you’re creating, the actual purpose should be to reach the high level of trust between the brand creating content and the consumer of it.

How to stand out the online marketing noise?

347 blog posts appear every minute. It is the age of information overload. Don’t forget about a variety of videos, information that comes over email, Twitter and Facebook posts. Beyond the pieces of content created and shared online, we create a great amount of ads. Therefore, the average internet user can see about 5000 ads a day.

With so much information being created for internet users, it is very important to consider what can make us stand out. Some companies say that it depends on the frequency of content and some tell that on the content quality. However, both of these things matter. Many companies, including those, which have limited financial asset to spend on their marketing campaigns, decide to pay for creating high-quality content, which can build trust between the consumer and the brand.

The following 5 steps can help in reaching the greater level of trust with your targeted audience:

·         Define your audience. You should certainly know who you are writing for. The only way for content to be successful is aerating and giving the right content to the right reader. So think about the principal and secondary goals of your content-marketing campaign.

• Determine content form, location and frequency. Trust consists in putting the information the clients want in places where they can make a good thing of it. Therefore, in case your clients mainly seek content via e-mail then make it available to them. Great content marketing has to be seen.

•  Engage, promote and share. An important part of the building trust process is making sure that your content is available. However, don’t forget that it should be helpful awareness and not a boring spammy promotion. Sharing is effective, when it is done on those platforms where your targeted audience is active. Represent the content accurately: the reader has to understand at a glance why he/she may want to consume the content.

•  Connecting with your brand should be simple. Don’t forget to make it easy for the perspective clients to connect with your company. Make sure your clients are interested in the company services and make them more connected to your company brand through phone, e-mail, RSS, etc.

• Analyze and optimize your content. Company managers have to analyze what is being shared and viewed by website visitors. In case some content has an effective response and some is greatly being ignored then companies should pivot to create more of what their audience is engaged with. This will attract more readers and give much more opportunities to build trust with the audience.

Once informed it comes down to being active, connected and available for the customer to learn and find out more. Then companies must continue to self-actualize and ask themselves, "Are we providing the content our audience wants"? And pivot when necessary.

Source: http://rankwinz.com/

Why SEO is often better than paid search marketing

Paid search marketing is considered one of the easiest and quickest methods to achieve high rankings in Google and other search engines for related-to-your business keywords. Moreover, paid search marketing costs a lot. Talking about SEO, it takes less money and at the same time gets more targeted visitors.

What is the difference between paid search marketing and Search Engine Optimization?

SEO focuses on the regular "organic" search results on Bing, Yahoo, Google and other search engines. If your site is itemized in the list of regular search results, you do not need to pay for the click. In case you decided to take advantage of paid search marketing for advertising your site on search engines, you have to pay for each and every click. Therefore, your site appears in the separate section of the search results page, where "sponsored results" are displayed.

SEO Benefits:

1.    Lasting results

Paid search marketing provides targeted quick results. You can see the positive effects several minutes after your paid search campaign has launched. However, with paid search marketing, you stop getting new visitors at that moment you stop paying.

In order to get high positions in the organic results, you need to develop quality web pages and effective links, which point to your website. It takes a lot of time to get high rankings with Search Engine Optimization. Luckily, the majority of sites keep their rankings for a long time.

So if you are interested in the long run, SEO is your choice.

2.    To improve your website

Using paid search marketing, you get visitors due to the fact that you pay for them. Search Engine Optimization allows you to get visitors because your site is well-encapsulated.

In case you choose Search Engine Optimization to promote your site, you are of necessity to optimize all web pages, including the usability, content, etc. Undoubtedly, it requires more time and consequently more work. Your site and your revenue benefit significantly from these changes.

3.    To integrate with social media

Social media helps you to increase the amount of links, which you get from other websites. It results in getting higher positions in Google's regular results. So create a new page on your site and mention it on Twitter or Facebook. Therefore, you have a wonderful opportunity to get new visitors through social media websites. Some of these visitors certainly will link to your site, having a positive influence on your Search Engine Optimization Campaigns.

Paid search marketing is a good option for you if you need website visitors right now. But if you want to get high rankings in Google search results that can last without paying for clicks, choose SEO to promote your website. 

Source: http://rankwinz.com/

8 Must-Have Elements of a Successful Blog Post

Talking about marketing online, you will probably hear that “content marketing” is considered one of the greatest methods to introduce your website to the world. However, content marketing is not the same as dashing off blog posts every day. 

There is much more to a great blog post than just couples of words on a screen. Here you can see elements that are “a must” in your blog post:  

1. The article requires a certain point.
There are tons of blog articles with no point and no sense. They are created in order to be created and have nothing to say. Each article should communicate a point.

When your article has a certain point, readers receive something they can think about. They are more likely to comment on it, share it, etc.

Moreover, having a point, you can take advantage of specific keywords. Implement those keywords by writing an article with a succinct point.

2. Images
In order to be successful an article should be enjoyable to read. Of course, content is considered the main thing for search engines, however visual aids are still important. Good images attract attention to the topic and the text.  Images should be strategic and eye-catching to help your readers and enhance your content.

3. Structure
Structure is the matter of great significance. It never could be overestimated. Before communicating a concept, you have to organize and write down your ideas. If not, you are going to have scattered statements and sentences.

Articles should have paragraph breaks, headings and subheadings. It makes the text readable.

You can take as example the following model:

• Introduction
• Making your point and explaining it. 
• Making your second point with explanations. 
• Conclusion with call to action. 

Of course, it cannot be the same detailed plan for all the articles, because the topic always differs and consequently the text specifications also differ, however you can see the general idea of the content structure.

4. Unique content
First and foremost, it should be something new for you to say that makes the whole idea and text unique. I don’t think you actually want just to repeat what others say. You need to have a unique point of view, fresh approach or new details. If it is a peculiar point of view, it should be well-reasoned.

Secondarily, the content must be unique. Under no circumstances copy and paste content from another website!

5. Substantial length
Your blog post should be as long as it takes to say what you have to say. However, it shouldn’t be a 200-words article. As a rule, it may include from 1,000 to 1,500 words.

6. Internal linking strategy
Internal linking, where you link one blog post to other related posts within your website, serves to improve the value of a site. It is not difficult to manage.

7.  Attention to grammar
Everybody makes mistakes. It is human. However, try to avoid it and double-check everything you wrote.

8. A call to action 
The call to action is the wonderful and really necessary element, which makes a blog post worth it all. Each post should call to action. The reader has to be ready to do it, to respond to it, to click where he is asked to click.

The call to action is the key that brings in more conversions.

Simple writing content for a blog is not the right way to success. Think carefully about your strategy and make a plan to go ahead with.

Source: http://rankwinz.com/

How to Accumulate Good Customer Reviews That Stick

Sometimes local business reviews provides a serious boost in site sales and traffic. Client reviews make a website much more trustworthy. So a local listing with a lot of rave reviews attracts more attention and give a strong impulse to visit the website. Good customer reviews are an effective method to stand out from your competition.

Today mobile search gives consumers the convenient opportunity to search and shop online, so you should use every single opportunity to stick out. For instance, reviews that are posted on your Google+ page can be displayed when your business listing appears in Google’s local search results. The total amount of reviews can also help to attract consumers to visit your site. Your Google+ reviews are also shown in your PPC ads in order to increase the click-though rate.

Customer reviews encourage other clients to leave reviews. However, there are some common mistakes businesses make trying to accumulate reviews. They include:

• Asking all the customers to leave a review and preliminarily giving them a pre-written model to copy. If all the reviews will be the same, the review websites will mark them as suspicious.
• Asking all the customers to leave a review at their business location. Reviews posted from the same IP address can be defined all of the reviews as spammy and suspicious.
• Asking past customers to leave a review all at once. If many reviews appear on the website in a short period of time the algorithm will define them as unnatural.

So how to attract reviews from customers is the right way?

High-quality customer support. If you treat each client like he/she is your №1 customer, he/she is surely provide you with good word-of-mouth advertising by telling his/her co-workers, friends and family about your business and high-quality customer service.

Social media for supporting customer service. Don’t use social media to ask for reviews, take advantage of a customer-service extension. If your customer mentions your social media profile or join your business page, wait a minute and let him/her know that you are glad to see him/his here and wish their experience to be pleasant. 

Reach out to your customers via email. Don’t forget to create a client database of your customers' e-mails for you send them various promotions and offers. Send an e-mail, where you ask them to write a feedback after their purchase to make sure they are glad with the experience.

In case you sent to each of your customer base, you will surely get some replies. Respond to each e-mail, thank for the feedback and remind them where they can find you on Google+ page.

Don’t lay your customers under a necessity of leaving a review. Just offer a good-quality service or product, provide excellent customer service and don’t forget to make sure that your customers know how to find you on such websites as Yelp and Google+, and you will receive natural reviews that stick.

Source: http://rankwinz.com/

Why Cheap, Outsourced SEO Will Cost You in the Long Run

As a business owner or entrepreneur, you certainly receive several e-mails and phone messages with offers to improve your website rankings. Today SEO is considered one of the most effective ways of Internet marketing. However, placing confidence of the company’s site in a poor-quality SEO provider is quite perilous and frustrating.

The majority of new businesses prefer to conduct affairs with overseas companies in order to save money initially. Many companies strive for hiring a SEO professional for just a few hundred dollars, while a high-quality agency costs several thousand. Here you can find several reasons not to use cheap, outsourced Search Engine Optimization:

1.      Low-quality link building can cause a Google penalty. Paying a few hundred dollars a month you cannot receive good-quality link building and content marketing. In such a case you are likely to receive poor-quality spammy links, which are created using automated tools and software. The greater number of links doesn’t mean the better result.

2.      Low-rank site content and poor grammar. As a rule, using bad-quality outsourced Search Engine Optimization services provides low quality and almost unreadable website content. Such “professionals” usually scrape existing online content and spin it. Therefore, you receive a piece of content that doesn’t make sense and represent your company.

3.      Language barriers and communication. It is known that a lot of the overseas outsource companies are working on different time schedules. It makes business a little difficult. Moreover, sometimes language barriers can result in a complete disaster, which takes an incredible amount of money and time to solve the problem.

4.      Ignorance is no excuse. Quality Search Engine Optimization offers much more than just blasting amount of links. All your website requires, including original content creation/distribution and outreach/link-building strategies can’t be done properly just for a few hundred dollars. No matter what they say.

5.       Long-term business relationship. Do you really think you were the only one company receiving that typical e-mail or phone message that offers to make SEO wonders for some dollars? Such messages are sent to all the e-mail addresses and phone numbers the companies have. They don’t pursue the goal of building long-term business.

You get what you pay for when it comes to Search Engine Optimization. Selecting the cheap variant in the beginning can really spoil your future efforts and input .

Source: http://rankwinz.com/