by Ace Concierge | Virtual Assistant | Aug 20, 2013 | Blogging, Marketing, Small Business, Social Media
Content attracts
Marketing has drastically changed over the past several decades in terms of the delivery methods but no matter how you look it, it is still content driven and always will be. It used to be solely about print media and ad space but now it is more about vying for attention from your online audience. This can be the biggest constraint but with the right content, geared toward the right market, you have an opportunity to be seen and heard.
Consumers consume content: Feed them a healthy rich diet.
“The single most significant trend is the continued emergence of content marketing as a standalone discipline. Content, in all its shapes and forms, is core to everything we do as marketers.” Econsultancy.
You need remarkable content. Just what is that?
Remarkable content is written for your buyers and their needs. You are here to provide solutions to their questions and problems. When you can do this, you will see a higher conversion rate. You have the opportunity to attract your audience with compelling content and images through your blog posts, website, e-newsletters and online discussions.
How will these statistics influence your content marketing strategy? (courtesy of WSI)
- 79% of marketers report that content is more effective than paid advertising.
- Blogs have 434% more indexed pages
- 90% of consumers find content useful
Research:
- Your audience, your buyers and their key drivers of what makes them tick.
- Where do they hang out?
- What interests them most?
When creating your content, think about some of the common questions you have been asked.
- What problems does your product or service solve?
- How will your product or service help them improve their career, their daily lives?
- What makes it difficult for them to do what they need to do on a daily basis?
- What are their obstacles to success?
Your solution based content can produce reactions and needs to your offerings. Help your readers thrive and flourish.
Feed their hunger.
Invest in your content: 60% of the sales cycle is over before the buyer speaks with your sales team says HubSpot. This means it is up to your content to drive the message home with your blogs, ebooks, webinars and any other online content. “People don’t need to be told how awesome you are, let them come to you.” @sbedrick #BDNMaineWhatsNext
Content is more than text: Use images. They capture attention, invoke emotion, are more widely shared and help to simplify your message. Share the images on your social networks like Facebook and Pinterest. Articles with images receive 94% more views.
“Harnessing the power of images and visuals will make your marketing more powerful and more memorable.” Anita Campbell.
In a 2012 study by ROI Research, they found that 44% of respondents were more likely to engage with brands who shared pictures. This is a pretty big number that shouldn’t be overlooked. Visual content is fast becoming an important force for online communications. Pictures communicate your message quickly and succinctly. Consider the rise of infographics! This is a huge market to disseminate a variety of information, share data and statistics. Fav 5 Infographics
Here is an informative overview about the tools and benefits of visual marketing: How to Optimize Your Marketing for the Visual Marketing Revolution
“Blog posts became Facebook updates and Tumblr posts, which shrunk to Tweets and finally to Instagram or Pinterest. Here’s how smart brands are navigating the new visual social-media era.” Ekaterina Walter.
Share your “remarkable” content on your social media channels. Make sure it is a mix of third party articles which are industry specific and rich, some of your content and blog posts that are solving problems and answering questions and finally your company’s landing pages which is for the final lead conversion process. Your goal is for your audience to not only read and visit your site but to also share your content and materials.
Is your content:
- Sticky
- Useful
- Engaging
- Educational
- Problem-solving
- Insightful
- Branding
- Experiential
When you post poor content, you don’t get visitors.
When you don’t get visitors, you lose money.
When you lose money,
You close your doors.
Don’t close your doors, write rich compelling content.
by Ace Concierge | Virtual Assistant | Aug 15, 2013 | Guest Blogger, Small Business
Focus on sales to reach calculated, repeatable success. Why? Mediocrity is, well, ‘boring’!
If you’re reading this the chances are that you are working with Ace Concierge (or thinking about how a Virtual Assistant can help your business) and enjoying the gift of time.
Kudos!
For most businesses (of any shape, size and look) outsourcing areas of business is a must. You know you have special skills. You know you have passions. You know your strengths can’t possibly lie in all the areas required to run a business.
So what now?
Does outsourcing mean you can spend more time on the beach sipping fruity cocktails out of a coconut shell?
Possibly.
The likelihood is that you are looking to leverage the new found time, peace of mind and rejuvenated focus working ON your business.
Where do you start? Well, that depends entirely on you, your business and the priorities that you feel deserve the attention you can afford them.
Where will you need to focus your attention? Sales.
(Save the jeers and tomato throwing!)
Yes, at some point to reach a point of predictable success your business will need to focus on sales and processes.
Marketing is vital. Especially if you think about marketing as the act of raising awareness of your business to your target market(s).
Sales is essential.
In essence, as small business owners our goal is to spend as much time as possible service those we are meant to serve. Our ideal clients.
In order to this we need to have a proportionate amount of sales conversations with prospects to encourage them to make the step up from prospect to highly valued client.
This much, we know.
Getting to the point of having these sales conversations is subject largely to the processes that we have in place to enable this to happen.
There 5 processes to implement on the road to successful growth.
5 Commercial Processes To Address In Your Business
- The Lead Generation Process – The act of encouraging prospects to have a sales conversation
- The Sales Process – the process of taking a prospect from potential target, through qualified prospect to valued paying client
- The Follow Up Process – The act of ensuring all leads are informed through the process
- The Lead Nurturing Process – A process dedicated to those that have illustrated an interest in your offer but have declined to purchase at this time
- The Data/CRM Process – The strategy behind contact management and analyzing your progress
Without knowing you I would like to say that I believe you to be compelling, genuine and passionate when speaking with prospective clients. Most small business owners and solopreneurs are and this is because of the belief you have in yours and your businesses ability.
Complacency can creep in bit by bit. As such, generate and implement process to ensure continued success and longevity.
This will make the fruity cocktails taste oh so much sweeter.
If you’re interested in learning more about this, sales processes and more, download a free copy of my report and short e-book here.
Guest Post by Michael Trow
Michael Trow is the owner of Michael Trow Enterprises LLC where he helps small to medium sized businesses grow by working with them to improve the effectiveness of their sales and marketing. Michael is a facilitator at the Workforce Development Program locally and has been sitting on the board for the Tallahassee chapter of The ASTD.
Michael has lived and worked in four continents, done business all over the world through a 12 year sales and marketing career. During this time he has helped launch new business units, lead and train sales teams and been responsible for growing businesses through front line sales and marketing. He is a self-proclaimed dog lover, wine appreciator and out of practice musician!
Connect with Michael
by Ace Concierge | Virtual Assistant | Jul 31, 2013 | Blogging, Small Business
Your business blog is an essential tool for your inbound marketing efforts in terms of SEO, creating a community, becoming known as a thought leader and generating visits, leads, conversion to customers and brand ambassadors.
As THE most valuable piece of company real estate, your blog content should speak to your audience and prospects first and then the search engines. Your blog content should resonate with your prospective buyers, meeting their needs and answering their questions. Make it rich, valuable and educational.
WHY?
People are searching for answers to their problems and pain points every single day and you have the solutions.
Hubspot: Companies that blog have 55% more visitors and generate 70% more leads than companies who don’t.
If you are writing content and optimizing your site and pages to answer the questions of your buyers, then you will be discovered, valued and your content will be shared. Don’t just push product and services. Answer questions with exceptional content that is worth talking about. When they talk and share, this creates more inbound links. The more inbound links you have, the higher the rate of getting found in organic searches. 97% of companies that blog have more inbound links.
Laboring over content and strategy can present a challenge for many. Think about what you want to say to your readers. What solutions you offer. Research trending topics, keyword searches, case studies, statistics and other industry related materials. Set aside time each week for research and writing. Your blog content strategy is simplified and better organized if you create an editorial calendar containing columns for:
- Theme
- Posting date
- Social media channels
- Title
- Keywords
- Tags
- Meta description
- Links
- Statistics
- Guest authors
When considering your keywords and descriptions remember: Blogging impacts your SEO!
HOW does a blog influence your SEO??
- Each and every new blog post you write is actually an indexable “site” of its own.
- Each page gives you an opportunity to be found by search engines.
- The more pages you have, the more indexing you receive: the greater opportunity to move your site higher up the ranks.
- You can optimize each post with strong keywords that your target market is searching.
Keywords are just as important as your content. When creating your post, consider what probing question (s) you want to answer and use these in your title, meta descriptions, image file name/alt tags and body of text. Long tail keywords are much more powerful and targeted than just a single word. They help to drill down to a slimmer defined market of those in need. It trims the fat and returns much better results.
“The long tail contains hundreds of millions of unique searches that might be conducted a few times in any given day, but, when taken together, they comprise the majority of the world’s demand for information through search engines.” Moz.com
Your blog is a cost effective inbound marketing tool to generate new interest, business and web traffic.
- Keep it rich, enticing and educational for the greatest return.
- You are writing for your audience.
- Content that is relevant and can be trusted as an authoritative resource will drive search engines to crawl your site.
- Make your content personalized for your visitors, answering their questions.
- Use long tail keywords
- Create internal links to other posts on your site
- Blog consistently
- Monitor your brand’s online chatter
- Submit your posts to online blogging directories and business sharing communities
Are you ready? Now set aside the time right now to work on your editorial calendar and content. If you need help overseeing your blogging efforts, just send us an email to schedule a consult.
by Ace Concierge | Virtual Assistant | Jul 29, 2013 | Entrepreneur, Life Thoughts, Small Business
How often do you step away from your office and take a break? Just shut down for a bit to refresh your brain matter and gain clarity? We all need a respite or as Jennifer V. Miller of the People Equation says, a “staycation.” It is a short mental holiday from the hustle and bustle of our information overloaded lives. We are constantly on overdrive, meeting extensive demands and teetering on a tightrope.
Whether at your home or office take a break and slow down a bit. Life won’t stop if you do, but it may if you don’t.
Say YES to you.
Learn to give back to yourself; rewards, small pleasures, time to do nothing, time for YOU. A few simple steps toward SELF will reduce your stress, give renewed focus and refresh your whole soul to keep pushing forward.
ME time can be anything you want or need it to be, but just do it.
You may be thinking that ME time is being selfish. On the contrary!! Please don’t believe that you are a superhero and can only give to others. While that is a commendable quality, you can’t continue to empty your tank. You must make deposits to refuel. Aren’t you worth it?
If you are a solo-preneur, you are fortunate to be able to create your own stress breaks, but if you are an employee, you may need to implement some of the suggestions in Jennifer’s blog post above.
In either case, you still have other hours to choose from, so schedule ME time.
- You are entitled to it.
- You earned it.
- You deserve it.
Get More Out of Life: 5 Tips to Focus on You
My ME TIME is my mornings to lift at the gym. My phone does NOT go out on the floor with me. It is locked up. I put my earbuds in and tune out everything else around me.
This afternoon’s brain break is the image above: homemade watermelon sorbet with my Champion Juicer. I needed to step away from the computer for a bit. It didn’t take long to make. I could still check my Smartphone if needed, but the world didn’t stop while I cleared my head.
How will you gift yourself today?
by Ace Concierge | Virtual Assistant | Jul 25, 2013 | Entrepreneur, Small Business, Virtual Assistant
A code of ethics and honor exists amongst most Virtual Assistants, at least with the tremendous women in my network. As entrepreneurs we pride ourselves with strong character and morals, not just because we are business owners and great human beings, but we are also trusted with managing our client’s business. We are privy to logins, credit cards, proprietary information and other business “secrets.” We treat these components with the utmost confidentiality, similar to HIPAA.
I recently discovered another Virtual Assistant who copied some content from one of my blog posts. I was irate of course. I labor over my blog posts, hoping they are rich and valuable to you, the audience. I immediately became incensed with anger and frustration. Those were not her words I was reading, but mine. Her title was even taken from a different post and she also stated the upcoming content of her next post, which of course can found on my blog. Maybe it was her idea, all fresh and new, but it certainly appears a little suspect. She is even a “Certified VA” with a badge on her website and a link to their code of ethics.
VAs are trusted with so much and if one is going to steal another’s content, what else may she consider? I feel very strongly about my industry and the trust from my client base. It is always an honor when Ace is chosen as remote business manager. My reputation stands for itself as does the other Virtual Assistants I know and follow. We work hard and earn our place in the business world. When I see something like this, it just makes me question someone’s business sense and character.
“Character is the firm foundation stone upon which one must build to win respect. Just as no worthy building can be erected on a weak foundation, so no lasting reputation worthy of respect can be built on a weak character.”— R. C. Samselat
As soon as you publish original content, it is protected by the copyright law, even without the symbol. This translates into the fact that people can’t repurpose or publish your content without consent.
- If you want to do a little research about your site and content, try CopyScape. It is a simple tool I discovered many years ago which will clearly display what content has been copied.
- Using Google Authorship also helps to reaffirm what is owned and protected by you.
- Make sure you take screenshots of the offending content.
- Email the perpetrator with the exact details, including the images, requesting that all copyrighted content is removed.
- If your correspondence is not successful, you can also contact the search engines directly under the DMCA Law or Digital Millennium Copyright Act
A little permission goes a long way. Ask. Give credit. Share honestly and professionally.
Know the laws and your rights.
by Ace Concierge | Virtual Assistant | Jul 2, 2013 | Customer Service, Small Business
Having been in business since 2002, I have had the great fortune of partnering with some tremendous clients – thought leaders in their respective industries. I must say that I am always honored and so grateful when chosen as their virtual assistant. It isn’t easy to give up what you have always done, put your business in the hands of someone else, or to develop a level of trust and comfort in the online world.
I base my business on long time partnerships – relationships where we get to know one another, work closely, brainstorm and truly develop the dynamics for a strong foundation. It is a mutual give and take. Some clients have called just to talk and share some good news, about family, personal matters and business. This is the gift of my business and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. This type of rapport and trust is my driver. The real payoff which far exceeds a dollar value.
To exemplify the daily rewards of owning my own virtual assistant company, I receive wonderful messages and accolades as shown below. These are excerpts from a project discussion with one client.
- I’m very much enjoying what you’re contributing here. Each step, each item, each suggestion.
- I’m glad, impressed, you thought of it and to send it. Your note ( slogan is way-y-y-y too crass), and I love it, is how can I serve you? You already answered your question by doing this. Thank you.
- Your service-centered approach continues to surprise and delight.
- Clarity and precision. Two of the many things I like about you. Thanks.
- Organized is another quality I like about you.
Gratitude and appreciation is important for every business, partner, friend, vendor, family member and colleague. Remember to share your positive thoughts and encouragements. They only serve the strengthen the bonds and provide incentive to continue on the same path.
Share the love.
Image credit: Microsoft
