Should the Fear of Negative Comments Stop You From Business Blogging?

October 4th, 2011

If you’re a small business owner who has looked to grow your company’s website, or get more from online marketing in Seattle or beyond, in the last few years, then there is a greater than 99% chance you’ve been told to add a blog to your company’s website. After all, having a business blog can be a great way to spread news, gain new readers and customers, and dramatically improve your search engine position.

So why aren’t more small and medium-sized companies jumping at the chance to start a company blog?

There are a handful of reasons. Some are worried that they won’t have the time to write, or don’t have anything interesting to say; others don’t quite understand the concept, or worry that they’ll accidentally share confidential information with their competitors. While these are all reasonable points, they are easy enough issues to deal with, and shouldn’t stop you from enjoying all the great benefits of having a blog.

Recently, however, the team here at Blue Sky Projects, Seattle’s best web design partner,  heard from a client who wasn’t sure she wanted to start up a blog because readers might comment negatively on her posts, hurting her marketing efforts in the process. That raises an interesting question: Should the fear of negative comments stop you from business blogging?

We feel that it absolutely should not, and here are just a few quick reasons why:

Negative comments are rare. The chances of someone taking time out of their day solely to insult you or try to make you look bad on your blog are pretty small. While you can get negative comments from time to time, it’s a lot rarer than you might think; you’re much more likely to be inundated with positive feedback than critical messages.

Having negative comments on your blog can actually help your online marketing. That’s because the right kind of criticism can start a debate, spur new topics, and even give you the chance to publicly defend or elaborate on something that’s misunderstood about your company and products.

Factually inaccurate or inappropriate comments can always be deleted. You always have the option of cutting off comments to your blog altogether, or deleting remarks that are particularly offensive or inaccurate. Remember, you are in control of what goes on to your company blog.

The other benefits of having a business blog are just too big. Blogs are a great tool in your online marketing arsenal, allowing you to share information, post opinions, and move into the top spots on Google, Yahoo, and Bing for your most important keywords. Why give that up just because of worry about what a few people might think or say?

Want help setting up a business blog? Contact the web design team at Blue Sky Projects today by clicking here.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Online Marketing, Social Media | No Comments »

2 Ways Any Seattle Company Can Add Fans on Facebook

July 18th, 2011

In some ways, companies of all sizes can get a little bit carried away when it comes to measuring the following they have on their Facebook fan page. After all, just as having one of the top few spots on Google for an important search term doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll explode your online business – your landing pages still have to convince visitors to make a purchase – neither does having thousands of fans ensure that your social media marketing is going to be a hit.

But then again, it sure doesn’t hurt.

That’s because, regardless of what you sell, having a strong following on Facebook widens your net of potential customers. In other words, the more men and women you have interacting with you on a daily or weekly basis, the more likely you are to see an improvement in your online or off-line sales.

With that in mind, here are the two very best ways any Seattle company can add fans on Facebook:

Make your profile page a place to get free or discounted stuff. Just about everybody, regardless of how often they use Facebook or what they think of your company, likes to get something for nothing… or at least for a lot less than they’re used to paying. There are any number of ways you can use this preference to add fans on Facebook.

One tried-and-true method is by offering a free gift or online coupon for each person who becomes a fan of your business on Facebook. By giving them a direct incentive to sign up, you can often get lots of people who might have otherwise clicked elsewhere to stop and join your group. In fact, you can even reward them for other people they refer, further growing your network by offering a one-time payoff.

Another discount strategy that has worked well for a lot of businesses is announcing sales, promotions, new products, and discounts through your Facebook page first. That way, people who have become fans of your business are the first to know about potential savings – and get the first crack at products before they run out. For those people who are interested in getting the newest and best from you, or just the best prices, this can be an irresistible benefit.

Provide a steady stream of entertainment. For as long as the Internet has been available to mainstream consumers, it has really excelled in two different areas: offering low prices, and as an unmatched tool for finding innovative entertainment. In other words, people love to go online looking for jokes, pictures, and other things that distract them from their day-to-day duties for a few minutes at a time.

Depending on what you sell, and to whom, you have to be a little bit careful about what sort of entertainment you offer on your Facebook fan page. Certainly, you don’t want to be spreading distasteful jokes or inappropriate photos. But outside those guidelines, there’s nothing wrong with a little levity here and there.

Better yet, however, is trying to spread pictures, stories, or even videos that revolve around your industry. By asking customers for their funniest product stories, or sharing a little bit of “behind-the-scenes” info about your company, you can often create something that not only draws in plenty of quick views, but also ties visitors in a little bit more closely to your brand and gets them coming back for future updates. You can add a little bit of fun to their day and market at the same time – a win-win for everyone.

Could you use some help making your Facebook marketing campaigns a little more effective? Contact Blue Sky today – we’re Seattle’s social media experts, and will be happy to give you a free one-on-one consultation to get started.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Online Marketing, Social Media, Website Tips | No Comments »

New ActionPointe Ecommerce Website launch

July 6th, 2011

ActionPointe

On Monday, June 27, Blue Sky Projects launched a new ecommerce Web site,we designed and built for ACTIONPOINTE, a new career empowerment company. The launch was the culmination of an eighteen-month collaboration with the company’s managing principal, Kirk Anderson.

At Blue Sky Projects we love the challenge of creating a comprehensive Web platform for a new, start up company. But the experience with Kirk and ACTIONPOINTE was unlike anything we’ve done before.

No doubt, the excitement was due to Kirk’s dynamic personality, and his desire to have a site that fully supports his goals. Kirk has been in the business of helping people define their career paths, to mine their experiences to determine their talents and hopes, for many years. But he has always felt that the options for most people are frankly too cumbersome and too expensive.

Kirk wanted the ACTIONPOINTE site to be a place where people could come to start the process of creating a new career path, a place where they could find hidden talents and new possibilities.

We’ve created a success story about our work with ACTIONPOINTE. Please check it out. And, if you are looking for something new in your career, or just want to discover if your current career is really the perfect match for your talents, head over to the ACTIONPOINTE site. You will be surprised at what you can learn about yourself.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Client Profiles | No Comments »

Jumpstarting Your Company’s Social Media Marketing Plan

June 21st, 2011

Given that the time to get involved with social media websites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn was yesterday, how does a business – or business owner – who doesn’t even know where to begin get started?

The first thing you need to do is take a deep breath. As we mentioned, social networking might be big, but it’s still getting a lot bigger. There’s plenty of room for growth. Even search engine optimization, which has been around for more than a decade, still sees new competitors succeed every month, so you definitely have room to grow in social media.

Beyond that, it’s just a matter of getting started. Often, online marketers find that a few days or weeks of social media marketing is all it takes to get the key concepts. Besides, it’s a lot of fun. Below are a handful of quick tips to help you get moving. If you want more information, download our free Getting Started With Social Media Marketing Tip Sheet here.

Start profiles on all the major social media sites. Remember, there are already hundreds of millions of people on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn alone. At the very least, you need to create profiles with your personal or company information on these sites.

Pick a message and direction. How do you want to be known online? Find a tone and consistent theme that would appeal to your best potential customers and start adding content to your profiles frequently. Over time, you’ll develop a reputation that will help you meet more buyers.

Consider calling reinforcements. Most social media marketing plans fail because the owners or managers supervising them don’t have the time to update their accounts, much less add new content. Being boring, or neglecting to start and participate in conversations, will kill your momentum quickly. If you don’t have the available time or creativity to keep up with social networking, look into hiring a professional online marketing firm to help you out.

Succeeding in social media is usually easier than people think it is, but it’s important to get started off on the right foot. You can’t afford to fall behind any longer, so click here to download our free Getting Started With Social Media Marketing Tip Sheet today.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Online Marketing, Social Media | 1 Comment »

What Happens When Sales Gurus Take on Social Media?

June 14th, 2011

I recently had the chance to pick up a new book,Social Boom!, by outspoken sales trainer Jeffrey Gitomer. (You can buy a copy on Amazon here: Social BOOM!: How to Master Business Social Media to Brand Yourself, Sell Yourself, Sell Your Product, Dominate Your Industry Market, Save Your Butt, … and Grind Your Competition into the Dirt
If you aren’t familiar with his work, he’s known for two things: a brash style that people tend to love or hate, and boiling down very big topics and ideas into a few actionable points.

Social Boom! is no different. Basically a long tip sheet about how business owners, marketing managers, and other sales-focused types can profit from social networking, this slim hardback takes on a lot of the attitudes and misconceptions surrounding sites like Facebook and Twitter head on.

It’s a fun, quick, and engaging read, so I recommend checking it out if you have a few hours. But in case you don’t have the time just yet, or want to skip ahead to the good stuff, let me summarize Gitomer’s three main points:

Social media is big… and it’s getting bigger. Facebook has over 500 million members worldwide, and isn’t showing any signs of slowing down. Twitter is quickly gaining ground, expected to eclipse the 200 million mark this year, and while LinkedIn might have “only” around 50 million members, it’s focused on executives and decision makers – exactly the kinds of men and women most of us are trying to get in touch with. Social media isn’t just big, it’s huge, and that’s reason enough to know you have to participate.

You need to start getting involved today. Every day that you aren’t participating in social media is another day you’re falling behind competitors who are. It isn’t difficult, or even very time-consuming, to set up profiles on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. There are no excuses not to get started, only regrets you’ll have later if you don’t.

To succeed, you need to be interesting. One thing needs to be said about social media from the start: If you’re going to find new customers, you have to be more interesting than your competitors. It isn’t enough to throw out generic content; you need posts, images, videos, and other content that drive customers and colleagues back in your direction.

While none of these revelations exactly qualifies as earth-shaking news, it’s telling that Gitomer makes a point of mentioning them again and again. The message is clear: There really is no time to lose when it comes to getting started with social networking. But you’ve heard all of that before… what are you actually supposed to do with that information?

In the next social media post, we’ll show you.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Book Reviews, Online Marketing, Social Media | No Comments »

The Real Key to a Successful Online Marketing Campaign

May 17th, 2011

If you ever find yourself with a few hours to kill, and want to learn a little about perspective in online marketing, call a handful of Seattle area web designers and ask them what they think the key to a successful online marketing campaign is. The amazing thing won’t be the answers you’ll get – which will probably revolve around search engine optimization, utilizing social media, e-mail newsletters, and other similar strategies – but that you’ll get so many different answers to start with.

Which one of them is the right one? What is the real key to successful online marketing?

The truth is that it’s any of them and all of them. There’s no way to know exactly what tactic you should be using for your particular business situation without finding out all the specifics. And what’s more, it’s never really so much about how you’re marketing online, as is your approach to finding business over the Internet.

Allow me to explain: no Internet marketing campaign starts out being perfect. In fact, more than a few aren’t even profitable from the beginning. Certainly, there are things you can do to get moving on the right foot and tilt the odds in your favor, but the point is that you’re very unlikely to begin by getting the results you’re ultimately hoping for. And so, the real secret isn’t in deciding whether to emphasize certain SEO keywords or landing page offers; it’s in constantly testing and refining everything you do.

Never take it as a given that your campaigns are doing as well as they could be. Instead, always look for ways to increase your response rate by a couple tenths of a percentage point, or convert a few more visitors into buyers each week. This means making small changes as well as big ones, having separate versions of different pages and closely tracking the leads and sales coming through your website. In other words, it’s hard work, which is why a lot of companies don’t bother to make the effort. They’re selling themselves short, however, because the most dramatic gains in Internet marketing usually don’t come all at once… they arrive after you have successfully refined your messages to the point where a high number of potential buyers respond to them.

That leads us to the second part of our secret: start small and expand relatively slowly. I say “relatively” because what seems gradual to a five person company is different than what amounts to a cautious approach from a Fortune 500. In either case, however, it’s almost always a better idea to take things one step at a time – building gradually on a campaign that’s making money, rather than pouring lots of dollars into unproven ideas that may never pan out. It’s a hard lesson to learn, but an important one: just because something works for one marketing campaign, or one company, doesn’t mean it’s going to produce the same kinds of results another time. Untold businesses of all sizes have burned through small fortunes figuring that out.

Work long and hard enough at finding business over the Internet, and you will discover the real secret to successful online marketing campaigns – at least for your company. Do yourself a favor, though, and make it a process of constant improvement. It might not be as easy as writing a check and walking away, but we can promise you’ll be glad you did in the long run.

Did you miss our article on the best way to improve your online marketing messages? If so, you can read it now by clicking here!

Want to spend less time reading about online marketing methods, and spend more time working with new customers? Blue Sky can help. We’ve been building websites and online marketing plans for Seattle organizations of all sizes for more than 10 years. Call us today and see what we can do for you!

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Online Marketing | No Comments »

One Easy Way Every Business in Seattle Could Improve Their Online Marketing Messages

May 3rd, 2011

OverE-commerce Website Seattle the last 10+ years, we’ve seen the good, the bad, and the ugly of Seattle web design. From clients coming to us with brilliant ideas and terrible layouts, to those who started out just wanting to establish a presence on the web and then made it big in e-commerce, there have been a lot of highs and lows.

When it comes to finding a common denominator for success, however, there’s one thing that’s easy to pick out: the companies that are successful in finding customers online, in Seattle or beyond, usually learn to craft their marketing messages in a way that matters to buyers.

That sounds like a very simple point, and perhaps it is. But try this exercise some time: Google some product or industry and open up the top 10 results. It’s almost certain that the pages you’ll come up with will have lots of great informative keywords, but most of it about the company that’s offering the product or service – not the customer who needs or wants them.

Buyers rarely take action because we want them to, however, or because we are the best or most interesting. They decide to pick up the phone or pull out their credit card for other reasons that have to do with their needs, wants, and constraints. In other words, they do it because we have offered something that helps them, not the other way around.

Understanding that principle, and fine-tuning your online marketing content appropriately, is a great way to boost your revenue. Here are four quick tips to help you get started:

Take the focus off of you. From your home page to the “about us” and “contact” sections, rewrite your copy so that the focus is on your customer. Instead of talking about your background or product, mention what qualifications or features you have that make you a better value. Remember, your website isn’t really about you to potential customers, but what you can do for them.

Get to know your customers better. A startling number of Seattle companies fail to effectively reach their customers because they don’t really understand what they’re looking for. It’s easier to market online and sell to any group of men and women once you know them a bit better. Make a profile of your ideal customer with as much information as possible; if you don’t know as much as you should, get busy researching.

Read what they read. One of the fastest and easiest ways to become more familiar with your customers is by reading the magazines, websites, trade journals, and other materials that they regularly consume. Not only will you get a sense for any jargon or current topics that you might not have been aware of, but you’ll also spot oncoming trends faster than you would have otherwise.

Solicit better feedback. Often, one of the simplest ways to find out what your customers wish you are providing is to just ask them. It’s not enough to have a feedback form on your Seattle small business website, or do the occasional e-mail survey. Take the time, at least once every few months or so, to get to know your really good customers and find out what’s on their minds. The effort just might lead you to a more profitable online business in the future.

In the next post, we’ll check out the real key to online marketing success. Here’s a quick hint: it’s not SEO, social media, or even great web design!

Looking for the very best in web design, e-commerce, and online marketing in Seattle? Contact Blue Sky Projects today – we have the knowledge and expertise to help you find more profits on the web.

Tags: ,
Posted in Online Marketing | No Comments »

IE9 – Next generation of Internet Explorer is released today

March 16th, 2011

Roughly a year in development has produced this latest and greatest version of Internet Explorer. Key advantages for users include :

  • New privacy controls enabling what they call InPrivate browsing. This will help with your own site testing by not keeping cookies and sessions.
  • Pinned sites – a new way of keeping favorite sites handy – now by attaching them to your taskbar. With a new functional and fun feature of being abe to right click on the pinned site and see (and be able to click) on shortcuts directly to key inside parts of the websites. This assumes the websites have been setup this way (ask Blue Sky Projects to set up your site for this!)
  • Tear off tabs – just like Firefox :)
  • Merged search and address bar – very usable!

For developers they have included controls to let us see what pages look like in older browsers (IE8 had a similar feature but it was not as accurate to let you see IE7 versions).

Microsoft has two interesting comparison tables on their site. One show you IE9 vs the popular Chrome and Firefox and another table comparing features of IE9 vs the older IE8 and even IE7.

For Blue Sky Projects clients, we have been testing your sites this past year on the beta version of IE9 and now will run more extensive tests on the actual IE9. We will send you an email if any changes seem warranted.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Website Tips | No Comments »

Browsers Get a Facelift

September 16th, 2010

Great article in today’s Wall Street Journal of the above title. Here is the article . While primarily about Microsoft’s newest browser,  IE9 (pre-released today), the article really hints at the greater interactivity through using the local PC’s own ability to display graphics, to in turn allow more sophisticated and interactive Web pages.

More specific details about IE9 are available here.

We will be following this and other changes coming closely to offer in turn, more dynamic Web pages for you, our clients.

Tags: ,
Posted in About Blue Sky | No Comments »

Writing Your Website

June 30th, 2010

Web copy, the “sales speak” that is written specifically for website, can be a challenge to write well. Some people hire that part out, to insure that keywords, etc are added into the text. And other clients like to write their copy themselves. Here are some tips to help you develop and write web copy. And even if you decide to hire the job out, this will help you to get your thoughts on your web copy organized first.

1. Decide early on what you want each page to accomplish. For instance, if you want to sell your mechanical services on a mechanical page, focus on the benefits of your services there and perhaps list specifics such as prices. Always end the page with a “call to action” (i.e. “Click to email or call to schedule today”) or at least have an easy way for the reader to find how to contact you quickly.

2. Decide if you want to write in the third person or not and stick with the same style throughout the site. For larger companies, we usually recommend third-person (i.e. “ABC Office Supplies strives to always put customers first”). For small companies, third-person can be used but some prefer the more personal approach of first-person (i.e. “We strive to always put our customers first”). Make sure and double check your copy before posting as it is easy to flip back and forth between styles as opposed to staying consistent.

3. Web readers need shorter paragraphs than what you often see in books or magazines. If we see a page with a ton of text without paragraph breaks, we tend to click off. Paragraphs should be short with 3-5 sentences and have one or more full line spaces between paragraphs.

4. Keywords are highly recommended. In fact, the search engines like it even more if the same keywords are included both in the tags of the site and within the text (it tells them it is genuine content). So even if you are writing your own copy, check with your web developer to see if they added keywords within the code of the site and what those are.

5. Each page should have at least 150 words of text on it, even if that page is featuring something like pictures or videos. This introduces the page to the search engines and tells them how to index it. And it also is an important introduction of the page to your readers.

6. Include testimonials. Often people will have a separate page for testimonials, and this is fine. But consider also sprinkling some throughout the text on the various pages. Do you talk on a certain page about how timely you are? See if you can dig up a testimonial that mentions how timely you were and add that in. It not only helps to break up the copy but is a great selling point as it backs up your “timely” claim.

Here at Blue Sky Projects, we have writers on staff who can truly help you sell your business on the web with great copy. Give us a call or email us today.

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Website Tips | No Comments »

« Older Entries