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Archive for April, 2012

Email Marketing in Trinidad and Tobago is Even Bigger Than Social Media Marketing

Posted by Christopher Chin Lee On April - 24 - 2012
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The advent of social media seems to have prompted people to do more of what mom always told you to do – share. Recent research, however, shows that email prompts more sharing than social channels. That’s good news if you are considering conducting a campaign in email marketing in Trinidad and Tobago.


Sharing
Marketing Pilgrim posted an ExactTarget 2012 Channel Preference Survey and found that more people shared content with folks they know via email than Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. While those social channels were still utilized for sharing, especially Facebook, the overwhelming numbers posted by email (nearly double) may seem surprising.


There’s a minor difference when it comes to age groups. The 15-17 year-old set used Facebook more often, while statistics for sharing content via email was greater, and steadily increased with age. So what does this mean for you and what you’re trying to accomplish with your online marketing?


Working together
What it doesn’t mean is that you should abandon any social media campaigns. In fact, it was shown that social and email actually work well together as a messaging and brand credibility tool. Some recent stats back that up. Results show that including sharing buttons in emails can increase click rates by as much as 115%. The positive relationship works in reverse as well. Another recent study found that companies responding to customer complaints and compliments on social media, led to customers being more receptive to email campaigns from those companies.


Approaching thoughtfully
People check their email daily, so make it easy to share the content you send, including coupons or deals. Other sharing to promote can include favorable blog mentions or product reviews. Make your sharing option stand out loud and clear.


One thing to remember, if you’re sending out emails to customers or prospects that have supplied their address, but haven’t engaged – reach out in an introductory manner. Remind them how you got their information, and appeal to them to become engaged. Include a message about how you can help them and their friends.


The right message aimed at the right target audience has the potential to go viral, and that could mean higher response rates and increased engagement for your email marketing in Trinidad and Tobago. Combining that with social elements increase your sharing and brings about the conversions you’re looking for.


Have you given up on email campaigns in favor of the social media push? If you’d like to learn more about utilizing an effective email marketing campaign along with your social media, contact us and we can help you make the most of sharing opportunities.
E-mail marketing

Is it Working For You? Measuring Value of Social Media Marketing in Trinidad and Tobago Just Got Easier

Posted by Christopher Chin Lee On April - 20 - 2012
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Your social media marketing success in Trinidad and Tobago all hinges on what you expect. That’s right, if you’re looking to increase brand awareness, or to perform better customer relationship management, then investing time in social media is a no-brainer. Those tasks are the easiest to accomplish. However, there is often a bit of skepticism about whether it’s worth the time if you’re expecting to generate leads and increase sales.

Know your destination first

Establishing your goals with social media is first and foremost. It will not only lead you in determining strategy, but will also allow you to measure your success more accurately. There’s nothing worse than putting forth an unfocused plan, then not knowing, or understanding what the results are, or why those results aren’t what you expected.

If you’re hoping to convert a large number of fans or followers, then you need to know up front that is your main objective. If generating good buzz is your primary concern, aim for that and you won’t be disappointed. Measuring the impact you’re making with your social media marketing efforts has always been tricky for some areas. While it’s quite obvious how many ‘fans’ you have. If you’re monitoring properly, it’s easy to know just how satisfied, or engaged people are with you. What about actual conversions, what people consider to be the real return on investment (ROI)?

A survey by the Lenskold Group shows that marketers believe it’s far easier to measure engagement, followed by new names, prospects/leads, then change in awareness and perceptions. Incremental sales and ROI fall near the bottom of the scale. However, this opinion could soon change.

Now measure in detail

Google has been rolling out a new set of reports within Google Analytics that it says can help you to measure social media activity on, and off your website. According to a Google blog post, the reports “bridge the gap between social media, and the business metrics you care about.” They are expecting the new reports to help with three things.

* Identifying the full value of traffic coming from social sites, and measuring how they lead to direct conversions or assist in future conversions.
* Understanding social activities happening both on and off your site to help you optimize user engagement and increase social key performance indicators.
* Making better, more efficient data-driven decisions on your social media marketing programs.

Awareness, branding, and engagement all contribute to consumers buying decision. Being able to now more accurately measure the impact of your social media marketing in Trinidad and Tobago should alleviate any questions. Having answers about what you’re accomplishing will not only help you devise a stronger social media plan, it will also give you piece of mind about your investment in your strategy.

For a look at the things the new report can hep with, such as social value, social sources, social plugins, and activity post, check this blog post from Google

How will having these reports help you devise a social media plan, and what will you discover about your current strategy? If you’d like to discuss online marketing and how to integrate social media marketing, contact us today and we can take you through the process.

Social Media Marketing

Don’t Fall Into the Trap, Diversify Your SEO Efforts in Trinidad and Tobago

Posted by Christopher Chin Lee On April - 9 - 2012
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There are all sorts of warnings about how not to conduct your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy in Trinidad and Tobago. From keyword stuffing your content, to over optimizing your pages, there are many pitfalls when it comes to looking for the ‘quick trip’ to the top of the search engine page rankings.


New development
Recently Google announced it will “punish” any site that is “overly optimized”. Recently there have been at least two back-link building sites that have been de-indexed by Google. The private network of blog/articles used by people looking to develop back-links for their own site, “Build My Rank” (BMR) was shut down. Another such site, ALN, lost more than 5 thousand domains to de-indexing in one week, according to Site Pro News.


Mistakes
Aside from black-hat techniques that are now the target of de-indexing, Google also talks about common mistakes made in the name of SEO. Here are three of the most common:


  • Having no value proposition – in other words, earning the top spot not because you actually belong there and are better than the competition. You can wind up making people angry when you don’t live up to that “number 1” slot.
  • Segmented approach – not making sure your SEO related goals align with your company’s overall objectives. Leaving out segments of your business from the SEO campaign you’re constantly updating is not effective strategy.
  • Getting caught in trends – focusing too much on tricks to boost rankings, rather than innovating and creating messaging that works to not only draw customers, but keep them.
That being said, determining your search strategy should always include honest, but viable methods to get noticed, like generating new, valid, content and generating links the old-fashioned way.


Doing it right
Last week we talked about generating links through the social media channel LinkedIn. Blogging, and then spreading the word through social media is another. Interested parties share your link because they like what they read, and that could help get your site higher in the rankings. Being fresh, relevant and creating buzz isn’t as quick and easy as some of the no-no methods Google is cracking down on, but if you can pull it off, you’ll see rewards.


Tools
Simply putting highly searched words into your website isn’t going to be enough. Those words and phrases need to make sense, and they need to be thought out. It’s frustrating to click on a search result that sounds promising based on the keywords and title, only to find out it’s not what you needed at all. Semantic search is coming to the forefront… that’s where search engines can pick up on the meaning of words through rich snippet markup from schema.org. Snippets are those summaries, or blurbs that appear under your website on the search page. They can include certain phrases, those star ratings, pictures, or other identifying pieces of information.


Consider exactly what your target audience is looking for, and what information you can provide to help them see that your search result is actually a good match. Relevant, helpful, and targeted information in your search engine snippets makes it easier for people to understand just what you have to offer. Providing this specific information means the less likely they are to pass over your result thinking it’s not relevant.


Be smart and creative about what you do for search engine optimization in Trinidad and Tobago. Try out various methods for link-building and proper keyword strategy without resorting to “smoke and mirrors” magic to try and propel yourself higher.


What methods have you tried to get your website noticed? If you want to learn some effective SEO strategies, contact us today and we’ll help you come up with a plan that won’t lead you into trouble. We can also provide you with some helpful resources, like KunoCreative’s simple Guide Sheet.
SEO

How LinkedIn Can Be More Helpful To Your Search Engine Optimization In Trinidad and Tobago Than You Think

Posted by Christopher Chin Lee On April - 2 - 2012
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It’s all business. Well, at least LinkedIn started that way. When people think about LinkedIn, they typically think about creating connections for job hunting purposes, for now, or in the future. More and more, though, LinkedIn has become an effective social media marketing tool. It can provide a means to share your links, help your search engine optimization (SEO) and share content with a like-minded, or targeted audience.

The basics
Launched nearly 9 years ago, with more than 135 million users globally, LinkedIn is considered one of the top 5 social media sites. Typically interaction on the site is business related. Users create profiles about their current and past employment, skills, and business interests. The site also offers avenues for people to engage in conversation around topics of interest, and to get feedback and business expertise from other connections and members.

Special features
There are several special features on the site, LinkedIn Answers allows users to ask questions of the LinkedIn community. In December, LinkedIn Polls was rolled out to groups. The LinkedIn application platform provides a connection to WordPress, TypePad, and Tripit, allowing members to post blogs in their profile.

Opportunities

Links

Interest groups are largely employment related, though there’s a wide range of topics centered around professional and career issues. It’s in these groups that lies link–building capabilities. Anyone can set up a group on LinkedIn to generate interaction among professionals. But be aware that there are a lot of Groups on the site, hundreds of thousands of them. If you can build a niche group of influencers and niche professionals, there could be benefits to your business. These people will likely pass on quality content to others in their sphere of influence.

Make your Trinidad and Tobago group stand out from the others by choosing an area that is specific, out-of-the-box, or at least not similar to others in your field. By starting a group, you are that group’s manager and because of the credibility that brings you, you are afforded more control in displaying your links, and hopefully those links will be spread. Socialmediatoday advises using a LinkedIn group 4 ways to draw more people to your site.

  • Place your website link in the “about this group” section
  • Send a weekly message to the group with a relevant link
  • Add your site to the RSS feed in the News Section
  • Begin a discussion and include your link.

Blogs/reviews
Drawing attention to your site by getting people to write about you is another means of building up your SEO.  Blogs are increasingly seen as trustworthy sources of reviews and opinions, particularly if they are from industry bloggers with a solid reputation. But how do you get someone to highlight you in their blog?

Mashable backs using LinkedIn to identify, and to contact these writers. Rather than going to standard search to find a blogger site, they suggest conducting a search on LinkedIn. While the search will be narrower, this could be a good thing, filtering out less business oriented results. Use keywords to find relevant matches, and target by location. Read their blogs and determine the ones you like.

Once you’ve gotten a list of people that could be helpful, be aware that contacting people you aren’t connected to on LinkedIn can be a challenge, especially if they are not a 2nd degree connection (someone connected to one of your connections.) Since many of them are likely to have a Twitter account, look them up by searching their “Name + Twitter” and try contacting them. Let them know you have read their blogs, and invite them to email you about an idea.

If you can provide a fresh idea, or a great angle for some content they can write about you, they may consider you and your business for a blog post.

The result
Social Media Marketing in Trinidad and Tobago is not always straight-forward and simplistic. It’s not just about creating fans, followers, and connections. It’s about discovering ways to leverage the social channels to improve your visibility and reputation. LinkedIn isn’t as dry as it may seem. While it may not have the customer-focused element, or obvious promotional opportunities as Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter, it can become an effective tool for spreading your offerings through influential people that could have just the connections you want.

Want to know how to better utilize LinkedIn Mobile? Read these tips from Marketing Profs.

Are you using LinkedIn effectively? If you’re interested in a copy of Hub Spot’s eBook “How to Generate Leads Using LinkedIn“ Contact us and we can also help you come up with a strategy for your social media marketing.

SEO, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Optimization

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