Twitter, up until now, has been the hashtag King offering its popular method of interest-driven communication quite successfully.  I say up until now, because Facebook is about to launch its own hashtagging capabilities.  This shouldn’t come as any surprise as a matter of fact, you should anticipate this to be the future of all social platforms.

Facebook is a social media giant and will usually be in the forefront of change.  Hashtags are not the only change in the works, there will also be an updated News Feed interface.  This could very well be the updates that will make Facebook King X2 and the advertising go-to for the digital age.

It’s now more important than ever, before the launch of hashtags, to understand and learn how to use them.  So how can your business make the best use of its hashtags?

#Don’t #Hashtag #Every #Word

This is the biggest Rookie mistake you can make.  Hashtags should #LookLikeThis, no spaces!  The best way to use this hashtag, in a perfect world, is to include no spaces and to capitalize the first letter of each word.  Make it #EasyToRead.

Starting a hashtagged phrase is an excellent way to get new customers.  Creating a catchy tag separates you from your competitors, and helps to ensure that you don’t get lost in any hashtag spam.

Hashtags should be thought of as warm leads.  They allow for categorization, interest honing, and drive targeted consumer purchases.  Many tags are overpopulated.  You should be creating a unique hashtag specific to your brand, and encouraging.  Your users to use it is crucial to success.

Facebook is using hashtags to sell ads and that’s the straight truth.  However, using these hashtags will benefit you and your brand by driving attention to your promoted Facebook Page.

You can ensure that your Facebook Page campaign with the use of hashtags will be successful by following these simple steps:

*  #KeepItShort – You want to keep it short and to the point for a couple of reasons first: you’re working with limited real estate.  Second: #NobodyWantsToSeeSuchALongTag.

*  What’s Your Message? – Create a hashtag around a particular message.  What do you want your clients to remember?

*  Don’t Get Lost – You are going to have to step out from the norm if you don’t want to get lost in social media.

Start getting prepared for Facebook’s launch.  Make a list of potential hashtags and go and get them.

The post #HowToHashtag For Your Business Success appeared first on 3rd Street.

Some SEO experts have used devious means to try and trick Google to rank higher.  These tactics are referred to as “Black Hat SEO”.  Messing with Google like this is exactly why Panda came along.  Again I say thanks Panda.  I mean it this time though.

Google is impressed with things like the speed of websites and unique content.  This is why Google has targeted for destruction content farms by de-ranking them.

Unique Content

Google loves great and unique content.  Content creation and curation are the best and most favored marketing tools.

Offsite Optimization is a very important tactic and its presence should be included in your SEO strategy.  Off-Page Optimization.

SEO experts say that 80% of off-page link building techniques are extremely effective in any SEO campaign.  Building links is by far the most important activity for assisting us in getting our website well ranked in search engines.  The key driving force is back links.

Back Links

Basically, a link or back link is the link that you use to be brought to another page.  Back links can be compared to “Votes” for your page that let search engines know that other webpages find your page valuable and useful.  The more votes the higher ranking.  As expected, not all votes are weighed the same.  If you have back links from sites like Amazon.com, any edu sites, and facebook.com, you will receive a higher ranking than you would from a less known site.

Following are some tips for easy link building:

1.  Competitor Analysis – You want to repeat what your best competitors are doing, match or exceed them.  Go through their links and link, then find more of your own to exceed them.

2.  Content – No surprise here.  As you’ve probably heard and will continue to hear, is that you must consistently provide new compelling and useful content.  Google looks favorably on sites that continually post (at least twice a week) updated material.  If you do this, other sites will want to link to you as well.

Always include your desired keywords, meta-descriptions, and title tags.

3.  Guest Blogging – There are many thoughts about this but the bottom line is that you get links from guest blogging.

4.  Social Networking – Join sites like Squidoo, StumbleUpon, and Delicious.  You can earn up to nine free back links from writing for these sites.

5.  Partner Testimonials – This is a quick and easy way to build back links.  Anyone you can give testimonials to like your suppliers or business partners.

6.  Link Requests – Ask for a free back link from everyone you know.  Especially edu.  these can all be powerful for your site.

These will get you started but know, there are more out there.

The post How To Rank Higher With Google appeared first on 3rd Street.

For the purpose of this post, we won’t be addressing url’s, instead we will be working on effective but low-risk solutions.

1.  Canonicalize Internal Duplicates –  Since the onset of Panda, Google has often times, done a poor job of choosing the right version of a page.  Because of the fail, there could be some serious consequences to letting your indexed pages run amok.

Low authority sites can end up diluting your site’s index and pushing out your more important pages, like your product pages.  This error could potentially devastate your overall site and its productivity.

The three most common varieties of internal duplicates are:

*  Duplicates caused by session variables and tracking parameters

*  Duplicates caused by search sorts and filters

*  Duplicates caused by alternate URL paths to the same page

Each time a search spider reads a new url they see a new page.  If your duplicates truly are identical, using the canonical tag or a 301-redirect would be best.

2.  Unique Title Tags – Pages that you want to rank need unique, descriptive, and keyword targeted title tags.  Your title tag is still a powerful ranking factor so be sure not to neglect them.

3.  Unique Meta Descriptions – You need to try to make your descriptions meaningful and attractive to your visitors.  You don’t want to make sentences packed with keywords.

Meta descriptions have no direct impact on your ranking but they do have two indirect impacts:

*  It (usually) determines your search snippet and impacts click-through rate (CTR).

*  It’s another uniqueness factor that makes pages look more valuable.

4.  Shorten Your Title Tags – By using long title tags you weaken the SEO impact of any given keyword.  Visitors to your site will tend to skim for search results and these long tags are annoying.

I’ve seen many use them and they really need to stop.  An example would be using your homepage title at the end of each of your pages.

You are diluting the first few keywords for the page and causing each of your pages to compete with your homepage unnecessarily.

The post Great On-Page SEO The Easy Way Part I appeared first on 3rd Street.

Facebook has over a billion people using it and Twitter is limited on real estate as far as how much can be posted.  140 characters including spaces.  Limiting and used by too many spammers.

The question is, will I keep using them?  Absolutely and you should too.  First of all, I’m quite comfortable with both and if I wasn’t engaging with both I would be lost.

However, just because I have reached a comfort level doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try new things.  Same goes for you.

As mentioned earlier, Pinterest is the new big thing.  Of course you know that eventually, well soon, it too will be over-saturated   However, in the meantime, while waiting for the next big thing, you should give Pinterest a go.

Pinterest has, and is, earning its business presence and if you blog and use excellent images, Pinterest will serve you well.

So How Does This Apply To You?

Simple, everytime you blog you’re telling a story right?  If you’re not, you should be.  Every story is conveyed better with images.  We are very visual people.

This combination of stories and images is exactly what makes Pinterest work.  People are just drawn to it.  They can’t help themselves.

So how do you get your story and images pinned and re-pinned?  I’m going to share some tools with you that will help you and your online marketing strategies but first.  Your images and story has the potential of going viral.  How?  The re-pins are shared not only on Pinterest but also Facebook and Twitter.  That should get you thinking.  Now for the tools that can help you reach your goals:

1.  Pinwords – This site is great for adding your images and text to.  You can even add quotes to your images.  Easy to use and free.  This will help you and your presence.

2.  Pinstamatic – Now this is a full service tool.  The features that this site offers are above and beyond your other choices.  I use it all of the time.  Here is a summary of some of its best features:

*  Use sticky notes on your pins as a message or explanation to your readers.  So useful.

*  You can add your favorite Spotify tricks to your Pinterest boards so when your readers click on your image they will be able to play a song you selected.  Pretty awesome.

*  If you have a live shop or you have an event you’re sponsoring, you have the option of adding a map to your board.  Your readers can find you locally and engage with what you are doing.

*  You can use a theme of your choice and add your chosen text to.  Create your own words and quotes, or borrow from someone else.  I love quotes.

*  You can check your work by entering you url in the browser.  This before you pin your final work.

3.  Pinpuff – This is an incredible tool to evaluate how you are performing on Pinterest.   You simply enter your email and sign in name.  Pinpuff calculates your Pinfluence.  This tells you how popular you are and the value of your pins.

Pinpuff also keeps you in tune with your marketing strategy and its successes or failures.  If you see that your Pinfluence is not that high then you need to tweak your process.  Make the necessary changes and watch to see if your Pinfluence changes for the better.  Make more adjustments if you need to.

I leave you with one more thought about Pinpuff, you can check your competitors Pinfluence too.

4.  PinAlerts – PinAlerts is a very clever and useful tool.  You can add as many sites as you’d like and if there is any activity on it like a re-pin from within or visitor activity, you will be alerted via email.

If you have this information, think of it, you can email a Thank You for their visit.  You are engaged with your viewer and building a relationship.  This alone makes this site invaluable.

5.  Reachli – This tool measures your success good or bad, and gives you the insights needed to optimize it.  It’s a great tool to check and measure the efficiency of your marketing campaign.  Huge help with huge differences.

6.  PinSearch – With this tool you can research all url’s using an image or text.  This is a Google Chrome Browser and its use can keep you ahead of the competition.  You find all images and content using the search info entered and then see what has been posted and rewrite making your changes that will catapult you beyond what has been written.  Think outside the box but don’t forget by doing that you leave the inside empty so think in both directions inside and outside.  Be the box.

The post Are Your Looking For Tools To Help With Your Pinterest Marketing Campaign? appeared first on 3rd Street.

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Are you a business owner who feeds yourself the line of garbage that you’re too old?  Were you the “Big Dog” back in your day and can’t figure out why for the last decade  sales have declined significantly?  You used to be the “Go To Guy” in your industry and now you’re a faint memory.

Time for Change

If this is you don’t worry, it’s never too late.  You’re still the “Big Dog”.  While you admit that you aren’t comfortable with computer technology or Social Media, unfortunately your young competitors are.  A lot has happened in this last decade and you need to embrace these changes if you are going to compete and succeed in your industry.  If you don’t have a website and/or a blog you need to get one now.  You need to not only tap into, but feed the consumer of today’s computer world the information they need and crave.  This is done most effectively on your website or blog.

Blog. You Can Do It!

Now that you have a Blog you worry that you don’t know what to talk about.  Who knows your business better than you?  Remember that you were once the “Big Dog” and you still are.  Let’s say for a second that you are the consumer looking for information in your industry, what questions would you ask?  Now write each of those questions on a separate piece of paper.  Write down at least 15 – 25 questions.  Now answer each of these questions as only you know how to.  Speak from the heart and your experiences.  When you’re done you have 15 – 25 Posts that you can add to your Blog.  Easy right?

Consumers crave knowledge.  They want to know how and why.  You know both so teach them.  Coach them into understanding how your product works and why they need to purchase it.  Your passion speaks volumes.

Get Your Employees Involved

So now you’re wondering how you’re going to do it all. You don’t.  We have a solution and a suggestion to lighten your load.  Three words…Include Your Employees.  Let them in on how you’re stepping up and making Content Driven Inbound Marketing and Social Media the focal point of your company.  Trust me they will respect you and probably offer up quite a few suggestions.  This is excellent news, now ask them to do what we asked you to do and come up with 15 – 25 most frequently asked questions and their answers.  Make sure you remember to use Social Media.  Now if by chance you just don’t have enough office staff to do this task, no problem…we are here to help you with that too.  We will not only write your posts but will disseminate your article to multiple sources such as Facebook, Twitter and to your email list, ensuring it will get in front of the eyes that will benefit from it most.

Food for Thought

As a parting thought…people are visual.  Start thinking about using Videos on your Blog.  As an example, lets say you own a spa company, you can video yourself or one of your employees giving how-to instructions on proper water treatment. Maybe you can video how to change out a filter?  Think about all the different ways you can include video and if you have any questions or need assistance with this, please don’t hesitate to contact us, we can help.

The post You’re Too Old To Grasp Inbound Content Marketing appeared first on 3rd Street.

However, what does matter and will absolutely affect your conversion rates, is good…no…GREAT content.  So how much great content do you need?  Following are the two types of visitors and their behaviors you should consider:

1.  Pre-sold – Those that are already pre-sold before they even arrive on your page are your best leads.  They’re not very concerned about your copy, they just want your CTA. So in these cases, it doesn’t matter where it’s placed as long as they are easy to identify.

2.   New Prospects – These customers are still unsure of what you’re offering.  What you need is very clear and easy to understand copy.  If your copy is strong, they will be motivated to click on your CTA button. This typically takes place AFTER they’ve been sold. So having your call to action at the top of your page (before they’ve decided that they’re even interested in what you have to offer) is premature. It makes better sense to put your CTA at the point where they’ll most likely be ready to make their decision.

If you haven’t tried it already, I’d recommend that you move your call to action towards the bottom of your page. Test it for 30 days to see what kind of results you receive. I’d love to hear how it works out for you.  Either post your results or email me. I’m looking forward to hearing from you. getstarted@3rdstreet.com

The post Where Should You Put Your Call To Actions? appeared first on 3rd Street.

So now that I’ve given you a case study of how I was able to help one of my clients see results using a recruiting campaign, here are 7 more ideas that might help you think of a solution for your business.

1.  Refer A Friend – This is the most popular way to spread your product and increase their viral coefficient (viral coefficient is how many customers your current customers bring in.)  This is accomplished by referrals.  Big companies like Netflix say that 15% of their customers come through referrals. And like in my previous example, it was an effective method for a neighborhood tanning salon too.

2.  Tweets And Likes – Your companies product needs to be able to be shared clear across the internet.  The only way to do this efficiently is to have your Social Media buttons on every single product page.  If you have a blog (and you should), you need to be sure to include these buttons on every single post as well.

3.  Contests – Contests are a way to get your users excited about your Brand.  If you are creative with your contest, you could  possibly pick up some PR with it as well.  But ultimately the objective is to obtain  new customers.  Be sure to offer a prize that is related to your business.  If you own a restaurant and you give away something like a TV (which has nothing to do with your business), what you’re doing is getting free advertising for the TV manufacturer.  Make sure your prize is Big though…and big doesn’t always mean expensive. What I mean by “Big” is that it needs to be valuable to your target audience. Something that they would desire because it fulfills a need or want.

4.  Affiliate Links – Affiliate Links are used by your users to spread the word about your product.  Affiliate Links are most successful when you offer the user something in return.  This of course depends on your product.  Like contests (above), keep the reward relative to your site/business.  If you sell E books then maybe offer another E book (or two.)

5.  Surprise Your Customers – A great surprise idea may be to offer your customers a free shipping day.  You could also do a “buy one, get one free” promotion.  Your customers LOVE surprises and will share the surprise with their social media network.  But be sure you follow through with your surprise.  Nothing can kill a business faster than not fulfilling your surprise obligation.

6.  Have Your Customers “Invite a Friend” - This is a quick and simple way to get your product out there.  Put a form on your product page that says “Invite A Friend”.  People like to share what they love (which will be my next point) and this works well with referral links (helps with your search engine ranking/SEO.)

7.  Make Sure Your Product Is The Best – People love to spread the good news of an excellent product or service.  The only way to have the best product or service is to listen to your customers.  Listening to your customers is the only way that you can expect to be the best.  If you build a great product, it should ultimately sell itself.

This is all completely possible but it begins and ends based on how great your product is.  Got questions? No problem, you can contact us at  getstarted@3rdstreet.com

The post The 7 Most Popular Ways To Turn Your Customers Into Marketers appeared first on 3rd Street.

Case Study – Tanning Salon

I have a client that owns a Tanning Salon. Like many businesses, she has taken a big hit during the recession.  She use to tell me that she would lay awake at night worried about how to keep your doors open.  So I gave her an idea to try. The goal was to help her generate new business quickly with very little capital.  I recommended that she run a recruiting campaign with her existing customers/members. She had been in business for 4 years and was soon to celebrate her 5th. I suggested that she should run a promotion on her 5th year anniversary date and hand out t-shirts (that she had printed but never knew how/who to give them away to) on the day of.  She got super excited and began preparing for in-store party immediately. So once we’ve established the date (her 5th year anniversary) and created an incentive (free t-shirt), all she needed to do was create the campaign that would would inspire her customers to bring in their friends. So with a few fliers, t-shirts (that she had sitting around), and a coupon offer (we came up with), she had the tools to create buzz and awareness among her customers and their social networks.

This is How it Unfolded

She invited her current members to the anniversary party and asked them to bring in a friend to receive a free t-shirt.  When they brought in a friend, both would receive the free t-shirt and the current member would also receive a coupon for tanning lotion (that she sold in the salon.)  Her current members were excited for the opportunity and all that it costed her was the investment in the t-shirts and a few flyers to hang up around the Salon AND she up-sold some product to boot!  The few days leading up to the event, she had her employees make calls to remind the members of their upcoming anniversary party.

Her big day was a hit!  She had one hundred new faces walk through her doors and 20 became new members.  The monthly membership is worth $65.00 per person.  As you can see, the benefit far outweighed the initial cost.

Economists agree that people, in general, respond to incentives.  Businesses should give their current and prospective customers an incentive to get them to act on their offer.

My next blog post will be a follow-up that goes hand in hand with this one.  “The 7 Most Popular Ways To Turn Your Customers Into Marketers”.  Go check it out and if you have any questions about this post just let us know at  getstarted@3rdstreet.com

The post Turning Your Customers Into Marketers appeared first on 3rd Street.

So, just what is a sales funnel?  What does it look like?  A sales funnel is the process in which a visitor begins as an impression, becomes a lead through a well thought out and motivating call-to-action (CTA) and then ultimately becomes a customer (and every stage in between).

How do you ensure they make it all the way through until they have reached your goal?  Basically you have to examine each process within your lead funnel.  Determine what is and is not working…what’s keeping them from making a purchase.

The only way you are going to know is by using an analytics program such as Google.  How many times and what pages did they click on?  Did they become a customer?

You need to set a criteria that defines what a good lead looks like to you.  Do you want to work with companies that have 5,000+ employees?  OR maybe you want to work with small businesses instead?  Whichever you decide, you need to be sure you have defined that from the beginning.

I recommend you also use a Lead Scoring System that gives you a clearer picture of your leads behavioral history, patterns, activities and calculates average close rates.

You should be very cognizant of the metrics that you use to get the information you need.  You need to know your lead conversion rate, sales cycle length, average cost per sale.

Using this kind of metric system helps you to define what your funnel looks like.  Are you calculating the right information?  Maybe you need to change how you look at a potential sale?  Have you discarded some leads because, at the time, you didn’t realize how important that lead was?

Perhaps this is your time to re-evaluate what your measurements are for a good sales lead.  Maybe your company has shifted and therefore your requirements need to shift too.  If you have any questions feel like you could use some help in this area, feel free to contact us getstarted@3rdstreet.com or comment on this post. We would love to hear from you!

The post Have You Defined Your Sales & Marketing Funnel? appeared first on 3rd Street.