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Category: marketing

  • The Ultimate Resource Guide to Blogger Outreach and Guest Blogging

    Shout out to kissmetrics for this handy dandy resource list. If you’ve been interested in expanding or starting your blogger outreach, here you go!

    blog tools

    If you want to increase exposure for your business (beyond optimizing your website for search and growing your social media audience), then guest blogging and blogger outreach are avenues you may wish to explore. When you connect with bloggers in your industry, you are given platforms for communicating with your potential customers like never before.

    The following are 35 resources to help your guest blogging and blogger outreach — including networks specifically created to help you connect with bloggers, guides for guest blogging and blogger outreach, and guest post opportunities for marketers.

    Guest Blogging and Blogger Outreach Networks

    The following networks will help your business connect with the right bloggers in your industry for guest blogging and blogger outreach.

    • MyBlogGuest – My Blog Guest is a free community that connects guest bloggers to blog owners. Join for free and start getting exposure from guest posting.
    • GuestBlogIt – Guest Blog It intends to be the ultimate guest blogging resource. Submit your content or find content for your blog for free. Gain high quality relevant back links.
    • BloggerLinkUp – Join the BloggerLinkUp list and you will get an email each Monday, Wednesday and Friday. These emails will list bloggers looking for expert sources, requests for guest posts, bloggers and web masters offering guest posts, and PR reps and others seeking reviews of products. When you see a request that you can fulfill, just respond directly to the requester.
    • BlogSynergy – BlogSynergy is essentially a social network for the blogging community. Bloggers use BlogSynergy to follow, connect and share guest blogging opportunities with one another.
    • Guest Blog Genius – Guest Blog Genius is an outsourced guest blogging service for SEOs and website owners looking to accumulate high quality links from authoritative blogs within their niche.
    • Guestr – Website owners can find guest posters; bloggers can find guest blogging opportunities and promote their blogs. Browse hundreds of sites.
    • GroupHigh – GroupHigh provides software that helps public relations, seo and social media professionals reach out to bloggers.
    • BlogDash – Find, engage and pitch to bloggers – all in one place. Filter through 109,847 bloggers by keywords, categories, Klout score, gender, location, and much more.
    • PostJoint – PostJoint is a smart new platform that connects advertisers and bloggers to make content marketing more productive and targeted than ever before. Advertisers produce quality content and bloggers offer to publish their guest posts. PostJoint matches up the audiences and takes care of quality control.
    • Copy for Bylines – The mission of Copy for Bylines is to bridge the gap between writers and online publishers and to work simultaneously with these creative individuals to produce better content online. They believe that because of the glut of worthless information available over the Internet, web content needs to be revolutionized — it should be quicker, personalized and beneficial to the online community.

    Guest Blogging Guides

    Need some motivation to get excited about guest blogging or some pointers on how to get started? Be sure to read the following guest blogging guides.

    Blogger Outreach Guides

    Blogger outreach – when done correctly – can bring a lot of great traffic and visibility to your brand. See the following guides on how to do blogger outreach the right way.

    • The Five Stages of Blogger Outreach: Attraction, Ambivalence, Commitment,Intimacy, and Proposal – A five-part series about building and sustaining relationships with bloggers and the outreach process, in general, based on the “five stages of dating.”
    • 21 Better Ways to Do Blogger Outreach – There are better ways to do blogger outreach. In fact, there are 21 better ways.
    • Scale Outreach Using Pareto’s Law – This article tells how to identify influencers vs. lower level targets and scale outreach accordingly, focusing on strategies for the low and mid-level bloggers.
    • Outreach Specialist’s Bible – Whether you are doing blogger outreach, guest posting, or old fashioned public relations, you need to know where to start and how to pitch, as well as some tools to help you scale your efforts efficiently. The goal is to give you a source of information you can use to train your team to expand your connection creation efforts.
    • 4 Pitches That Any Respectable Blogger Will Always Ignore – Are you not hearing back from the bloggers you pitch? You might be committing one of these common pitching errors.
    • Blogger Outreach: 9 Tips You Need to Succeed – If you haven’t used blogger outreach, it’s a great tool to add to your marketing toolbox. This article describes 3 reasons to use blogger outreach, 4 ways to use blogger outreach effectively, and 9 steps to develop a successful blogger outreach program.
    • Required Research for Better Blogger Outreach Pitches – Successful blogger outreach starts way before you send a pitch. Learn the 4 research stages that will help you provide a mutual benefit and place your content.
    • 35+ Tips and Tools to Help You Find the RIGHT Contact Info – Improving your ability to find essential contacts in the blogger outreach process can give you a significant competitive advantage over others who are trying to get their content published.
    • 9 Essential Tips for Warm Blogger Outreach Pitches – While there are many ways bloggers and brands are working together, there are a few best practices that have been set along the way to make those working relationships win-win. This post shows 9 ways to prepare pitches that will benefit both you and the blogger.
    • How To Contact Bloggers – Get the guide to blogger outreach free. Learn how you can drive real traction for your brand or product through blogger outreach.

    Great Guest Blogging Opportunities for Marketers

    Last but not least, if you’re in the online marketing niche, the following are some great guest blogging opportunities to check out.

    • KISSmetrics – If you’re interested in submitting a guest post for KISSmetrics, please read on and we’ll let you know what we are looking for and how the process works.
    • HubSpot – The award-winning HubSpot Inbound Marketing Blog has over 100,000 subscribers and attracts more than 800,000 monthly visits, so if you have exceptional blogging skills and would like to share your internet marketing expertise with a large audience of marketers and business owners, consider becoming a guest blogger.
    • ProBlogger – ProBlogger provides guidelines and suggestions to help you with your writing in order to increase the chances of the site being able to use your post and to help it get your post ready for publishing.
    • Copyblogger – Writing content for Copyblogger is hard. But it’s not hard like climbing Everest or launching eBay. Copyblogger lets you know what makes a great Copyblogger guest post.
    • 202 Internet Marketing PR3 – PR8 Blogs That Accept Guest Posts – This is a list of 202+ high quality Internet marketing / social media / make money online / affiliate marketing / blogging tips / WordPress / SEO blogs with a Google Pagerank of 3 and above (at the time of the writing of the post) that are active and looking for high quality guest posts.

    There you have it! Be sure to read the best practices for both guest blogging and blogger outreach, try out the various networks to connect with bloggers in your industry, and start measuring your success! 

    Original post is HERE.

  • The FTC’s Endorsement Guides: What People Are Asking

    The FTC updated its Social Media rules. If you do any marketing and/or advertising in this area you should probably take a look at the changes or at least read an overview. Below are the areas and inquiries with which the FTC is most concerned.

    Answers to questions people are asking about the FTC’s Endorsement Guides, including information about disclosing material connections between advertisers and endorsers:

    Here is the FTC page.

  • 12 social media tips for business

    12 social media tips for business

    Ah, social media. Still the wild west of marketing and populated with a mix of guns for hire and snake oil salesmen who, unfortunately, outnumber the authentic Gary Coopers out there. Sigh. I despise watching businesses that don’t have the time to understand what social can really do for their business get taken advantage of by folks promising more followers and reach.

    So what?

    How about grow revenue, inquiries, email lists, orders, bookings, downloads? It would seem a novel concept and an expectation to which many snake oil social media consultants don’t wish to be held accountable.

    So next time you hear another “social media guru/jedi/ninja/sherpa/ expert,” etc. pitching you all about the awesome new followers, content and reach they can get you on the social platform du jour, step back and ask why that’s important to your business. The beauty of digital marketing is most everything can be tracked, and if your “hired gun” can’t provide analytics to show you what their efforts are specifically doing for your business, well…

    The title on this post was modified from the original slightly clickbait-ish hed, 12 Social Media Truths No One Tells You – otherwise the content is the same and I agree with these “truths.” The following thoughts go hand in hand with a previous post, 7 things to quit doing with social marketing. Read on!

     

    There’s no shortage of social media tips, how-tos, and advice for small businesses and entrepreneurs getting started and building a strategy. But if you’re like most business owners, you don’t have a lot of time. So here are 12 social media truths I hope can save you some time, avoid some common pitfalls, and focus your efforts on success.

    1. It doesn’t matter how many followers you have.

    People often fall into the trap of chasing follower numbers (or worse, paying for them). I’d rather have a network of 500 people in my industry who I can learn from and influence than 10,000 randomly-acquired bots and spammers and self-promoting chuckleheads. Build your networks by engaging like a real human being and helping people and you won’t have to worry about this.

    2. You don’t have to be on every network.

    I love Pinterest. These days I’m pinning ideas to spruce up our back patio. (It’s a thrill a minute ’round our place.) As a former social media snake oil salesman, I can make a convincing argument why any business can get value out of Pinterest or Instagram or Periscope or Glabberplat (I made one of those up). But if you have limited time, focus on providing value on the networks where your customers and prospects are most active. Better to not be somewhere than to have a presence there and ignore it.

    3. You know your audience better than anyone. And if you don’t, ask.

    You could pay a consultant to do an audience survey and explain the demographics of each social network and make recommendations about what networks you should use and what your customers want to see from you. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of smart consultants out there who can do that well. Or you could just spend the next couple of weeks asking your customers yourself.

    4.Yes, your customers are on Facebook.

    There’s, like, a billion people on Facebook. No, I mean literally. The number grows so rapidly that I check it every time I mention it. Your customers may not use Facebook daily to conduct business, but they’re definitely there, sharing pictures of their kids and finding out which Game of Thrones character they are and researching products and checking out local businesses. If you’re there too, and are interesting and helpful and human, they’ll appreciate that and remember you.

    5. Social media isn’t free.

    Have we thoroughly debunked this by now? Even if you only use free channels to engage and don’t pay to promote your posts, social media requires a time commitment, and like everything in life except making hamburger patties, the more time you put into it, the better it will be. Is your time free? Nope.

    6. You don’t have to be a millennial.

    Yes, “digital natives” have a lower learning curve when it comes to picking up apps and new social networks, but none of this is hard, no matter your age. Can you balance a checkbook? Can you do a Sudoku puzzle? I can’t, and I do social media for a living. Apps and networks won’t get traction if they’re hard to use, so the makers have an incentive to create a good user experience.

    7. No, your cousin’s kid can’t do it for you.

    Maybe Little Jimmy can build a wicked house in Minecraft, but does he know your business? Your customers? Does he have anything of value to add to a conversation about your industry? He can probably use a telephone, too (as long as it isn’t a pay phone, because how does that thing work and who even has change, gah!) but would you ask him to lead a call with your biggest client?

    8. Yes, you do have time.

    You’re busy. I’m busy. Everybody’s busy. Do you ever watch television? Then watch a little less and spend that time building your business. Need another example? I’m writing this post on my smartphone on the…train. (What did you think I was going to say?)

    9. You can produce content. Yes. You can.

    Have you ever sent an email to a business associate giving your take on the impact of some piece of industry news? Do you talk to your sales team about the potential ramifications of a piece of legislation, or a big move by a competitor or industry leader? That’s content. Just type it up next time. Your customers will find it valuable too. Don’t you want to be a thought leader? It’s so much better than being a guru. The hours are better and you don’t have to sit on the ground.

    10. A blog post is whatever you say it is.

    Some people think a blog post is a 2,000-word white paper. Some of the most useful posts I read are lists of links to important news in my industry. They might take 10 minutes to create, start to finish, but they can be very valuable. One paragraph that gets a customer thinking (and thinking about you) is a successful blog post.

    11. Your customers really do care where you went on vacation.

    Have you ever had a prickly email or telephone exchange with a new prospect or client, and then you met in person and found out your kids both play volleyball and are going to the same tournament in two weeks and then you were pals? That’s Facebook.

    12. You can do it.

    Building a social media strategy doesn’t have to be a big, hairy, difficult thing; in fact, it can and should be fun. Imagine having better, more human relationships with your prospects and customers, all the time. Social media can be the part of your marketing strategy you’ll actually enjoy. And if you’re having fun, your customers and prospects will have fun, too, and they’ll want to work with you. And that’s how you’ll know it’s working.

    David B. Thomas is Senior Director of Content and Engagement at Salesforce.

     

    Original post on VentureBeat

  • Networks fret as ad dollars flow to digital media

    Networks fret as ad dollars flow to digital media

    Published by the NY Times 5/10/15 – It will be interesting to see how much advertisers are willing to spend on traditional media this year. The question isn’t how much [there will be plenty of advertising time purchased] but will the decline continue? I believe so.

    Where are you putting your budget?

     

    With the number of digital alternatives growing quickly, the television industry is bracing for what many expect to be an anemic upfront market.

    Beginning Monday, television networks will roll out the red carpet for marketers during the annual bazaar known as the upfronts, trying to lure them into committing tens of billions of ad dollars for the coming TV season. If things go well, the networks will sell as much as 75 percent of their advertising time in the negotiations that follow a week of flashy presentations and star-studded parties.
    But behind that lavish veneer, the mood at some television networks is nervous and the sales pitch urgent.
    That is because broadcast and cable companies are asking marketers to open their wallets at a time of great anxiety in the industry, when TV ratings have collapsed and networks are fending off fierce competition from digital outlets.
    Television viewing has plummeted 9 percent so far this season compared with the previous season, according to MoffettNathanson Research. To explain the drop, some industry executives and analysts point to the rapid increase in the amount of time people spend watching Netflix and other streaming alternatives. Netflix viewing accounted for about 43 percent of the decline in traditional TV viewing in the first quarter of this year, according to MoffettNathanson.

  • Rebrand, redirect and/or consolidate (?)

    Rebrand, redirect and/or consolidate (?)

    You might want to read  Should I Rebrand and Redirect My Site? Should I Consolidate Multiple Sites/Brands? by Mr. Fishkin over at Moz. In this most excellent and helpful post, Fishkin “…offers some guidance to marketers who are wondering whether a rebrand/redirect is right for them, and also those who are considering consolidating multiple sites under a single brand.”

    Enjoy.