Website Content and Marketing 101

Remember Websites are Marketing Tools
Today I was in a marketing and sales class / seminar by Kordell Norton. After the class, he asked what I got out of the series of classes and what was I going to implement. "I'm going to use what we talked about to update my website content", was one of my answers. Discussions about the sales processes and technique had reminded me that whatever marketing tools we use, their goal is to help us sell. Websites are no different, they should help you market and sell.

Marketing 101

Solve Problems - Websites should provide value to your customers offering solutions to their problems. Explaining benefits is great - much better than talking only about your features and benefits. If what you are selling doesn't explain that it will solve the problem a customer has, then you will not be able to make a sale.

For example, if you offer scuba lessons think about reasons people, interested in taking diving lessons, have given for not taking them:

• Not enough time for classes
• Not enough money to purchase equipment
• Don't know where the good local diving spots are. So aren't sure if the time invested will be worthwhile.

Offer Solutions - Can you offer solutions to those problems? Make sure you have landing pages that address each problem.

To address the local diving spot issue, have pages that talk about local diving spots. Include reviews of the various locations, rating them as good places or beginners or for more advanced divers. Offer packages with your dicing classes that include one or two trips to different diving grounds. Get testimonials from past students about how great their experience was diving with the other members of the class.

Choosing Your Content

Following good SEO practices, I would suggest that your landing page have the problem and related question in the title and headline of your page. For example, your page's title could be - Scuba Diving Locations in _________. The headline (h1 tag) on the page could read "Not sure where to go scuba diving in _______ after you are certified / or completed our scuba class". The subhead (h2 tag) might say "Enjoy your first diving experience. We offer discount group trips to _______ or ______ for all graduates of our scuba diving classes".

The rest of he page would be devoted to what a great experience people have taking on these trips and the memories people have. Pictures or videos of past students having fun on the dives would be good here. Once again don't forge the testimonials.

Websites as Marketing Tools

Websites should be great marketing tools for your business. If you plan them out and think about how to create content for them to help your marketing effort they can raise your company's bottom line.

Social Media Marketing - Finding the Right Seminar for You

Social Media Saves The Day.

There are lots of seminars offering to teach you all you need to know about social media. How do you find out which ones are the good one.

To Much Hype

Is your business failing? Are you in the red? Don't have enough customers? Don't worry social media marketing can save you. It even clears up acne and cures E. D.


Attend a 1 day seminar and all your problems will disappear. Create a business page on Facebook, a NING group, tweet or blog and your business will reap huge rewards and your business will be saved and you'll get rich

There are many social media experts offering seminars, talking to business owners, and posting blogs about the miracle of social media. Google "social media marketing seminar" and you will get back over 7,000,000 results. Some of these seminars are useful others just line the speaker's pocket. The question is how to find the nuggets of gold in this sea of dross.

Looking for Effective Social Media Seminars

Beware of Buzzwords

• Reach millions of  people
• Beat your competition
• Survive in the New Economy
• New Business Models

You know hype when you see it. Advertising for seminars might contain buzzwords, but the overview or presentation details should not.

Look For Specifics
When you look at the overview or presentation detail pages look specifics of what will be covered and match them to your needs. Look for "How To's"

• How to set up a Facebook or twitter account.
• How to link Facebook, twitter, your blog and Youtube accounts.
• How to pick social media tools that will work for you
• How to Measure success (ROI)

If you are just getting started and are a social media neophyte I'd suggest you start with a general seminar. Find one that looks like it gives a good overview of social media and will offer you one take away that you can try - such as setting up a Facebook page or setting up a twitter account.

Ask your network  - Ask your friends and people in your business network if they have attended any seminars or workshops that they would recommend. Get specific details about what they learned and how it worked when they tried to implement those new ideas.

Keep It Real

Social media can help a business, but it is magic. It is just one of many marketing tools available to businesses.

Look for seminars that can teach something you can use to market your business and improve the relationship with your customers.

P.S. If you are interested in  setting up a Facebook page for your business, Hubspot has a 5 minute video and short blog that explains it in a step by step process. The video assumes that you don't have a FB yet. If you do, then start from the FB account Menu and look for a tab "Manage Pages"

Website Design or SEO Marketing

Which Do You  Need To Succeed?
Businesses want website designs that are eye catching and help sell product. But does an eye catching website design mean it won't be good for SEO marketing. If you need to choose one over the other whic way should you go?

Google "website design awards" and look at all the awards that are out there:

• The Webby Awards.
• Website Design Awards
• American Design Awards (ADA)
• WMA WebAward

And theses are just a few from the 100 million+ results Google returns. (It seems like there are more awards for websites then for Hollywood.) Supposedly they represent the best that the web has to offer in terms of design.

Many of them don't follow best practices when it comes to SEO, yet they are winning web design awards and represent popular sites. NPR, NY Times, Nike and Hulu are some of the winners or nominee.

Does that mean that you don't need to practice SEO to compete?

My answer is no. These companies are successful despite not following good SEO practices. That takes me back to something I talked about before. Businesses succeed or fail because of an overall marketing strategy. There is no silver bullet. Great SEO or Social Network Marketing will not make or break a company. In the long run it is a combination of what you do and how it is executed.