3 Reasons Why You Cannot Create Your Own Keyword List

As a professional Internet marketing firm, we hear a lot of reasons as to why people try to save money by doing their own SEO and website marketing. The truth is that successfully marketing any website requires professional strategy and years of experience. You can either waste your time trying to do it yourself, or you can make the most of your time and hire our marketing professionals.

One of the most important elements of any successful Internet marketing campaign is the keyword list used in pay-per-click campaigns and the website content. Good keywords show up all over your website and they play a huge role in getting you a premium position on the search engine results pages.

Unfortunately, creating keyword lists is one of those tasks that too many website owners look at as a DIY project. There are three good reasons why creating your own keyword lists is doing more harm than good and limiting the exposure your website is getting.

You Need Long-Tail Keywords

Google has changed its search algorithm so much over the past few years that the mere idea of keywords has changed drastically. Keywords used to be one or two words used as primary or secondary keywords to drive traffic. There was a time when multi-word phrases were shunned by the Internet marketing world.

But long-tail keywords are now the norm, and they are not easy to create. It takes a professional's touch to create keyword phrases that will drive traffic and give your website the exposure that it needs to increase your revenue.

You Need To Understand Google

Google currently has three primary algorithms operating (Panda, Hummingbird and Penguin) that all have different effects on how Google views keywords. Google has developed complex and advanced algorithms that are looking for very specific elements of your content that will help to match up search queries with what your website has to offer. If you don't understand what Google is looking for with keywords, then you have no way of creating keywords that will be effective.

Our professionals follow each and every change that Google makes and we work hard to develop marketing plans that get your website the best possible position on the search engine results pages. It is our job to understand Google and believe us when we say that it is a full-time job.

The Idea Of Primary And Secondary Keywords Is Changing

Primary keywords used to put your website in a general pool of search results, and then secondary keywords helped to narrow down your appeal to a specific audience. Using primary and secondary keywords used to be an effective way to get your website plenty of exposure to all of your target audiences.

But as Google continues to change its algorithms, it is also changing the effectiveness of the primary-secondary keyword model. As a professional marketing firm, we understand this new dynamic and we can use our experience to help you expand your customer base and increase revenue.

Internet marketing used to be something that website owners could do on their own and find a small level of success. But as Google and the other search engines make things more complex in the search world, the concept of keywords changes and Internet marketing is no longer a DIY project for website owners.

Call our experts today and we will start a program to develop keywords that will drive more traffic to your site and bring your website the kind of exposure you need it to have.

Should You Have Professional Business Cards?

These days, technology has created the illusion that the do-it-yourself method is the best way to do things. But when you are trying to run a business, doing some things yourself can actually be counterproductive. For example, printing your own business cards can sound like a great idea, but there are several benefits to letting our professionals print your cards for you.

A Professional Printer Knows What Works

One of the reasons you pay for a professional business service is because a professional has the experience necessary to deliver an excellent result. We have plenty of experience printing high quality business cards and we have all of the design options you need for an effective finished product.

An impressive business card makes a much stronger impact than a basic card printed on a laser printer in your office. We know what designs and options work and that is something you should take advantage of.

It Takes The Right Materials To Get The Right Look

We can print embossed business cards that have a professional look and feel to them. Unless you have invested in the right printing equipment and materials, then you would not be able to get that same effect. As a professional printer, we have all of the right materials to create the cards that you want. 

Trust Your Business To Professional Printers

Printing perfect business cards on a printer in your office can be one of the more frustrating things you would ever try to accomplish. You can go through all of the setup options for your printer and paper, but the end result will look like it was printed in an office on a company printer. That is not the kind of business impression you want to make.

We have all of the knowledge, experience, materials, and equipment to make sure that your cards always look professional. When you hand a business prospect a card that was made by one of our professionals, you will be making the right first impression each and every time.

You Save Money In The Long Run With Professional Printing

Once you have established the business card design you like, you can request replacement orders whenever you need them. When you add up the cost of the ink you will use to print your own cards, the cost of high quality business card stock (especially for the cost of the card stock you throw out when the cards come out looking poor), and the cost of your time - it becomes obvious that hiring a printing professional makes all of the sense in the world.

Not only will you save money by utilizing a professional printing service for your business cards, but you will get excellent results each time. Our reputation is on the line with every business card we print, and we want to help you make a strong first impression each and every time.

Business cards are some of the most important personal marketing tools a business professional will ever use. Instead of trying a do it yourself approach to these very important marketing pieces, you need to invest in professional printing services. We are a professional printing service that will help you to make a strong impression with your business cards with every customer and prospect.

Four keys to creating killer rack cards for your business

Rack cards are an affordable and easy way to market your business effectively. Between the wide range of finishing options to styling and cuts – the creative scope of what you can do with a rack card is enormous. If you feel nervous about putting one together – or find that you’re new to the game of rack card marketing, then this week’s post is for you! Below, you’ll find four core components that every good rack card should have!

Bold headlines and even bolder graphics

Rack cards are almost always found in groups of other rack cards, so you had better make sure yours sticks out from the pack. Graphics are what specifically draw people in, but it’s great headlines and content that keeps them there. Rack cards in many ways – are like keys to a business. They show the customer how to let themselves in. Make sure you add dynamic maps, directions and describe or show definitively – what it is they can do there.

Incentives and more incentives!

Moving off of what we discussed in the previous point, it’s always important to make sure that your rack card adds value. Whether that manifests itself as a coupon or special promotion for first time viewers; it’s always important to try to think of ways that you can give prospects more bang for their buck. Also – be sure to track – as best you can – the results from various offers and incentives. Seeing which offers don’t work can – in some cases – be just as important as the offers that DO work. Tracking the results simply help you build better rack cards.

Features and benefits, benefits and features

Rack cards don’t afford you with a ton of space to get your point across,  so the words you choose and the message they convey needs to be profound. They also need to be easily scannable and the words – from a graphical standpoint – really need to ‘pop’ off the card. Simply put – remember to be succinct, direct, noticeable and compelling. That’s the formula.

Know your audience

Part of the challenge of putting together a rack card is to know what specific audience you want to speak to despite being placed in a rack full of other products and messages. A good rack card should always have a goal. Whether it’s speaking directly to mothers with young children or inspiring men to come and try a new product, it’s important your rack card speaks to a specific group and does so in a way that sparks them to action!

The Three Essential Ingredients Of A Good Brochure

In an age where everything and its mother is digitized, there’s still something to be said for having collateral that people can hold in their hands. As such, brochures are some of the most effective means of marketing communication you can deploy.

With that being said, most brochures are – in a word – awful. Nothing is better than a good brochure to be sure – but a bad one can actually hurt your business more than help it. This week, well share out the three essential ingredients that your brochure needs to have in order to be successful.

Here they are:

An attention grabbing cover

While we’d love to heap praise on the modern consumer’s attention span, the fact is it just wouldn’t be keeping in touch with reality. Consumers have incredibly short attention spans these days – whether it’s on the web or out in the physical world. As such, your brochure’s cover needs to be attention grabbing, interesting and engaging. That means compelling design and graphics and headlines that reel them in. You’ll only have a few seconds, if that, to grab their attention. Make the best of it!

Powerful calls to action

The primary purpose of a brochure is to keep moving people through the sales cycle. In a way- it’s almost like cattle ranching. Think about what you want your customers to do and then write your brochure to achieve that specific purpose. Is it to go to your website? Sell sponsorships? Order clothes? A good call to action will tell your readers exactly what you want them to do and should stand out from the rest of the copy so that your readers don’t miss it.

Compelling, engaging content 

Long story, short: you care about your business more than your customers do. And you know what? That’s fine. But don’t expect your enthusiasm for your business to translate in to actionable solutions to your customers’ problems. Customers simply aren’t interested in you, your history and your accomplishments. Yes, those can help, but they shouldn’t be the primary focus of your content. The customer and their challenges should be the focus. Can your business lower their costs? Save time? Help them pass their competition? Determine what your product does for others and purpose the copy to achieve that task. Then use imagery that supports it.

Create a Brochure That Gets Responses

Chances are if you’re reading this post that you’re considering creating a brochure for your business but you’re unsure of how to do it the right way in order to make sure you get the kind of response you want. After all, when you add up the costs of getting any piece of marketing collateral developed, it can cost you money. You want to make sure you’re getting a strong return on your investment.

As such, this week we’ll cover a few things every brochure should have so that you can make sure your brochure is as response-friendly as possible.

Remember the acronym AIDA

AIDA stands for Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. In order to be effective, your brochure should grab the reader’s attention, spark interest enough to want to read further and raise the reader’s desire for you product or service. Most importantly it needs to inspire them to want to take a desired action –whether that’s calling, mailing, setting an appointment or making a purchase.

Telling isn’t selling

While it might offend your sensibilities a bit – your customers are less concerned with you and your products as much as they care about what they can do for them. For example, if your headline is ‘matching people and strategy,’ you might as well book a first class ticket for that offer to take a ride on the trash bin express. “Train your team how to land big sales” – well now that’s a totally different animal.

Why act now?

If the idea is to get a response, you need to give people a reason to respond. Is it a time-sensitive special offer that will expire if they don’t act now? Do they save a significant amount of money if they use this, specific offer? Will you be increasing prices and this is the last chance to get them at your current rates? Create motivators for your customers to take action and watch your response rates skyrocket.

Make it easy to respond.

One of the biggest mistakes people make in direct sales is getting distracted and making it more difficult than it needs to be to respond to something. Offer a simple field if it’s an online brochure. Have simple mailers with prepaid postage if it’s direct mail. Offer a specific telephone number and/or place they can go to get exactly what they’re looking for.

Don’t waste space on ineffective imagery.

You might be proud of your office, but trust us – no one else really cares. Use images that speak to the thoughts and desires of your customers. Use images of things that you think your customer could be doing WITH your product or service. Stay away from yourself and focus in on your customers.

Make the copy easy to read.

Don’t be afraid to embrace white space in the design so that it breaks up your text and makes it easier to read and scan. People don’t read blocks of content anymore, so be sure to make your brochure scan able and visually appealing.