Focusing on ranking for the  “top 10-20 keywords” for your industry is too often the only strategy used to increase and maintain Internet traffic, but that can be a huge mistake. Sure, keeping your site on the radar by focusing on the top keywords of your industry may help customers find your site, but this doesn’t always translate into referrals, sales and leads. By managing only the top keywords, you may be missing out on a substantial amount of business.

Keywords and phrases outside of the “top 20,” known as Long Tail keywords tend to be longer, more specialized, and are searched by users who are looking for something more specific.

For example, let’s say you’re a retail store specializing in women’s footwear. In terms of searching for a new pair of shoes, the keyword “shoes” may be considered a head keyword. But when looking for a specific kind of shoe, using a string of key words like “black patent leather red heel shoes” is more effective in helping customers find exactly what they are looking for.

This is the basis of the Long Tail theory. The heart of it is that traffic drawn in by the Long Tail keywords is higher quality and more promising than traffic generated by the top 10-20.

Industry research and the results we have experienced with our customers supports this, yet many businesses are unaware of the Long Tail theory potential. For example, 57% of Amazon’s sales result from searches outside of what is “popular”.

The key to using a Long Tail strategy is utilizing your own website data. This information is your best source of Long Tail keywords, being more personalized, relevant to your business and descriptive of what defines you from your competition.

So which customers is your business missing out on? It may be time to reevaluate the keywords and terms you focus on. Our team at Infinite Communications can help you develop more effective SEO strategies that will get you in touch with the right customers who were looking for you all along.

This is Part 2 of our blog post, “Capture Your Audience with ‘Sticky’ Content”, (Read Part 1). In this post you will learn 3 easy ways to create content that captures your audience’s attention.

#4 Use Authoritative Sources

This principle is used to build immediate credibility with your audience.

Let’s say you’re in the market to buy a book to help strengthen your sales skills. You might have never heard about the book “The Ultimate Sales Machine” – but as soon as you see that sticker that say “NY Times Best Seller” and “Amazon.com Bestseller” you know it’s worth checking out. This is referred to as an “authoritative statement.”

You are more likely to trust that product because an authority on that field says it is worth reading. Other similar examples are “As Seen on TV”, and “Featured in Inc Magazine.”

Celebrity endorsements are the second way to prove credibility. Don’t worry if Oprah didn’t pick your product for her favorites before her show ended. You can still creatively use celebrity endorsements.

For example, if you are a financial planner you could gain credibility by writing a blog post that references Alan Greenspan.

#5 Strike An Emotional Chord

The “emotional” principle focuses on answering the question, “How do we make people care about our message?”

One of the best ways you can implement this principle is to create an association between your topic and something your audience can relate with.

We recently gave a presentation on “What Makes A Website Great?” Our goal was to make the audience understand the downfalls of a bad website and how it reflects poorly on their business. Instead of diving into our morning PowerPoint presentation, we first asked the room full of 30 people “How many of you have ever been into a store, where you can’t find what you’re looking for and the first thing the store employee does is come up to you and try to sell you something?” Every one raised their hands – with a groan, looking at each other, hating that exact situation.

“Well sorry to say it, but that’s how most of you are making people feel when they come to your website.” It struck an emotional chord. People could relate to the feeling, and it was much easier for them to understand the importance of having a website with great navigation and informative content.

#6 Tell A Story

“If I look at the mass, I will never act. If I look at one, I will” Mother Teresa once said. That is why we recommend creating your content to focus on one person’s specific story and telling their struggle, show their worry & pain, and then highlight what you did to help.

In 2000, Subway first ran their TV ads that went something like this:

“This is Jared,” the announcer said. “He used to weight 425 pounds” – we see a photo of Jared in his old 60-ince waist pants – “but today he weighs 180 thanks to what he calls the Subway diet.” The announcers describes Jared’s meal plan, and how when combined with a lot of walking – overtime it lead to his extreme weight loss.”

Subways sales immediately picked up, and since then Jared has made it easier for all of us to remember where we can go to eat, when we are trying to watch our figure.

Instead of telling you to eat Subway because it’s healthy, they highlighted Jared’s story and showed you an image of him standing in his old big pants that you will never forget.

Remember, you can extract a moral from a story, but you can’t extract a story from a moral.

People will always remember your stories and not the facts in your content. That is because stories ignite feelings. People forget facts, but not how you make them feel.

Lets face it, if you are a business owner, corporate manager, or run a non profit, you may not have been trained to be a magazine editor, but when it comes to developing content for your company blog, and online marketing, you need to think like an editor at a magazine. Why? Because an editor’s job is to create content that is interesting and valuable enough to sell their respective publication. If your desire is for people to consistently visit your website & share your company’s messages, than taking this approach is a must.

We highly regard a book called MADE TO STICK and use it often to create our own content. The book establishes what they call a “SUCCESs Model”, which encompasses 6 different principles that make a “sticky idea.” According to the book, a “sticky idea is understood, it’s remembered, and it changes something.” You do want to be understood and remembered right?!

Below you will discover the first 3 of the 6 principles of the “SUCCESs Model.”

Principle #1 Simplicity

This is where you prioritize the information you want people to share about your organization. Try filling in the blank below…

The single most important thing our organization does is _________________.

Southwest Airlines would answer that question with “provide the lowest fare.”

If you’re a real estate agent what would it be, is “help people find homes?” Or “pick the perfect house in the perfect community.” After you establish this, you should create content that proves it.

Principle #2 Unexpected

People generally carry preconceived notions about industries and businesses, so how does your business change those notions? Would you believe that Nordstrom employees are encouraged to iron your shirt even if you bought it from Macy’s … this is a perfect example of unexpected customer service that builds affinity.

Surprise us! What are the preconceived notions people have about your profession/organization and what stories do you have to change those. Share those with stories with us.

Principle #3 Concrete

Whenever you hear the phrase “sour grapes”, you automatically refer to Aesop’s fable. Every person who has tasted something sour and has eaten a grape can imagine that phrase. The “Concrete principle” is about using sensory and specific language to engrave a feeling or idea in someone’s mind.

A common way marketing and advertising professionals use this principle is instead of saying “we will create more business for your company”, they will say “we will have your phones ringing off the hook.” This paints a picture for the audience and allows the them to imagine their desired outcome.

Think of how you can use sensory language in your messages so they become engraved in our minds.

These are the first three principles; please visit back with us for part 2 where we share the remaining principles.

A father and son both own cabinet installation companies, the son’s business is thriving while the father’s is struggling, what is the difference? Why is the son’s business working with larger corporate clients and earning greater profits?

One significant difference is that the son invested in branding his company while his father never did. When we talk about branding, we are not talking about just a logo, we are referring to the set of tools used to market a business and the experiences your customers have with your business. It is the perception you want people to have about your business.

Using visual and verbal consistency to promote your brand is a great first step. Building a brand is not about short-term results but about long-term results, it takes vision and dedication. And yes, every small business can accomplish this, here are the ways we worked with our client Cheyenne Dental Group to build a successful brand:

1. Defining the business and how we want to be perceived

Cheyenne Dental Group was started by Dr. My G. Tran, DDS, a dentist younger than most of his peers. He wanted to emphasize that his office incorporates the latest technology that is more advanced than surrounding competitors. However, unlike other state-of-the-art practices, Cheyenne Dental Group is affordable for most patients.

2. Determining the audience

Cheyenne Dental Group’s focus was to penetrate the Las Vegas community, a community that is saturated with dental practices, so we focused on a target audience – younger families and young couples. Research showed that the female in the family generally makes healthcare decisions; and the brand identity was developed to connect with the female audience. Dr. Tran wanted his patients to feel comfortable that his practice can provide comprehensive care for every family member.

3. Telling our story, one that people will remember

The visual illustration we developed of a young couple dancing on grass and a smiling cloud, exclaiming “When you smile…The world smiles back.” is an advertisement that the community has associated with Cheyenne Dental Group over the past 3 years. The ad was meant to signify that having a healthy and beautiful smile makes a positive impact. Along with the illustration we included a coupon that provides a financial incentive for people to experience care at Cheyenne Dental Group. In this ad, we were able to accomplish two things, show that Cheyenne cares about the health of a person’s smile and provides it at an affordable rate.

4. Consistency and details matter

Cheyenne’s colors, logo, and curved styling are all a part of their visual identity system used on all marketing collateral to maintain a consistent brand identity. The curves in the design are supposed to portray friendliness and engage the female audience, while the metallic shine on the logo communicate the cleanliness of the office.

We used these design elements and messages on all of the practice’s print collateral, web design and email marketing. Patients began to quickly identify what the logo, pictures and colors represented.

5. Follow-through with the customer experience

The perception you build with the branding design and messaging has to align with the reality of your service. Nike and Apple do a great job bringing the brands to life, when you walk into those company stores there is a specific experience they provide.

Again, Branding is not as simple as a logo, or consistent designs, it is a holistic approach of how you portray your business and follow through. Cheyenne Dental Group has been very successful with its brand; it makes a promise through visual and verbal consistency and keeps the promise with the patient experience.

Cheyenne Dental Group is a lot like Apple and Nike, it promises to provide “the premier dental experience”, and it follows through; from the friendliness of the front desk, to the flat screen televisions, and digital x-ray machines they use for exams.

The Book:
Good To Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap..and Other’s Don’t, by Jim Collins

The Big Idea:
Good is the enemy of Great. In order to become a great company stop relentlessly focusing on what to do, and instead starting focusing on what NOT to do.

If You Read Nothing Else:
In chapter 5, Collins speaks about “The Hedgehog Concept.” The idea is that the strategy of your entire company should be based upon the intersection of the following three circles: What can you be the best in the world at?; What drives your economic engine?; What are you deeply passionate about?

Rigor Rating: 5
(1=Skip the book, 5=Absolute Must-Read)
Good to Great was actually written after 15,000 hours of work by over 22 people. The book is organized with invaluable information that outlines greatness in such areas as leadership, hiring, and company strategy. If you are a business owner or a manager, be sure to read this instant classic.

There are a lot of reasons a company and organization should consider using video marketing. Great brands tell great stories to capture audiences – the right video content can help position your brand to stand out from the crowd. Here are 8 quick reasons why you should consider video marketing.

1. Get More Exposure
YouTube is currently the 2nd most popular search engine behind Google (note: it is also owned by Google).

By producing videos based on a variety of topics you can improve your chances of receiving attention. You can multiply this traffic by uploading your video to other video sharing sites such as:

Yahoo! Video
Google Video
Facebook
Metacafe
Dailymotion
And many more….

2. Motion Picture Appeal
Not all of your visitors prefer to receive content they have to read. Many prefer to watch, listen and read at the same time. With video you improve your opportunity to appeal to more people. For example, people would rather watch a product demo than read a product demo.

3. Gain Top Search Engine Rankings
Google is now using what is called “Universal Search Results” giving searchers a mixed result of websites, videos and other media. Currently, not many small businesses are using videos to help rank for competitive keywords. If you add videos to your marketing mix you could achieve top rankings in your niche.

Example
If you enter “how to drive a car” in the Google search box some of the top search results are videos.

4. Viral Marketing
Developing a strategy to create a valuable or entertaining video that your fans/followers love and want to share could lead to mass exposure and more fans/followers. Web users have many ways to share videos with friends on Email, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and the plethora of social book-marking/sharing websites.

5. Inexpensive
Nowadays most computers come with free software that can help you import, edit, convert and upload videos to video sharing web sites. In addition, inexpensive camera phones, and flip cameras (Flip Mino HD) have the ability to capture quality footage.

6. Become Recognized As An Expert
If you work hard at your craft and want to convey your expertise, video is a great communication channel to do so. This can be a great opportunity for you to become recognized as an authority in your field. Once again, you can use a basic video camera for this.

7. People Buy From Businesses They Trust
The Internet is often seen as an impersonal place where it’s hard to trust anybody because site owners don’t provide any contact information and online scams are common. A video offers your visitors a very personal touch that helps remove the fear of doing business with you.

8. Makes Your Website More Engaging
Web visitors skim through websites more than ever. Video gives you one more opportunity to capture your visitor’s attention, thus increasing the amount of time the visitor will spend learning about your business.

If you have any questions about developing and producing successful video marketing, please contact us: info@infinitecomm.net or 818.990.9843.

On average, 8 out of 10 people will read headline copy, but only 2 out of 10 will read the rest. Not great numbers if the purpose of a headline is to get someone to read your material.

Before you read more, your takeaways from this from this article will be:

1. Headlines are a promise to your reader
2. Have a set goal before writing your material
3. Write, rewrite, test, and rewrite
   
4. Headlines with lists and “how-tos” are very effective
5. The best headlines are specific and straightforward

Headlines (and email subject lines) are a promise to your reader of the value that you will be providing; specifically, what they should expect to takeaway from the article or email you crafted. Therefore, you have to promise that what you are offering will make an impact and is worthwhile.

It is essential to have a goal prior to writing an article, email or blog post, usually to receive a response from your target audience. In business, you normally want a response that causes the reader to act (i.e. for the reader to comment and like your post or in this case to connect with me on Linkedin).

Writing and rewriting – investing the time and effort to tweak what you have started writing will help you make the headline useful. Typically you should give yourself a day away from the material so you have fresh eyes. If you are writing your sales page or website landing page, you should write a dozen headlines and test which works best.

Numbered and list headlines are successful because they tell you the amount of information the reader will receive. With a headline such as, “99 Tips to Makeover Your Home”, your reader knows exactly what they are getting by reading your article.

Stating the specific outcomes the reader will get by reading your article is extremely effective. For example, a headline that reads “7 Tips That Will Help You Save 130% on Your Summer Vacations” will grab more readers because it tells them what to expect. By reading this headline we know the number of tips we are getting and the amount we will save by following those tips – pretty straightforward.

A great tip I learned was to emulate headlines on the front cover of magazines in supermarket aisles. Those headlines only have a second to get the shopper to buy the entire magazine – they need to be powerful.

Remember “repetition is the mother of skill.”

Click here to connect with me on LinkedIn.

Word on the street is that blogging helps with your search engine optimization efforts, and yes that’s true, however the main idea you should keep in mind is that blogging is a “value-added deliverable” that differentiates you from competitors and helps create the perception that you are the absolute expert in your field. By educating and informing visitors of your blog, you are building trust with each one of them. And as you should know by now, all things being equal, people will do business with those they like and trust!

What Are Others Writing About?

Your first step is to determine if your audience is using the Internet, (nowadays, I think it is safe to say they are) and to find out what other people in your industry are blogging about / and getting responses for.

You can always start the researching process by searching your business category (i.e. “business law”) combined with the word “blog.”

What Should You Write About?

As with any marketing or communications material, a blog post has to be tailored to your customer base. That means the blog posts have to be timely, useful and easy to comprehend. Some ways to accomplish this are to write:

• How To’s: How-To articles have been popular since the invention of the magazine.

• Product/Service descriptions: People may not be familiar with some of your products or services, so writing a thorough and easy-to-comprehend description can save you time. Your prospects will use it as reference to become more educated instead having you answer their million and one questions.

• Comparisons: Your business might offer services/products that compete with each other or other services. For example, if you do financial planning you can write about Roth IRAs vs. Traditional IRAs.

• Success Stories: Here’s a chance for you to brag and be informative at the same time. If your company has success stories which I hope you do, writing a blog post can be a great way to publicize it and get people excited about what kinds of results they can expect when working with you.

• Statistics, Day-to-Day examples, Valuable Resources, etc can also make great blog posts.

The only approach I would avoid is making your blog a Public Relations tactic/newsroom. However, we do recommend mixing news about your company and valuable posts for your customers.

If you would like any specific blog ideas for your business, please leave a comment about our blog and we’ll message you some Great Ideas.

As a business owner in today’s day and age it’s a must to leverage tools to make your business more effective and efficient. These are just 5 tools that can come “to your rescue.” If you like these website/apps you can check out our other recommendations in Part 1 and Part 2.

Dropbox
https://www.dropbox.com/

Dropbox is a great software that allows you access files on any computer or share files with multiple users on different computers. It’s like a shared server for your office, without all the hardware and messy wires. You can even access and update your files from anywhere in the world, by using a web browser login. The Dropbox software works on Windows, Mac and Linux. You can also get the Dropbox app on your iPhone or Android giving you access to all your files when a computer isn’t around. Dropbox will let you try it out for free – up to 2GB per user.

HelpAReporter.com
http://www.helpareporter.com/

Every business could use publicity. This website is your free solution to reach out to reporters when they are looking for sources. You or your business can potentially receive free exposure on a website, magazine, newspaper, or even television show. Everyday you will receive emails with specific requests from reporters who need an expert to help them with their story. The emails segment requests based on industry, so just look for a request relevant to your expertise and respond to those reporters who are want to hear from someone like you!

Mindnode
http://www.mindnode.com/

If you are you a creative thinker that needs to brainstorm or a project manager that needs to map your projects, then Mindnode will be a valuable software for you. Visually connect your thoughts and brainstorm with others by collaborating on files. It works on the iPhone too, perfect for organizing your ideas on the go.

Fivesecondtest.com
http://fivesecondtest.com/

Want to know people’s first impression of your current website design or a website design that you are about to implement? This website allows you to upload an image of the design and share with “testers.” You can frame questions to get answers about specific features in the design. We highly recommend this before launching a new website!

Social Mention
http://socialmention.com/

This is a valuable tool for Online Reputation Management. According to its website, Social Mention “allows you to easily track and measure what people are saying about you, your company, a new product, or any topic across the web’s social media landscape in real-time. Social Mention monitors 100+ social media properties directly including: Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, YouTube, Digg, Google etc.”

If you already have a LinkedIn profile and want to learn how to get more out of it, then keep on reading!

Yes. LinkedIn can work for you! The other week I needed to reach out to an LATimes reporter and I did what I always do, “Googled” the person’s name. I saw he had a LinkedIn profile and when I clicked it, it showed that a fairly close acquaintance of mine was one of his connections. I emailed her to make an introduction and the next thing you know, I am exchanging emails with this reporter.

Here are some steps to take if you already have your profile set up.

1. Perfect your profile. Is your profile succinct, organized and does it clearly state how you add value or make an impact in business? (I will write an in-depth post describing ways you can perfect your profile)

2. Make a connection with your email contacts. If you use Microsoft Outlook, Gmail, Apple Mail or another email client, LinkedIn has a feature that will invite those contacts to connect with you on LinkedIn. You can do this by clicking on “Add Connections” in the top right and it will ask you to enter your email address and password.

This is a great way for past associates to find out about your latest activities.

3. Recommendations. Isn’t a referral the best way to get new business? One thing I am guilty of not doing much of, is asking for recommendations or offering to give them. “Recommendations” have a box on your profile and you can request clients/colleagues to write about your strengths. Offering to give others a recommendation is a great way to get one back.

4. Q&A Section. LinkedIn has an amazing feature that even Facebook copied, and that’s the Question and Answers section forum. For example, if you’re not sure what type of Internet router to install for your office network, instead of searching Google for an extensive time, simply post your question on this section and you’ll have a half-dozen IT specialists giving you their best recommendation. Time is money. I also use it to share my knowledge about topics that are my expertise. Give to get.

5. Join Groups. One group that I have loved being a part of is the UC San Diego Alumni group. I love the University I attended and want to stay in touch with that community. By answering some threads and posting my own questions I have been able to make some valuable business contacts and actually get a few business referrals!!

LinkedIn can be a very valuable tool to help take your branding to that next level, whether it’s for your company or your personal brand. These are some ways that it can help you gain exposure.

Click here to make a connection with me today.

- Parham Nabatian