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.

Did you know that 83% of information processed is done visually? Let’s face it, we are a visual culture and that isn’t going to change anytime soon.

Recent proof continues to prove that our affinity for visuals is growing:

• Instagram, a photo sharing application just sold for 1 Billion dollars.

• Pinterest, a photo scrapbooking website generates more referral traffic than Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn combined.

• Just take a look at how Facebook is progressing with Timeline… you will notice that layout is a lot more visual than the old layout and results with our Facebook accounts show that images receive the most “likes” and “shares.”

Here are some ways to take a visual approach online!

1. Let Your Website Attract Through Pictures

Do not forget that your website is still the heart of your online marketing — and probably your overall marketing!!

Here at Infinite our website receives heavy traffic via search engines for people looking to hire a “Search Engine Optimization” firm. Receiving this feedback from our analytics, we developed a visual banner on the homepage that communicates directly to visitors who are inquiring about that service. The highly-visual graphic banner is one of the highest “clicked” elements of our site!

For your website think about using:

• Real photography! Photographs of your staff and facilities build greater trust.

• Call to action banners that include benefits/results/ and promotional offers.

2. Videos Make It Easier

If you have a product/service that is both expensive or is technical and needs explanation, video is an absolute must!

People would rather watch an instructional video than read an instructional manual. Check out the video we created for Vocado, a project-management service for vocational schools (the video is framed in the iPad):

3. Infographics Get More Attention

Infographics are very popular right now and provide you a great opportunity to receive increased exposure.

Copyblogger, a leading resource for copywriting and content marketing developed an infographic about grammar mistakes that many of people make entitled, “15 Grammar Goofs That Make You Look Silly” (click to view). Between January 1^st and March 5^th they received 15,000 visits to their website just from the infographic on Pinterest.

Think about ways that you can make your content and information more visual so that it appeals to our natural preference for learning.

4. Facebook Timeline Banner/Twitter Background

This is prime real estate to use exciting visuals that personalize your brand. Our approaches to creating these are to include images of people because of the fundamental business rule that people buy from people and those who they identify with.

Make sure you include images of your staff, customers and of your facilities. Facebook fans and Twitter followers love images; we’ve seen this proven, as the timeline banner we created for Sally Kashani DDS (above) has received 12 likes already.

Infinite Communications is proven in creating visual imagery that is appealing and delivers results. Don’t take an apathetic approach. Contact us today (818) 990 9843 to design your engaging content. We promise to make it visual engaging!

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.

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.

If you have spoken to a personal trainer or read about fitness, you’ve learned about the importance of your core muscles. Strengthen your core muscles, and you will inevitably strengthen your body’s other muscles. Your website should be viewed as the Core of your online marketing, ensuring its strength, will strengthen the rest of your marketing.

While there is a new popular social media platform or online marketing tool every couple months, your website remains the most valuable asset because of the control you maintain. If optimized, your website is typically one of the top results when someone Google’s your business, so placing your focus here before signing up for that new social media site should be your priority.

Here are 6 approaches you should take:

1. Have a clear and easy-to-see headline that tells people the purpose of your business. Don’t assume that people know what your company does. Using large fonts for headlines that attract attention and descriptive call-to-actions will enhance the user experience.

2. If you’re directly selling a product or service, you should explain why they need to buy and the advantages of your product in a bullet point format.

3. Give to get, if you want to get email addresses for your email marketing or attract more Facebook likes, give something away. For example, a dentist can mail a free toothbrush to people in a 5-mile radius if they join his/her email list.

4. Organization matters, treat each web page with a purpose by driving your visitor with one key message on each page.

5. Make the fonts and messaging on your website legible to all audiences. Contrary to what people believe, older people do read websites, and size 12, light grey fonts may not be legible for them.

6. Use contrasting color/shapes to make certain links and messages stand out.

Infinite Communications specializes in creating web sites and marketing material that are impressive, easy to understand and intriguing. If your business can benefit from our design expertise, call us at 818.990.9843.

Receiving media coverage is something most small businesses, brands and organizations can benefit from and should consider planning for because it can not only increase your exposure, it can also build your company’s value proposition.

Building a social media following is a first step in your efforts to receiving media placement. Working together with our client, Martin Kent, an Emmy Award winning filmmaker, we were able to get him placed in one of Israel’s largest circulated publications.

One of Martin’s goals was to receive targeted media coverage for Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day). In the 4 months prior to our pitch we established a solid social media presence, some of the tactics included:

• Consistently updating his blog with relevant content (written by him) and optimizing every post with targeted keywords.

• Creating a branded YouTube page and uploading videos of his prior work, as well as optimizing all his videos to be found for competitive keywords related to his work.

• Creating a branded Twitter page and building a twitter following.

Because we were able to effectively implement all of these tactics, we were able to garner interest from editors even without a published book or movie ready for production.

Brutal Important Fact!
Editors and journalists jobs are to sell papers and to cover stories that are interesting. When he/she sees that you or your company has built a solid social media following it does two things, 1) shows that you are already interesting, 2) establishes that you can bring your followers to his/her respective publication.

Now, you might say that Martin was an Emmy award winning filmmaker and that his topic was particularly interesting. However, as business owners we can build interest in our community, each business can develop content that engages our prospects, associates and fans. This is how building your social media presence could be your first step to receiving media attention!

Please let us know if you have any questions about how you should approach social media.

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.

You might be in the market for a new company logo, or are starting a new business and the first thing that comes to mind is that you need a logo. You’re shopping around for quotes and getting such a wide range of costs.

Let’s review why you are getting a wide range of prices.

The short answer is “You Get What You Pay For.” The more thorough answer below outlines why it is not smart to skimp out on this necessary investment.

Your company logo is usually the first piece of visual communication that speaks about your business. As a matter of fact, 85% of information processed by the brain of all humans is visual.

A company logo speaks tremendously about your business – is your business?

• Innovative
• Expensive/ high-end
• Affordable
• Long-established
• Family friendly
• etc.

There are many options for logo design, one is an Online logo shop – where you can purchase a logo from a website, it can be a template or a some random designers you haven’t met interpreting your ideas. Having your logo designed by an online shop for a couple hundred dollars is almost guaranteeing that your company logo will not stand out. Most of these designs are “cookie-cutter” templates and that will reflect in what people think about your business upon first impressions.

So is it worth to pay the price for a design firm to customize your company logo?

Decide for yourself. Below is the 4-Step Process To The Perfect Logo that Infinite Communications created and uses with every one of our clients.

1. Logos You Like

Before any logos are designed, we complete a logo design questionnaire. This allows us to know how you want your brand to be perceived and what elements are vital in its design.

The discovery process includes:
• Completed logo design questionnaire
• Research on currently successful logos in your industry
• Exchanging current logos you/we like

2. Sketch Your Vision Into Reality

Now that we know what direction to take your logo we create a series of graphic sketches to illustrate the logo on paper. These sketches include the basic logo layout, composition, and graphic icons we think communicate your brand.

Below are some logo sketches we designed in this part of the process for Blooming Steps Physical Therapy.

3. Black/White Details First!

Colors have a large impact on people’s impression about a logo, including yourself when you are deciding on a final look in this process. Thus, before we provide you color options we first create a detailed PDF file of the final look in black/white.

The advantage is two folds:
• See the logo in full details (high-res PDF)
• Approve the logo layout/composition without being influenced by color choice

4. The Perfect Color Combination

Finally we provide you an unlimited amount of color options to bring your logo to life. We use Pantone color swatches and the latest color-guides to make sure your colors are harmonious and print-friendly!

If you would like to work with us on your company logo – feel free to email us today or call us @ 818.990.9843!

We get this question asked a lot, and the truth is pricing search engine optimization and Internet marketing, in general are not a one-size fits all campaign. Before we give you a price, we conduct research to determine just how much work your campaign will need and we base the price on these factors.

These factors may include;

• Competitiveness of your industry/keywords
Some industries/businesses are extremely competitive on the web and that will mean we will need to do more work for a longer period of time and for those businesses the amount of time and tactics needed to obtain an increase of quality traffic and gain rankings for keywords are significantly higher.

• Website redesign – if necessary
Visual presentation and proper messaging are known to have an impact on a website visitor’s decision to use your services or buy your product, call your business, or fill out an online form. Our firm’s philosophy is that your website needs to make a perfect first impression and be easy to use. That way you will have a higher chance of converting website visitors into new customers, when they find you via search engines from the search engine optimization efforts.

• Local, national, or international?
The wider the geographic area the more tactics and greater time investment is needed for your campaign.

These are just a few of the most important factors.

After we conduct the discovery phase which includes an analysis of your current website, industry, and competition, we develop a proposal with a couple of pricing options. Pricing Options can include a setup fee and discounts for longer commitments. Usually we recommend a minimum of 6 months because Search Engine Optimization is ongoing and any lapse in the campaign not only damages your website organic rankings, it adversely affects the SEO efforts made in the past.

To get more information about Search Engine Optimization or other Internet marketing tactics you can call (818) 990-9843.

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.