Link building, and broken link building in particular, is one of our favorite techniques for garnering search visibility for a client’s website. Through the years, we have perfected a method of broken link building that we’d like to share with you in the hopes that it brings you the same, if not more, success that it has brought us.
The world-wide web is a big (and, frankly, sometimes-scary) place. At Little Egg Solutions, we are a small firm specializing in web-based marketing strategies for other small and medium businesses, so we know how vast that ocean can seem to a little fish used to a much smaller pond. For entrepreneurs who are just beginning to branch out into the digital marketplace, it may be tempting to take shelter under the eaves of a larger conglomerate site. Many parent organizations and agency associations have shiny, professional sites that their partners and agents can use, like a real estate company who lists all of its agents, to get their name on the net without all the hassle of purchasing a domain name, building a site, formatting HTML, et cetera.
We know, we know; it seems like a logical way to find the eyes of potential clients. After all, why would they be on the site if they weren’t interested in the services provided? Plus, you’ll be benefiting from all the traffic these major sites receive while they do the marketing legwork, right?
Wrong. Yes, those sites get tons of traffic. Yes, those visitors are probably in the market to buy what you’re selling. But that doesn’t mean they’ll be buying it from you. Huge conglomerate sites are complex: built with pages upon menus upon more pages. For your prospects, finding your name in the (admittedly smaller) sea of service providers contained therein is almost like finding a needle in a stack of needles.
Your web presence disappears, that’s what happens. You need a separate, distinct island in the Internet Ocean with a bridge back to the mega-site (in the form of links) to set you apart and truly reap the benefits of your association with the organization’s web presence. Personal branding is important for business success in today’s world. People want to buy from (and sell through) people, not faceless corporations.
Also, people like to buy from people who have experience, and the more positive, professional, helpful information they can find in their search for someone who can help them, the better. By building a separate site for your business, you get your name on the web on your own terms and dictate the content and character of your personal professional brand. Your presence online is not reliant on the favor of any other organization, but you can still link back to the organization’s provided page for increased credibility. It’s a win-win.
You can use any number of hosting sites, like WordPress, to create a simple, professional website with their templates. Or, even better, you can hire someone to do it for you, and remove the headache completely. At Little Egg Solutions, we can build a perfect, personal website for your individual business needs. Contact us today to find out how we can add a little distance and distinction from the herd to your web presence!
Here at Little Egg Solutions, we have made it our mission to help small and medium businesses compete against big names in their niches through social media and content marketing. When it comes to going head-to-head with household brands, there’s no better day than Small Business Saturday, the mom-and-pop shop follow-up to Black Friday. Social media marketing is the key to success on the biggest small business shopping day of the year, and these are our top tips for spreading the word, making more sales, and how to maximize your social media impact.
Via Mike Licht | Flickr
One key obstacle to Small Business Saturday success is simply making people aware (or reminding them) that it exists. Traditional media channels and print advertising are saturated with “Black Friday” ads for big business, making it harder for small and medium businesses to reach audiences through them. That’s where social media comes in. From Facebook scrolling to perusing Twitter, your audience is already on social platforms multiple times per day; why not market to them where their attention already is instead of trying to redirect their attention on another platform? Small businesses can use informative, personal posts to remind buyers to patronize SMBs on Saturday and boost their personal branding connection with their clients.
Many of the everyday social media marketing tactics you use to boost your reach and your engagement can be repurposed to boost your sales on Small Business Saturday. Soft-selling tactics and personal branding are the key to reaching potential customers on social channels and making a personal connection with them. More and more, people want to buy from people, so show them your behind-the-scenes as you prepare, share deals and info, tag your posts with unifying hashtags like #shopsmall or #smallbusinesssaturday2017, and speak directly to your followers with direct messaging, reposts or replies. Engage with them on a personal level, and your audience will be flocking to your doors to help their friends, neighbors, and community leaders to succeed.
To get the most out of your social media marketing strategy, it’s important to maximize your reach. This calls for a cross-platform approach that makes use of each platform’s unique features and audience demographics. Customize your copy with best-practices that utilize the strengths of each channel in your marketing arsenal. By making platform-specific posts, you’ll maximize your reach and your marketing impact (and you’ll see more sales on the big day – and every other day).
Via Automotive Social | Flickr
In a market saturated with big-name brands, it’s crucial for small and medium businesses to find whatever edge they can to thrive. Social media marketing, in its nearly-infinite and cost-effective capacity to reach the masses in the Digital Age, can be precisely that edge – especially on the biggest small-business shopping day of the year. If you’re not sure how to channel the power of social media marketing into Small Business Saturday success, the SMM experts at Little Egg Solutions can help! Contact us today to find out how!
In the first installment of our Benefits for Benefits Brokers blog series, we talked about the importance of integrating social media into your healthcare marketing strategy. This time, the social media experts here at Little Egg are tackling one of the most underrated – and important – benefits of social media for brokers and your clients: open enrollment. Social media can be used to distribute information to employees and other potential clients about benefits and enrollment, communicate deadlines and eligibility requirements, resolve questions and concerns, and even start the enrollment process. Many healthcare brokers and their clients overlook this cost-effective and easy-to-implement strategy, and they’re missing out.
Via Blogtrepreneur | Flickr
Do you still use paper pamphlets and printed flyers to disseminate information about open enrollment? What if there was a way to keep your marketing materials in a place that your entire target audience could see it, save it for when they have more time, come back to it when they can, and never lose it or toss it away? A blog, Twitter, and Facebook are all fantastic ways to get your content in front of the eyes of people who need to see it. You can engage with your target audience directly and communicate important dates, eligibility information, benefits and plan options, and the enrollment process in a manner that they already use.
Social media is also an excellent customer service solution. You can host Q&A sessions, provide an FAQ and give personal service through email and instant messaging. Most social platforms allow commentary on content, and potential clients can provide feedback as well as ask questions. Engagement broadens your reach to their network as well, allowing you to attract more clients beyond your original target audience.
For digital enrollment, social media is an excellent tool, both for initiating the process and for marketing links. Your reach is expanded, and you can quickly and easily distribute materials to both your target and their network. With social media use becoming more universal and integrated into society every day, they’ll be exposed to your content more often, reminding them and providing a convenient solution for employees and entities alike.
Instead of relying on wasteful paper communications, go digital with your open-enrollment strategy in 2018. The people you’re trying to reach are online already; why not reach them where they are with a post, a blog, or a Q&A session that won’t get lost or accidentally thrown away? Little Egg Solutions is staffed by experts in digital communications and engaging your audience; we can help you get started with a winning strategy and quality content. Contact us today to learn more!
Events, workshops, conventions, and webinars: what do they all have in common? They’re social gatherings of like-minded leads. What better way to promote a social gathering than by harnessing the power of social media marketing in your approach – from hashtags to event pages to sneak peeks and exclusive content? At Little Egg Solutions, we understand how integral social media marketing is to a successful event marketing campaign in the modern world. Here are our top three tips for leveraging your social presence to bring more people to your event door.
Via Techndu | Flickr
Hashtags are the most direct benefit of promoting an event on Twitter. The hashtag allows for instant unification of your event-related posts, and it gives you a way to track the success of your marketing strategy so far – you can tell who is talking about your event and what they’re saying with a simple search. Start here, and start early; you want to have an idea for your hashtag before your promotion kicks off.
Short, simple tags are best. The fewer characters you need for the tag, the more you can use to promote your event with superb content. If your event is annual, like a convention, include the year in your tag to avoid confusion. Check to make sure the tag is unique (it should produce no results in search) and use it in everything related to your event – even your mailing list content and printed promotion materials. This hashtag can be used on other social media sites to tie the campaign together, and – unless you’re running a contest or promotion for extra engagement – there should only be one tag for your event to avoid confusion.
Promoting an event on Facebook is even easier with the native Event feature. Create an event, complete with helpful information, guides for registration (lead-capture, anyone?), and stunning photos. Then invite everyone and their brother to attend. As your followers’ friends notice they’re attending, they’ll be more inclined to take a look for themselves, and your list will grow organically.
Alternately, you can create a separate page dedicated to your event. This approach is more in-depth – with more detailed information and the opportunity to use the built-in lead-capture tab, but the expanded capabilities will allow for more discussion, engagement, and promotion than simply creating an event on your main page. Regular posting to the event page with relevant, engaging content will help build anticipation and get people talking about your workshop, seminar, or convention. Be sure to use your Twitter hashtags on posts to tie everything together, and don’t forget to link back to your business page from the event page.
People love sneak peeks and behind-the-scenes exclusives, so use your Instagram to give those attending your event – or even those who are just interested – a look behind the curtain. Use your already-established hashtags to tie all of your photos and videos together, and invite people to share their own. Engage your followers (and call for more) by prompting them to respond, or to follow for more exclusive content.
You can also create a separate hashtag just for follower engagement. For example, encourage followers who are interested in your event to participate with a photo contest or collection. Having a workshop on marketing success? Ask for photos that represent success for your followers and unite them with a hashtag (#mysuccessstory, for example).
Via Flickr
As important as each individual strategy is, they work best when integrated into a comprehensive social media marketing campaign that goes beyond the event and connects with your target audience. If you already have hundreds of followers, word-of-mouth spreads that much faster when an event rolls around that people can get excited about. That’s where content marketing and a strong social media presence becomes your biggest online asset – but it’s tough. Little Egg Solutions is here to help, and our team of expert content creators, marketing specialists, and consultants can put together the right plan for growing and promoting your small or medium business. Contact us today to find out how!
We mentioned earlier in our Social Agency series that the video medium has unique benefits for Real Estate professionals, namely virtual tours and interactive listings. However, video marketing on social media is much, much more than just those two things. It’s becoming the gold standard for content marketing across all industries, and for good reason. Our social media marketing experts at Little Egg Solutions have looked into the rise of video marketing on social platforms and have come to the conclusion that it is your friend. Here’s why:
Yes – overwhelmingly so. In terms of engagement (likes, shares, retweets, comments, etc.), video just blows other media out of the water. On average, a video has 135% more organic reach on Facebook than a still photograph. On Twitter, a video is three times as likely to be retweeted as a GIF, and double that for a photo. The overwhelming majority of people surveyed would rather watch a branded live video than read a branded blog. It’s clear that, despite the potential setbacks for time, money, and camera-savvy employees, video marketing is an excellent investment. Television ads are nothing new to the Real Estate industry, but more time is spent watching YouTube during prime time than on any cable network.
Video marketing builds on the same psychological phenomenon that social media marketing has uncovered: People respond better to other people than to faceless entities. We empathize; we trust those with whom we have a connection. And now, more than ever, people are looking to make a connection with the people behind the brands they trust. The Digital Age has ushered in an unprecedented ease of connection through electronic media. It’s not just people on a screen, it’s people behind a screen.
If this sounds familiar to you, it should. It’s the same basic principles that go into the face-to-face marketing and networking that go along with being successful in Real Estate. No one wants to buy something as important as a home from someone they don’t trust. The difference is, you need to be able to make that connection before the first face-to-face meeting ever occurs. Use the power of video to showcase your personality, your professionalism, and your knowledge of your industry. Give potential clients a glimpse into what it would be like to work with you and show them the person behind the screen, not just on it.
We know what you’re probably thinking right now: “How do I do that on top of everything else?” At Little Egg Solutions, we’ve got your back. Much like video marketing, we are also your friend. We can take care of your content marketing needs and help you build the perfect strategy to grow your business, one post, picture, or video at a time. Contact us today to learn how a social media marketing expert in your back pocket can lighten the load!
Little Egg Solutions is, at its core, a marketing agency. One of the fundamentals of effective marketing is lead generation – after all, it’s much easier to market to people you know are interested. But how does this principle extend to social media and content marketing strategies? There are many social-media-specific lead generation techniques, and we want to share some of our top picks with you to help you grow your small or medium business and to ease your marketing worries. So let’s kick off this series with the most recognizable name in social media: Facebook.
Via Alan O’Rourke | Flickr
You can actually create a dedicated tab on your Facebook page that deals only with email and contact information capture. Make the offer to receive your newsletter enticing by offering incentives upon signup – even exclusives for signing up via Facebook. Everyone loves a good deal, and offering special, “available nowhere else” coupons and discounts for receiving emails is a great way to attract leads. You can even set your “like” button redirect for your page to your email-capture tab.
People like to feel special, and they like to win stuff that they want. Take advantage of this by running contests on your page and making the requirements to win liking the page (to boost your reach), commenting on the contest post (to boost engagement), and signing up for your awesome, super-helpful newsletter (which has incentives for joining anyway, if you’ve implemented Technique #1 already). Who could pass up an offer to get extras just for pressing a few buttons and a chance to win extra extras?
You’ve probably already got a killer landing page for an equally enticing lead generation offer on the web. Why not make a post with the link instead of creating a whole new offer on Facebook? Make sure the feature image is high-quality, relevant, and is optimized for Facebook so you get the most power from your post. Long-form copy is a great way to get followers invested in learning more. You can also run the link in an ad, though short-form copy is your friend for that approach.
There are dozens of ways to generate leads on Facebook, but these three techniques (used together or separately) are our favorites. Lead generation is important – and these techniques will help you draw them in – but, overall, it’s only one piece of the puzzle. If you’re having trouble working out a comprehensive social media marketing strategy, we can help you. Our experts at Little Egg Solutions know the ins and outs of social media and content marketing, and we can help you implement a winning combination of posts, blogs, copy, and design tailor-made to take your business to new heights. Contact us today to find out more about what we can do for you!
At Little Egg Solutions, we believe in helping small and medium business owners have a healthy, profitable web presence. In that spirit, we’ve set up a 12-step program for rehabbing your SEO practices and setting goals. You can do one a month for a year, or break them into bigger chunks if you’re feeling more ambitious.
In order to decide what action steps you’ll need to take further down the road, you need to define what the purpose of your website is. Do you want to attract leads? Sell products? Generate ad revenue? You’ll need to know what your end-game is to get your short-term goals in place.
This may seem like a no-brainer, but many small and medium business owners don’t define their specific audience before designing or optimizing a site. While there are some nearly-universal design principles and content keywords, you’ll need to tailor your content to some degree for any targeted audience.
Once you’ve identified your purpose and your audience, it’s time to figure out which keywords are best for your site. The right approach will vary based on what you want your site to do for you and who you want to see it.
When breaking into the online scene, it’s important to understand what you’re up against. Scope out your direct industry competition and take notes. See which strategies and keywords are common to industry leaders and which options seem to be problematic for less successful sites.
A professional SEO audit for your site can tell you exactly which aspects of your strategy are going to cause a problem for you going forward. It’s best to hire a professional rather than using an online audit tool – you’ll get tailored action steps instead of general advice.
One of the main action steps you’ll want to pursue, no matter your niche, is improving your ranking. Use the data provided in your SEO audit to optimize your content and boost your SERP position.
Little coding errors can cause big problems when it comes to SEO. If you went with an amateur web designer or a DIY generator to save a little cash, you may need to do some code cleanup to make your site more search engine friendly.
If your website is fantastic, your code is stellar, and your content is optimized, what good does that do if no one sees it anyway? Work on driving traffic to your site with your stated purpose in mind. Share your content across different platforms and bring as many “maybes” to your page as you can – the more eyes who see your site, the more you’ll have a chance to convert.
The goal of any profit-based business is to actually turn a profit. In order to do that, your web presence has to actually convert “maybe” prospects into definite buyers. Focus on increasing conversion rates with targeted marketing campaigns.
Now you’ve got their attention. They’re on your site, they’re ready to make the leap from prospect to buyer. How do you build on that? By giving your loyal buyers and new prospects alike something to love, rave about, and share with everyone they know. Engaging content marketing and social media strategies build on your success in steps 8 and 9 organically.
Branding is crucial in today’s digital marketplace. Consumers want to buy from brands they trust. No matter what your approach entails, branding should be a major component of your strategy. Social media and cohesive content marketing make this much easier, so build on your success in step 10.
The tell-tale sign of a successful SEO strategy is a profitable return on your investment. Evaluate your profits and what parts of your original strategy have worked the best. Do you need to tweak your approach? Were there any costly mistakes you know you need to avoid repeating?
Via Michael McCullough | Flickr
That may seem like a lot of work, and that’s okay. It is a lot of work. Luckily, you’ve got a friend in the SEO business that just wants to make your life easier. Little Egg Solutions is here to help; contact us today to find out how!
In our last Social Agency article, we discussed the benefits of using Facebook for Real Estate agencies and how to make the best use of the platform. This time, we’d like to talk about an often-forgotten social media platform with tons of perks, specifically for businesses: Google Plus. At first glance, it might seem like creating a Google Plus account for your Real Estate business is a waste of time. But Google is the king of search engines, and the benefits of using their platform for promotion outweigh the tediousness of adding yet another account to your social media presence.
One of the reasons that Google Plus is severely underrated is that it’s an entirely different social media concept from giants like Facebook and Twitter. You can’t compare one to the others, just as you can’t compare Yahoo and Tineye simply because they both have a search bar. The second reason is there’s a misconception that no one is on Google Plus.
Google Plus, as of 2012-2013, had between 135-300 million active users. That is a massive userbase, and the numbers vary by what you define as “active”. Why? Because many people have a Google Plus account simply by having a Gmail account. Their circle is their email contact list. And you can reach their list by harnessing this unique native connection through Google.
With the native Gmail connection, Google Plus influences the search results for anyone logged in to their account. Now imagine you have 500 connections on Google plus (like, say, your email list). Now your content has priority treatment when they search for local realtors or property listings. It’s a built-in white hat SEO advantage, just because you are already on their contact list.
Google Authorship also adds a distinct benefit for real estate agents on Google Plus. When your search results get boosted for your contacts, or when they show up on their own, your Google Plus profile picture and details show up too. Along with a link to more pages authored by you, which, if viewed for a certain amount of time, automatically returns more results when the searcher returns to the SERP. It’s a double-whammy of SEO benefits that need only your use of Google’s proprietary social media platform. It’s almost like a reward for doing what you were already going to do, because you’re flattering Google in the process.
Joining Google Plus is much like joining any other social media platform. And, with characteristic care for user experience, Google will walk you through the process of creating your page and completing a profile. After that, add authorship to your posts to reap the benefits thereof and begin the work of expanding your circle (your email list is a good starting point for this) and joining communities to reach more people. Reciprocity is the key to any social media dynamic, so be sure to +1 and share content from connections. Finally, add checking in to your schedule (at least once a week). The volume and pace of Google Plus make it much more manageable to deal with than oversaturated networks like Twitter.
Via SEO Link Building | Flickr
We know what you’re thinking: “But Little Egg, I have a full plate already with just the social media accounts I have.” We get it. Adding another social media platform to your overall content marketing strategy can feel like piling dirt on top of an already-growing mountain of tasks and it may seem like a landslide is imminent. That’s why we’re here: to take the shovel and shoulder that burden so you don’t have to. Contact us today to find out how!
