Does your website have a blog? Are you blogging?

1. Companies that use blogs receive 67% more leads than companies who don’t!
2. Twenty-three percent of Internet time is spent on blogs and social networks, so you need to be blogging!
3. Businesses that blog get more visitors to their website (average of 55% more website visitors)
4. Almost half of the companies in the US use blogs to marketing their product/services because it works!
5. If you blog 16 to 20 times in a 30-day period, you will generate nearly 3 times as many leads as those businesses who do not blog.

We didn’t make this up. Here’s the report:
http://cdn2.hubspot.net/hub/53/file-13221878-pdf/docs/ebooks/lead-generation-lessons-from-4000-businesses.pdf

SEO is the process of improving the visibility (ranking) of a website on Google using Google-friendly elements and techniques.

Consider these facts:

1. Ninety-nine percent of customers looking for your services never scroll past the first page of search results. That means your business goal should be to appear on page one of the search results. That’s the aim of SEO.

2. Click-throughs to your business following natural searches (SEO) have a 14.6% buy rate vs. direct mail or print advertising which have a 1.7% close rate. You may wish to consider switching your spending!

3. Ninety-one percent of internet users who are looking for services to buy use natural search results. SEO!

4. Seventy-two percent of customers who did a local search for a business visited a store within 5 miles of their home. Do local customers see your business when they are looking for your service?

5. By the way… Google accounts for over 76% of all worldwide searches. So you have to be seen on Google!

Here’s more:

6. 58% of customers search for local businesses every day.

7. 89% search for local business at least once a week or more. Is your business address appearing in front of your local customers?

8. 86% of local customers look up a local business on Google maps. Are you listed there?

9. 76% of local searches result in a phone call.

10. A massive 72% of customers who did a local search for a business visited a store within 5 miles of their home.

If you are not using SEO and would like to learn more… feel free to contact us: i@theimgweb.com.

Get the attention of your audience through unique and authentic storytelling!

“A story can cross the barriers of time – past, present, future – and allows us to experience the similarities between ourselves and through others,” says Andrew Stanton, a filmmaker at Pixar.

Customers are looking for something that is unique and relatable to them and storytelling is an age-old method that allows businesses to relate to potential buyers.

Here are 3 elements of storytelling that can help turn the mundane into something of great appeal:

Emotion. Take your customer back to those times they will never forget with emotional appeals, such as sympathy, envy, or intrigue. Move them through from one emotional state to another as the narrative unfolds. This only intensifies their connection with your product and brand.

Authenticity. Be honest. Speak truth and life about the brand and the audience it is speaking to. This will grab their attention while also creating a reputation for your brand.

Relatability. Make a connection to your audience. Do your research on who you are targeting. Appeal to your audience through situations they have also experienced, and also challenges they have overcome.

Use these strategies to make a connection with your audience:

Make Your Story Centered around their Situation and Needs
Make People Feel a Part of the Story Experience
Listen & Create a Relevant Context
Showcase Your Values

Once you have made an effective connection is when your message was absorbed deep in their hearts and minds.

Email us today to find out more about how to become an effective storyteller for your business!

Social media is not a place that people go so that they can view advertisements, browse through all of the business pages, or read long technical updates about a company. Social media is a place to be social! This means that people want to be engaging in conversations and making their voice heard.

We at Interactive Media Group want to share with you some of our tactics to making sure that your followers stay engaged with your business and ultimately become your customers.

1. Initiate Conversation with your Social Media Followers

If you are at a social event and you want someone to talk to you, how do you do it? You have to talk to them first! Show them that you care about what they have to say by making the first move.

2.Ask For Feedback

Let your followers know that you value their opinion and that you want your products and services to be at their best.

3. Do Surveys and Polls

People love sharing their thoughts and opinions on the internet. The surveys can be things directly related to your business, or just fun questions to get the conversations rolling.

4. Organize Giveaways, Contests, and Promotions

This will get people excited about visiting your page! You can even gain more followers and recognition by having the contest entry include sharing the post or tagging a friend. Even for those who do not win, the excitement for the contest will now be associated with your business.

5. Live Q & A Sessions

Live sessions show your followers that you actually want to hear from them. It also gives you the opportunity to tell your audience the things that they actually want to know about your business instead of just guessing what questions they may be having.

The right digital marketing consultant will be able to incorporate all of these into your marketing plan so that you can see your followers begin to engage with your business.

Do you have customer reviews for your business?

Based on a report by BrightLocal, getting reviews from your customers can be as simple as asking them.

Here are some of the report’s key findings:

1) 7 out of 10 consumers will leave an online review if they’re asked to.
2) 50% of consumers have been asked to leave a review about a business and actually did leave a review.
3) 20% of consumers asked to leave a review did NOT leave a review for that business.

In short, you can give your customers the opportunity to leave you valuable feedback by simply asking them to leave you a review. Odds are, they will, and then you can use this feedback to promote your reputation.

This report shows the enormous potential of reputation marketing.

It’s important for every business to have a reputation marketing strategy in place to capitalize on it.

Interactive Media Group can help you navigate best practices to use reputation marketing to your business’s advantage.

Contact us at i@theimgweb.com for more for more information.