SEARCH NEWS – OCTOBER 2012

HubShout Search News is your monthly source to keep you up to date on the latest trends in search engine marketing. You will know about emerging trends in online marketing and we will explain how those trends can be put to use in your business.

Authorship May Improve Search Engine Rankings

Lately, “Authorship” and “AuthorRank” have been hot topics, but what do these elusive words really mean? It means that you can link your content to your Google+ profile. This way, your content appears in the search engines next to your beaming face, your name, and the number of people in your Google+ circles.

What does this mean for you? It serves as a good reminder that, now more than ever, social media is a central part of a diversified marketing strategy that is built on a foundation of quality content.

Email Marketing – The King of ROI

According to the Direct Marketing Association, the average ROI for email marketing investment is $40.56 for every dollar invested. Email marketing is still the most cost-effective form of digital marketing. While email may not be as trendy as Facebook, Twitter and other online social communities, it remains large and in charge with 3 times as many email accounts as Twitter & Facebook accounts combined. Not only do many people use email, but they use email often. So very often. 72% of people check their email 6 or more times per day!

How can you effectively market to all of this frantic email-checking? Follow email marketing best practices:

• Organize your prospects and customers into segmented lists
• Nurture customers and prospects with useful, relevant, and targeted content
• Create multi-day auto-responders that tell a story. Make each one count!
• Use aesthetically pleasing templates
• Write catchy and concise subject lines
• Offer an easy option to unsubscribe
• Measure results, adapt and change

Do not miss an opportunity to effortlessly nurture your prospects and customers and earn more.

Transform Your Website into an Unstoppable Sell Zone

First impressions are everything. You probably want to impress upon your customers and prospects that you are professional, skilled in your industry, detail-oriented and ahead of the curve. Therefore, your website must establish your indisputable professionalism.

A website design that is professional, easy-to-navigate, welcoming, and unique will help engage your audience. A website that makes a great first impression also increases brand awareness, web traffic, social shares and conversions.

Make that first and lasting impression with a dynamic website.

Facebook Unleashes New Creative Ways to Advertise

Facebook has recently rolled out Custom Audiences which allows users to more closely align social media marketing efforts with other forms of online marketing. For instance, if you have been working on building a killer email list, you can now upload the email list (or a list of phone numbers or Facebook User IDs) for Facebook to encrypt the data against its users to find matches on Facebook. Once you have your Facebook Custom Audience , you can take advantage of any Facebook Advertising options by targeting your custom audience.

Not sure where to start? You could run by running a Facebook ad to the people in the Custom Audience who include the filters of living in the city your business is based out of and have not liked your company Facebook page yet. That is a large qualified pool you could be advertising to.

The uses of the new Facebook Custom Audiences are nearly limitless. This could be a great target marketing technique if you know how to best leverage it. Take your online marketing programs to the next level with social media.