Put Your Face on Your Blog

May 8, 2013 By 2 Comments

If you’re a consultant or solo entrepreneur you should put your face on your website. Preferably on the front page.

It’s important that you’re visible.

It’s important because it’s all about building trust and a sense of personality. After all, we do business with people.

Show Who You Are

I’ve written a lot about podcasting as a way of making it transparent to your potential customers just who you are and what you do. Video, of course, is also an incredibly useful tool for giving a clearer indication of who you are and what you do.

It’s important, though, not to forget that a simple picture can go a long way to help build a sense of who you are, especially if you’re not ready to get behind the mic or video camera just yet.

Here are some of my favourite pages that use an image to foreground the business owner. Maybe these will inspire you!
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What Makes a Perfect Homepage?

May 1, 2013 By 4 Comments

There is, I am afraid, no perfect homepage. Only the perfect homepage for your website.

Still…

A great homepage will answer the three Ws:

  • Who we are,
  • What we do and
  • What we can do for you whilst you are here.

It’s trickier than it sounds, though, because you have to get the balance right. Too many homepages put the emphasis on “Who we are” instead of focusing on addressing the needs of the visitor to the site.

The BBC website doesn’t start out telling you who the BBC is, does it. You just get there and start consuming the news.

Similarly, Nordiska Kompaniet aren’t showering you with their latest collections. They’re just telling you that you can get twice the value you ordinarily get if you’re a loyalty card holder this coming weekend.

NK's clear offer

NK’s clear offer


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How to Convert Traffic into Customers

April 17, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Every business with a website wants to convert traffic into customers. There’s no doubt about that. That’s why we’ve all invested in websites, web hosting, content creation, social media – the whole shebang.

9969621_xxlUnless you have a specific strategy of how to harness the traffic your site receives, however, you’re going to struggle with your digital marketing.

So today, in the hope of inspiring you to think more carefully about how you’re using your site, I am going to give you an insight into the marketing strategies I use on this site that help me convert traffic into customers.

Starting Conversations

The reason I put so much emphasis on podcasting on this site is that over the 89 episodes I’ve created it’s become the most successful marketing tactic I use.

You see the thing is that I’ve identified a funnel whereby people start listening to the show, often by accident after clicking through to jontusmedia.com via google or twitter, and then get in touch to informally ask questions.
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$10 for a promoted update on Facebook earned me $7500

April 10, 2013 By 10 Comments

James Royal LawsonEarlier this year I ran a Facebook campaign. I paid to promote a status update I made on my Facebook business page. I got an ROI (so far) of 75000%.

As a small business owner, I’m faced with a multitude of marketing options both free and paid, time consuming and mindlessly quick.

I’m also a digital strategist, so I have a slightly easier time with the digital initiatives than I perhaps do with the analogue ones.

Even so, there’s only so much you can guess or hypothesise before you need to dip your toes in the water.
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Make it Easy for Your Customer to Remember You

March 27, 2013 By 6 Comments

I just got back from Rome having fled the minus degrees of the last of the Stockholm winter for a couple of days.

One of the key marketing tactics I noticed was how just about every boutique or store made a point of handing over their business card as we left. Even if we didn’t buy anything.

It goes without staying that in true Italian fashion all the cards were exquisite objet d’art.

Aren’t Business Cards So Yesterday?

Business_card_in_hand 2No.

Absolutely not.

Even if I made the mistake of thinking they were.

Why ?
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Filed Under: marketing, marketing strategy

Digital Marketing isn’t for Cowards

March 19, 2013 By 7 Comments

There are times when things work. There are times when they don’t.

As a digital marketer, inbound marketer or whatever you want to call online marketing this week, you’re going to always have to dare to do different.

Why ?

Because if you don’t you won’t push things forward. You won’t grow your business. You won’t keep developing.

One thing I’ve learned is that the internet is full of dinosaurs.

Just imagine where you’d be with your online marketing if you had put all your social media eggs into the Formspring basket?

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