The Year of ‘Doing’

Digital Marketing No Comments
Master of Marketing - Alicia Laing

Welcome to ‘The Year of Doing’.

As you may be aware, during the last three years I’ve been completing a Master of Business Administration degree with a specialisation in Marketing Management.  So in 2018 I come to you as an MBA qualified marketing professional and expert digital marketer with more than 20 years local Australian experience to back up the theory.

It was a difficult three years,  juggling business, family and study but also one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.  On completion, I’m left with a greater vision for my business and even more energy to help all of my small business clients with their online marketing in 2018.  The knowledge I’ve gained has given me strong focus, confidence and renewed dedication to the small, medium and micro business sector in Australia and particularly Brisbane.

After three years spent reading and reviewing what others have done it’s time to start ‘doing’ and put the knowledge into practice.   There are so many distractions for small business owners in and around the everyday ‘core’ work.   This year my goal is to help as many small business owners as I can to hone their marketing focus and resources through the Creative Mode service.   I want you to know that your marketing is well and truly taken care of and you don’t have to worry about a thing because … I’m on it!

Please feel free to contact me any time for a chat or to discuss your #digitalgoals for 2018.

Warm regards,
Alicia Laing

The Amazing Unsubscribe Rule

Email Marketing No Comments

Email can be the worst and it can be the best.  Which of those you experience comes down to how you manage your email.  One of my top tips for fighting spam is to use rules.  Set up a rule so that anything with the word “unsubscribe” in the “body text” is sent to a special folder in your inbox. You can then just quickly review for anything you actually want and mass delete the rest (or before delete, set up rules to delete when it comes in next time – eventually you get none).

Never click the unsubscribe button on an email that you don’t remember subscribing to as it’s likely just spam and this just waves a big flag saying “We got a live one! Add them to all the other lists too!”

You can find out how to make a rule by searching something like “How to make a rule in Outlook 2016” (but for whatever your mail software is) and choosing “video” results like I did here to find this one: http://youtu.be/AuNGJRq18eE

To make a new folder in your Inbox (if you don’t already have a gazillion of these like me), just right-click over your inbox (the word) and there’s usually a “new folder” option.

And finally don’t forget that chasing email is not really the job most of us signed up for so remember to prioritise your time and keep email to a minimum.  Checking at set times each day works well for me and allows me the time I need to focus on the tasks that deliver value for my clients.

Search Engine Submissions

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) No Comments

It is no longer necessary to submit your website to a search engine for inclusion. Generally you just need one link from a website that is already in the search index and your site will be picked up and added.

Once your search engine friendly website is complete, optimised and online it usually only takes a couple of days to get into the search results. In the old days it used to take up to 8 weeks to get into the search index!

Free Search Engine Submissions

Free search engine submission services are still available from many major search engines.

Search Engine Position

Google Search Search Engine Marketing (SEM) No Comments

When a search engine is used to find information there are often many sites that match the search criteria. These are sorted in order of the most and least relevant sites that match the query and returned as a list to the user. The most relevant listing will be at the number one position. Search engines use complex algorithms to decide which sites should be considered relevant and these algorithms are updated quite frequently.

In general, your search engine position is influenced by factors such as the quality of your site content, the type of listing you have, the number and quality of external links into your site, your industry, your online competition, the keyword phrases targeted and the different search engine ranking algorithms. As you can see there are many aspects to consider.

Having a search engine friendly, optimised website with good quality content usually does the trick but if your online competition is fierce, there could be many sites competing for the same keyword phrases.

Link Campaigns To Improve Position

One of the most effective ways to raise your search engine position (particularly in Google) is to increase the number of external links to your site. Links from industry authority sites are considered the best. To increase the number of links into your site from other sites, look for sites that share the same target audience as yours and request a reciprocal link that will benefit you both. Avoid swapping links with low-quality sites or ‘link farms’ as these are generally not beneficial to your site.

Maintaining Your Search Engine Position

When competition is tough you will often see your online opposition changing their strategy to find ways to maintain their position and this might bump your site further down the search results page. If you absolutely must have a number one position then prepare to review your strategy regularly.

Measuring Success with Website Statistics