Any discussion about marketing tools should start with three questions.

Do you know how many websites are there? The truth is, it’s pretty hard to tell the exact number because of the constant fluctuation, but there are more than one billion.

Do you know how many websites Google shows on the first page for any search? 9 or 10.

How can your site beat the other one billion websites to the first page?

Simple – with excellent SEO.

The problem is that getting the hang of how a search engine works is not precisely a cakewalk. There are a lot of variables and factors. Understanding all of them takes a lot of time, time that you don’t have. Luckily, there are better options now: you can use specialized marketing tools that can help in the process.

A big mistake many companies make when it comes to SEO is forgetting about the human element.

Search engines want to show people the most relevant results for their queries. That means search engines want you to create good content for the people, not for the bots.

Your primary SEO focus should be on creating quality content.

For this article, we’ve selected 5 tools that can help you achieve SEO Nirvana.

1. SEMrush – One of the Mightiest Marketing Tools

Before you start optimizing your website, you have to choose what to optimize it for. That means a lot of research on keywords and domains.

The goal is to find the most common search queries your target audience makes and learn who your competitors are, and what their strategy is. Once you know the lay of the land, it will be easier for you to start gaining organic traffic.

The problem is that understanding traffic isn’t as easy as it may seem at first. You’ve got to factor in ads, pay-per-click, social media shares and loads of other things.

And you’ll need powerful marketing tools to measure all that. Well, that’s something SEMrush can help you with. They create reports with all the little details you didn’t even know you needed.

Let’s go over these details:

• Organic reach – Before you do anything, you need to identify some good keywords. If you sell furniture, some relevant keywords could be “custom cupboards” or “folding chairs.” If you operate in New York, add that into the mix as well. New Yorkers who are looking for furniture items are more likely to search for “folding chairs new york” than for “furniture”.

• Analytics – insights into the advertising strategies of your competitors.

• Domain comparison – the Domain vs. Domain feature gathers ‘competitive intelligence’ data regarding up to five competing domains performance. You’ll see what keywords fare the best or worst. Then you can select low-competition keywords that you can use.

2. SEO PowerSuite

When optimizing a website, you don’t get to take shortcuts. It takes time and patience to achieve desired results.

By knowing that, you could be quite reluctant when a marketing tool promises to get “all the job done.”

Well, SEO PowerSuite integrates 4 SEO tools as an across-the-board mega pack that gets all the SEO job done.

So what are these four features for SEO excellence?

• Rank Tracker – as the name says, you get rank tracking for your site, as well as for your competitors’. Plus keyword research with 17 tools.

• Seo SpyGlass – enables you to check your backlink profile, keep up with Google’s algorithm changes and discover the most effective link building patterns.

• WebSite Auditor – broken links reports, on-site optimization and crawl statistics for better site indexing.

• Link Assistant – manages all backlink data and digs for relevant link opportunities.

Sounds too good to be true?

SEO PowerSuite is indeed a complete solution for a swift SEO performance.

What makes it so appealing to users is its easy-to-use and straightforward interface.

3. Screaming Frog

If you heard about Search Engine Optimization, you’ve sure bumped into terms like ‘bots’ and ‘crawlers.’ These are the small scanners that crawl your website and deliver data reports to a search engine. This is how Google indexes websites and decides how high a page will be ranked.

That being said, it would be great if you owned a tool that made things easier, right? This is where Screaming Frog’s free SEO Spider Tool comes in. It helps to fetch the following:

• Server/link errors
• Status of internal and external links
• Link security status
• Redirects
• Blocked URLs
• Page title issues
• Meta-data
• Page response time

And these are just a few. The spider harvests all information necessary to create an XML Sitemap. This is a file that hierarchically outlines all links on your website so as to help bots crawl it more efficiently. That will reflect on your SEO metrics as well.

Once your page is made more accessible to crawlers, they will prioritize it and thus place it higher on the rankings.

4. Open Site Explorer

Open Site Explorer is the tool you need if you want to find out everything about links on your website or link building opportunities, both of which are important for SEO.

Just type in the URL of your website (or any other website for that matter), click on the “search” button, and, in a matter of seconds, you’ll discover plenty of insights about the website.

Here are the tool’s main sections:

• Inbound links
• Just-Discovered
• Top Pages
• Linking Domains
• Anchor Text
• Compare Link Metrics
• Link Opportunities
• Advanced Reports

5. MozBar

Kristina Kledzik, the SEO Manager at Rover.com, says that MozBar has been a critical part of her link building strategies and competition analysis for the last 5 years.

You know that you can’t have SEO without link building.

This nifty extension (as they call it) for Chrome and Firefox will show you the page authority and domain authority of every page you’re on. With the PRO version, you’re able to see the DA and PA for every website in Google search results.

Here’s the full list of features:

• Custom Searches
• Metrics That Matter
• Social Metrics
• Data Export
• Page Overlay
• On-Page Highlighter

Do You Fancy a Scenario Where SEO Is Done Seamlessly?

We’re sure you do. But for that to happen, you need to find the right tools. The five we outlined in this article are all free to try, until you figure out which ones are the most rank-boosting for your platform.

And remember! It takes a whole lot of patience to find the winning formula for SEO greatness.

Actually, you can start by trying out our own Squirrly SEO Plugin.

Feel free to leave us your questions in the comment section or share this article if you found it to be useful.

Most of the time, when I find the website of a new company, I want to see whether they have a blog or not. I don’t know if this is a new habit now that I’m interested in content marketing (more than others maybe), but it’s like a reflex. For me, a blog is an important part of establishing a relationship with your clients/customers. So why not invest in buying articles?

Is Buying Articles a Good Idea?

Yes, it is, and I will tell you why. Let’s say that you started a startup, and, as a CEO, you don’t have that much time on your side to run a blog for your business as well. At the same time, you still want to provide value to your potential customers, and show them that you care about them, and that you are willing to teach them something new every day. If you decide to buy articles, you will save time, and you will also have the certainty that someone passionate will do an amazing job at creating valuable content for your blog.

Photo Credits: Paul L Dineen‘s Flickr

On the other hand, if you’ve been running a business for a while now, and you’ve never thought about buying articles, then this can be the special ingredient that can differentiate your business from all the similar ones out there.

Buying content is the best thing you can do to maximize the engagement between you and your customers, bringing them value, making them worth their while, and establishing a long term relationship.

Content has the potential of converting a visitor into a customer

As I was saying, if I see that a company has a blog on which it publishes content constantly, I will definitely browse through their articles, and see whether they can provide me any value, or if I there’s something I can learn from them. They can still have a blog on which they publish regularly, but the content doesn’t necessarily have to be good. Either way, I can tell almost immediately if the company is worth my time or not. And you can, too.

Think about this for a moment. If the content is engaging, people will obviously spend more time on your company’s website. And if they do that, there will be higher chances that they’ll be interested in your products/services. And that’s what you ultimately want, right? To turn your visitors into customers.

Another important aspect about content is that it makes you an expert in your field. Even if you don’t have time to write your own content, there are still plenty of writers or agencies out there, happy to provide their content writing services.

Standing out with a blog that provides quality content

Providing content for your potential customers can be a decisive factor between you and the competition. Because today, time is passing so fast that we forget to just be, buying articles is the best thing you can do for your business, time-wise and money-wise.

Now tell us, what are your experiences with content writing services (if you have had any)? Would you be interested in them?

Today, it’s a silly thing not to have at least one social media account for your brand. Billions of users use social media every single day.

If you clicked on this article, then I’m going to assume that your business is on social media. Since I’m also a mind-reader, I know that you’re here because you want to find out more about social media giveaways.

Did you know that the top reason why people choose to follow brands on social media is for promotions and discounts?

Yes, I know, such a shocker! But don’t get this all wrong. People still want to find out the latest information about your product and services or contact you for customer service on social media.

Bearing that in mind, I want to go back in time a little bit.

I created my Facebook account in 2010. Back then, only a handful of big brands were on Facebook (I’m only talking about their presence on the Romanian market, not worldwide). What they did to acquire thousands of likes is they organized different contests and giveaways.

I participated in a couple of contests and even won some stuff (go me!). I almost never participate in social media contests, because they’re usually the ones where you have to like/share/comment. I’m not a fan of those. Those contests, however, were kind of interesting and creative. Even though they didn’t rely on the like and share method, they were still quite successful.

Now back to our days. 

Social media giveaways are used quite often as a strategy. Almost every big, medium and small company out there has organized one until one.

Let’s take a quick look to see why companies host giveaways on their social media profiles and what are their benefits.

Why Companies Organize Social Media Giveaways

• Exposure. Businesses that are just starting out or those that want to increase their following will do a giveaway so that more people will find out about them. It’s really easy to increase your exposure this way because people love free stuff, especially if it’s your products or services. They will act as a very attractive incentive in exchange for them following you on social media.

• Engagement. One problem with social media today is that people follow so many brands today that it’s hard to keep up with them and react to what they post. I actually find myself guilty of this. I scroll on my Facebook feed; I read certain posts, but then, even if I liked a post or thought it was funny, I only react in my mind. Sounds weird, but many of you are probably doing the same thing. A giveaway can entice people to engage again with a certain brand. After all, the point of being on social media is opening a dialogue and not a monolog.

• Understanding the audience. By asking a simple question for the giveaway, you can find out so many things about the people that follow your company on social media. It can be anything from their habits when it comes to your products, or what type of services they use most often from the ones you provide. The possibilities are endless here. It’s just a matter of figuring out what kind of information would be useful to you.

• Free content. I’ve seen many creative giveaways out there, many of which were harnessing the power of user-generated content. Here’s how this works. If you sell cereal, you can ask your followers to submit a picture with their breakfast for a chance to win a yearly supply of your products. The guideline or the theme for the pictures can be to contain cereal. Just like that, you’ll have plenty of images for your upcoming posts that you can use (with the users’ approval, of course).

• Grow your email list. Your weekly or monthly newsletter may be fascinating, but it doesn’t matter if no one is reading it. Email marketing is still, until this day, the most successful communication channel. To get the most out of it, you need a big email list. By running a giveaway and asking the participants to enter by simply entering their name and email address, you got this problem solved. However, don’t use this opportunity to spam them.

• Promote a new product/service. This is one of the best ways to promote a new product or service. It is, of course, if it’s also the prize for the giveaway. Considering it is, people will be excited to be the first to try out your new stuff, and it will also create a lot of buzz.

These are the main reasons why companies do social media giveaways and also why you should too.

Next, we’ll discuss every step you need to consider when organizing a giveaway on social media.

Implementing a social media giveaway 101

1. Why are you doing it? 

Do you want to gain more followers, do you want more engagement, or to obtain email addresses? Whatever the case may be, you need to address this question before you start planning anything.

Why? Because the answer to this question will determine the way, you create the strategy behind the giveaway.

2. Determine the type of giveaway

There are two types you can do:

• A contest. The winner will be chosen based on criteria that were established beforehand. If you want to organize a contest, then you’ll have to figure out if you want to have a jury or if it’s going to be you the one to select the winner. Either way, the person or the group of individuals that get to make this call have to be experts in the particular industry.

• A sweepstake. This is where the winners will be randomly selected with a tool like random.org. No one can interfere with the results. It’s just pure luck.

3. Where you’ll run it? 

Even though you’ll promote the giveaway basically on all your channels, you still have to decide what is the main channel for running it. It can be Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. These are the most popular social media channels for giveaways.

The choice for the platform will be connected to the objectives you set in the first place. For example, if your goal is to increase your Instagram followers, then that is where you will run the giveaway.

4. What’s the prize?

Whatever you do, please don’t give away an iPad or an iPhone, unless you’re Apple. Assuming the social media team from Apple is not reading this post, I will give you some tips when it comes to choosing the prize(s) for the giveaway.

First of all, the prize has to be relatable to the profile of your company and your audience. Let’s say that you’re a skincare company. Depending on what is your objective, you can give away:

• The new products you’re launching
• A goodie bag that contains products worth $1,000
• A facial treatment at a luxury SPA
• Product supplies for an entire year

And the list can go on and on. If you have a bigger budget, you can, of course, have a more impressive prize, such as a trip to a dreamy destination.

5. Make it simple to enter

That being said, make sure that you explain very clearly for everyone how they can enter and what they need to do. For example, if they have to submit a photo, list every step they need to complete.

If it’s the case, create an entry form that will require for the participants to enter as little information as possible. Don’t ask for unnecessary information, like address or occupation, unless you need it for the giveaway.

Remember: even if the prize is extremely attractive, people may not be as eager to enter if the entering process looks like too much trouble.

6. Decide how long it will last

When you’re going to announce your giveaway, specify very clearly how long it will last.

If it’s a big giveaway, it’s usually recommended to run it for approximately four weeks. If it’s longer than that, then people will forget about it. You can make it shorter as well. However, try to run it for at least two weeks.

7. The concept

For the giveaway to make sense to your audience and other people as well, it’s critical to link it to a future event. For example, it can be a back to school themed one, a giveaway for Thanksgiving, Halloween, or Christmas.

The idea has to be very clear and concise, and the content you’ll create around it have to make the connection to the event you’ll link it to.

8. Rules

No one likes rules, but we have to respect them.

Every social media platform has its set of rules, so after you’ve decided where to run the giveaway, make sure to read and apply them.

Also, when you announce it, you’ll have to display the rules on social media. Even though not many people will read them, it’s necessary for legal purposes. If you have the possibility, I would recommend asking an attorney to help you with this.

If you want to find out more about this topic, here’s an excellent article that was written by Sara Hawkins from SocialMedia Examiner.

9. Promotion

This is the most important step for your giveaway. You now what they say: if a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it actually make a sound?

That’s how it is with social media giveaways. Don’t keep it a secret. After all, you want as many people as possible to participate in it, right?

The first step is to use all of your communication channels to get the word out. This means email lists, all of your social media channels, website (pop-ups, blog), plus others that would greatly depend on the type of business you’re running.

It can be anything from in-app notifications to messages on mobile phones. Make a list with every channel you use, so that you don’t forget anything. Then, the next step is to create content for all of them. Articles, posts, videos, infographics, images – the wider the variety, the better.

It’s not enough to post the message announcing the giveaway only once. Remind people about it every single day, but don’t be spammy about it. Only one message per day will do the trick and even once every couple of days.

Promoting the giveaway on your communication channels is not enough, however.

You need to use influencers, partners, and sponsors for this. The chances are that if people see your giveaway being shared by someone else, they will be more likely to enter. Brand advocates are also a great fit for your promotion activities.

The last idea for promoting your giveaway is to submit it to giveaway sites. Here are the best ones:

• SweepStakes Lover

• Infinite Sweeps (for Canada and US giveaways)

• Hypersweep

• Win Prizes Online

• I Love Giveaways

• Contest Giveaways

• InTouch

• Contests by About.com

These websites have hundreds of thousands of visitors every single day, so the visibility for your giveaway will be maximum.

10. Track and analyze

Don’t wait until the giveaway is over to track and analyze what has happened during that period.

Make a habit of tracking the results every five days or so. That way, if you don’t have that many entries or if people don’t seem that interested in your giveaway, you will be able to analyze what’s wrong and adjust it.

At the end of the giveaway, you’ll also need to assess the results to see whether organizing it was worth it or not.

11. Don’t forget about the participants that didn’t win 

If you want to make your giveaway extra special, you can surprise all of your participants with something they wouldn’t expect. After the contest is over and the winner has been announced, you can contact the other participants, thank them for entering and offering them a discount for your products/services.

If you don’t want this to be a surprise, you can announce it for the giveaway. That way, every participant will now that even if they don’t win the big prize, they still get something.

Give It Away, Give It Away, Give It Away Now

(For some reason, Red Hot Chilli Peppers’s song Give It Away has popped into my mind.)

I’m pretty sure that if I scroll for a few minutes on my Facebook feed, I will find at least one post about a giveaway that’s happening right now.

Now multiply this by the number of social media channels that exist nowadays. You’ll see that social media giveaways have become hugely popular because they actually bring results.

You can see results as well if you decide to implement a giveaway. I do hope that the steps I presented above will help you get most of it.

If you have further questions on this topic, feel free to post them in the comment section below. And if you decide indeed to run a giveaway on social media, I look forward to hearing from you about the results you’ve got.

Consumers are constantly connected to technology through different channels. They open emails in the morning, browse through Facebook in their spare time or use their desktop to find a new t-shirt.

This all-day, anywhere access to the online world has shaped the way consumers shop online. Someone can find an interesting store on social media and then go to make a purchase after opening a sale email.

The cross-device, cross-channel shopping trend is pushing eCommerce businesses to have a ubiquitous presence online; however, many businesses are failing to do one of the most important things: integration.

By properly combining all online presence, businesses can get a more cohesive message and overall brand image that can strengthen their appeal to the public.

Often overlooked as a combination, social media and email marketing play a key role in overall marketing integration. Together, these channels can help you target and nurture potential customers throughout their buying journey.

In this article, we’ll explore the benefits of combining social media and email marketing to strengthen your eCommerce marketing.

Use Your Email List to Nurture Potential Customers on Social Media

To get the most of this strategy, it’s necessary to think about the customer journey. You probably have a decent list of emails in your database, but all of those emails are not at the same stage in their customer journey.

Some of them may be recurring customers, others might have signed up for a newsletter but have never bought any products, or maybe other contacts haven’t purchased in a while.

Knowing what stage your contacts are in will allow you to segment your list and tailor your message accordingly. The idea is to target these segmented lists on social media with specific ads according to the stage that they are in.

For example, let’s say that John hasn’t made a purchase in a couple of months. We can encourage him to come back to make a purchase by showing him an ad on Facebook that says something like: “Haven’t heard from you in a while—come back and get 15% off”! At the same time, we can send him an email that has a different copy but the same idea.

This very targeted social media and email combination creates a seamless and powerful marketing strategy. You get to reach the same customer multiple times, through different platforms, which increases your chances of conversion. To execute this tactic, you need to go to Facebook and create a Custom Audience. Start at your ads manager and click on “Audiences”:

Then, click on Create Audience> Custom Audience

Select Customer File and upload your contacts or import them from MailChimp.

Do the same thing for each of your segments and name the audience accordingly. In addition, experiment with Lookalike Audiences to increase your reach. You can implement a similar process for Twitter. Once your campaigns are set up, integrate all your efforts with Springbot, a marketing platform used to easily measure all your efforts in one place.

Capture Your Followers’ Emails

At this point, you should have a better idea of why social media and email can power up your marketing efforts, but let’s dive a little further. As we’ve mentioned earlier, it’s easy to grab an email list of contacts and retarget them on social media, but what about the other way around?

Unfortunately, no major social media channel offers a way to download followers’ information, so you’ll have to get it in a conventional manner. Getting your followers’ emails will allow you to increase your email database to send promotional and informational emails to increase conversions or keep your current customers engaged.

One of the things you can do capture your followers’ emails is to add a signup tab on your Facebook page. This is a designated area to encourage your Facebook followers to sign up for your newsletter.

Many newsletter platforms such as MailChimp offer an easy-to-use integration so you can get your signup tab done quickly. The tab looks like the one below:

Preferably, add an incentive to encourage your followers to sign up to your newsletter. Discounts or special promotions work really well. Whatever incentive you use, make sure you have an automated email set up to welcome new subscribers.

Get Your Email Contacts to Engage with Your Brand on Social Media

Taking a list of email contacts and uploading it to social media is easy, but it’s not always effective. Not all your email subscribers will use the same email they subscribed to your newsletter to log in for social media.

Therefore, it’s always a good idea to cross-promote your social media in all your emails to make sure your subscribers are also following you on social media.

This cross-promotion can be done in multiple ways. The easiest one is to add social media links to all your emails. These links shouldn’t be buried at the bottom of your email; they should be prominent at the top of all your newsletters.

Another way to encourage your subscribers to follow your brand on social media is to provide an incentive for following. For example, offer a 15% off discount to all email subscribers that also follow you on social media.

As technology advances, we can only expect customer behaviors to change as well. Shopping is becoming faster and simpler, which is setting a standard in the eCommerce industry.

As smart business owners, we have to stay on the lookout for new trends in our industry and be flexible enough to make enhancements in our processes as necessary. Always remember to keep a cohesive and seamless shopping experience by integrating all of your marketing efforts properly.

Let us know in the comment section below how you connect the email and social media presence of your brand.

Long before killer content on the Internet was even thought of, a British social psychologist named Graham Wallas produced a theory explaining the 4 Stages of Productivity.  Originally published in 1926, his work, The Art of Thought, is now out of print and the surviving copies sell at a very expensive price.

Why is this so valuable today, especially for content marketers? Because this is a secret strategy for producing engaging, epic and totally killer content! The power behind its efficiency rests between the conscious and the subconscious mind.

Don't worry, you don't need to spend $100 on the book. Click To Tweet

Here are the stages and how you can use them to draw readers to your business:

1)  The [Killer Content] Preparation Phase – (conscious)

First, you want to get into the right frame of mind for brainstorming. This encompasses looking at your topic or idea from all sides. Look at the advantages and disadvantages. Write down absolutely everything that comes to mind. Look at it from different points of view. Consider different cultures, ages, races etc.

Look for problems or obstacles, but don't try to solve them. Click To Tweet

Write them down and walk away. Put the entire topic to bed. You don’t have a complete idea yet…this is only step one of the process.

2)  The Incubation Phase – (subconscious)

Have you ever been in the middle of doing something and all of a sudden you come up with an idea for some killer content? You’re driving down the road and you suddenly think of a solution to a problem.

Or what about when you're sleeping and you wake up out of the blue with a great idea? Click To Tweet

These thoughts or ideas come from your subconscious mind and are born because you put an idea or a problem into ‘incubation.’ You deliberately forced them out of your subconscious mind.

There’s two ways to put your ideas into incubation. You can either deliberately focus on something else or you can literally sleep on it.

3)  The Illumination Phase – (subconscious)

This is when having a pen and paper handy really helps because you can quickly jot down the ideas that pop into your mind and then continue on with what you were doing. Like the incubation stage, this one can’t be forced. It has to come subconsciously.

It only occurs after you’ve been able to walk away from your brainstorming stage and consciously focus on other things. Illumination is represented by the actual epiphanies that inadvertently pop into your head during random times.

Take them as they come, without trying to analyze them or focus too much on them. Click To Tweet

For now, just make note of them.

4)  The Verification Phase – (conscious)

This is the final stage, where you come back (consciously) to your brainstorming ideas. Now you combine all of the ‘epiphanies’ that popped up during the incubation and illumination stages and consciously incorporate them into your writing so that they make sense and work.

By now, you likely have some killer content for your next blog post.

Opening and maintaining a commercial real estate blog is not the easiest of tasks.

There are many hoops you need to jump through before achieving success with this type of digital marketing.

But the best thing about a blog is that once you’ve gotten it off the ground, it can only go up!

Why Do I Need a Commercial Real Estate Blog for My Business?

Working in real estate, you probably don’t have a typical day at the office.

One morning you’re scheduling listing appointments for the afternoon. The next day you’re working with your photographer to highlight the furnishings in that new apartment. Maybe you’re about to show off a vacation home in a well-off area, so you need to get it prepared.

With that much work on your hands, do you even have the time to think of what your clients want from you?

These invaluable questions serve as a starting point to find out what you’re doing wrong:

• Is my marketing strategy working out in my best interest?
• Have I gained the trust of my customers and the public?
• How many clients has my current policy brought me this week/month/year?
• How satisfied are my clients with my services?
• Will this strategy work or be relevant one/three/five years from now?

If you don’t keep track of your clients’ needs and feedback on a regular basis, you might find it hard to answer some of these.

Keep track of your clients' needs and their feedback on a regular basis. Click To Tweet

How Do I Keep Track of My Clients’ Needs?

The answer is pretty straightforward: With a commercial real estate blog.

Just think of this: Your office is extremely crowded. You want to get to know who you’re selling to, or who wants to do their listing with you. Are you going to dedicate an extra room for interviewing?

You don’t need to create a new department in your building to keep records. Maintaining a blog in the real estate business might sound counter-intuitive, but hear me out.

Here’s some useful information a blog can tell you about your clientele and your company:

• What your clients need, in their own words
• How satisfied they are with your services
• How likely they are to recommend you to their friends
• How many readers are likely to become leads
• How relevant you (still) are

Do these sound familiar? You’ve guessed it. They’re answers to what you’ve been asking yourself since the beginning of this article.

And that is just scratching the surface of a blog’s capabilities.

Using Your Blog for Problem Solving and Showcasing Expertise

Most people looking to do business in real estate would rather have a quick way of solving an issue. No emails, no calls, just a straight-up answer from a professional.

Have your friends ever had a question about real estate? Do they call you asking for answers? Possibly. What about all the other people who need help, but who don’t have friends in real estate?

That is the moment when you swoop in with relevant information on your commercial real estate blog.

When I was looking for an apartment in my current city, I didn’t know who to turn to. The papers had lots of ads, but somehow they were all booked when I called.

Luckily, a friend pointed me to a gentleman’s blog who had all the right info about where to look. He also happened to post about areas where people were more likely to rent out apartments.

That way, I got to rent an apartment in the quiet zone I’ve always wanted – instead of just settling for a worse deal someplace else, after weeks of searching.

That is how you build a trust-based relationship with your audience. Being helpful goes a long way.

Quality of service doesn't matter if you can't provide relevant information. Click To Tweet

Leverage Social Media Along with Your Blog Posts

If you’re in the business, you probably know that a majority (91%!) of REALTORS® use social media in one way or the other.

Emails are a fine contact method when you have time on your hands. But if you’re on the road a lot, social media can be helpful in keeping in close contact with multiple clients at once.

Or you could showcase the best deals you’ve made, showing people you mean business.

The most important thing you CAN do with social media, however, is to use it to promote your blog. It’s no use having relevant, well-thought out content if it doesn’t reach a larger audience.

And social media these days is all about large audiences:

• Facebook? A total of 1.65 billion users
• Twitter? 310 million users
• Youtube? Over a billion daily users
• LinkedIn? 433 million users

With those numbers, just think of all the marketing potential.

Even if you reach 0.000001% of people on social media, you can still have thousands of viewers. Click To Tweet

Taking Advantage of Google

You might think of making use of Google because of their AdWords service. But you would be wrong.

AdWords is a Pay-Per-Click service that might get you a lot of traffic if you’re really well off. But even then, it’s not organic traffic. That means you have lower chances of actually getting leads.

Now for the best part. Google has a funny way of letting people know if your website is not active.

If you don’t post regularly, you fall in rank. Meaning your blog will be sent to pages 2 and beyond, lowering the chances of being found.

That seems fair enough. Remember the part I mentioned about offering relevant content?

That’s what Google tries to do all the time. If you really think about it, why would they rank your blog higher if you don’t keep it up-to-date? It would be like being offered free hosting for your website!

And that’s just bad business.

Increasing Traffic to Your Website

A beautiful thing to have, website traffic. You increase revenue from online ads AND your chances of getting leads for your business.

That is probably the most obvious advantage of a commercial real estate blog anyone can think of.

But before listing it, I wanted to show you exactly HOW that traffic is created.

Sure, you can post a link and your phone number in an advertisement and call it a day. You’ll get a few calls; your site will see a few clicks. You’ll probably even manage a sale.

But how do you keep people coming back to your website long after they’ve done business with you?

By creating the necessary conditions to rise above the competition. It all comes down to that relevant information I’ve been mentioning.

How Will I Find the Time to Do All This?

It can be hard to take time out of your busy schedule to also maintain a blog. That is true.

You’re out in the field, scanning the neighborhoods for prospects, talking with your current clients about a meeting.

Maybe you’re giving one of them a tour of your latest find, showing them the fine woodwork. The modern appliances somehow work well in the overall décor.

But who wants to come back to the office after driving around town in the hot sun wearing a tight suit? AND work for a few more hours?

You have to create all the social media buzz I’ve talked about. Then you have to write quality content to post on your blog to use in tandem with social media. Next, you have to get your content SEO-ready.

What this means is you optimize your website content so people can find you much easily on Google and other search engines.

SEO can have an enormous impact on your business. All of your competitors are going through this process just to stay on top.

Conclusions

We’ve established that to run a successful business, you have to know your client. You also have to make social media and search engines do the work for you.

Show your customers you mean business with a human face. Show them that you’re up-to-date. That you care.

It’s never pretty when a company has to reevaluate their marketing strategy. The key words here are “has to”. It’s entirely reasonable to change things from time to time, to grow or change with the times.

However, if a company has to reevaluate, that’s because the current strategy isn’t getting results. It goes double for real estate since all the deals are important.

We’ll keep both situations in mind. Before that, I’d like to point out that we wrote an article about creating a strategy in the first place, so if you don’t yet have anything to reevaluate, check it out.

Start with Your Goals

If you’re doing well and it’s time for an upgrade, the first thing you should do is think about your goals.

Otherwise, you’ll see that the business is growing slowly or not at all because the strategy wasn’t efficient. Even worse, you could lose track of what’s important and end up doing more harm than good.

Real estate companies should always make customer service a priority.

There will almost always be several companies competing for the same clients. The one that gains the customers’ trust will win.

When competition is big, gain your clients' trust by providing outstanding customer service. Click To Tweet

Another pitfall is having the wrong expectations.  Maybe the strategy didn’t do much because you didn’t expect much of it. In this case, your lack of faith is actively limiting your results.

Alternatively, the strategy seems ineffective because you expected too much from it. Maybe it doesn’t even need changing, but the standards are too high. You’d be wasting time and resources by reevaluating it.

Make sure that the goals you’ve set are doable. Then, go from there and start changing aspects of the strategy that don’t fit with what you want.

Review the Results of the Strategy

To improve anything, you have to know how well the strategy has worked for you up to a certain point. It’s rare that a plan is just faulty. The likelier case is that some aspects are good while others need improvement.

More often than not, the ideas themselves aren’t bad. However, the execution is.

I’m not saying that anything you’ll come up with will work out. Just remember that most companies base their strategies on previous examples and results. The reason it might come out differently for them, though, is because of the execution.

There is software that can help you check the traffic you get. Google Analytics and Hubspot are two examples that come to mind.

The execution of the strategy is just as important as implementing every single detail of it. Click To Tweet

If you do identify an aspect of the strategy that needs changes, take a look at the execution first. If you feel that the implementation went well, the idea itself needs improvement.

Otherwise, it’s much harder to tell where the problem stems from. Remember that digital marketing is pretty different from other tactics. Maybe you’re approaching it the wrong way.

Consider asking an expert to check the strategy you have so far and point out the weak spots. You can talk to our content strategists and see how they can help you with that.

In real estate, most difficulties stem from the way the company interacts with the clients. Maybe they weren’t friendly or invested enough. Maybe they had a slow response time or didn’t offer reliable information. It can take a long time and a lot of attention to detail to work out all the kinks

Think of the Strengths and Weaknesses of Your Real Estate Company

I’m not talking about how good your coffee is. I’m referring to what you and your coworkers excel at in the industry.

If you like talking to people, consider investing more in social media. It’s the easiest and fastest way to interact with clients over the Internet.

Obviously, you want to consider the weaknesses too.

If you’re terrible at writing but can’t do without it, the best solution is to have someone else write for you. Let me tell you; everyone can write, but that doesn’t mean that everyone should write.

The idea is not to waste potential. Use your strengths and avoid weak points or delegate better-suited people to handle them.

An Excellent Strategy Needs a Good Amount of Attention

Some people like this kind of work and some don’t. That’s the way life works.

You have to be invested in reevaluating a marketing strategy. Read reports and studies so that you know what’s ahead of you, and get involved.

There’s nothing wrong with having others come up with the strategy for you. Still, you have to think about it yourself too. There might be better-suited people to come up with ideas for the plan. That doesn’t mean you don’t have to do your part as well.

At the very least, make sure that the new strategy will have the right goals in mind, and that no errors occur.

Keep in mind that marketing is crucial to the success of a company, now more than ever. Since it’s vital, you have to dedicate yourself to the process.

Changes Aren’t Irreversible

It might seem obvious, but a lot of people tend to forget this fact. It’s not the end of the world if the strategy doesn’t end up being perfect. That means you have quite a bit of freedom to experiment, and you shouldn’t let the chance go to waste.

For example, let’s say you have two ideas, and you can only use one. The first is less likely to work, but it could offer a tremendous boost. The second one is more reliable but has a smaller positive effect.

If you have the time and resources, you should try both of them to see which one works best for you. It might take a bit of time to get the results, but once you see them, you’ll know very well which idea to continue using.

When it comes to digital marketing, it’s exceptionally easy to change directions. Since there are so many approaches, you should try to experiment with as many of them as possible.

I hope these guidelines were useful for you, and that they will help you improve your strategy.

We’ve also written an article about how you can enhance your digital marketing strategy. Make sure you check that out as well. It’s full of tips on how to be more efficient

If you are a business owner, then you’ve probably already heard how beneficial social media marketing can be when it comes to ensuring  that your business will prosper. However, nobody seems to focus on the disadvantages of social media marketing.

Instead, they hyper focus on the benefits. Click To Tweet

Sure, it’s easier to live in denial and say social media marketing doesn’t have any drawbacks, but this won’t help you grow your business.

Knowing both the positives and the negatives will help you make the right decisions for your business. This information is right up your alley, especially if you are tired of only finding articles that praise this marketing practice. It’s time to take a look at the disadvantages of social media marketing:

1. Social media marketing is not free

How come? Social media marketing costs you a lot of time. You’re probably already familiar with the classic phrase ‘Time is money.’ When you are a business owner you cannot afford to spend  your time frivolously.

The truth is, social media can be pretty time-consuming. Click To Tweet

You have to constantly update your business page and engage with the audience.

Now, there are people who will tell you that you can bypass the disadvantages of social media marketing if you avoid falling into so-called ‘time traps’. However, this defeats the entire purpose of this type of marketing. For instance, if you avoid answering individual posts you show your audience you don’t care about them. This will result in losing potential clients and does more harm than good.

2. Getting hacked is one of the biggest disadvantages of social media marketing

This can be potentially dangerous for business owners worldwide. Not only do they face the risk of losing money, but they can also lose sensitive data. Social media hacking is not only restricted to friends playing jokes on each other. Even famous pop stars and the US military have been targeted.

Your (business) social media page getting hacked is not something you can simply brush off. Hackers can get data that not only harm you, but your clients as well. This is why you need to properly configure your security settings and ensure only people with clearance have access to valuable information. This will once again cost you a lot of time, a resource you might not be able to spare.

3. The possibility of damaging backlash

You have to be very careful what you post online nowadays, especially if you run a business.

People are more easily offended today compared to the past. Click To Tweet

The Internet also provides them with the means to make their opinions heard, no matter how negative they are.

However, if you are able to put in a lot of effort to monitor your posts and check out the feedback they get on a daily basis, then you’ll get great results.

Keep in mind you have to put a lot of time aside for this. Click To Tweet

All is not lost.

If the disadvantages of social media marketing have got you feeling down, find solace in knowing that there is hope. Just because you don’t have enough time to create quality content and manage your social media accounts doesn’t mean your business can’t make use of them. With a little help you can get very far in your business.

Feeling like you're not prepared to do this on your own? Click To Tweet

You don’t have to! We can give you valuable tips on how to create great content. We’ll also help you manage your social media marketing strategy and social media activity. The 300 readers you’ll get per published article will soon help you forget about the disadvantages of social media marketing.

How do you keep up with your social media marketing strategy every single day? We all have days where it feels like there’s just not enough time to get every single thing done.

When these days occur we usually prioritize what needs to be done, hence leaving some things out. One of the biggest things that get pushed to the side is social media.

The number one aspect of your marketing strategy has to be consistency. From writing optimized blog posts to publishing content on social media, this is the key ingredient.

So of all things, it should never be pushed aside. Below is an example of an emergency social media marketing strategy for days when there aren’t enough minutes to get everything done.

This is one of those quick fixes that’s specific for situations where you’re pressed for time.

Putting Your Social Media Marketing Strategy on Steroids

Remember, this isn’t a permanent solution. Use this on days when your time is very limited. Most businesses really should dedicate at least an hour a day just for social media interaction.

This includes marketing and building relationships to become known as an ‘influencer.’ The main point is consistency and 20 minutes is far better than skipping one day just because you’re too busy.

1. Facebook

Choose a high-resolution image. A great place to choose images is Morguefile because there are tons you can copy, use and adapt without showing attribution. Look in the free section and make sure that each photo you copy says this:

“You are allowed to copy, distribute, transmit the work and to adapt the work. Attribution is not required. You are prohibited from using this work in a stand alone manner.”

• Choose the statement or quote you’d like to include in the image and insert it. You can use Canva for this task.
• Write your post out and include a link to an article, product or landing page. Make sure to include curated content as well through your posts.
• Post, or schedule the time you want it posted in software like Buffer.

2. Twitter

Begin by retweeting and thanking those that have acknowledged or mentioned you in the past 24 hours. You can find all these information faster with TweetDeck.

The most important thing, especially on a full day, is not to get distracted. Stick to this rapid social media marketing strategy for today. Keep your focus completely honed in:

• Aim to Tweet 10 links to articles and products for your business.
• If you have a program like Buffer, you can schedule varied times in which the tweets go live.
• Try to use the 80/20 rule with Twitter. Dedicate 80% to others and 20% to your business. Reciprocity is always the cheapest method of advertising on platforms like Twitter.

3. LinkedIn

Make sure you have an active personal and business account. Especially when it comes to business opportunities, LinkedIn is a great place to get connected to the right people.

For your marketing strategy here’s the short list of activities you need to each day:

• Share or post something related to your business or products.
• Share one article you find in your feed.
• Comment and like 3-4 posts in your main feed from connections.
• Comment in at least one group. Since you’re pressed for time today, realize your comment needs to be short and sweet. You’ll get better at this over time.

Turbo Hacks

To not end up relying on this strategy too often here are a few hacks that will make the social media aspects of your marketing strategy work smoothly.

• Find and download images for your Facebook posts once a week.
• Research quotes and links once a week and put them in a spreadsheet or Word document for quick retrieval.
• Optimize the posts for specific Keywords with Squirrly once a week when you write down all the messages.
• Keep your links organized, so it’s easier to share content when needed.
• Use software like Buffer, MeetEdgar or CoSchedule to make sure your accounts are always posting great content. And then focus on the interactions of the accounts manually.

Still Pressed For Time?

It might be necessary to begin delegating some things to outside sources. Consider hiring a content marketing agency to help you with your social media publishing and for writing your articles.

We can also teach you a few tricks to make the most out of your social media time. Just sign-up for free for the 10.000 unique visitors to find out how to leverage social media for traffic.