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Why You Should Be Blogging Too

March 6, 2013 By Leave a Comment
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When you eat your favorite fruit or vegetable, it’s a delightful and satisfying treat. Eating fruit and veggies is an all-around good activity because

  • It quells your hunger
  • There are numerous health benefits
  • You like the taste!

The AMG team enjoys writing blogs for similar reasons. Blogs are a beneficial tool for creating a healthy relationship with your customers. But they are also fun to write, taking on a less formal tone than is required for other documents associated with your business. Only good can come from a well-maintained blog on your website. guest-blogging-resized-600

In our increasingly online world, a blog is an effective way to reach out to your community through a channel that your customers are using on a daily basis. While many online interactions between people can seem sterile and distant, blogging is one type of online communication which allows your customers to create a lively and personal relationship with you as a business owner, even in an online environment. This is because good blogs are relevant to their readers’ everyday lives, and they’re also fun to read! The real-time updates convey to readers that you are a real person, living in the same community where they do. And keeping your blog entertaining and light-hearted gives your readers the feeling that you’re the type of person they’d find it easy to talk to – someone they’d want to do business with.

Blogs can also be an effective and sincere marketing tool. Specific blog topics about your business niche or products can promote your products to your community in a personable way which potential customers will be able to clearly distinguish from “just another sales pitch.”

Having a blog can boost where you show up on search engine results pages as well. This is because Google favors sites with recently updated, relevant content over sites which do not have such content. Showing up higher on search engine results pages almost always correlates with increased website traffic – more potential customers checking out what you’ve got to offer!

The art of blogging takes practice, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll start seeing the significant benefits. What do you want to blog about?

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Social Media Minute: Separating Your Personal Page from your Business Page on Facebook

May 3, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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The WebPresence™ Marketing team loves to share our passion for social media and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and how we use it to make our clients successful every single day. Each week, we will post a blog about what’s going on in the WebPresence office and give you some helpful tips to help grow your business’ online presence.

In past posts, we have discussed the importance of having a Facebook page for your business, why it’s important to make your brand more human and how it’s a helpful tool to build solid relationships with your customers. It’s important to remember, however, that even though your business should certainly be an extension of your values and ethics, there should be a clear distinction between your personal and business pages on Facebook. In this week’s Social Media Minute, we’ll discuss the top three reasons it is so important to separate your business and personal pages on Facebook.

Your business page is about your customers…NOT about you

Your friends and family may care about your upcoming high school reunion, pictures from your Friday night bowling league, or what you had for lunch (well, maybe not that, but you get the drift)…but your customers do not. Your business page is an outlet to engage with your customers about things that matter to them, like problems they may have and how your business can help them. Remember to keep your business posts focused on engaging with customers in a professional and caring manner.

Your business page is NOT the place to share political or religious opinions and beliefs


Image courtesy of The Inquisitr

You may feel strongly about a certain political candidate or religious issue. However, sharing or promoting this sentiment on your business page is a sure-fire way to lose fans very quickly. Truth be told, if every single one of your customers shared your exact viewpoint when it comes to such hot-button issues, you probably would not have very many customers. Your business needs to remain neutral on touchy issues, and the best way to do this is to not mention them at all. If you’ve kept business and personal separate, it means that expressing your opinions on your personal page will only affect you and won’t detract from your business’ reputation.

Your business page always represents you…Your personal page does not always represent your business

Most likely, you would not go to work in your pajamas or hang pictures of your bachelor party on your waiting room walls. But you would share with your customers your favorite restaurant or a community program you support. It’s important to keep these same distinctions when posting information to your personal and business pages. Your business page will always be an extension of you and you want to make sure your posts reflect you in the most positive light.

Your personal page, however, does not always have to operate under the same professional guidelines that you run your business. It’s fully reasonable to share your own personal opinions and insights with your friends and family.

Does all of this seem a little overwhelming? Are you scared you might post something offensive on your business page that could cost you a customer — or worse, permanently damage your online reputation? As a business owner, you have a lot at stake every day, and it’s tempting to use every possible outlet to let people know about a political cause that you care about.  There is also a fine line between sharing your best qualities and sounding like you’re patting your own back — another turnoff for customers.

There is nothing wrong with letting an expert handle your business’ Facebook account.  HOWEVER, you should make sure that the company who handles your social networking understands your customers.  Unless they understand your customers and are willing to do the extensive research and analysis required to find stories that are interesting but inoffensive, you’re not just playing with fire…you’re playing with your reputation, your security and your future.

At the Automated Marketing Group, we extensively research every client’s market extensively for quality news sources, and we employ professional writers who understand just how important it is to communicate clearly and avoid taboos.  If you’re ready to get back to running your business without having to worry about who you might be offending on Facebook, give AMG a call at 1-866-520-3030 or drop us a line!

Filed Under: Repair Shop Marketing Tips, Small Business Marketing Tips, Social Media Minute Tagged With: , , , , ,

Social Media Minute: Building Relationships with Social Networking

April 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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The WebPresence™ Marketing team loves to share our passion for social media and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and how we use it to make our clients successful every single day. Each week, we will post a blog about what’s going on in the WebPresence office and give you some helpful tips to help grow your business’ online presence.

One of the most rewarding parts about working in the WebPresence™ office is the opportunity we have to get to know each one of our clients. We love to share happy news, celebrate successes, or hear about the general goings-on in the lives of our clients. Because we truly enjoy getting to know each client, it makes us want to work hard for them and gain and maintain their trust in us. This week’s Social Media Minute outlines how building solid relationships with customers by utilizing social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter effectively can go a long way in making them customers for life.

What’s your favorite place to grab a slice of pizza after work?

Is there a place in town where “everyone knows your name?” Most folks do, and would love to tell you about it.  Asking questions like this makes your Facebook page a place where people can connect, build relationships and bond over common likes.  The trick, of course, is to have a lot of these questions in your back pocket so that you’re not struggling to find something to talk about!  As you start to accumulate questions, also be sure you’re keeping track of what you’re asking.  You don’t want to sound like a broken record!

Where is your favorite place to volunteer your time?

The benefit of being a small business owner is that you are already an integral part of your community. You have a leg up on corporate competition because you live next door to your customers and have an opportunity to connect with them.

But there’s a trick here, too. If you’re not careful, you can come off like you’re seeking praise and recognition rather than trying to help folks in need. The advantage that a professional social marketer brings is the ability to walk that fine line; if you choose to do this yourself, be sure you don’t sound like you’re patting yourself on the back! (Be sure to make sure you’re not permanently damaging your online reputation!)

Does your business have a soul?

Facebook and Twitter pages that create a sense of community instead of being just another sales message is a very good thing…and is especially useful for cutting through the clutter of corporate-speak out there.  In fact, when done right, it shows that your business has a soul. So many businesses utilize Facebook and Twitter as a one-way channel to scream or repeat their sales message like a loud, broken record…and more often than not, this message falls on deaf ears. But creating a conversation with your customers and encouraging participation goes a long way towards building trusting relationships.  And those are the customers that will return time and time again.

Don’t know where to start? Can’t come up with questions, don’t know how to track and measure the benefits what you’ve done, or maybe you’d like some help with sounding like a caring, involved, pillar of your business and local communities – instead of sounding like you’re tooting your own horn? Give AMG a call at 1-866-520-3030 or drop us a line! We professionally manage our WebPresence clients’ social marketing in a way that creates relationship, builds trust, increases brand awareness, encourages participation…and we GET CUSTOMERS INTO YOUR BUSINESS!

Filed Under: Marketing Ideas, Repair Shop Marketing Tips, Small Business Marketing Tips, Social Media Minute Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Are you permanently damaging your online reputation?

April 15, 2011 By 2 Comments
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Have you seen how Google is using social media in their search results? Check out the following image!

With social media becoming a major player in today’s search engine ranking results, it has never been more critical than now to have your accounts PROFESSIONALLY managed.  One poorly chosen response or statement, and your company’s reputation in your local community can be permanently damaged.

Want proof?

Here’s how Skittles, a PR executive, the designer Kenneth Cole, and even the Red Cross have harmed their reputation because they either…

  • didn’t manage their social media at all
  • didn’t let a professional manage their social media
  • or didn’t monitor their social media!

But here’s the thing: professionally managing and monitoring your social media is really just scratching the surface…it’s the bare minimum when it comes to having a professional web presence.

If you really want to make the most of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc., you should be thinking about COMBINING your efforts on the web.  It’s one thing to post interesting content that your fans and followers pay attention to…but another thing entirely to tie that into your Search Engine Optimization!

If you want to see a real fight, put all of those creative teams from different companies on the same project...If you want to see a real fight, put all of those creative teams from different companies on the same project…

In other words, in order to manage your presence on the web, you can hire a social marketing team, and hire a separate SEO team, and hire another company to monitor your reputation, and a fourth team that produces content, and you can pay them each thousands of dollars each month…

And at the end of the day, each of those teams would still only be doing part of the work.

Your social networking team needs to know what your SEO team is doing to be truly effective, and needs to know about everything your content team is writing so they can post about it. Reputation management works hand-in-hand with SEO and social marketing. SEO works best when done hand-in-hand with social marketing and content writers.

And the list goes on!

When it’s all said and done, you are best served doing ALL of this yourself…

(Of course, before you start, ask yourself if you really have another 6-8 hours every day available AND an education in the latest online marketing…)

…OR having ONE company do ALL of it for you.

That’s the only way that each piece will be effective!

Filed Under: Marketing Ideas, Repair Shop Marketing Tips, Small Business Marketing Tips Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Social Media Minute: If YOU Aren’t Using Facebook, THEY Are!

April 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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The WebPresence™ Marketing team loves to share our passion for social media and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and how we use it to make our clients successful every single day. Each week, we will post a blog about what’s going on in the WebPresence office and give you some helpful tips to help grow your business’ online presence.

There is a common misconception among small business owners that due to the specialized and localized nature of their business, they think they won’t benefit from having a business page on Facebook. They look at large corporations like Coke and General Motors who boast hundreds of thousands of Facebook Fans, and chalk up their success on Facebook to being multinational corporations with massive social media and marketing budgets.

While we won’t deny that Coke and GM have an advantage because of these things, it doesn’t mean they’re the only ones who can build an engaged, trusting and loyal community! Which brings us to this week’s Social Media Minute: Why it’s so important for your business to have a Facebook page! Today’s big lesson?

If YOU aren’t engaging with your customers on Facebook, your COMPETITORS are!

The ways that Facebook allows you to connect, engage, and build trusting relationships with current and potential customers are nearly endless. If your business does not have a Facebook page yet, you are missing out on potential connections and money.

And if your competitors are on Facebook, you better believe customers will choose them over you.

The truth is, businesses big and small are quickly coming to a point where they don’t have a choice about whether or not they utilize social media. Instead, the choice is about how well they use it.

Updating and maintaining a company Facebook page can be a daunting task. It’s hard to find the right balance of professional tips, incentives and specials, and personal anecdotes to really connect with customers and encourage active engagement on your page. Posting too frequently, being too “salesy,” and a lack of creative posts will drive your fans away (click here to see more reasons why your ads aren’t working!). But an authentic mix of your business and your background will help to connect you with your customers.

Facebook is not going away anytime soon!

A quarter of a million new people join Facebook every day. Why miss out on an opportunity to put your business in a place where your customers are spending time? Just as bad, why miss out on doing it in a thoughtful and distinctive way that distinguishes you from your competitors?

Yes, there is a LOT to keep track of, manage, research, brainstorm, and think about when it comes to creating and maintaining a presence on Facebook. There is a lot to do on a daily basis if you want to be successful! But you don’t need to be a multinational corporation with a huge budget to do it right…you just need the right team in place, one that understands and can communicate with your customers, one that understands what people like and don’t like on Facebook, one that can manage your page so you can concentrate on your business, and one that can bring you all of these professionals for an affordable price.

Remember, if you ever need help in your ongoing creation or promotion of your company on Facebook so that you can engage with your customers instead of your competition, the social media experts at the Automated Marketing Group are here to help!  We have been very successful in internet marketing for the past 17 years, and we can help you get the targeted social marketing your business needs!

Give us a call at 1-866-520-3030 or use our contact page!

Filed Under: Marketing Ideas, Repair Shop Marketing Tips, Small Business Marketing Tips, Social Media Minute Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Social Media Minute: Why Facebook Makes You Human

April 8, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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The WebPresence™ Marketing team loves to share our passion for social media and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and how we use it to make our clients successful every single day. Each week, we will post a blog about what’s going on in the WebPresence office and give you some helpful tips to help grow your business’ online presence.

The office here at the Automated Marketing Group has been buzzing with excitement for the last week over the newest addition to our family. Peter Shea, our creative assistant, welcomes a beautiful new baby girl named Elsie Lu to his family. Click here to see how cute she is!

Sharing the joy of a new baby on our Facebook pages serves as the perfect example for what we’d like to talk about in this week’s Social Media Minute: why it’s so important for your business to have a Facebook page! Today’s big lesson?

Facebook makes your business human!

When you own a small business, you don’t just work in a store on 123 Anywhere Lane. You work and live in a community where you take care of (and depend upon) your neighbors!

That’s why having a professionally managed Facebook account for your small business is so important. It’s a chance to build a relationship with customers and to become someone they know, like and trust.

Customers don’t want to buy from businesses anymore — they want to go back to buying from people they trust, because as we all know, money is just getting tough out there. When companies use Facebook as just another outlet to sell a product or repeat the company motto, they miss out on the chance to create and strengthen that relationship.

The benefit of Facebook is that it is non-traditional in the sense that it allows a two way conversation between business owner and customer through comments and messages. This offers an open-ended possibility to engage with your customers and let them get to know the people behind your business. In a sense, Facebook is a platform to showcase the most authentic part of your small business — the people behind it.

Facebook is an easy way to provide amazing customer service!

Facebook is an excellent way to gauge, respond to, and utilize customer satisfaction to bolster your small business’ image…as well as to address potential problems in a very personal way. There’s an element of danger here if you’re not committed to monitoring and updating Facebook throughout the day, since a customer complaint can sit on your wall for hours or days like ugly graffiti beamed out to the entire planet if you don’t pay attention. But with that danger comes the ability to address customer complaints directly, and a chance to fix the situation before they spread their displeasure to friends and family.

The keys to successfully using Facebook to improve your image…

At AMG, we make it a priority to get to know our clients personally so that we can be an authentic extension of them on their social media pages. If you choose to do Facebook and other social media on your own, make sure you’re doing all of these and more like we do for our clients…

  • Take the time to consider the kind of customer you want (not every customer is a great customer!).
  • Consider what they might find valuable, which is probably different than what you find interesting.
  • Bring your personal life into the mix, but remember to avoid all controversy! People with different political leanings than you still make wonderful customers, so don’t turn them off with comments about politics, religion, or other touchy subjects.
  • Find and read a variety of sources so you can constantly post interesting, entertaining information.
  • Tell great stories! Our favorite story of the week comes from a client in Michigan whose customer came in complaining of noise coming from under the hood of their vehicle.  When our client popped the hood, they found a large squirrel nest and a very surprised looking, very alive squirrel.  We had fun posting those pictures as well as tying it back to the preventative maintenance checks that our client provides.
  • Provide great resources that actually help your customers.  We love to link to helpful videos, useful blogs, news stories, money-saving articles, and more.

Why is this important?

The kinds of customers who want a relationship with you are the kinds of customers who will help your business survive and grow in this and any economy.  Coupon-chasing customers aren’t loyal.  They always run towards the best coupon, leaving you without a second thought.  But customers who want excellent customer service, who want a relationship, who want to become your fan on Facebook are the kind of customers who are loyal, who refer friends, who come back more often, and who will help ensure your success.  No matter what kind of small business you own, this blog is important in understanding why great customers are the key to surviving and growing!

So go out there and show your customers another side to your business — you and your staff!  And remember: there is a LOT to keep track of, manage, research, brainstorm, and think about.  If you ever need help in your ongoing creating, or promoting of the human side to your company, the social media experts at the Automated Marketing Group are here to help!  We have been very successful in internet marketing for the past 17 years.

Give us a call at 1-866-520-3030!

Filed Under: Marketing Ideas, Repair Shop Marketing Tips, Small Business Marketing Tips, Social Media Minute Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Birds of a Feather: Targeted Marketing vs. Phone Book Ads

March 24, 2011 By 2 Comments
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Media Used by US Internet Users When Researching Local Products/Services - 2010 - from eMarketer.comI recently had a newer client come to me asking us to redesign his local phone book ad.  I’ve been saying for years that the phone book is dead…and it’s not hard to see why.  Here in Denver, we’re buried under an avalanche of different yellow pages, and there’s simply no way to be in all of them.

Not to mention the fact that people are using search engines instead.  (TWICE AS MUCH, according to the graph on the right from eMarketer.com.)

But that doesn’t stop sales people from calling and trying to sell that ad space…which is why I want to set the record straight when it comes to marketing:

Targeted mail outperforms untargeted marketing like the yellow pages in every way.

Here’s why:

“When I finally switched from traditional advertising – yellow pages, neighborhood coupons and an antiquated web site – and focused on a frequent, targeted mailing program and having a comprehensive internet marking presence, my sales tripled and my net profit went up ten-fold. Today, sales and profit continue to increase at an amazing pace in spite of the economy and all the bad news out there.”

Terry Keller
Owner, Keller Bros. Auto Repair, Littleton, CO

Whether you’re talking about direct mail or internet marketing, you need to be working to attract a targeted customer in a targeted neighborhood.  In direct mail, that means you should be mailing into specific neighborhoods with a message that targets specific customers.

Trying to sing a song that everyone likes is not going to work for most small businesses…it’s much more effective to determine WHO your customers ARE and focus your ad dollars on precisely what they want to “hear,” and then get busy delivering the mail and the experience once they arrive!

Same with electronic marketing: your SEO should be targeting a specific group of people and your website should be speaking directly to and attracting great customers who buy and refer other great customers. Birds of a feather DO flock together!

And while we’re speaking in the terms of birds…which would you rather be doing — shooting wildly in the dark or taking precise rifle shots from a comfortable, planned position of knowledge and experience?

For more info on how to get affordable, but highly targeted direct mail and internet marketing solutions for your business, give us a call at 866-520-3030 or click here to send us an email!

Filed Under: Marketing Ideas, Repair Shop Marketing Tips, Small Business Marketing Tips Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,