It’s a brand new year and time for a brand new marketing plan for your business! If 2012 taught us anything it was that the old ways of doing SEO are over. If you are still building links and marketing like it is 2011… it is time to stop! So what should we be focusing on? What still works? What should we stop doing? What should we start doing? Read on…
What should we start focusing MORE time on?
Video – Your tribe wants to hear from you. They want to know who you are. They want to feel like they have a relationship with you. Give them that connection and start making more videos.
Podcasts – If you are a coach or consultant, start podcasting. People want to be able to connect with you on their terms. Your tribe is going to the gym and listening to podcasts. They are driving around listening to podcasts. Videos are great but your tribe needs to consume your content in multiple formats for 2013.
Blogging – You can’t hide behind personas anymore. Your voice as the business owner of the company MUST be heard. People want to do business they know, like, and trust. You have to start blogging… and the more often the better.
Social Media – Transparency is KEY. Your tribe wants to be able to connect with and communicate with you instantly. Use social media to be where your tribe is. Be available. Interact. Communicate. Success today is not about broadcasting your message but creating a community of raving fans.
Amazon / Kindle – Write a book and publish it on the Kindle Store. Then write another one. Remember how we used to publish 500 word articles on ezinearticles.com for “traffic”… Kindle is the new traffic driving channel. Yes it is a lot harder work.. but that is good news! The harder it is, the less people will do it… which means if you are part of that top 3% of action takers, you will be the successful one.
Amazon (for products) – Sell physical products? Get them on Amazon. Now. Stop depending so much on Google for traffic and get more eyeballs on your offers by putting your products up on Amazon. Yes it costs a little more… but so does the cost of keeping unsold merchandise in warehouses.
What to STOP doing for SEO?
Article spinning for links.
Spammy blog commenting with software for links.
Blog networks for links.
Web 2.0 for links.
Press releases for links.
Or any other “marketing” when the sole purpose is to get “links”.
What to do for SEO?
Anything that drives TRAFFIC that also has a link as a side benefit.
Guest Blog Posts.
Press Releases With Real News.
Business Directories like the BBB, Chamber of Commerce.
There are tons of legitimate creative ways to get links today that would not be considered spammy. It is time to get creative.
If you are an SEO agency what do you need to do? Start hiring journalism majors. Find some extremely talented creative staff to help you come up with creative ideas to market your clients sites.
If you are hiring SEO agencies you need to be aware that the old ways of getting results for a few thousand dollars or a few hundred dollars are gone. You need to either dig deep and have a good marketing budget or bring it in house. I recommend bringing it in house.
What is going to be BIG for 2013? Coaching, consulting, big ticket events. We have already seen this coming over the last few months. It seems like everywhere you look someone is offering a coaching program. If you don’t offer it, start. Today! People offer what people are buying.
Last.. Marketing Automation. If you don’t have a list… build one. If you are like most Infusionsoft owners and have been paying big bucks for years without really using the software… start. If you don’t have a marketing automation software like Infusionsoft, Eloqua, Marketo… now is the time. More than ever, every lead counts. The days of easily getting ranked in Google and getting thousands of leads to your site for a few dollars are gone. We need to make sure that every marketing strategy we do is driving traffic to our site and that our site is capturing the leads so that we can follow up with them with email marketing.
Well that is what I got for you! Let’s make 2013 an amazing year!!
Can you do me a favor? If you enjoyed this post can you please leave a comment in the comments area right below? Let me know what you thought or what you are doing to market your business in 2013!