Keeping It Fresh with Updated Content

You’ve done it! Your company’s new website is live. Your web marketing efforts (user-friendly design, branding, SEO, keywords, content-rich pages, links to Facebook and Twitter) are complete for the year, right? Hold on! Launching a website is just the first step. The site should offer fresh, quality content on a regular basis to place well in search engine rankings, appear professional to potential customers, and give a reason for new customers to return.

Feed the Spiders

Software programs called spiders collect information from websites and return it to search engines. This information aids search engines in indexing sites, directly affecting a website’s search ranking. These spiders recognize if a company’s site content is old, irrelevant, or duplicated from another site. If website content is old, spiders will not return to the website as often. According to Google, if a site is seen as using irrelevant or duplicate content to manipulate search engine rankings, “…the ranking of the site may suffer, or the site might be removed entirely from the Google index.” Offer spiders fresh, relevant content on a regular basis so they return to your site often and boost that coveted search engine ranking.

Looking Good

Your company’s website is a salesperson, tirelessly working 24/7 to sell your services and/or goods to current and potential customers. On most occasions, it only receives one chance to make a great first impression. A website that is updated frequently will appear to be more professional. If content is outdated, customers may believe your company is neglectful in practice, or even out of business. Also, value-added and updated content gives your current customers a reason to return to the site. It builds trust and authority.

Have a Plan

According to an October 2011 article by Entrepreneur magazine, “When it comes to marketing strategies, content marketing has just been crowned king, far surpassing search engine marketing, public relations and even print, television and radio advertising as the preferred marketing tool for today's business-to-business entrepreneur.” Set a goal to update content weekly… daily if you are a retailer. Seem like a lot of work? Most business owners struggle to find time to achieve this. It is not unusual to employ a web content manager or establish a marketing schedule to ensure regular updates. Frequently updated, value-added content is the next step for your online marketing plan, ensuring your website generates a greater ROI for your business.

A new Marketing Mix—Email vs. Direct Mail

Direct mail and email marketing are great tactics to reach existing and prospective customers. Over 60% of businesses will increase their email budgets this year, but snail mail still has a place in your overall strategy. Actually, both can be an important part of a larger marketing strategy by connecting email marketing and direct mail marketing with your website. So make a plan, and develop a strategy, and focus on custom and relevant content so that your customers can get the information they need in the medium they are most comfortable with.

The top 10 most effective tactics for B2B marketing are as follows according to 2010/2011 Benchmark Reports (you might be surprised by this list).

1. Website management/design
2. Email Marketing & virtual events
3. SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
4. Telemarketing
5. Public Relations
6. Tradeshows
7. PPC (Pay per click or paid search)
8. Direct Mail
9. Social media and blogging
10. Print advertising (magazine, newspaper, publications)

Is QR a Good Solution for Your Marketing?

The most important consideration when deciding if QR marketing is strategically smart for your marketing efforts is your target demographic.QR codes are relatively new to the United States; therefore, only technically savvy smartphone users are willing and able to read them. Not all phones are enabled. According to The Nielsen Company,* as of Oct. 2010, only 29.7% of all U.S. cell phones were smartphones.

Another important consideration is whether a QR code is going to add value. Ask yourself, “Where am I taking my audience and what extra value am I providing?” If your viewer takes the time to scan in your QR code, are you taking them to a mobile device optimized landing page or video? It is vital you reward them for making the effort by providing something of value. Some examples are a link to a helpful video/demo, web online offers or an enter-to-win online form.

As cool as these QR codes are, we need to be careful we are taking our viewers to somewhere they want to go or providing something of value.