James T Noble

4 Ways to Make Your Blog Posts More Exciting!

James T Noble — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 15:22:13 +0000

After you’ve been blogging for even a little while, things can begin to get a bit stale. To build your audience it’s critical you hang on to the readers you’ve got… which means you need to generate excitement in every post. While strong, useful content is the key to a killer blog post, there are some extra ways you can attract readers and KEEP them reading!

1. Choose a Meaningful Title

Have you ever read a blog post and found the content is completely different from the title? Instead of tricking your reader into reading your post, be clear about what your post is going to discuss, what it’s going to teach, and how it’s going to help them. Readers will quickly be able to decide whether the post is something they want to read or not.

Also, use headings and sub-headings to create a post that people can scan quickly to find the ‘meat’ of the content, or the part that’s most relevant to them.

2. Use Numbers

When choosing a title for your blog post, numbers grab attention and make it easier for the brain to process exactly what a reader will GET out of reading! Talking about ‘4 different ways to make your blog posts more exciting’ helps readers instantly see they’ll get four key pieces of information from your post.

This also helps people stay “on track” while they’re reading. They don’t get lost wondering if they’ve accidentally missed something important, and their brain sub-consciously files away the information MUCH more effectively. This means people understand and absorb your content much more effectively. This is better for them because they get more out of it… and better for you because they remember you as a great authority figure they want to pay attention to!

3. Ask a Question

As you write your blog post, ask questions of your reader. This makes them feel engaged and realize you’re aware of the questions they already have in their minds. Once you’ve asked the question, spend a little time discussing the reason why the question is important… then eventually answer the question in your blog post.

As you ask questions, the blog post becomes more of a conversation than a speech at your reading audience.

4. Continue Your Message Next Post

Want to get your readers to come back again? Consider writing a long blog post that’s split into multiple parts, and release each new post a few days apart.

Give solid, helpful information in the each post and then briefly mention what’s coming up in the next post. Each post should stand on it’s own, but have a strong reason for readers to return to find out the “next step” in the process.

Whatever you blog about, you need to stay exciting in the mind of your reader. There’s so much clutter online these days it’s difficult to stand out. This isn’t about being tricky, but rather about being clear about what your blog offers, structuring your content in the right way, creating a conversation with your readers, and delivering your content in a way that gets you maximum engagement.

See how many of these strategies you can use for your next posts. Don’t forget, more exciting blog posts = more engaged readers = more customers!

Photo Credit: SqueakyMarmot

Weekly Wrap Up: 2nd December 2011

Laura — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 19:13:41 +0000

Your weekly wrap-up is back! I hope you had a good Thanksgiving (if you’re in the US) and you’re ready for the impending holiday season – big
changes for EVERY kind of business!

Response to the Customer-Getting Workshop has been great.

It’s been a pleasure sharing our most-effective strategies and there’s LOTS more content being included than I’d planned!

Update your business knowledge and top-up your inspiration with these super-useful tips, advice & resources. These aren’t
written by me – they’re a small collection of the material that myself and my team are reading this week…

MARKETING

BUSINESS

RESOURCES

Test Your Site at Different Screen Resolutions

Weekly Wrap Up: November 11th 2011

James T Noble — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 11:12:33 +0000

Greetings from a wintery London, England!

This is your weekly round-up of useful business-building tips & resources!

We’ve got some super-useful new stuff coming for you next week (watch out on Monday) but for today, check out these tips, advice & resources to make sure your biz knowledge is up to date!

(These aren’t written by me – they’re a small collection of the material myself and my team are reading this week)

It’s all good stuff, so take a few minutes to check them out!

Marketing

Business

Resources

Twitter Re-Tweets Made Simple

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Weekly Wrap Up: November 4th 2011

James T Noble — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 14:06:14 +0000

Welcome to your weekly round-up of useful business-building tips & resources!

Things have been super-busy here this week… we’re working on some secret behind the scenes stuff (more about that later!) But also found the time to work with clients on long-term strategy, effective sales presentations, marketing makeovers and lots more. Do you need help with stuff like this?

Do you have your holiday marketing plans finalized? If not, get working on them! It’s NOT just consumer markets that respond well to holiday promotions.

Below you’ll find a small collection of the resources my team and I have been reading from around the web this week.

They’re great info, advice,tips and inspiration, so take a few minutes to check them out!

Marketing

Business

Resources

Make Your Website Video iPhone/iPad Compatible

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How to Set Up a Foursquare Special Offer

James T Noble — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 17:50:47 +0000

Wondered how you can use social media startup Foursquare to actually promote your business?

…setup a Foursquare special offer, of course!

Setting up a Foursquare special is free and quick to do. Follow these instructions to get the power of location-based social media working for your business!

Setting Up Your Foursquare Special

I’m assuming you’ve already setup (claimed) your venue on Foursquare. So the next thing you need to do is head to Manager Tools from your account page. From there, go to Campaigns and then to Start a Campaign. In that menu, you should find ‘Add a Special.’

There’s a few different specials to choose from:

Swarm Special
Newbie Special
Loyalty Special
Check-In Special
Flash Special
Friends Special
Mayor Special

Before you go any further, stop to think about what your special is designed to encourage, and base your special type on this decision. For example, if you want to reward regular customers, then the Loyalty Special makes sense. If you want more people to check into your Foursquare venue, use the Check-In Special.

As a general rule, the best special for attracting NEW customers is the “Newbie Special!” The ultimate option for rewarding regular customers is the “Mayor Special” which unlocks a special offer for the person who checks into your business the most often.

Once you’ve picked your special type, it’s time to write up the offer itself. Go into the description of the special and clearly describe your special offer. I recommend you write this up in your word processor first and then copy it into this section. You only have 200 characters so keep it short, appealing and to the point!

You also have the option to include or not include fine print for your special. I always recommend clients use this. Make it super-clear who does and doesn’t qualify for your offer, so there’s no embarrassment or awkward scenes at the cash register.

Then you need to click on Create Special and choose the venue. You can choose a certain group of your stores or you can just highlight your only location. This will ensure that people can find where you are and that they will head there during the indicated times.

Approval

Within 24 hours, the Foursquare team will review the Special and add it to the Foursquare listings in your area.

Next Steps

Once your special is submitted to Foursquare, be sure to tell your employees about the deal. There’s nothing worse than people trying to redeem an offer and the staff having no idea what they’re talking about!

Prepare for an increase in business, too! You certainly don’t want to have more customers than you can handle.

In our experience, things start slow at first but then quickly gain momentum as word of your Foursquare special spreads. You don’t need to take on an army of new staff… BUT have procedures in place for where you’ll get extra help at short notice if you need it!

It doesn’t take much for people to choose one local retailer over another, particularly in competitive industries. So your offer could tip a LOT of people over to your business instead of your local competitors!

TIP: Our clients have had most success offering simultaneous specials. This ensures people are always going to find something going on at your store when they’re in the neighborhood.

Weekly Wrap-Up: October 28th 2011

James T Noble — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 11:04:54 +0000

Welcome to your weekly round-up of useful business-building tips & resources!

In the Mastermind group this week I shared two unconventional lead-generation strategies that are working VERY well right now for my business and my other clients.

These are super-cost-effective under-the-radar strategies that Mastermind members can put into action right away (before everyone else catches on and pushes up the cost!)

If you’re interested in joining the Mastermind and discovering this type of information (for your business or your clients) on a regular basis, click the link below…

Business-Building Mastermind Group Info…

Below you’ll find a small collection of the resources my team and I have been reading from around the web this week.

They’re great tips and inspiration, so take a few minutes to check them out!

Connect on Facebook & Twitter for more tips & resources.
Facebook: http://www.Facebook.com/WebsiteMarketingGuru
Twitter: http://www.Twitter.com/JamesTNoble

Marketing

Business

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Smart Email Signatures

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How To Compete Against Giant Corporations

James T Noble — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 16:41:06 +0000

Business is a constant battle of David vs. Goliath. In every single industry I’ve consulted in, there are small businesses desperately fighting to stand out in a landscape dominated by a few huge players.

This is probably happening to you – whether you care to admit it or not. (It’s certainly happened to me in every business I’ve owned to date!)

Standing out in an industry full of giants takes courage, individuality and a bit of savvy! It’s a question I get asked about quite a bit – so here’s an overview of four specific strategies I advise my clients to follow when they fear being crushed by giant competitors…

Don’t Be Intimidated

Every brand and company we recognize today started off small at some point. Nobody builds a million dollar business or brand overnight – even the big guys. If you know you’ve got a product or service that helps people achieve something they want, don’t be intimidated by the big players in your market.

Have confidence in your idea, the courage to tell people HOW you’re better than the competition, and the persistence to see it through. Often it’s a tough battle, but boy is it worth it!

Be an Individual

Nobody has ever set the world on fire with a copycat business. Sure, they exist… and some even make money. But profitably copying an established competitor requires pockets deeper than yours or mine… and it’s a surefire route to ruin for entrepreneurs.

When you’re going up against giant brands and corporations, find the characteristics of your business that make you different from the giants, and focus on them.

Do you offer a free extended guarantee? 24/7 human customer service? The fastest delivery? Free setup? A generous loyalty program? Do you have specialist industry knowledge? Do you have high ethical standards or only use local produce?

There’s tons of ideas right there that will set you apart from your bigger competitors… and there’s lots more out there when you start to really look for them.

You almost certainly can’t compete on price, but you CAN compete on value.

Focus on Your Customers

Absolutely everyone has experienced poor customer service in the past, so take those experiences and decide how you’ll do it differently. Small businesses are in a MUCH better position to offer superior customer service, so take advantage of that.

Not only will better service keep your customers coming back for more – it’ll also encourage them to spread the word about your company for free. This kind of endorsement is the BEST kind of advertising… not only because it’s free, but because people TRUST it much more than other forms of marketing.

When you’re building a business, you need every bit of free publicity you can get.

BONUS TIP: It’s not just about responding to customer inquiries. What do you do to truly delight your customers? I send my best customers gifts and surprises, and I take a genuine interest in their lives and businesses. I love helping small businesses get bigger, so learning all about my customers is fascinating to me. Delighting your customers shouldn’t be a chore for you either.

Doing MORE for your customer than they expect is the very BEST way to generate word of mouth. And social media has put word of mouth on steroids!

Dance Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Bee!

Small companies have two things that no large corporations do: speed and flexibility. You’re “on the ground” in your business and can spot changes in your marketplace way before they filter up the decision-making tree of Goliath Inc!

While they’re thinking about opening a new department or hiring an ad agency to pitch for the marketing, you can have your new product or service out there and selling… generating revenue, goodwill and a great reputation for you.

Fortunes have been made in the time it takes large corporations to change direction. Use your agility to your advantage.

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Small, well organized and determined businesses can be MUCH more profitable than their lumbering giant counterparts.

Many small businesses I speak to think it’s hopeless entering a market dominated by huge competitors, but that’s simply not true. Don’t forget, the existence of large competitors indicates there’s a huge desire for your product or service.

Implement the strategies above and you’ll soon be stealing their market share!

James

Photo Credit: luna junkie

5 Quick Ways to Super-Charge Your YouTube Channel

James T Noble — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 10:20:37 +0000

YouTube isn’t just a place for sharing your baby’s first steps or your cat’s ability to sing opera. When you’re creating a brand for your business, a YouTube channel is important for helping you connect with your audience in a more personal way… as well as showing them and teaching them things that benefit from a visual demonstration.

You can quickly become a well-respected go-to expert!

Tools like Facebook and Twitter can help you create connections, but YouTube is a place where you talk directly to your audience, establishing rapport, trust, and authenticity.

So once you’ve got your channel setup on YouTube… how do you optimize it to make it as effective as possible for your business

1. Reach Out to Your Audience

One of the little used features in YouTube channels is the moderator feature. All you need to do is to go into your settings and enable this feature to begin asking your audience what they want to see. Go to your “My Channel” settings, then the “Modules” option… here you’ll find the Moderator function and additional options to connect with your audience.

2. Customize Your Channel

You already know that your brand needs to stand out, but so does your YouTube channel home page. Whether you create a new background image or you pay someone to do it, this image will make your channel unique from the others and cause you to be immediately identifiable. Just go into the Advanced Settings of your My Channel menu, via Themes and Colors. There, you can upload your image.

3. Listen to Your Audience

Comments on your YouTube channel help you find out more about your audience. Even when the comments aren’t positive (and hopefully they all are) you’ll learn more about your audience including what appeals to them, what problems they’re facing plus (and this is a BIG one) what LANGUAGE to use when talking to them!

Once you’ve collected this covert research, be sure to respond to the comments too. This shows you’re interested in your audience and encourages continued conversation on your channel.

4. Feature Your Best

When you create a video that’s something special, this should be featured on your YouTube channel. This might just be your most recent video or it can be a video that gives visitors a great introduction to your business.

Whatever you choose, make sure it’s suitable as a great “first impression” for visitors to your channel (and newcomers to your business).

My recommendation? If you post regularly, set your featured video as your most recent upload to highlight how often you update your content. If you don’t post regularly, replace your featured video with a more general introduction to your business.

Bonus Tip: Use testimonials in your introductory video to reinforce your credentials and show you’re the “real deal!”

5. Stay Engaged

You should develop your own channel, but also engage with the YouTube community…

Subscribe to other YouTube channels. You can subscribe to other YouTube channels to help create connections and opportunities for others to subscribe to you.
Comment on videos. When you see videos, comment and comment frequently. Networking begins with conversations.
Post videos from others that you’ve enjoyed. If you find videos that you’ve enjoyed, make sure to share them on your channel too.

Follow the steps above to turn your YouTube channel from “just another collection of videos” to an online destination that truly works to build your business. If you don’t have a YouTube channel yet, follow these steps to set one up the RIGHT way and see the impact it has on your business… both for sending you new customers AND learning about what your customers want!

P.S. The tip about desires and language in part 3 above is one NOT to be missed! Using YouTube as a covert market research tool (you can do this on your videos and your competitors videos) is a VERY effective strategy! And using the same language as your customers when speaking to them will instantly improve your response!

Make Your Website Printer-Friendly

James T Noble — Mon, 23 May 2011 09:17:07 +0000

Often when I’m browsing around the internet, I come across information that I’d like to print and save. However, I know that by clicking “Print” I’ll end up printing a bunch of extra stuff from the page that I just don’t need… all the advertisements, headers, logos, background graphics and other ink-heavy stuff! Even if I’m just trying to save a digital copy, web pages rarely seem to convert well into PDF.

So unfortunately I usually don’t bother… and the valuable resource I wanted to print out and keep just gets forgotten as I move onto something else.

But now there’s a new free service for website owners that makes it really easy for your visitors to print content from your site.

Printfriendly.com freshens and formats web pages so that they can be easily printed. Users can select which parts of the website they want to print, and which parts they can get rid of.

The huge benefit for you as a website owner is that there is a much greater chance of visitors printing your content to refer to for many months or years to come.

Just add the free “print friendly” button to your pages and your visitors will be able to quickly and easily print the content they want, which makes YOU the valuable resource they’ll always refer to!

Of course, it’s environmentally and financially important to keep printing to a minimum… but there are times when you really WANT your visitors to print and retain content from your website. Printfriendly.com is free to use and shows your visitors you’re thinking of them as well as the environment!

P.S. I have no connection with this service – it’s just a great tool for webmasters!

Finding Targeted Twitter Followers

James T Noble — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 12:54:51 +0000

“Targeted Twitter followers” may be a tongue twister, but it doesn’t have to be a chore!

Though you might not know what to do with a Twitter account at first, this popular micro-blogging service can be extremely powerful if it’s used the RIGHT way! When you have Twitter followers that actually care about what you have to say and to share, you’re going to create a relationship with fantastic benefits.

Instead of spending hours figuring out who should follow you and how they can be coaxed into following you, here are some quick tips. Unfortunately I couldn’t fit them into 140 characters, but I’m sure you’ll find them useful anyway!

Use http://whofollowswhom.com: This site will help you find people who follow multiple celebrities in your market. Just type in the Twitter names of up to five people at a time to see whom they’re following. The magic here is that you know these people are VERY interested in your market, because they know and follow multiple highly-relevant leaders. These are people with a BIG interest in your industry!
Follow those people: If your Twitter posts (tweets) are interesting, when you follow those people highly-interested in your market, there’s a good chance they’ll follow you back. After all, your content is interesting and relevant, right?
Engage: Twitter is not a tool for collecting followers, but creating conversations. Engage with the people you follow. Become a part of their conversations. Start conversations and see what happens when you communicate instead of simply posting thoughts. Customers like to do business with people they know, like and trust. Twitter will help you with all 3 of these things.
Be helpful: In conversations with your followers, be helpful, truly helpful. People remember this and will want to know more about what you do.
Research too: You can also use your Twitterverse to help you with research your market need and trends. Search Twitter for words and phrases related to your market and see what conversations are going on. This is RAW, REAL and unedited feedback that can easily give you the edge on your competition! This is a strategy I recommend to my clients ALL the time… don’t overlook it!

Isn’t Twitter Just For Kids?

Twitter for businesses isn’t a place for talking about what you’ve eaten today. When you create conversations with your followers, you begin to establish yourself as someone to follow and someone to listen to… a “thought leader.”

Use it as a tool to boost your relationships with your customers and potential customers. People that know, like and trust you are much more likely to buy your products, become repeat customers and spread the word about your products & services with their friends.