3 Reasons Why Web Design Is the Domain of Your

Entire Company 17 June 2015adminLeave a comment

Your website is the central hub of the digital presence of your company, yet many companies

delegate web design to the marketing department, expecting a small, highly specialized group to

present the collective capital of the company in a compelling and actionable way.

Without involving other groups, your website will likely be a beautiful interface that doesn’t

work for your sales department, fails to deliver the right message or makes it harder for your

audience to pass through your sales funnel and offers.

Here’s three reasons why it’s worth the effort of getting all the departments within your company

(and even some people on the outside) involved in your web design.

1. Define content your audience needs.One of the main reasons to create a website is to share

what your organization is about, who you want to serve and how you’re going to serve them.

A clear message and tone in written and visual information related to your organization

creates a stronger relationship with our audience and avoids confusion.

Gather information from your stakeholders in sales, the customer service group and those

interacting with the users. Understand what users are asking for, their feedback on each offering

you release and, most importantly, identify the language customers are accustomed to using

when they come to you to solve a specific problem.

There are many buzz words and trends used in marketing but they might not be the best ones to

communicate with your audience. These words might be commonly used in your organization’s

industry but, often, they will not connect with the audience’s state of awareness, pains and

desires.

Listening closely to any communication received by customers will give you a better idea of how

to craft messages that will join the conversation that’s already in progress in their minds.

2. Organize and plan the information in a way that makes sense to your audience.A

compelling website user experience allows different groups of users to find what they’re

looking for without getting lost in a world of endless clicks. Start by identifying the three

main groups of users your website will serve, then define one goal they want to achieve on

your site and how you’ll take them there.

Interview your audience and gather information from your sales and/or customer service group

to identify where your users are clicking and what are they looking for. You can also find out

from which sites customers are clicking over.

Once you’ve identified the objectives of these users and how they’re finding you, you’ll be able

to organize the information in a way that makes sense to them. Help them find what they’re

looking for without endless clicks!

3. Design for your users, and watch their reactions.At this point, you have a better idea of

the information your audience is looking for, the different places where they’re finding you

(social media, Google search) and what message is compelling and talks directly to them.

Now we need to organize and visually amplify these goals and messaging with design. Visual

design will make your brand familiar to visitors, distinguish you from your competition and

create an intimate language with your audience.

Different users require different types of information. Different levels of awareness require

different wording and visual impact to get your message delivered. Create and test different ways

to present information to your audience. Get feedback as soon as possible, then move on to the

next stage with the information gathered and test again.

This cycle of iteration will allow you to actively listen and watch your audience, and your team

that works along with your audience, to offer them the best experience possible. The great

characteristic of the web is we can always test, measure and make decisions based performance

with our audience and the feedback our team gets from the users.

6 Common Misconceptions CEOs Have About

Web Development 17 June 2015adminLeave a comment

Remember your last web development project? You went over budget, blew past deadlines and

became frustrated with just about everyone involved at some point.

The bad news? It was rough.

The really bad news? It was probably your team’s fault.

Most CEOs have serious misconceptions about web development. This is a problem because

businesses are more reliant than ever on their online presence.

CEOs in companies of all sizes struggle with this. Here are six myths that most CEOs struggle

with:

Remember your last web development project? You went over budget, blew past deadlines and

became frustrated with just about everyone involved at some point.

The bad news? It was rough.

The really bad news? It was probably your team’s fault.

Most CEOs have serious misconceptions about web development. This is a problem because

businesses are more reliant than ever on their online presence.

CEOs in companies of all sizes struggle with this. Here are six myths that most CEOs struggle

with:

1. Website development is easy.

Clients commonly request a “simple” 20-page website with a log-in setup, online payment, a

blog and other widgets.

Websites such as Facebook and Craigslist may appear simple, but the necessary development

work is time-consuming and complicated. The strange thing is that the simpler the design, often

the more expensive the siteis. Some requests that seem small could involve complicated

development work and require days of programming.

2. Everyone should be involved.

Rather than packing all the staff into a conference room to rattle off ideas involve only the

people who’ll be doing the work.

Compile your content strategy, brand assets, business objectives and user flows. Don’t spend

time mulling deep technical planning, database architecture, layouts, designs or widgets.

3. Websites are a commodity.

With the advent of templates, sites like 99designs and offshore development, many business

people harbor the misperception that web design is a cheap commodity.

Taking advantage of already created templates might work for some companies, but for those

serious about their brand and online presence, such alternatives won’t suffice long-term.

Consider your website an investment and dedicate appropriate resources toward it. Find a team

of designers who understands your business, ask the right questions and have happy customers.

A good team will help you manage your goals along with your budget and find optimal

solutions. It may seem expensive, but the return on investment will be worth it.

4. Once a site is built, it’s done.

Web development isn’t a once-and-done activity. Once your site is launched, it will need to be

maintained. Many midmarket companies have round-the-clock teams monitoring their sites to

ensure they remain without glitches.

Even if your website doesn’t handle a high volume of traffic, you still need someone keeping an

eye on functionality. You’ll also need security updates and fresh content for SEO purposes.

5. Anyone can create a great user experience.

You can’t build the website yourself. Focus on leading your business and improving your

products. Your intern, cousin or IT guy can’t build it either. A lot more that goes into a site than

basic knowledge of web design, especially when building payment systems and ensuring

integration with the company’s internal systems.

There are free website-building tools that can be great for bootstrapped startup or running a small

business site. But they aren’t robust enough for the needs of most established businesses.

For your website, you may need a team to design mostly from scratch, which requires a specific

skill set. Let the web design firm hired do what it does best, but make sure its staffers are asking

the right questions about the target audiences before they start.

6. It’s your website, so you dictate the design.

It’s natural to want to micromanage your company’s website. Unfortunately, unless you’re a web

designer, this isn’t the job for you. You need to trust your web designer if you want site visitors

to become paying customers.

Web designers will understand your vision, but you need to let them design. They’re

knowledgeable about structure and what helps visitors convert into customers.

4 Fatal Website Design Mistakes 17 June 2015adminLeave a comment

Any time is a great time to spruce up your Web site. Whether it needs a complete overhaul or

just a little tidying up, your site can probably benefit from a thorough going-over.

To help you know what to look for, let me tell you about the top four fatal mistakes many

designers make with their sites. These mistakes may seem like innocent blunders, but they can

really kill your sales. Fortunately, once you know what they are, it’s a small matter to simplify

the design of your site to improve its effectiveness and really get your profits soaring.

Remember, if you really want to be successful online, you have to develop a site that serves the

needs of your visitors in a user-friendly fashion. It’s surprising how many people don’t think

about this when they plan their sites!

An important rule of thumb when it comes to designing a web site is this: Simplify, simplify,

simplify. Your site should be easy to use and easy to understand. It should guide visitors through

the sales process in a simple and convenient manner. Your visitors should never have to guess at

what you mean or what you’re trying to get them to do.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the common mistakes businesses owners make

when developing their Web sites.

Fatal Mistake #1: Trying to “dazzle” customers instead of trying to sell to them. A lot of

new business owners want their sites to be as eye-catching as possible. They think that by

including a lot of flashy graphics and nifty animation effects, they’ll capture their visitors’

attention. That may be true, but these special effects can also distract visitors from what you

really want them to focus on: the value of your product.

Never confuse eye-candy with content. Graphics should only ever be used to support the main

purpose of your site: to get people to buy what you have to sell. You may want to impress people

with your technical know-how by including lots of banners and links on your site, but too much

visual clutter looks unprofessional and can ruin your credibility. Anything that distracts visitors

from your copy is guaranteed to lose you sales. So if a graphic doesn’t directly relate to your

product or service, then it shouldn’t be on your site. It’s just that simple.

You also don’t want to chase your visitors away with long, unnecessary Flash presentations and

splash pages. If your customers have to spend too much time trying to figure out how to stop

your Flash presentation so they can get through to the “meat” of your site, they’ll be gone, most

likely never to return.

Believe it or not, studies have shown that most first-time visitors spend only 10 seconds on a site

before deciding whether or not it offers any value for them. You don’t want to waste these

precious seconds with a pointless splash page or distracting animation.

The best way to drive sales is to design a simple, clean site using only two or three colors and

one or two fonts throughout the entire site. Avoid using colored or patterned backgrounds-you

might think they look cool, but they make it really difficult to read your sales copy. Also be sure

to keep your link colors and format consistent. People generally expect links to be blue and

underlined. This may seem boring from a design point of view, but the links will be instantly

recognizable and that’s what really matters.

Fatal Mistake #2: Making your site too large. One of the worst mistakes people can make is

building massive, multipaged sites that take forever to load. “The more, the better,” is not the

case, at least when it comes to web site design.

Studies have shown that 30 to 60 percent of visitors drop off with each click they’re made to

take. Your site has to be as streamlined as possible if you want it to reach its true profit potential.

As you spruce up your site, try to reduce the number of pages wherever possible. If you’re

selling 10 or less products, include them on your homepage. Why make visitors click through to

a separate “Products” page to see what you have to offer? Remember, every click loses sales! If

you can’t feature all your products on your home page, group them in categories and display

each category of products on its own page, instead of including a separate page for each product.

Wherever possible, try to reduce the number of files on your web pages. The more files a page

has, the longer it’ll take to load-especially if they’re large graphics files. Use colored text instead

of graphics to grab attention. If you must use a graphic, make sure it’s a small file. Too many

people make the mistake of using high-resolution images when they really don’t need to. You

need only 72 dpi (dots per inch) for screen resolution. And most graphics only need to be 256

colors or less.

Don’t forget, you have only 10 seconds to grab people’s attention. The longer visitors have to

wait for your site to load, the less likely they are to stick around and find out about your products

or services.

Fatal Mistake #3: Designing confusing navigation. Some Web designers like to show off their

skills by creating new and different ways to navigate through a multipaged site. Sometimes they

hide links beneath icons or images, so that users can’t find the links unless they mouse over the

graphics. This may be very clever, but it certainly doesn’t help people find what they’re looking

for.

Other designers put their navigation bars in different places on each page of the site, or change

the look of the navigation bar itself, which can be awfully confusing. Navigation bars are like

traffic signs: They have to be consistent and easily understandable to be effective.

The best way to deal with your navigation is to make it simple and obvious. It might seem boring

and unoriginal, but that’s the point. People don’t want to have to spend time figuring out how to

make their way through your site-they want it to be easy to understand. Otherwise, they’ll go

somewhere else to find what they’re seeking.

Fatal Mistake #4: Burying essential information too deep within the site. Web surfers are

impatient people! They don’t want to spend a lot of time trying to find what they’re seeking on

your site. According to market research done by the Garner Group, more than 50 percent of all

Web sales are lost because site visitors can’t find what they’re looking for.

If you’ve buried important information too deep within your site, you’re losing out on more than

half of your sales!

A Web site should be like a newspaper story. All the really important information about your

site-what you’re selling and how it benefits people-should be the first thing your visitors see.

That’s the best way to capture their attention and get them to read more.

If you have only 10 seconds to grab your visitors’ interest, don’t make them waste time scrolling

down your homepage or clicking through to deeper pages. People don’t want to take any extra

time to find out what you’re offering-you have to provide it to them right up front. Don’t make

them look for it; hit them between the eyes with it!

The 10 Most Deadly Mistakes in Website Design 17 June 2015adminLeave a comment

This excerpt is part of Entrepreneur.com’s Second-Quarter Startup Kit which explores

the fundamentals of starting up in a wide range of industries.

In Start Your Own e-Business, the staff at Entrepreneur Press and writer Rich Mintzer explain

how to build a dotcom business that will succeed. In this book, you’ll find recipes for success,

road maps that pinpoint the hazards and dozens of interviews with dotcom entrepreneurs who’ve

proved they’ve got what it takes to survive in this sometimes fickle marketplace. In this edited

excerpt, the authors discuss the 10 things you should never do when it comes to designing your

e-business site.

This article could probably be called the 100 most deadly mistakes in website design–there are

so many goofs site builders make–but let’s narrow the focus to the most disastrous 10. Avoid

these gaffes, and your site will be far better than much of the competition.

1. Disabling the back button.Evil site authors long ago figured out how to break a browser’s

back button so that when a user pushes it, one of several undesired things happen: There’s

an immediate redirect to an unwanted location, the browser stays put because the “back”

button has been deactivated, or a new window pops up and overtakes the screen. Our advice:

Never do it. All that’s accomplished is that viewers get annoyed and do not return to your

site.

2. Opening new windows.Once upon a time, using multiple new frames to display content as

a user clicked through a site was cool–a new thing in web design. Now it only annoys

viewers because it ties up system resources, slows computer response and generally

complicates a visitor’s experience. Sure, it’s easy to use this tool. But don’t. With tabbed

browsing common in browsers like Firefox, users who wish to open links in new tabs can do

so if they wish.

3. Failing to put a phone number and address in several easy-to-find locations.If you’re

selling, you need to offer viewers multiple ways to contact you. The smartest route is to put

up a “Contact Us” link that leads to complete info–mailing address, phone and email

address. That link should be on each and every page of your website. Even if nobody ever

calls, the very presence of this information adds real-world legitimacy and transparency to

your site and comforts some viewers.

4. Broken links.Bad links–hyperlinks that do nothing when clicked or lead to “404” error

pages–are the bane of any web surfer. Test your site–and do it weekly–to ensure that all

links work as promised. Include a “Contact the Webmaster” link in your site’s footer so

users can quickly let you know if they find a broken link or other mistake on your site–and

fix those errors immediately.

5. Slow server times.Slow load times are inexcusable with professional sites — it’s an

invitation to the visitor to click away. What’s slow? A recent study by Akamai

Technologies, commissioned through Jupiter Research, showed that online shoppers, on

average, will wait only four seconds for a site to load before clicking away. If your site is

loading significantly slower than this, put it on a diet–images may be too large or special

add-ons, like a Flash introduction, may be slowing things down.

6. Outdated information.Again, there’s no excuse, but it’s amazing how many sites include

old, dated content. Make sure to keep your site fresh and updated daily for best results. You

can’t afford the loss of credibility that can come from having dated content. Also, make sure

your content is accurate, and if you should find a single error, fix it immediately.

7. Poor navigation.The internet promises speed. If surfers can’t figure out where to go next

quickly and get there easily, they’ll simply surf on to the next website–your competitor’s!

It’s very frustrating to be forced to go back two or three pages to get to other areas of a site.

It’s also a waste of time. There should be a navigation bar on every page that guides visitors

to other areas of the site. Position the bar along the top of the page or along the left side so it

will always be visible regardless of screen resolution. Add an easy-to-find site map in your

main navigation bar and/or footer to provide visitors with an at-a-glance view of every page

on your site.

8. Too many font styles and colors.Pages ought to present a unified, consistent look, but

novice site builders–entranced by having hundreds of fonts at their fingertips, plus dozens of

colors–frequently turn their pages into a garish mishmash. Use two or three fonts and colors

per page, maximum. The idea is to reassure viewers of your solidity and stability, not to

convince them you’re wildly artistic. Also remember to make sure your font and colors look

good on all possible devices from desktops to tablets to iPhones, etc.

9. Orphan pages.Memorize this: Every page in your site needs a readily seen link back to the

home page. Why? Sometimes users will forward a URL to friends, who may visit and may

want more information. But if the page they get is a dead end, forget it. Always put a link to

“Home” on every page, and make your site logo (usually found near the top left side of the

screen) link back to your home page–that will quickly solve this problem.

10. Failing to link with your social network sites. Most businesses have their own Facebook

pages, others use Pinterest with boards full of photos, while some broadcast their latest activities

on Twitter. The point is that social media is here to stay and businesses are benefitting from

having a presence in it. Forgetting to link to your social media platforms is a big no-no. People

should be able to go from one to the other effortlessly. Using social media to market your

business and drive customers to your website will only work if you make it easy for users to

move from one to the other. If done right, you can drive a lot more traffic to your site.

What You Need to Know About Google’s Recent

‘Phantom’ Update 17 June 2015adminLeave a comment

On April 21, Google unleashed its mobile-friendly update on the online world. However, most

businesses and entrepreneurs were in the loop and had sufficient time to react and take

appropriate measures.

More recently, there have been rumors flying about a new “phantom” algorithm update, which

was presumably applied towards the end of April or the beginning of May. As it turns out, if

you’ve been noticing changes to your — or anyone else’s — search rankings as of late, you

aren’t out to lunch.

The reason some have been referring to it as the “Phantom Update” is because there was no

advance warning with this algorithmic revision, and Google wouldn’t readily admit to it either. It

did confirm it eventually, but wouldn’t provide a lot of specifics on the changes. Google may try

to play it down, but the overall impact appears to be significant.

In essence, this new update is a quality update. How Google assesses quality is sometimes a

thing of mystery, but we do know that it wants to provide users with the best information

possible. By developing high-quality content and websites, you can continue to rank for your

terms and drive traffic to your site. It may be worth reviewing Google’s post about high-quality

sites from when it applied the Panda update as well.

Related: 3 Ways to Improve Conversions on Your Website

With context now in tow, let’s take a closer look at what you need to know about this update.

Don’t panic!

First, you must realize that Google will be updating its algorithm on a regular basis to serve more

quality content to searchers. This isn’t really the first time Google has done this — remember

Panda? — and it’s unlikely that it will be the last time.

In other words, if you’ve been consistently producing content with the best interests of your

target users in mind, you’re still on the right track. There’s no need to make any drastic changes

to your strategy. If you do happen to see a decline in your organic search traffic, however, there

may be a need to address some of your on-page SEO.

We may not have a lot of new information on Google’s quality signals, but we do know what

was said in the past. Here are several important things to keep in mind:

Duplicate content and redundant articles are a no-no.

Avoid creating thin content.

Prioritize user experience. For example, too many ads on your site can create a negative

visitor experience and have an undesired impact on your rankings.

Your content should be trustworthy. Visitors that land on your site should feel comfortable

giving you their credit card information.

Are you exercising quality control with your content? Your articles should be free of

spelling and factual errors.

Are you striving to give your target users an in-depth look into the subject matter? Does

your content meet their needs?

This is just a quick overview of what Google expects from you as a content creator. From a user

experience perspective, it makes a lot of sense. The idea is to answer questions posed by visitors,

provide them with the best information possible, examine issues from different angles and share

insights into topics you’re passionate about.

It’s all about content.

Content is really all we’re talking about here. If you’re still trying to catch your breath from the

previous mobile-friendly update, that’s all good and well, but if you’re already caught up in that

regard, then the issue to address now is content. There’s no need to focus on anything else at this

point in time.

If Google has gone on record to say that certain factors are important to search rankings, it’s not

likely to change its tune all of a sudden. The most recent update reflects ongoing efforts to rank

sites based on the quality of the content offered.

Related: 7 Things You Need to Know About SEO to Remain Relevant in 2015.

There are some theories out there about this being a domain-level penalty. In other words, if

Google finds low quality content on your site, it’ll demote your entire website. However, this is

merely speculation. If your website happens to have a significant amount of “low quality”

content on it, then you may see a considerable decrease in organic traffic. This wouldn’t

necessarily indicate a domain-level demotion, because it could be just your lower quality content

that’s being affected. This would explain the overall decrease in search rankings and traffic.

Build trust.

Is there a reason why some sites can publish a new article, have it crawled and indexed within

minutes and has it ranking in search too, while others struggle to do the same? Fundamentally,

it’s all about trust. If there’s anything that’s being looked at on a domain-level, it would bethat.

Are you consistently creating and serving quality content to your users? Are you striving to make

their experience the best that it can possibly be? Are you building a solid reputation that appears

trustworthy in the eyes of Google?

Again, think about what Google is looking for when it is crawling your content. The search giant

wants to see original, trustworthy, error-free, visitor-centric, value-adding, comprehensive,

substantial content. As a website owner, it’s a long-term play, but you have to be willing to

invest the time and not cut corners.

You can build towards becoming a recognized authority on a subject, but this is not done by

guessing at what SEO plays are going to generate your next viral article. This is done by paying

attention to the real human needs that exist in the online world. Future updates are going to take

this human element into account more than anything else.

Final thoughts.

If you’re interested in finding out whether your site has been affected, make sure to take

advantage of our Google Penalty Checker. Google rolls out hundreds of minor changes every

single year. Some are major and can have a significant impact on your website’s rankings —

sometimes without you even being aware of it.

If your low quality content has been affected, it’s time for a new strategy. Quality signals aren’t

anything new, but you can rest assured that Google is only going to clamp down on inferior

content with greater force in times to come.

Related: Get Ready for ‘Buy’ Buttons in Google Search Results

The 5 Basics for Building an Online Business That

Actually Makes Money 17 June 2015adminLeave a comment

With the boom of the Internet and social media has arisen a new category of entrepreneurship.

Successful entrepreneurs such as Mark Cuban, Elon Musk, and Peter Thiel got their start with

online businesses. An online business offers an unparalleled opportunity to run a business

worldwide with only a laptop and Internet connection.

Starting and growing an online business, however, is easier said than done. Today, 2.5 billion

people log onto the Internet. This is good in the sense of the opportunity for income, but negative

in the sense that an online business has become a modern day gold rush.

Everywhere you look a new “guru” or “expert” who offers their cheat sheet or course on how

they made “seven-figures” in one year. Logging into your Facebook account can be downright

depressing with all the over-hyped ads. Choosing whom to learn from can be just as hard as

starting an online business.

Here are five simple steps to making money from a dream or an idea you have and enjoy. You

don’t need the gurus to start or grow a business that will free you to make money on your terms.

1. Focus.

When I say focus, the first thought that comes to your mind is probably “niche.” While figuring

out a profitable niche is important, it’s not the end all be all. Focus means figuring out who you

want to serve and how you will deliver value to that group.

It means you stop following the gurus and focus on what will help you where you are. There is

an abundance of free information online, almost too much. Many entrepreneurs fall victim to

information overload. I’m guessing that if you applied 10 percent of the knowledge you currently

have, you would make progress building your business. Turn off the constant learning and focus

on 20 percent strategies. Use a service likeUnroll.me to unsubscribe from unnecessary emails

lists that take all your time.

Related: The 80/20 Rule of Sales: How to Find Your Best Customers

2. Build an audience.

This is where many businesses miss the mark. You put together a beautiful website with all the

right plugins, widgets and opt-in boxes. You follow all the steps, but the money doesn’t come

because you have no audience.

There are many ways to build an audience and quickly:

Be a guest on a podcast. Every morning, Radio Guest List will deliver to your deliver to

your inbox a list of shows looking for your expertise.

Guest post on blogs. There are blogs that get millions of visitors each month. In 2012, I

guest posted on 50 blogs that brought half a million visitors to my website.

Get exposure from large author sites. If you can be interviewed or write for sites

likeEntrepreneur or the Huffington Post, you get exposure to millions of potential leads and

customers. Writing for these websites builds authority, grows your social media presence

and leads to sales. Here is a podcast episode that walks you through how to do this..

3. Develop a monetization plan.

After you’ve started to get exposure, it’s time to implement your plan to generate income. Your

website/blog needs a content strategy that aligns with a promotion schedule. It shocks me how

many coaching clients come to me without an organized plan to generate revenue. Plan what

products and services you will be offering your customers. Use your exposure and content plan

to sell premium offerings and build your business.

Related: Content Strategy: 4 Questions You Need to Ask

4. Test and refine.

Once you have a plan and have implemented it, study what works and what doesn’t. There is a

lot of advice online, but nothing beats good old fashion testing. Try different offers, bundle

various products and services, run sales from time-to-time. Once you have an offering that takes

off, run it every 30 days. Refine your process and improve the parts of your plan that aren’t

working.

5. Launch and scale.

By this point, you will have built “1,000 true fans” and a business that’s ripe for growth.

Always launch with a bang when your promotions hit at the end of each month or quarter. This

means you have affiliate partners, joint partnerships through webinars and launch bonuses. Each

launch should produce serious revenue and momentum for your business. From that point, it’s a

matter of reinvesting and scaling.

Starting and growing an online business is not easy. There is a lot of competition talking about

the same topics as you. It takes time and tremendous focus. It takes beating self-limiting beliefs

and the haters. It’s hard, but the lifestyle of true freedom it creates is priceless.

Social Media Marketing 17 June 2015adminLeave a comment

LAWS OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Leveraging the power of content and social media marketing can help elevate your audience and

customer base in a dramatic way. But getting started without any previous experience or insight

could be challenging.

It’s vital that you understand social media marketing fundamentals. From maximizing quality to

increasing your online entry points, abiding by these 10 laws will help build a foundation that

will serve your customers, your brand and — perhaps most importantly — your bottom line.

1. The Law of Listening Success with social media and content marketing requires more listening and less talking.

Read your target audience’s online content and join discussions to learn what’s important to

them. Only then can you create content and spark conversations that add value rather than

clutter to their lives.

2. The Law of Focus it’s better to specialize than to be a jack-of-all-trades. A highly-focused social media and

content marketing strategy intended to build a strong brand has a better chance for success

than a broad strategy that attempts to be all things to all people.

3. The Law of Quality Quality trumps quantity. It’s better to have 1,000 online connections who read, share and

talk about your content with their own audiences than 10,000 connections who disappear

after connecting with you the first time.

4. The Law of Patience Social media and content marketing success doesn’t happen overnight. While it’s possible to

catch lightning in a bottle, it’s far more likely that you’ll need to commit to the long haul to

achieve results.

5. The Law of Compounding If you publish amazing, quality content and work to build your online audience of quality

followers, they’ll share it with their own audiences on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, their

own blogs and more.

This sharing and discussing of your content opens new entry points for search engines like

Google to find it in keyword searches. Those entry points could grow to hundreds or thousands

of more potential ways for people to find you online.

6. The Law of Influence Spend time finding the online influencers in your market who have quality audiences and are

likely to be interested in your products, services and business. Connect with those people

and work to build relationships with them.

If you get on their radar as an authoritative, interesting source of useful information, they might

share your content with their own followers, which could put you and your business in front of a

huge new audience.

7. The Law of Value If you spend all your time on the social Web directly promoting your products and services,

people will stop listening. You must add value to the conversation. Focus less on

conversions and more on creating amazing content and developing relationships with online

influences. In time, those people will become a powerful catalyst for word-of-mouth

marketing for your business.

8. The Law of Acknowledgment you wouldn’t ignore someone who reaches out to you in person so don’t ignore them online.

Building relationships is one of the most important parts of social media marketing success,

so always acknowledge every person who reaches out to you.

9. The Law of Accessibility Don’t publish your content and then disappear. Be available to your audience. That means

you need to consistently publish content and participate in conversations. Followers online

can be fickle and they won’t hesitate to replace you if you disappear for weeks or months.

10. The Law of Reciprocity you can’t expect others to share your content and talk about you if you don’t do the same for

them. So, a portion of the time you spend on social media should be focused on sharing and

talking about content published by others.