Signalfire | Brand Matters

Traditional marketing says you are the right choice, but content marketing shows your company is a dependable investment. Content marketing is critical for small businesses because it effectively builds brand awareness, allows for more customer interaction, drives in leads, brings in visitors, improves SEO results, and improves your customer retention rate. There is no doubt that a solid content marketing strategy is a vital investment for your company’s reputation and worth.

What is content?

Learning the basic foundation to content marketing is key to a successful content strategy. Content is everything on your website, which can be the main pages on the site; About, Contact, Products/Services, Blog/News, and FAQ pages. In terms of marketing, it is everything that can be shared; social media posts, news releases, blogs, etc. 

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Join Signalfire’s Matthew Olson on Wednesday, September 12th at Harbor Shores on Lake Geneva for the first of four FREE Breakfast and Learn seminars from Lake Geneva Economic Development Corporation.

Blogs and content play a critical role in your company’s efforts to generate new business and spread brand awareness. You are connecting and engaging with your audience and building a relationship. By providing customers with information that helps, educates, informs, and/or entertains you are showing them that your brand is the right choice (building trust in your B2C or B2B relationship), not just saying so.

Consumers are looking for more out of websites. More information, more answers, and more engagement. Whether updates on industry news, events, or answering common questions, a blog can be a powerful marketing tool and understanding what makes a successful blog can result in big success. Come learn with other small businesses and leave with answers!

Click to learn more or register…

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Hootsuite has just announced the social media dashboard will now support Google+ Pages updates for all users.

For many small businesses, using a social media dashboard like Hootsuite, TweetDeck, or others is the best and only way to stay on top of social media. With Hootsuite’s addition of Google+ Pages (not individual accounts, yet), many of these burgeoning brands can now more actively interact in Google’s struggling social media platform.

While some say Google+ is languishing, I agree with Chris Brogan’s sentiments that it is a significantly underutilized platform that can significantly improve a brand’s performance on the search side of Google. For a system of engagement and audience participation, Google+ has a world of features and functions that succeeds over Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

If you’ve been looking for a reason to finally jump into Google+, this might be it. Will this impact your use of Google+ for business? If you’d like to discuss putting a strategy together that includes Google+, give Signalfire a shout!

Asking Yourself These 7 Questions Will Save Time, Money, and Frustration!

You’ve decided you’ve got to “do something” about your website. Now what? Designing or developing a new website should not be started without some serious examination. We recommend spending some time assessing your own online efforts, talking with your best as well as your newest customers, and investigating the online efforts of your competition.

Knowing what works for you, establishing goals, and mapping a course to success will deliver a far greater return on this critical investment. It’s a good idea to get a notebook or create a file to keep a record of your answers.

Where Are You Now?

It’s always a good idea to know more about where you’re starting. Some easy questions can be asked to help determine the status of your existing website.

• Who is your target audience or website user?
• How do customers find you on the web? Search engines? Links from other websites (organizations, industry groups, etc.)? Web-based advertising?
• Which pages receive the most traffic or views?
• How frequently do you update your website?
• What is your website’s call to action (phone call, email, purchase)?
• Do you believe your website tells “your story” well?

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Signalfire’s Matthew Olson has been invited to speak at the Lakeland Builders Association’s monthly Breakfast and Learn session 7:30 am on Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at their offices in Elkhorn, Wisconsin. Focusing on “The Hug, The Handshake, and The Hot Cup of Coffee” Matthew will discuss the role social media plays in small business marketing and customer service.

To learn more or to register with LBA