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The Big Three for Enhancing Your Online Presence

Posted on November 7, 2023November 7, 2023 by D. K.

Having a robust online presence is essential for small business owners. With an increasing number of consumers turning to the internet to discover and engage with businesses, it's crucial to make your mark in the online world. Here are three strategies to help small business owners improve their online presence:

Develop an Engaging Website

Your website is often the first point of contact between your business and potential customers. Therefore, it's imperative to create a well-designed, user-friendly website that reflects your brand identity and provides valuable information. Ensure that your website is mobile-responsive. With the majority of internet users accessing websites from their smartphones, a mobile-friendly site is crucial for a positive user experience. Regularly update your website with high-quality, relevant content. This can include blog posts, articles, product descriptions, and more. Valuable content not only attracts visitors but also helps with search engine optimization (SEO). Another thing you can do is implement clear and compelling CTAs throughout your website to guide visitors toward the desired actions, such as making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or contacting you for more information.

Leverage Social Media

Social media platforms offer an excellent opportunity for small business owners to connect with their audience and promote their products or services. Select the social media platforms that align with your target audience and business goals. Whether it's Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, or others, focus your efforts on where your potential customers are most active. Regular and consistent posting is key to maintaining an active online presence. Create a content calendar and post engaging and relevant content to keep your audience informed and entertained. Engage with your followers by responding to comments, messages, and mentions. Building a community around your brand can foster trust and loyalty.

Invest in Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is a fundamental component of improving your online visibility. By optimizing your website for search engines, you can rank higher in search results and drive more organic traffic. Identify relevant keywords related to your business and industry. Use tools like Google's Keyword Planner to find the most valuable keywords for your website. Optimize your website's on-page elements, such as title tags, meta descriptions, and header tags, with your chosen keywords. Build a network of quality backlinks to your website from reputable sources. These backlinks help improve your site's authority and search engine rankings.

Ultimately, enhancing your online presence is a vital step for small business owners looking to grow and succeed in the digital age. By developing an engaging website, utilizing social media effectively, and investing in SEO, you can expand your reach, attract more customers, and ultimately thrive in the online marketplace.

It’s time to update your online presence

Posted on October 19, 2023October 20, 2023 by D. K.

In today's digital age, businesses cannot afford to overlook the importance of a robust online presence. With the rapid evolution of technology and consumer behavior, staying ahead of the curve is vital to maintain and grow your customer base. If you've been in business for over a decade and are still relying on outdated online marketing strategies, it's time to consider a makeover for the upcoming new year, 2024.

Meet the Expert

For more than 15 years we have been helping businesses like yours achieve success through digital channels. With a commitment to simplifying complex jargon we focus on delivering common-sense strategies that create real connections with your target audience. We understand that at the core of any effective online marketing campaign there are real people and real connections to be made. Our goal is to inspire your community to engage with your business, products, services, and events.

Reaching Local Audiences

One of the key benefits of updating your online marketing strategies is the potential for reaching local audiences more effectively. Our tailored marketing approach ensures that your business is prominently visible to real people living in your community, people who resonate with your business. These are the very people who are most likely to become your loyal customers. By connecting with your local audience, you not only expand your reach but also build strong and lasting connections around your brand.

Comprehensive Services

Our online marketing services encompass a wide range of offerings to meet your specific needs:

WordPress Website Design & Development: A well-structured, user-friendly website is the foundation of any successful online presence.
Website Maintenance and Improvements: Keeping your website up-to-date and optimized is crucial to ensure a seamless user experience.
Social Media Marketing Setup & Support: Leveraging the power of social platforms to engage with your audience on a personal level.
Newsletter Creation and Email Marketing: Reaching out to your customers directly through newsletters that provide value and information.
News Articles and New Content for social media: Keep your audience engaged with fresh and relevant content and keep visitors flowing to your website where they can explore services and tap into your expertise.
Graphic Design: Ensure your brand's visual appeal with compelling graphics and visuals.
SEO Baseline Setup and Ongoing Improvements: Enhance your website's visibility on search engines.
Affordability and Efficiency

One common concern for businesses when considering online marketing services is the cost. However, our services can be more affordable than you might imagine. As an independent contractor, we offer flexibility with our services and we can seamlessly integrate into your on-site team, providing consulting, website design support, graphic design, public relations, communication, and much more.

As we approach the new year of 2024, it's crucial for businesses to reassess their online marketing strategies. A well-structured, up-to-date, and targeted approach can make all the difference in connecting with your audience helping you to expand your reach, and build lasting customer relationships. Don't miss out on the opportunities that an updated website and online marketing strategy can bring to your business. Contact us today to take your online presence to the next level.

Bringing Your Small Business Website to Life

Posted on October 3, 2023October 3, 2023 by D. K.

In the ever-evolving digital landscape, small business owners are discovering the transformative power of a well-designed website. It's a journey that can be filled with excitement, whether you're working with a brand-new website to injecting new life into an outdated one. As a web designer who cherishes the opportunity to craft custom website designs, the process is akin to weaving magic. The satisfaction derived from helping clients witness their digital dreams take shape is truly magical.

In this dimension of digital design, where connections are virtual and the internet is our canvas, every project unfolds like a unique story. It's a realm where creativity meets functionality, and where websites take on a life of their own.

The Digital Dimension of Design

When you immerse yourself in the world of web design, it's possible to appreciate the internet as a dimension unto itself. It's a space where ideas are born, businesses can grow and thrive, and where real human connections are formed. It's in this digital dimension that creativity flourishes - for designers as well as businesses.

Recently, while guiding a client through the WordPress dashboard I offered a virtual glimpse of how website visitors would experience her services and projects. This helped to demonstrate how a well designed website design comes alive for visitors. And, in some ways a website does come to life, albeit in a different sense than a living being. You don't need to care for it like a pet, but you do need to nurture it to ensure it thrives.

Bringing Your Website to Life

A well-crafted website is alive in the sense that it interacts with the world in specific ways. A website designed with the user's experience in mind has the power to engage, captivate, and leave a lasting impression. It can "touch" people emotionally and draw them in, just as a poorly designed website can confuse or repel visitors. When a website elicits positive emotions through visuals, color scheme and word content, visitors will be compelled to stay on that website longer - giving you a unique opportunity to interact with potential new clients, customers and visitors - even before an appointment has been scheduled, a product sold or a email exchanged.

While it may not require physical care, a website does need to be regularly "fed" with fresh content to keep visitors coming back. Content maintenance is akin to tending to a garden, where you nurture the fruitful bits and prune the irrelevant. It's about keeping the website "alive" and relevant over time by generating engaging content, updating visuals, and fostering interactions with site visitors.

Website Designs for Success

A well-thought-out website speaks to visitors in unique ways. It's a deliberate creation with a specific intent, conveying information in a manner that effortlessly guides users to their desired answers. Visitors either resonate with a website's message or they don't. The success of a website lies in crafting a design that draws users in with visually appealing elements that encourages them to explore the content, regardless of whether they immediately connect with the message, product, or service.

The journey of creating a website that works for small businesses is a captivating blend of creativity and functionality. It's about bringing a website to life in the digital dimension, where design choices, content updates, and user interactions can breathe vitality into the online presence of small businesses. Digital designers hold the key to unlocking the magic of a website that not only exists, but informs, inspires and thrives in the digital realm.

Bedazzled by the ‘tips and tricks’ for elevating your online presence?

Posted on October 1, 2023October 3, 2023 by D. K.

If I’ve learned anything from clients who have no online presence but desperately need to get noticed, it's that it’s easy to get confused by all of the available must-have options. My trademark motto is “keep it simple and be real” and it’s a motto that leads to success for my clients.

The first order of business: Get your website up to speed. A website with no traffic (visitors) is a website that search engines will only ignore. It’s as simple as that. How do you go from zero to 100 visitors a day? Here’s the short list:

Make your website attractive

Make your website appealing with engaging photos and word content that makes sense. Be sure that you have a color scheme that draws the eye into the content and encourages visitors to look deeper. Even if you have a basic white scheme and feel like you need to stick with that - you can bring up the appeal by adding a significant color splash which you repeat throughout the site. Color prompts emotion and emotion leads to connection. Digital marketing is all about making connections.

I think it's also worth saying that websites with too much bling or too many moving parts will put visitors off. Too many images in a constantly moving slider is overwhelming, and people simply won't stick around long enough to watch more than two images. It's a fact. Also - a one-page website with too much splash and not enough content is frustrating for visitors who are looking for real answers (it also puts off search engine bots - meaning the very search engines you want to attract to your content will be more likely to pass on your website). Visitors want to find what they're looking for without doing a lot of scrolling down through a long one-page.

Write on!

Something people who create their own websites don’t often understand is that word count counts. It’s great to have images to help tell your story, but if that story is lacking actual words then search engines won’t take your content seriously. It’s difficult to get your message across when you rely on images alone (despite the notion that a picture is worth a thousand words). Every page needs to have at least 300-500 words if you want to excite search bots enough to entice them to crawl your site (and refer visitors as a result).

Where to start with social media

Now that you have a website that ticks all the boxes it’s time to turn your attention to social media. The must-have list may change over time, but the basics right now are:

• Google business (Gbiz)
• Facebook
• Instagram
• YouTube

Sharing content

Once all of these platforms are set up, the question becomes, how to make them work? Start posting content. It’s a simple as that. And yes! Google business wants you to post new content often. People tend to set up a Gbiz page, inflowing all of the relevant data to all of the various locations, assuming that when that’s accomplished, they’re done. But the truth is – like all social platforms it’s necessary to post to Gbiz right along with all of the other platforms.

Hashmarks and @'s

Hashmarks can help get content and posts noticed, but too many hashmarks will turn people away. The best policy with this is keep these to a minimum and before you use a hashmark, check that page to make sure it will help get the right people back to your website/services.

Start from your website

The biggest mistake newbies make is thinking that they only need to post independent items to social media – meaning they post a comment, or a photo and that’s it. This is only the beginning. Your goal should be to get people to your website where they can readily learn more about your services and begin to buy into what you have to offer. A stand-alone post isn’t going to prompt people to dig deeper. Every post should start at your website’s newsfeed or spring from content on a webpage. With this link you’ll be able to share information to every social site you maintain and automatically get people back to your website - where they are more likely to become interested in your services and products.

Build a community forever

What comes next? Making connections. If you only post to your social pages and do nothing to recruit followers – you have a very unsocial attitude. To be successful it’s necessary to spend time visiting other pages, liking other people’s content and following people’s discussions. Occasionally leaving a comment on someone else's post will do wonders for creating a following. All of this is paramount to your digital marketing success.

If you have a website that could us a makeover, or if your social media has stalled out, I can help. Visit my contact page for more information.

AI is a tool – and I mean that in a good way

Posted on July 6, 2023July 6, 2023 by D. K.

In today's digital age, content creation is more important than ever before. With so much information available online, it can be difficult for businesses to stand out from the crowd. That's where content creation comes in.

Content creation is the process of developing and producing content that is relevant, informative, and engaging. This content can take many forms, including blog posts, articles, infographics, videos, and social media posts. We use content to encourage search engines to visit our websites, driving visitor traffic to businesses and services.

The importance of ongoing content generation

The goal of content creation is to attract new visitors to your website, engage existing customers, and build relationships with your target audience. When this is done well, content creation can help you achieve a number of marketing goals, including:

Increase website traffic
Generate leads
Boost sales
Improve brand awareness
Build trust and credibility

How AI can support your writing efforts

When using AI to generate content for your online marketing whether that is a newsletter, a social media post or content for your website, it is important to also have the skills of an editor, the curiosity of a researcher and the knowhow to combine these skills to improve the results. Content sourced from an AI means you're using artificial intelligence to generate text. Once the content is created, having a knowledge of grammar, spelling, and style is key to improving the quality of text provided by an AI prompt. As humans writing content we're also bringing to the table our life experiences, professional knowledge and personality - something that AI does not always convey.

Using AI to support your editorial skills can be very helpful. When a writer is in research mode AI content tools can be a good source for generating new ideas and text quickly, but that content may not always be high-quality text that is free of errors. A content editor can help to improve the quality of AI-generated text by checking for errors, verifying the details, making improvement in storylines and ensuring that the content is engaging for readers. In my practice, I have been using AI to generate a draft of text based on my own queries and ideas, and then I will edit and polish those results for readability and flow. Sometimes a large portion of AI content may be suited for a story I'm writing, while other times there may only be a paragraph or two that I'll include in my article. I combine AI content that meets my goals with my own content to make the results readable, engaging and informative.

Whether writing from scratch or using AI to support your content generation for articles and website content, content creation can still be a lot of work. Content creation is one of the most important tools in a digital marketer's toolbox, because a website without words is an SEO sinkhole. When done well, content creation can help you achieve a number of marketing goals. So if you're not already creating content for your website or newsletter using AI to assist, now is the time to start.

Need help with your content creation? Ready to launch a newsletter? I can help. Email me now to get started.