Basically, your customers want valuable content. They want to know what you have to offer them. At the same time, the search engines realize this and look for valuable content on your site. The days of writing up quick pages packed with search engine optimization (SEO) keywords are over.

Today, your Website needs to provide valuable information to your customers that is unique and makes sense. If not, you will lose sales to the competition.

With this in mind, how do you use SEO content to your advantage?

•    Make SEO copywriting a priority.

If you don’t have a Website with the appropriate, SEO copy and coding, it’s time to make it a priority, especially if your business does online sales. When your target audience-members type in words related to your products and services in the search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo!, you want your site to pop up.

You may not think it’s a big deal to optimize your Website, but if your competition has an optimized site, and you don’t, they may just be stealing thousands of dollars in sales and new customers from you… without your knowledge!

•    Hire a professional, SEO copywriter.

SEO copywriting is a skill, and it’s not something you want to do on your own if you don’t’ have the appropriate expertise. Instead, spend the money and hire a good, SEO copywriter to help you. They can conduct the appropriate research, write your copy, add the right coding, and monitor results accordingly.

It may be expensive, but you get what you pay for. With a good, SEO Website, you will increase sales and online awareness dramatically. Plus, you’ll spend less than buying paid advertising and you’ll be able to concentrate on your business instead of writing.

•    Maintain your SEO.

SEO is an ongoing process. All of your marketing copy should be optimized for your keywords and provide valuable, new information to your customers. Once your site is optimized, it needs to be monitored on a regular basis. Then, you can remove copy that is not working and replace it with copy that does.

SEO is fantastic in that you can test it and see what actually brings in the best results. Plus, the results indicate what your customers find most interesting on your site so you can change your marketing, products and services accordingly.

SEO is Important.

Today’s business is all about providing value to customers with the best service possible. By knowing what your customers want, and being able to provide current information each week, you’ll be able to increase sales and word-of-mouth. However, if you fail to see the importance of SEO copywriting for your business, you risk losing a lot of money and new customers to the competition.

Are you ready to move forward with SEO and see your sales skyrocket? Start with a test project and see what happens. More than likely, you’ll be happy with the results and make SEO an important part of your business plans now and in the future.

For more SEO tips and information, please write to me below and visit www.rembrandtwrites.com.

With the tough economy, many businesses are trying to branch out and offer customers unique packages at a discount. And since many technology companies and Web design firms deal with creating Websites, they add SEO to their list of services.

Right away, you may think, “This is great! The same person who is creating my Website design can add all of the copy so that the search engines can find my business online. I’ll save time and money with a one-stop shop.”

Hold on! While SEO involves coding and tagging your Website, it’s not about technology.

SEO is about providing valuable content to your customers.

And the only way to do this is to have a trained, SEO copywriter write your SEO copy and tagging for you. A good, SEO copywriter will:

• Conduct extensive research on the top keywords your business should use to reach your particular goals. This includes competitive research, keyword popularity research and common sense.

• Use the top keywords for your business to provide beneficial information to your customers.

• Write copy that is interesting, pertinent to your target market and shows up on the search engines.

• Monitor your keywords and make changes immediately to get the best results.

While a graphic designer can be fabulous at Web design, you need an SEO copywriter to write your copy. You are dealing with two, completely different fields – one is trained on the technology side to create a killer Website design. The other has spent years perfecting the craft of writing copy that sells.

Keep Your Experts Separate for the Best Results.

While you can save time and money at a “one stop shop” for your Website, you may not get the end results you want. With Google’s recent updates and others, the search engines are looking for valuable content. Only an expert copywriter knows how to write this copy. If you have a technician writing your copy, it may have lots of SEO keywords in it, but it won’t necessarily provide value to customers and sell your products and services the right way.

With this in mind, take the time to conduct the appropriate research the next time you are looking for to create or update your Website. Find an experienced expert for the technology and Web-design side of things. Then, look for a professional, SEO copywriter who can write valuable copy for your customers and the search engines. In the end, you’ll get more attention online and increase sales.

For help with your SEO, please write to me below or at www.rembrandtwrites.com.

But there is no need to worry. If you follow a few simple rules that I’ve mentioned previously, you’ll be o.k., and your target market will continue to find you online.

The key is to provide value to your customers. And to do this, ask yourself a few questions:

• Is your copy just about your SEO keywords?

You need to include your SEO keywords throughout your copy… just don’t overdue it. If you use too many keywords, you’ll actually have a negative reaction with site visitors and the search engines.

• Is your copy easy to read?

When you read your copy aloud, how does it sound? Do you find that you are repeating your keywords, stumbling over sentences and having a difficult time staying engaged?

If your copy is difficult to read, re-write it and focus on your key messaging rather than your top, SEO keywords.

• Are you talking to your customers?

When you’re writing, think about your target-market first. You want to provide them with engaging information and talk about all of the benefits they will receive from using your products and services. If you write for the search engines, you may lose site of what your customers want.

• Do you have a call-to-action?

When site visitors finish reading the copy on your site, do they know what they are supposed to do next? Don’t leave them hanging! Guide them through your copy and send them to another link on your site to fill out an order form, get more information or take another action.

Make it easy for site visitors to purchase your products and services and get to know your organization. Then, track what they click on to see what’s working and change what’s not.

No need to where a tuxedo.

When it comes to Google’s Penguin update, there is no need to “dress up” your Website with extra, SEO keywords just to impress the search engines. Instead, focus on providing valuable and engaging information to your target audience. Add the appropriate SEO keywords without overdoing it and guide your customers through your site.

This way, you can say goodbye to the chill and have your customers, and the search engines, feel warm and fuzzy about your site!

For additional help with your SEO copywriting, please write to me below or visit www.rembrandtwrites.com for more information.

From Mother’s Day Contests to Mother’s Day themed promotions, here are 5 creative Mother’s Day Marketing ideas that will help you bring more customers in your door.

1. Create a Mother’s Day Gift Guide

Many people like to buy their mom a special gift on Mother’s Day.  You can tap into that need by creating a special Mother’s Day Gift Guide.

Stephanie Penn-Danforth of Daily Venus Diva, an online life, style and fashion magazine for curvy women, says that by dedicating a shopping guide to Mother’s Day gift ideas and promoting it with a press release; they attracted a substantial amount of new customers to their online retail store last Mother’s Day, and is going to do the same promotion again this year.

2. Hold a Mother’s Day Contest

Sarah Plasky from Aquavation, a site that creates customized 22 oz. sports water bottles for a cause, suggested that you hold a Mother’s Day themed contest. Invite people to submit their favorite “Mom Memories” to be entered in a drawing and then feature their entries as a post on your blog.  Entrants will share their “featured post” on your website with everyone they know which drives people to your website and increases visibility.

Other Mother’s Day contest ideas include holding a “Moms that look like Celebrities” look-alike contest, Mom of the Year, Why My Mom Rocks, Mother’s Day Makeovers, and even “Best ‘Adopted’ Mom”  (honoring those people who influenced someone’s life but was not their biological mother.)

3. Offer a Mother’s Day Gift with Purchase

This Mother’s Day marketing idea is one of the most popular, from restaurants to retail and every kind of business in between.  Build more buzz by offering a free bonus with purchase, such as a free dessert, for example.   This kind of promotion is very popular at department store beauty counters.  You’ll see high end retailers offering free limited edition beauty kits (sample sized items) with purchase and women love it!

Whatever you offer, make sure that it’s something that moms want (or people want to give to their moms).  Other free gifts with purchase include free flowers, free drinks, free appetizers, free cash (think “Kohl’s Kash”) and more.  The Arizona Diamondbacks has a popular Mother’s Day giveaway every year.  This year they are giving away a free pair of Arizona Diamondbacks themed earrings to the first 5,000 moms in attendance.

4. Offer Mother’s Day Themed Items for Sale

Create a special Mother’s Day only offering which builds a sense of urgency to buy from you before the deal is over.  Flancer’s Restaurant in Gilbert, Arizona, has created a special Mother’s Day Brunch, and I’m sure it will be an astounding success given the fact that Flancers does not regularly serve brunch and whatever kind of food they cook is always amazing.  Having a Mother’s Day Special offer of any time can create excitement and additional sales for your business.

Another idea comes from Amanda Koraska from Flat Creek Estate Winery & Vineyard in Marble Creek, Texas.  They often create custom wine labels for weddings and translated that idea in a way that allowed them to offer a once in a lifetime Mother’s Day gift.  As part of their annual Mother’s Day brunch, they hosted a family photo shoot at the vineyard and used the pictures to create custom wine labels that could be placed on a guest’s favorite bottle of wine.

And you don’t have to have a tangible product to sell either.  Debra Cohen from the Homeowner Referral Network, a Nassau County, New York, online referral network for home improvement professionals, created a special package specifically for husbands to give their wives for Mother’s Day.  For any package purchased as a Mother’s Day gift, she offered an additional 3 hours of free consulting which increased the value of their purchase.  It worked for her!!

5. Create Content Featuring Moms

If you want to do something more subtle than hang big signs or banners touting your Mother’s Day sale, you can create content about mothers, for mothers, or celebrating mothers.  If you are a photographer, you could create a photo display featuring local mothers or offer free Mother/Daughter pictures on your Facebook page and then feature each picture in the days leading up to Mother’s Day.

Racheal Cook of The Yogipreneur, a business consultant who specializes in mindful marketing training specifically for healing and helping professionals. generated several hundred leads for her business last year by creating a series of video Skype interviews with her favorite mama-preneurs - women who have built and run small businesses while raising young children.  The videos were featured on her blog and on her YouTube channel and were a big hit.

There are many more marketing ideas that you could do on Mother’s Day to build buzz for your business.  What are some of your ideas?  I absolutely LOVE hearing from you!

Want to get more inexpensive and practical small business marketing ideas, grab a free e-book called “Build Buzz for Your Biz, 23 Creative and Inexpensive Marketing Strategies That Will Get You Noticed” at http://23kazoos.com.

Wendy Kenney the Founder of 23 Kazoos, a Marketing and Public Relations firm in Phoenix, Arizona, that is relentless about results.  She is the bestselling author of How to Build Buzz for Your Business available on Amazon.com, and has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Newsday.

Here are 28 Small Business Marketing Resolutions for the New Year that will inspire you to write your own.

1. Build Relationships With Customers

To create more opportunities for our end buyers to interact with the company. As a manufacturer it’s always difficult to have a dialog with customers because our primary “sale” is to the dealer and we don’t get many chances to communicate with customers directly.

Stephen Roberts, Marketing Manager, Timberwolf Manufacturing

2. Engage and Monitor

To be consistent and emotionally engaging in all marketing efforts. To continue to monitor and measure all results. (I know that in 3 years my unique visitor traffic has increased by 250% to just under 8,000 unique visitors per month.)  To convert more visitors specific to eproducts thus increasing monthly income.  To achieve Alexa.com ranking of under 100,000.  To have the blog recognized as one of the top business, leadership and sales blogs.

Leanne Hoagland-Smith, www.increase-sales-coach.com

3. Waste Less Time on Social Media

I resolve to waste less time on social media channels!

Tea Silvestre, www.theWordChef.com

4. Be More Visual

Don’t forget: All marketing is VISUAL.

David Langton, Principal, Langton Cherubino Group, Ltd. (http://www.langtoncherubino.com)

5. Consistency!

It is easy when we get busy to stop marketing ourselves, but we know that we need to do it consistently if we want to grow. So we have resolved to be more consistent in 2012 on doing our own marketing and PR.

Beth Walsh, Clearpoint Agency, Inc., (www.clearpointagency.com)

6. Update The Plan, Then Walk the Plan

Ann Siegle, Tria Marketing & Design, (http://www.triadesignfirm.com)

7. Discover Previously-Unidentified Markets

To find new ways to help customers obtain loans - financing is still a major issue.  To further expand our worldwide presence.

Catherine B. Ahles, APR, Fellow PRSA, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Business Development, Premier Aircraft Sales

8. No More Advertising

Our 2012 marketing resolution is we will no longer buy advertising. We will buy results. After spending a year and a half attempting to optimize click through conversion rates, design high quality marketing communications and locate appropriate advertising vehicles we have discovered that we are not advertising experts. We have also discovered
that the risk for advertising success lies entirely with us. If we buy media space in a publication that does not produce results we lose both time and money. The publication, however, gets to keep our money.

For 2012 we are completely converting our marketing efforts to shared risk. We will no longer pay for click through or brand exposure ads. We will only pay a percentage of sales actually produced by the ad. Our advertising budget had previously floated at about 9% of revenue. For 2012 we will be increasing this about 30% of revenue. Instead of paying $600 for a quarter page ad we will pay 25% of all sales produced by the ad. If the ad produces $10,000 in sales the advertiser will receive $2500. If the ad produces $100 in sales the advertiser will receive $25. This will be tracked through coupon codes for print. All web advertising will be converted to affiliate programs which pay by the sale. We can increase our media budget since all advertising will be paid for by additional sales.

This does not mean that we will stop brand awareness advertising. Our brand awareness strategy for 2012 however will be entirely based on shareable content and partnerships with publications that have a similar audience. We will be producing more free downloads and more shareable content on the assumption that if it is valuable - it will be shared and republished. This is a big risk since traditional paid advertising guarantees space in a publication. Shareable content, however, may or may not get reused in other publications.

Chris Tobias, Director of Educational Excitement, School Skills

9. Positioning

Our 2012 our resolution is to position ourselves as the Thought Leader in our industry and also to all lose 5% of our current body weight, eat right and exercise more.

John Fairclough, the r e s i c o m group (http://www.resicomonline.com)

10. Happy Shoppers

Our 2012 Marketing Resolution is to keep our shoppers happy. Our success is driven by word-of-mouth marketing from wonderful customers. When they like their experience with us - as in our jewelry quality, diverse selections, low prices and customer service - they come back and they tell their friends about us. And the cycle continues when those friends have a wonderful experience too! That’s why we always try to listen to the needs and wants of our shoppers and make their Joolwe.com shopping experience amazing.

Monique Bird, Marketing and PR Specialist, Joolwe.com

11. Regular Communication.

Contact our email list on a regular basis (no more being flaky!) and not worry every single time that I might lose subscribers. It’s better to have tried and lost, than to never have tried at all!

Chris Wise, Online Marketing Director,  Guideline Central

12. Systematic Marketing

For our own firm and for our clients, we are resolving to commit to a programmatic approach to marketing (strategy) instead of simply a project approach (tactics, often with no real plan behind them : “one offs”).

Charles J. Morris, Jr., Principal, Morris Creative Group, LLC

13. Community Centric, Mobile Friendly Website

For 2012, The Voice of Your Customer plans to revise our company website to be less content driven and more mobile friendly with a great focus on customer engagement and community involvement. Previously, our website as focused on flash and SEO heavy content that is no longer of interest to our visitors.

The Voice of Your Customer also plans to increase our visibility in the media by distributing more company press releases and applying for more industry, small business and community awards. In years past, we won several awards that generated quite a bit of exposure in the local, regional and niche media that resulted in more visits to our website and social media pages.

Additionally, The Voice of Your Customer plans to increase the activity on our LinkedIn and Facebook company pages, better utilize the engagement tools and more effectively use the visitor analytics. When the pages were launched, the focus was on increasing likes and daily posts. In the near future, we would like to use these pages for survey research, recruiting and content management.

Crystal L Kendrick, President, The Voice of Your Customer

14. Mobile Marketing

In 2012, our company, Leon Mege Inc. (custom made engagement rings and fine jewelry) will be doing a lot more mobile marketing. We will also be focusing more on Google+ and are allocating a smaller budget to print ads and Facebook ads. A lot more branding is also in store for the New Year for our company (we are currently in the early stages of developing a branding strategy).

Olga Topchaya, Director of Marketing,  Leon Megé Inc.

15. Increase Twitter Following

Our marketing resolution is to increase our twitter following, in order to control cost and to weed out the multiple offerings of Marketing Services that I am swamped with on a daily basis. If I can control advertising cost, I can hopefully make better use of time and money to hire help.

Lance Dzintars , Zaria & Bella’s LLC, www.zariaandbellas.com

16. More Online Engagement

Going to do more: Webinars, email campaigns with partners who send on our behalf, retargeting, startup daily deal sites, guest blogging.

Going to do less: sitting around twiddling our thumbs

Going to start: LinkedIn advertising to drive webinar signups

Joshua Krafchin, Clever Zebo (www.cleverzebo.com)

17. Have a Conversation

We’re going to be more conversational and ‘broadcast’ less. We’re going to bring true value to our customers as opposed to just marketing our products. We’re going to listen to our customers and ask them, instead of making guesses as to what they want from us.

Kendall Moyles, Green Surf Shop

18. Give More Value

My resolution is to contribute more ideas and expertise to social networks that are related to what I do within my company.

Christi Pemberton, Global Crest Productions

19. Invest in Advertising

In 2012 I am going to jump off the bridge and go for big advertising in a major wedding magazine THE KNOT…it is needed at this time and so for 2012 I am placing an ad in this national player in the wedding industry.

Kelly Marie Albert , The Perfect Card Box

20. Intentional Marketing

A.    Greater emphasis on social media. We want to expand our presence on Facebook by adding custom tabs/pages to help grow our fan base. In terms of audience interaction, we are committing ourselves to posting at least twice per day on both Facebook and Twitter. The significance of LinkedIn is also something we plan to utilize in the new year.

B.    Videos, videos, videos. In 2012 we are launching a YouTube channel to post things like customer testimonials and information videos about our products or services. The goal is to educate our existing and potential customers through the informational videos while building and reinforcing a sense of trust with videos such as client testimonials.

C.    Targeted mailings. When we first started our original business we worked out a deal with a local printer to create some post cards for us. We mailed them out to local businesses and the response was better than expected. It may be a new year but the world is still generally the same, so we’re going to get back to some basics with this one.

D.    Launch an email newsletter. It is important for us to stay in front of our customers and on their minds. We are committing to sending out an electronic newsletter each month to those customers who opt-in to receive it. The newsletter will give them a first look at upcoming specials and promotions, as well as offer subscriber-only opportunities.

E.    Advertise in local newspapers. This relates a bit to point three above. We ran a few ads early on and experienced some moderate returns, so we will return to this as an option for us in 2012. Online readership is growing and rates are more than reasonable at this time.

Daniel J. Spence, President, Big Bird Media, LLC

21. Develop Partnerships

I plan to develop some strategic partnerships with other business owners so that we can combine our efforts to host a Mini-Telesummit.

I will be attending the Diva Toolbox Conference in Boston, MA for the second year and also be connecting regularly with my local chapter members of NAWBO.

I enjoy blogging and will be sharing my ideas on my LinkedIn Profile and the new Facebook page I am creating for my Coaching Business: “Moving Forward Through Divorce.”

Nancy A. Kay, Divorce Management Coach,

22. Focused Marketing

Narrow our marketing focus by eliminating distracting products and services that don’t pay their way that we carried in the past to be a “full service” company for our clients. They are a distraction from our meat and potatoes offerings. Instead, we’re creating a group of complimentary partner companies to take over those duties using other area business people we’ve known and trusted over the years to take over those services. We’re referring to them as “trusted local partners”. We’ll refer business to them and in return they’re going to refer back to us based upon our defined competency. Members in this group must have a complimentary business product or service that enhances the group. This is different than a networking group like those formed by Chambers of Commerce that group non-competing businesses together without any regard to how well they complement each other as businesses.

We also plan to drop the less sophisticated parts of our previous offerings as they’ve become commoditized by the market. Offerings such as retail software, Internet Content filtering, computer repair services (we call it break/fix) and retail sales of computers and printers. We’re trying to move up the IT food-chain and focus on more sophisticated products and services that aren’t generally offered at the “shallow end” of the IT services pool. This is our effort to differentiate ourselves from the retail big-box “Geek Squad” type guys.

Jeff Hoffman, President, ACT Network Solutions

23. Pick a Few Good Marketing Strategies

Narrow down social media to 2 - 3 tools that REALLY work in terms of responses. Narrow down my marketing hours. Make more effort to make human to human contact rather than just social media. Hire people to do some work for me. (PR, day to day tasks). I know it’s an investment but it will free me up to think of the big picture.

Sandra Mendoza-Daly, DebutanteClothing.com and VintageFindIt.com

24. Increase Local Exposure

We will continue to get involved in our community through various B2B channels, such as the local Chamber of Commerce, regional newspapers and their online versions, and traditional “small town” handshake efforts. The goal is to have every local business owner know who we are, and more importantly, understand what we do.

Leverage the Local / Mobile / Social aspects of technology. Being in a small town environment limits the effect of many social media efforts, however the growth in location based services such as Foursquare, Oink, Gowalla, and Facebook check-ins have allowed small businesses to focus on the people who are already around them. As smart phones continue to grow on older customers, these services and features will become more and more important on the local level. We plan on offering specials and contests that involve being physically close to our location.

Increase community involvement. We plan on sponsoring a local softball team, running a clothing drive, and taking part in our local Autumn festival in 2012. We plan on doing at least one major community campaign per quarter of 2012.

We are in the process of developing tools for local business owners to leverage technology that they simply don’t yet understand. We have found that the average local business owner still does not know how to properly use even their old outdated Web sites to their advantage. Add in Social Media, iPhone apps, and local search listings (Google Maps, Bing, Yahoo Local, Yelp, etc.) and it just spins their head. We are working to bring these tools to the average person through a series of free seminars, online tutorials, and even a local business app builder which will allow for our community businesses to take a giant leap ahead of even their larger corporate competitors.

I am really proud that the same efforts that we use to market our company are going to help our local community and our local business owners. Although it sometimes feels that technology drives us apart, we feel that it can be used to bring back the Mom & Pop way of doing business of yesterday.

Jon Berry, Berry Smart

25. Create More Local Partnerships

Our resolution is to find more local/regional partners in order to foster visible job growth right in our own backyard. Restoring hope locally is job one in this economy!

John Leschke, Green 3 Apparel

26. Get Involved

We are going to work with more websites that cater to our target market. This includes offering free valuable information to other relevant sites on how businesses can start implementing strategies of their own to start seeing results. Developing more relationships with experts in the industry. Giving away more free information to prospective clients. Also participating in more guest blog related public relations.

We plan to do less direct mail advertising and instead use email and other virtual mediums to maximize profit. We also plan to continue not participating in cold calls.

A major thing we plan to start doing in 2012 is to be involved with more charitable events and more offline activities that are in the public eye. We feel that in conjunction with our online promotions, this could create a synergy that is unmatched.

Mike Calloway, Trinity Marketing

27. Be More Personal

I hope to be more personal than ever in my marketing.  As a freelancer and now a small business owner with predominantly remote work, online content marketing is a stellar way to establish my expertise, inform potential clients about my methods, and get my name out. But blog posts, newsletters, tweets, and Facebook posts only go so far as information vehicles. I’m finding more than ever it’s the thoughtful notes, unexpected responses, and general accessibility that powerfully push my business relationships and my career forward. It’s easy to write these things off since they don’t have the same reach of our other efforts!

Stephanie Peterson, Fairground Media

28. Referral Marketing

We plan on giving a strong push to referral marketing through social media in 2012. We’ve played with it in the past, but it’s time to really see if we can make it work to help grow our business!

Sara Sutton Fell, CEO & Founder, FlexJobs.com

What are your small business marketing resolutions for 2012?  Share them here along with the link to your website.  We always love hearing from you!

Want to get more inexpensive and practical small business marketing ideas, grab a free ebook called “Build Buzz for Your Biz, 23 Creative and Inexpensive Marketing Strategies That Will Get You Noticed” at http://23kazoos.com.

Wendy Kenney is the bestselling author of How to Build Buzz for Your Business available onAmazon.com, and has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Newsday.

But who are you?

How many of these invitations do you receive?

Well, LinkedIn, www.linkedin.com, is a great, social-media tool for networking, staying in touch with key contacts and more. But if you just send out random invitations, you are not using it to your advantage.

Yes, it’s easy to use their automatic invitation. But, does it work?

I receive invitations like the one you see above on a weekly basis, and they go straight to my wastebasket.

Why?

Well, I have a few rules about using LinkedIn, and you may want to take them into consideration too:

Rule 1 – I only connect with people on LinkedIn that I know.

Why? The main reason I have a LinkedIn account is to network and make referrals. However, how can I possible refer someone if I have no idea who they are?

If I refer a complete stranger to someone I respect, and that stranger turns out to be a nightmare, there goes my reputation and credibility.

And it goes both ways. How would you like it if one of your contacts referred a complete stranger to you for an important project?

Rule 2 – If I receive an invitation, it had better be personalized.

If I receive a LinkedIn invitation, I want to know who the person is and why they want me to be part of my network.

I may receive an invitation from someone I worked with in the past, a fellow speaker at an event or an old classmate. But if it has been some time since we spoke, I may not remember that person.

By adding a little note in the invitation that states who you are and why you want to connect with me, I’m much more likely to add you to my network.

Rule 3 – Please don’t take advantage of our connection.

Great! You are part of my LinkedIn group. But now, you are sending me advertisements and marketing messages on a regular basis and constantly asking me to introduce you to others in my network.

That’s not cool. Social media is all about being social (see my previous post about this), and the communication needs to go both ways.

If you use LInkedIn as a marketing tool only and take advantage of my connections, you are out of my network!

What Do You Think?

These rules may not be for you, but you do need to think about why you are using LinkedIn and what you want to accomplish when you spend your valuable time on the site.

By remembering that it’s a social-media tool to communicate with people, you’ll be able to provide valuable information, help others and increase your network.

But if you just use LinkedIn to build a huge list of strangers in your network, constantly advertise your services and don’t really care about helping anyone but yourself, you are going to see very negative results and waste a lot of time and effort.

Do you need help with your social media and SEO strategies? Please let me know here or at www.rembrandtwrites.com.

To avoid any scary surprises, here are three tips to help you keep your SEO program on track:

1. Do your due diligence.

If you are hiring a firm to help you, check out their results with previous clients. Create a plan, know exactly what they are doing for you and communicate your expectations.

Also, know how you can end your contract if things don’t work out. Otherwise, you may end up with a huge bill and very little site traffic. Even worse, you may find that you have to start all over again with your optimization efforts.

2.  Measure results.

Once your SEO practices are in place, it’s essential to track results. What’s working and what’s not? Are you meeting your site traffic goals? If not, make changes.

After all, one of the great things about search optimization is that you can test different keywords, landing pages, links, and copy to see what brings in the best results. It’s an ongoing process so be sure to monitor your activities on a regular basis.

3. Be patient.

While some businesses see site traffic increases right away with their SEO efforts, others do not. Depending on the keywords you’re using, the size of your site, how long it takes to register with the search engines, and other factors, you may need to wait to see results.

In the meantime, try posting an SEO press release, article or blog and continue to monitor your activities.

SEO Success Awaits.

Search engine optimization can be a vital part of your business success… or failure. With this in mind, create a plan in advance and know exactly what you want to accomplish. Then, find the right team to help you accomplish your goals. Test and monitor results, and if you are not seeing results, make changes to your copy and keywords. Then, test and monitor again.

It takes time, patience and expertise to have a successful, search engine optimization program. However, if you create a solid plan for your SEO efforts and review your results regularly, you’ll take a lot of the fear out of the process. Plus, you’ll spend less money and be more likely to reach your site-traffic goals.

For additional help with your SEO activities, please write to me here or at www.rembrandtwrites.com.

There are a lot of reasons why people write blogs.  Some blogs are personal, some are knowledge based, others are sales focused…you get the picture.  The common theme of blogs is to be recognized.  You may be a freelance writer who wants to get noticed, a new business that wants to establish credibility, or possibly build (and monetize) your blog as the go-to place for particular information.

For me, my personal blog organically grew and indicated that there was a need for real time information for moms in transition looking to branch out in the biz world.  Moms who were faced with new situations, tween kids, more time to themselves, and the burning desire to build something of their own.  I established a need and built my blog just for that group.  After a year of pouring myself into the blog, I am about to launch with a media company monetizing the site.  I guess this is why the blogaversary was so exciting for me!

Enough about me though.  Last night I met with a friend who runs an amazing local business and truly is an authority in her particular vertical.  This fabulous woman wants to grow bigger, position herself as a speaker/expert in the national arena, and develop a web presence.  Yes, she approached me about helping her set up a blog.  A blog positioned within her website (weblog) will help this amazing woman start down the path of these goals.

Of course, my friend asked me for my TOP blogging tips…….

I thought that I would share my Blogging Tricks & Treats:

• Sketch some Skeletons. Before setting up your blog, make some rough notes on topic ideas that you will write about.  It is always a good idea to have a few skeleton outlines of posts in your back pocket especially as you start out.  In the beginning it is not uncommon to experience ‘blog fright’ and all of sudden be caught wordless.  With a few outlines, you can generate posts easily.  This is a good habit to keep up throughout blogging.
• Do not be Frightened of your Platform. Choose an easy interface for your blogging backend and educate yourself how to use it.  I like Wordpress.  It is simple, basic, and set up for someone who does not understand writing code.  There are a ton of online instructional videos that you can watch that will educate you about various blogging interfaces.
• Glamor your audience. Think about your potential audience when writing up ideas.  What is the general personality type that you are writing for?  Write in a flavor/style that will be appealing to them.  If you are writing for mostly parent-run businesses, bet you they will like to hear little family anecdotes in your post.  If you are writing a finance blog, maybe a little humor will help engage readers? Nicole Fende at Small Business Finance Forum does a great job of exactly this!
• Never Scare Away your Audience! Always be truthful and honest with your readers, and do not make claims that you cannot substantiate.  Your readers will appreciate your honesty if you do not know something or if you share a mistake that you made.
• Make it a Mixed Bag Sometimes short and sweet is best.  Other times, readers want more.  Weave different types of posts into your mix.  Short posts, Long ones, Videos, and Pictures all help to keep your readers coming back.
• Proof is in the (Pumpkin) Pudding. Make sure to PROOFREAD!! This is always essential!
• Treat yourself to Other Blogs.  Make sure to stay in touch with other blogs out there.  Spend some time reading blogs in your space/category, and COMMENT!! If you want an active audience on your blog, you need to be active, too.

Hope you enjoyed these Treats (especially because they are way less fattening than the real kind).

Do you have a new blog? Would you add anything to the treat bag?

Feel free to stop in for a treat at my blog http://backngroovemom.com (no tricks allowed).

QR codes (or Quick Response codes) are similar to the UPC codes on the back of product packaging.  Just like when the grocer scans your groceries in your shopping cart, so can businesses owners use a scannable QR code in their marketing.  Consumers with smartphones (such as iPhone, Android, or Blackberry) can download a  free bar code scanner application so that they can scan the code.  Once a consumer scans the code, it will give them additional information about the product such as price, for example. A QR code would work in an instance where a consumer would want more information about a product but where there was not space on the package to print that additional information.

As with any marketing strategy, the first step is to decide if using a QR code marketing campaign makes sense for your business.  Although most scans are generated from QR codes on product packaging, there are many ways these codes can be used to bring in more business.  Understanding how QR codes can benefit your business is the key to deciding if they are a good fit.

In order to help you decide, here are 6 interesting ways businesses are using QR codes to enhance customer engagement, distribute information, and invite new prospects into their business.

1. QR Codes on Business Cards and Products

The most popular way to use QR codes is to put them on your business card.  The QR code then takes the person scanning it to your website where they can find out more about your products and services.  However, businesses also use QR codes to link customers to specific product information without having to print it and distribute it with the product.  For example, a plant nursery might use a QR code sticker attached to plant’s packaging to link customers to planting and care instructions specific to their climate.

2. Expand Selling Opportunities

Most businesses are not open 24/7, but even those who aren’t may have an online store where customers can shop at their convenience.  Posting a QR Code and the words “Shop Online Now” next to the opening hours in your shop window gives customers the opportunity to buy from you when they are looking for you, regardless of whether or not you are open.  For crafters and other companies who vend at local events, a QR code on your product label can help you build repeat customers who may not remember where they made their initial purchase or know where to find you to make additional purchases.

3. Link to Customer Centric Content

Imagine you are shopping for a new lawnmower and as you browse the selection at your local home improvement store you are able to access independent customer reviews for each product with a quick scan on your phone.  Companies can use QR codes within their displays to link to customer review sites, how to videos, replacement part information, or discounts.

4. Give Prospects The Information They Want When They Want It

One powerful use of QR codes is to enable prospective customers to access the information they want when they want it.  Real estate agents can use QR codes on their “For Sale” signs to offer prospects a virtual tour of the house as well as other selling information.  The QR code software has the ability to record the contact information of the person who clicked on it, therefore giving the real estate agent a new prospect to follow up with.

5. Host a Contest or Give a Special Discount

Because QR codes are new and interesting, businesses can use them to drive people to their business.  One idea is to host a QR code scavenger hunt where customers have the opportunity to win something by clicking on QR codes to find the clue to the next code.  QR codes on posters or on direct mail items can give customers access to exclusive discounts or enable them to enter a contest at just a click of their phone.  Businesses can put QR codes on event posters, advertisements and invitations to deliver people event information and special offers for discounted admission.

There are hundreds of ways that businesses can use QR codes to bring in business and build their brand.  The key is to find the right opportunity that makes sense for your business.  Whether you use it to build online sales or to broadcast the word about a new product, strategic use of QR codes can supplement your other marketing activities and have the potential to provide significant returns with a very small investment.

6. Use QR Codes to Simplify Registration and Follow-up

Infusionsoft used QR codes to simplify the registration process at their annual event Infusioncon. Instead of having attendees wait in line at the registration table while an attendant searches for their name and badge, Infusionsoft emailed each registrant a printable ticket with a QR code on it.  Attendees were instructed to bring the ticket with them for admittance into the event.  Once at the event the QR code was scanned at the registration table and the attendee quickly admitted.  The QR code was linked to the attendee email information so that Infusionsoft could email the attendee specific event related offers during and after the event.

As you can see from the examples above, using QR codes can be a low cost marketing strategy that can generate significant results.  However, before you begin to use them, decide if it will make sense for your business.  Ask the questions:  Do my customers use smart phones?  Do they understand QR code technology?  Are they always asking for more information on a product or service?

If you are using a QR code in your marketing, would love to hear about your experience.  Let us know in the comments and please leave a link to your business.

Want to get more inexpensive and practical small business marketing ideas?  Sign up for my free marketing newsletter at http://23kazoos.com.

1. Host a Costume Exchange-

National Costume Swap Day was started in 2010 by Corey Colwell-Lipson the Founder of Green Halloween. And while the official “Costume Swap Day” is over, you can still host your own or plan on hosting one for next year. Invite people to bring last year’s costume and trade for a new one.

2. Have a Green Halloween Event-

And while we’re on the subject, why not have a Green Halloween Event? Instead of giving away the usual candy, why not offer healthy treats and invite people to trick or treat at your business?

3. Hold a Halloween-Themed Contest-

Halloween themed contests are very popular and there are no end to the possibilities both online and offline. Pauline Perenack, Marketing Manager for RES.NET, a company that provides software and services to the real estate industry, says, “For Halloween this year, we have hidden monsters throughout the Internet and our system for people to find, with a prize drawing for each monster found. The purpose of the contest is to drive brand recognition, as well as membership purchases/renewals.”

4. Sell Halloween-Themed Products-

Omaha Nebraska, hardware store, Westlake Ace Hardware, takes the Halloween theme to extreme this year by selling products to help consumers “zombie-proof” their homes even going so far as to create a “Zombie Preparedness Center on their website. This unusual Halloween marketing idea has created so much buzz that even national media are talking about them.

5. Have a “Punkin Chunkin” Event-

Alisa Bennett, President of People at Play, in East Bradenton, Florida; an experiential adventure program that allows participants to run heavy construction equipment such as excavators, skid steer loaders and bulldozers in a fun “construction site” environment, says that the “Punkin Chunkin’ Package” includes time operating a CATERPILLAR 312 Steel Track Excavator through a fun challenge course, followed by the opportunity to smash a dozen (12) large, orange, ripe pumpkins using the Excavator bucket. You don’t have to have heavy equipment to have your own “Punkin Chunkin” event.

6. Charity Photo Costume Event-

Benjamin Weatherston’s company, Photo Studio Group in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is giving people a free photo of their child in their Halloween costume in exchange for a food donation.

7. Make Your Place a Trick-or-Treat Stop-

Pizza Marketing Expert Scott Anthony says that pizzerias (or any business) can invite the public to visit your business on Halloween to receive a special “treat” and get a picture taken with your mascot (a costumed employee). You can then e-mail them a copy of their photo. Of course, you will need to get their email address to send them the photo and in doing so, you will be building your database so that you can email them throughout the year.

8. Hold a Pumpkin Festival-

You can purchase pumpkins in bulk from a local farmer and have your own pumpkin festival. And if you don’t have a retail location, why not have a virtual pumpkin festival on your website, your blog or on Twitter or Facebook?

9. Give Away Halloween-Related Freebies-

Want to get more traffic to your website? Then give away Halloween themed freebies such as pumpkin carving templates, Halloween costume ideas, or Halloween party planning tips. Disney Family.com has even gone so far as to have 31 days of Halloween providing free pumpkin carving stencils, craft ideas, recipes, and more. Make your freebie appropriate to your business. (That’s why I’m writing Halloween-related marketing tips.) Invite visitors to sign up for your email newsletter to receive more valuable freebies.

These are just a few of the best Halloween marketing ideas that I found. What are yours? Share them here along with your business link, we love to hear from you!!

Want to get more inexpensive and practical small business marketing ideas?  Sign up for my free marketing newsletter at http://23kazoos.com.