If you haven’t heard, blogging is one of your greatest advertisements. (Actually, we think it’s even better than traditional advertising. Seriously.) But while there’s huge potential for your blog to be your greatest tool to increase brand awareness, there are also A LOT of blogs out there. So how do you effectively use your blog to help more people get to know your brand? 1. Create offers. An offer is the most effective path for lead generation and your blog is a great place to share these offers and build buzz around them. Offers are premium pieces of content that your reader can get for free in exchange for his or her contact information. Offers are designed to guide your reader through your sales funnel and are the
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A Rebranding Story (Part 1)
There always seems to be plenty of information and advice available to those adventuresome entrepreneurs starting a small business: the steps to take, pitfalls to avoid and best practices to start off on the right foot. What about an instance when you’ve already started your business and want to rebrand? You hear about this process far less and yet there are many reasons why you may want to refresh your current brand, identity and logo. As society grows, changes and evolves so do its people and their businesses. Rebranding an operating business can seem like a daunting effort; however, the process can be a tremendous marketing opportunity that will strengthen your position among photography peers, professional partners and clients. I started my first photography business,
4 Best Practices for Blogging to Generate Leads for Your Business
In order to generate leads, you first need to generate traffic on your website. Good thing you have access to one of the most effective tools for generating website traffic — blogging. Believe it or not, before blogging became a popular way for individuals to make money from advertising, it was invented as a way to create consistent content for search engine optimization. Smart search engine optimization = inbound website traffic Here are four blogging best practices for generating traffic and turning those visitors into leads: 1. Choose Topics Wisely The topics you choose are key to generating inbound traffic through search engines. To be truly effective, they need to satisfy both search engines and searchers. Appeasing both of these groups will ensure that you’ll rank
Vacation Portraits – Tap into the Multi-Billion Dollar Travel Industry
When do you have money burning a hole in your pocket? When do you save money just so you can spend it in one short period of time? Vacation! I learned how to tap into tourism and capture some of the billions of dollars that flow through the travel industry by treating my photography as a vacation activity instead of a traditional portrait session. Tourism exists in all 50 states and all over the world. Whether you’re in a tropical locale or next to a natural wonder like the Grand Canyon, there is a market for vacation portraits. When I first moved to Maui and decided to start a photography business, I did an online search to see what was out there, and I found
How to Engage Your Audience and Kickstart Social Media Conversations
If you’re tirelessly working on ways to capture the attention of your target audience on Facebook and Twitter, welcome to the club. You, along with millions of other businesses are in the same boat, trying to turn the social media microphone into a way to make more money. While many companies make the mistake of thinking that the number of fans and followers they have is what’s important, true social media ROI (the kind that translates into dollars and cents!) isn’t just about popularity. It’s about ENGAGEMENT. In other words, is anything meaningful happening with those fans and followers? Audience “engagement” can mean anything from someone re-tweeting your content, replying to your posts, clicking on a link or getting more information from your website. This type
Why Options Stink.
Options. We think we like them. We actually hate them. There’s a hamburger chain out in my neck of the woods called In-N-Out. Many of you have probably heard of them, if not had a hamburger from there at one point. They have a bit of a cult following, with consistent lines out the door at all of their locations. They’re focused on fresh (never frozen) burgers that taste delicious. To appeal to so many people, you’d think they’d have lots of options on their menu. Lots of people = lots of different wants and needs = lots of options. Wrong. In-N-Out has three options: a hamburger, a cheeseburger, and a double cheeseburger. That’s it. I have a rant I do when I present on this
To Glorify Your Own Success or Help Your Audience Find Their Own?
When you run a small business, it’s hard to find the line where your business ends and you begin. Because of how closely linked you are to your business, it’s often easiest to focus on yourself and your company instead of creating content that’s client-focused and provides your audience with real value. But what’s easiest isn’t always what’s most effective. You’ve probably noticed that some lucky folks have built a large audience of fans and followers by focusing on themselves. They’ve done it mostly glorifying their success instead of showing others how to find their own success. However, there’s a downside to making your audience want to be you instead of providing real value in showing them how to be the best version of themselves. 1. Fans and followers don’t always
Make More Money with Event Cards
If you’re an event photographer, there’s no better opportunity to reach your target market than at an actual event. No matter what kind of event it is — a wedding, mitzvah or birthday party — most of your client’s guests are potential NEW clients for you! Traditionally, client communities consist of similar socioeconomic classes and aesthetic preferences. So, the guests at that event this weekend are prime examples of your target market! And if your client liked you enough to hire you, then many of their guests might too. Don’t pass up an opportunity to market directly to them. Spread the word at the event – use event cards! Not only will you give them a take-away with your contact information, but you’ll also give them
Marry New Media & Traditional Connections to Market Your Business
Today, I’m able to strategically pick where I spend my advertising dollars since I have so many other avenues of connection to people in the industry. I flipped my strategy and am now marketing more heavily to these industry connections rather than directly to my clients. If I can prove to be a valuable asset to my industry colleagues, they will naturally promote my services to their clients. And this tactic directly translates into social media. My colleagues promote my services on Facebook, Linked In and on their websites without ever having to directly say “hire these photographers because”…. All they have to do is show off what I’ve done for them with a link to any one of my online presences and my images
3 Ways Twitter Enhances Email Marketing
Twitter is not just another social network. Other than Facebook, it’s one of the most important social sites you should be active on. Alongside email marketing and Search Engine Optimization, social media is part of any comprehensive marketing strategy. Twitter in particular, is a fast paced, interactive platform and that means you need to stay active yourself. Luckily, staying visible and sharing your email content is easy with Mad Mimi! Here’s some tips on being a Twitter and Email pro: 1. Share your newsletters on Twitter Twitter is a powerful way to share content and that’s exactly why your content should be there! While you can’t possibly condense your Mad Mimi newsletter into 140 characters (click here for some Twitter trivia), the good news is,