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How many pages does your website have?
According to one source I found, “a personal website typically contains 4-10 pages, a corporation's website might have anywhere from 10-50.”
The CAL Business Solutions website has 239 pages. (Plus an additional 539 pages as blog posts).
My online strategy is to Just Be Open. Here is proof that this works...
Read moreWhat is the goal of this first sentence?
To get you to read the second sentence. That’s all. And I see that it worked. You are already at the fifth sentence.
The single most helpful writing tip I ever received was in an email from Henneke Duistermaat at Enchanting Marketing.
She said that you need to keep your first sentence short. Ultra-short. Such as:
Read moreFor the past two months one company has written 4 out of 5 of the most popular blog posts on the CRM Software Blog. They have consistently been on the most popular list, but now they are completely dominating it. I told them that the blogger at Beringer Associates deserves a gold star. Then I found that they deserve a whole bunch of gold stars, because everyone at their company is a blogger. Lisa A. Beringer, Vice President at Beringer Associates, Inc. shared her company’s secret to success with me:
Read moreWhen someone is a prospect, they are a VIP. They get our full attention. But once they sign the contract or send the check, what happens? Do they still feel your love? A recent experience had me feeling like a top priority then totally ignored after the deal was done. And of course this made me think of ERP software....
Read moreHow many case studies do you have in your marketing portfolio?
A compelling case study is an excellent marketing tool, but they are not always easy to create. Here are 7 steps I use with each case study I write. Plus 13 interview questions I ask my clients to draw out the information I need.
Read moreWait, didn’t I already write about this? Once you have been blogging for a while, it all starts to become a blur. It is very difficult to remember what you have written about and when and where, it was published. But there is value in knowing what you have already written about and being able to quickly find the URL. Here are 4 reasons you need an inventory list and the benefits.
Read moreBanners are my new thing. When someone finishes reading a blog post, I want them to be see a beautiful banner that will just make them feel compelled to click to get more information.
But I am not a graphic designer. I wish I was, as it would be such an asset to my marketing career. As I get older I have resigned myself to the fact that you just can’t be good at everything, and learning when to delegate is a sign of maturity. Finally, I have found a solution. Here are a few examples of my favorite banners...
Read moreHow often should you promote a blog post?
When I write a blog post, I want people to see it. Of course the main way they will find it, if I have done a good job at optimization, is from their search engine.
But I also try to give my posts a boost using social media, specifically Twitter and LinkedIn, not just once but repeatedly because you will catch different peoples’ attention at different times with the same message. The question is, how much promotion is the right amount?
Here are two different strategies.
Read moreAnybody can say that writing more blog posts is better, especially someone who owns the blog site. But I can give you proof.
A Microsoft Dynamics CRM partner who is a member of the CRM Software Blog shared their statistics with me, and the results are very clear. With an increased focus on blogging and very few other changes to their marketing strategy, this Dynamics CRM Partner has seen a
And that is not all.
Read moreSome people think I am annoying. But that makes me a better blog writer. I am the person who combs through the fine print, anticipates every worst case scenario and asks what the contingency plan is. Fortunately I have found that this quality serves me well for blog writing. I have had success with something I call “Pick-Apart Posts”. I will take a topic and literally pick it apart. I’ll look at it from every angle, ask every potential question my customer could ask, try to think of every scenario and then find the answers and document them.
Read moreYou’ve heard of the 80/20 rule, right? I bet you get 80% of your traffic from 20% of your blog posts.
All of us struggle with finding time to write new blog posts. So instead, here is a strategy you can use to get more traffic and leads from the blog posts you have already published. First you want to find out which of your blog posts are the most popular.
Read moreWhat personality trait should you look for when hiring for marketing?
Should the person be organized, creative, detail oriented? You could argue that all of those qualities are important.
But I believe the key personality trait of a great marketer is OPTIMISM - unfailing, unflagging optimism: the belief that just because something hasn’t worked before, it might work this time. Or the prospect who hasn’t responded to the last ten marketing touches, might just call today.
Read moreSo many blog sites, so little time. Everyone wants original content, but there is only so much time in the day for writing.
When you spend the time researching and crafting a great blog post it is tempting to post it on more than one site. But that little voice in your head should remind you that duplicate content is bad; search engines don’t like duplicate content and it will not improve your SEO.
If you plan to use the same content on multiple blog sites, it should be rewritten it so that the content is fresh. This does not just mean changing the title and a few sentences.
Read moreWhat if you plan a party and nobody shows up? Or worse, just one or two show up and you stare awkwardly at each other while they wonder where all the cool people went instead?
The same is true if you present a session at an event.
Don’t just rely on the event coordinators to promote you, do your part to get people into the room to listen to you. Attendees usually have several sessions to choose from during a single time slot, and plenty of people to distract them in the hallways, so you have tough competition. There are several things you can do to promote your session DURING the event. Here are four ideas:
Read moreWhat is involved in producing a successful podcast? Bob McAdam, one of the hosts of the Enterprise Software Podcast, along with Todd McDaniel and Darcy Boerio, shared his story with me about how their podcast started, what is involved in producing it and some of the benefits along the way.
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People who intentionally plagiarize blog content, and pass it off as their own, are slimy. There is an easy way to find out if someone else is plagiarizing your content (or if you have copied theirs!)
Read moreDuplicate content is bad. You should not post exactly the same blog article on more than one site. But many of you that write for the ERP/CRM Software Blogs also write for your own company blog sites. How can you avoid duplicate content across company and group blogs? Here are my 3 tips:
Read moreYou know that posting duplicate content online is dangerous, but I bet you do it anyway.
You will get the most SEO value for your hard work if you rewrite the post for each blog you intend to use it on. But, I know that when you have worked hard on an article, posting it more than once is just so awfully tempting that it is hard to resist.
So here are steps you can follow to use canonical link tags to identify duplicate content and hopefully avoid any Google penalties.
Read moreOnce you have made the effort to write a blog post, isn’t is worth just a little more effort to make sure it is optimized so people (and search engines) can find it?
An easy way to optimize your post for SEO is to the “Wordpress SEO by Yoast” tool. This is already installed on the blog sites that I manage. There are 4 basic fields on the “General” that take just a few minutes to fill out but can improve your SEO results.
Read moreOnce you have been in the Dynamics channel for a while, you know where to get the information you need.
For example, here are my “go to” directories when I want to find a specific ISV product or partner. (Hint: if you are an ISV partner that wants to get found, you should check out these lists too). And a list of top events for Dynamics partners you shouldn't miss.
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