By Hector E. Cisneros
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| Courtesy of Flickr |
Many years ago, I read Steven
Covey's book "Seven Habits of Highly
Effective People". This book had a big impact on my life. I spent many years cultivating
and incorporating his philosophy and ideas into my business and personal life. This
article is my attempt to bring the spirit of his philosophy to the world of internet
marketing. However, I did not want to just rehash his ideas. I wanted to bring the
reader a new perspective, a new view of how my seven internet marketing habits incorporate
and embrace the sea change that has occurred in organic search engine marketing.
I wanted these seven marketing habits to showcase how any internet
marketer could use content
marketing to be successful at achieving their client’s goals. So if you’re
ready to learn how it’s done. Read on and embrace the Seven Habits of Highly Successful
Internet Marketers.
Habit #1: Successful
internet marketers don't try to trick the
search engines, they try to make them happy.
They look for efficient ways to give the search
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| Google, Yahoo and Bing don't Like Tricks! |
engines what they want. They understand that it is important to be focused
and specific, by picking optimized keywords, URL names and making sure that these
elements match the content on
their web properties. They make sure that they have created a unique selling proposition and
know all about their ideal customer profiles before they start their campaign. They
also make sure they set up and use web page analytics
to set goals, engage in AB
testing and monitor their campaign, to make sure they are on target.
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| Internet Marketing is always evolving. |
Habit #2: Successful
internet marketers understand that internet
marketing is a rapidly evolving medium. It is tied to technology and that technology is always changing. This
means that internet marketing will always be evolving at a much faster pace than
conventional old school advertising.
Flexibility is paramount. They know that they have to keep up with changes,
understand and embrace these changes and look for opportunities that they can exploit.
They understand that if the result your measuring indicate change is needed, then
change must take place, even if it means scrapping that medium and replacing it
with another. They are not afraid to make changes if things are not working out
as they had planned.
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| blogger.com logo (Photo credit: Colin ZHU) |
Habit #3: Successful
internet marketers realize the revolution
that blogging has created. They fully grasp the magnitude
that publishing without the restrictions and controls that the big publishing companies
once wielded can give them. Any business can create uniquely useful, relevant and
timely content that creates credibility and separates them from the competition.
More importantly, they understand that blog articles are not a one and done proposition.
They get the importance of how these articles can have very long advertising lives.
They also recognize that these articles keep on working day in and day out, they
are indexed daily by the search engines, which means they can rank quickly. They
can even draw as much traffic as pay
per click campaigns and build a following just like social
media. They recognize how blogging is a lynchpin connecting all types of content, including web pages, social
networks, video, images, podcasts and more.
Habit #4: Successful
internet marketers recognize the importance
that social media plays for today's consumers. They
embrace the use of the top five social media sites and are committed to providing
unique, useful, relevant and timely content on a daily basis. They recognize the
importance of building a large following and engaging followers and prospects on
their terms. They recognize that consumers use social media as a word of mouth mechanism
to determine what's hot and what's not, what’s good and what sucks and whose service
is great and whose is poor. They also
realize that social network posts, follower
size, mentions and ratings, directly affect their web properties organic
search rankings. They understand that engaging enablers and focusing
on growth, is an important aspect of building
a strong social marketing platform. Lastly, they understand the important of using
their social nets as a customer database. This allows them to connect and cultivate
strong relationships with engaging post, offers and email news letters, fostering
repeat business.
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| The world of Social Media. |
Habit #5: Successful
internet marketers have discovered the power of credibility! They understand that a web page only has
about two minutes to motivate the visitors to click or call. They have
recognized that people are no longer willing to browse a website for ten or fifteen
minutes. A visitor must be compelled with a legitimately useful offer to motivate
them to take the next step of contacting a business. Web pages need to include elements
that build credibility as well as look professional. They need to include an easy
to find and read phone number, a physical address, a map
to your location, a video
testimonial and a unique selling proposition video. Your content needs to be
easy to understand and exactly match the visitors needs. Most importantly, your
landing page needs to help the customer feel confident, that your company, your product and your offer are
legitimate and not one of the millions of ripoffs that pervade the web.
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| Your site need credibility to work. |
Habit #6: Successful
internet marketers have discovered the power of FOCUS! They understand that a business is no longer restricted
to one website. They realize that when a person types in their search
term, (the key word) that search term is their question and your landing page needs
to be an exact answer. Successful internet marketers realize that they are better off
by creating a number of focused landing pages designed to cover specific areas of
their business. This allows a visitor to easily decide if they have found what they
are looking for. This way, when a person types in
bananas, they see a page
devoted to bananas as opposed to five kinds of fruit. They understand that having
a separate landing page for each type of fruit is better than having a main site
devoted to the five types of fruit they sell. With a focused landing page, the visitor
is less likely to be distracted and more likely to click or call. Successful internet
marketers further realize that the search engines prefer focused, easy to understand
web pages that make it easier to rank them as opposed to multi-subject pages.
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| Focus creates power and trust. |
Habit #7: Successful
internet marketers understand that internet
marketing for search ranking is a multimedia affair. No
longer can you just engage in one aspect of the web. Content in all its forms is
now king. You need to create content, lots of content in a wide variety of formats.
This should include; landing pages, videos, blogs,
social posts, slide shares, podcasts, white
papers, digital press releases and more. This content has to be constantly fed through
their specific channels, then cross-linked and backlinked to their related web
pages. Being one-dimensional is an easy way to allow your competitions to steal
your thunder and generate a better organic position. Successful internet marketers
make sure they're active in the top five social
nets and they don’t forget to include blogging, YouTube and podcasting as well.
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| Multimedia approach to content marketing. |
In this article, I have laid out what I feel are the seven habits of
highly successful internet marketers. These
seven habits will ensure success in any internet marketing endeavor. They will prove
exceptionally helpful when engaging in full-on campaigns versus just running ads.
Following these seven habits will create an audience, produce the strongest
organic ranking possible and will convert more visitors than any other marketing
habits used today. More importantly, they will produce these results without trickery
ensuring that you will never be blackballed or de-listed from the search engines.
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| Get your FREE eBook above. |
That's
my opinion; I look forward to hearing yours.
If you'd like a FREE Copy of our eBook, "Internet Marketing Tips for the 21st Century," please fill in the form in the upper right-hand sidebar, where you will receive instant access to our eBook. Your information is always kept private and is never sold.
Hector Cisneros is a partner, COO and Social Media Director for the award-winning, Internet-based marketing firm, Working the Web to Win, in Jacksonville, FL. You can connect with him on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, and YouTube. He’s also the co-host of BlogTalkRadio’s “Working the Web to Win,” where he and co-founder, Carl Weiss, make working the web to win simple for every business. Additionally, Hector is a syndicated writer on EzineOnline and is an active blogger (including ghostwriting). He's a published author of two books, "60 Seconds to Success"(available at Amazon and B&N), and "Internet Marketing for the 21st Century," which you can get by filling out the form above. He’s also the co-author of the new book, “Working The Web to Win,” which is now available on Amazon.com.
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Everyone needs to practice the habits that will make them more successful.
ReplyDeleteTo become a successful internet marketer, then this is very necessary that you should follow all the guidelines given by search engine and always practice white hat SEO techniques to outrank your website in SERP.
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