Be sure to grab a copy of the Cheat Sheet as well.

Today we are going to cover how to list your business on MerchantCircle and optimize it as much as possible.  We have created a couple of videos showing how to do this and also some notes for you to follow.

The first step is to simply get your listing setup by going to MerchantCircle.com and creating an account.  We are assuming you have already done this but if you have not, go ahead and take that step.

Next we are going to show you how to create a full profile to really showcase your business.  The video below outlines what to do.

Now that we have an overview of how to setup an optimized business listing, we will cover exactly how to do it.  In this video we will also cover building out your network and how to take advantage of some free advertising.

Did you optimize you listing?  If so, great work!  Now onto the final step – building out the gallery to showcase your business.

This next video shows you where to upload images and how to edit the Title, Description and Tags.  Professional titles and full descriptions help to build credibility with potential customers.  Completing the tags helps MerchantCircle and Google send you more traffic to the listing.

We have also created a 1 page cheat sheet in PDF format to make the whole process easier for you.  You can grab a copy of it here.

It provides one central location for just about everything we do – SEO, PPC, Email Marketing, Social Media, Sales Lead Tracking, etc.

Check out the video below to see it.

Seo is what marketers call search engine optimization. We all know that most people are doing more and more shopping online and looking for information using this method too. There is the need, therefore, for you to be seen on most if not all search engines that people are using. This is the basic concept of a seo campaign. In learning how to organize an effective seo campaign for a local business, you have to first of all give people a platform with which they will be able to find you and your business. This is usually a website or the social media: although the social media is the advanced step of seo marketing.

After you have done this, you need to make sure that this website is a true reflection of your business. In the indexing of pages, any search engine will try to look for keywords that are in its content that a lot of people type into the search bar. If there are a high number of those in the content, then it means that you will be ranked higher when people type these keywords into any search engine. Thus you need to make sure that you have as many of these search terms in your content as possible. Getting these keywords in the content of the website is not enough as you have to now earn a reputation for your website among the search engines.

How do you do this, you ask? The best way for you to do this is through back links. This is where you have your links placed on some very high ranking websites. If the spiders that are used to index pages are led to your page from a very highly ranked page, then they know that you page is also of high quality and thus your rank gets better. If you have no qualms about paying for quality links to your website, then another option for you that is slightly outside seo is to pay for adverts.

You will still get search engine optimized but the clicks that you get will not be of the same quality as those that come from slicks that originate “voluntarily”. The upside of this is that the traffic that this drives to your site, if your keywords have a high searchability and you have quality content, could help to propel you to the top of most search engines. These are some of the most effective ways for you to get seen and noticed on search engines. There is a lot more that can be done for you to ensure that you have seo-optimized you website. This is so that you may be able to get the foothold that you need to launch the actual seo campaign for your local business.

Before you think of launching a seo campaign for your local business, you need to first of all understand what seo is and what it can do for you. You also need to understand what you can do with it and how to apply it to the concept of your local business. In trying to understand how seo works and how you can make it work for you, you have to make sure that you have the right tools and information. Seo is what marketers call search engine optimization. We all know that most people are doing more and more shopping online and looking for information using this method too. There is the need, therefore, for you to be seen on most if not all search engines that people are using. This is the basic concept of a seo campaign.

In learning how to organize an effective seo campaign for a local business, you have to first of all give people a platform with which they will be able to find you and your business. This is usually a website or the social media: although the social media is the advanced step of seo marketing. After you have done this, you need to make sure that this website is a true reflection of your business. In the indexing of pages, any search engine will try to look for keywords that are in its content that a lot of people type into the search bar. If there are a high number of those in the content, then it means that you will be ranked higher when people type these keywords into any search engine. Thus you need to make sure that you have as many of these search terms in your content as possible.

Getting these keywords in the content of the website is not enough as you have to now earn a reputation for your website among the search engines. How do you do this, you ask? The best way for you to do this is through back links. This is where you have your links placed on some very high ranking websites. If the spiders that are used to index pages are led to your page from a very highly ranked page, then they know that you page is also of high quality and thus your rank gets better.

If you have no qualms about paying for quality links to your website, then another option for you that is slightly outside seo is to pay for adverts. You will still get search engine optimized but the clicks that you get will not be of the same quality as those that come from slicks that originate “voluntarily”. The upside of this is that the traffic that this drives to your site, if your keywords have a high searchability and you have quality content, could help to propel you to the top of most search engines.

These are some of the most effective ways for you to get seen and noticed on search engines. There is a lot more that can be done for you to ensure that you have seo-optimized you website. This is so that you may be able to get the foothold that you need to launch the actual seo campaign for your local business.

We can expand this social phenomenon to a certain extent to the category of self-expression; that is, opinions are given to be heard, as with sharing emotions and creativity, and often the one who engages in self-expression does so on a social media platform, such as MySpace or Facebook. The advocacy category is a very social one, too. The advocate influences others and works with groups for a cause — the advocate is not typically a lone crusader but rather a member of a movement, and often times movements call for support, which take the form of grassroots, social campaigning. The members of the movement themselves tend to have forums for discussion or blogs to keep each other updated on the current events connected to their cause.

You might ask, “So how does that matter to my Local Business?” Well, here’s the skinny: It’s pervasive, so chances are your customers are already engaged with social media. The number of people using social media has grown rapidly in the last few years and doesn’t show signs of slowing down. Think of social media as a form of word-of-mouth advertising – which is the best kind of advertising for a local business – but it’s a new word of mouth, where word travels much, much faster.

Perhaps the most incredible result of social media for a local business is that it’s becoming a place for search. Searching Twitter, for example, is like picking the brains of millions of people at once. When people are talking about your product or service, and they search the social media where the conversation is happening, it becomes another place for them to find your brand. In fact, if I was to make a prediction about the future of search, I’d say it’s here, on social media sites. So, just as you need SEO for search engines like Google and Bing, you also need to keep SMO, or Social Media Optimization, as a part of your marketing strategy for local business. You need to have a social media presence, and all your content on social media (yes, your profile counts as content) needs to be optimized.

In light of SEO and SMO, your content marketing strategy will be barbell-shaped, in a sense. You need to network via social media in order to develop your online presence as much as you need to pay attention to search ranking – if you’re planning on succeeding. It’s through social media that your content will circulate most rapidly and you will get some of the best links pointing to your pages. A successful social media campaign will increase your search rankings, while at the same time bringing traffic to your site. In addition to content development for search engines, it is important look closely at how your content and social media presence will interact and how you can optimize both.

Most mobile apps have push message service which allows you, the business owner, to send a messages directly to the phone of every individual that downloads your application. You could also send out an audio message giving them an overview about some of the new things that are happening with your businesses.

Now let’s look at a local business with mobile app marketing. In a similar scenario, your business spends money to get the customer into the front door. The customer comes into your business, purchases the product or service and then is offered the ability to text a short code to a keyword unique to your business. The customer texts that short code, and they automatically are sent a link to download your mobile application. To activate this, you could have a sign on the front of your store, in your business or in the window that says: text a short code to your keyword to get a free mobile app and (as an example) get a 20% discount or other special offers. Whatever it is that you want to give away, the customer does it, they download the application, and now you have retained that customer because they are now on your ‘list’.

What is the Value to Your Business?

You now own all of that data and you can continue marketing to that customer to the end of time, not allowing your business to go out of sight, out of mind. You have saved advertising money , and you can continue to market to them forever.

Let’s say two weeks go by and your business is a little bit slow. You can then send a push message directly to the cell phone of these customers who visited your business, offering them something to come back. Your business would potentially make more money than you made the entire week all because of a mobile app and push message marketing.

What can a mobile app do for your business?

Mobile apps are much more powerful than just push message notifications. Mobile apps come with amazing features that will allow you to build quality relationships with your customers, giving you the competitive advantage you need while retaining your customers gained through advertising spend.

You may have the “tell a friend” feature which you can add to your app, so a person can click a button and share the amazing features and all of the things that you have in your business with all of their friends. They can share via email, share it with their Facebook and/or Twitter connections, or share with an actual text message.

You can also have the GPS coupons which are awesome; you can automate your rewards and coupons based on visits to your store or events. They can simply check in using your app and the GPS will validate that they are there and keep track of their visit automatically sending them a coupon after the right amount of visits take place. It’s like having a virtual punch card. Your business will benefit from this and your customers will love it.

You also can add a feature that allows your customers to contact you in several ways. They can find a map to your business, they can click a button to call you right away, they can email you, or they can link right to your website,

Also you have the push message notifications which we talked about earlier. You can create and open a fan wall which is essentially creating instant social-proof by letting customers post comments to your fan wall – there’s no greater spokesperson for your business than a happy client.

You can do an event listing where you can update all of your events; maybe you have a special happy hour time. You can even put in an event here that says: if you downloaded our app, show this to our waitress and your happy hour time will start an hour earlier for you. This way you can really connect with individuals who have downloaded your app.

Now every business needs to not only have an app in the next 3-5 years, they will need an app to remain competitive. Why? Because mobile applications are the future, whether you have an Android, iPhone, Black berry or iPad, it’s all compatible. It’s a powerful way for you to establish and maintain communication with your customers and expand your brand like you’ve never seen before.

When it comes to promoting your business on-line the quality totally wins over quantity. The thing is that if your content is good enough, it will be spread further without your assistance. It will go “viral” – the users will share it over Facebook and other social networking and entertainment sites and the traffic and consequently the number of deals you get with the help of your on-line representation will go boom.

But if the content starts living its own life once it had been “released” into the wilderness of the Internet – why businesses need to track the leads they generate online in this case? They need it because the content that is faulty in some ways may also suddenly gain huge popularity and your reputation will be ruined instantly, all over the world.

There is almost no expiration date for the data that had been uploaded at least once. There is always a chance that some old terrible concept project or a disastrous ad your business once risked to publish will emerge one day after years of being stored away on somebody’s hard drive. It may be an accident submerged through a web relics enthusiast or a purposeful revenge of a former employee, but you never know when the idea that went astray may strike back. However, there are ways to prevent it.

A thorough planning and a conceptual advertising campaign coherently lead on all the social platforms at once is the best solution. A good brand should be represented on the same quality level throughout the whole world. Remember that the location-based view limitations of the media content about your product that you are willing to spread in a certain country or region will be easily ignored with the help of proxy servers and if there is at least a smallest chance that your ads may be offensive to representative of some other culture then you are in for a disaster with your whole target audience.

No good business owner should also overlook the scamming possibility. Fake ads giving some really bad rep to the world-famous brands like McDonalds had been known to emerge on-line and it took a lot of work to calm the masses down and prove the falsification once the fakes went “viral”. In other words – pay a close attention not just to what you are stating about your company on-line, but keep an eye open for the media “buzz” created around your product by others.

Once you’ve mastered the art of holistic on-line advertising you may turn your worst enemy into your friend and use the “viral” effect to your advantage as many huge brand did. For instance just remember the “Blues loving dog” off YouTube that had been a “guerrilla” ad of Bud Light beer. It has to be subtle to work for you.

Why Use Online Video Marketing?

Whether you are a small start up or a big and established business, online video marketing can help you in a number of ways. Below are some of the benefits of this online marketing method.

1. It helps you stay current

Making videos keeps you on your toes in relation to what is happening around you. Currently, the hottest marketing trend is the use of videos to pitch your products, demonstrate them in use, or even communicate a user testimonial. So, regardless of whether you have a huge presence in other social media platforms like twitter and facebook, you also need to get yourself some presence in video sharing platforms in order to remain relevant.

2. It’s where people are

Over the years, people have evolved from primitive communication methods, to the written word, and now to online videos. The technological developments that have availed online video streaming to just about every household, like the smart phones and tablets, has shifted focus from emails and other online marketing methods to online video.

3. Helps you get discovered

Due to the large numbers of people regularly interacting with online videos, the chances of your business being discovered through video platforms are greatly increased. This means more business for you and more profits.

4. Helps sell products

The videos that you make greatly help you to presell and warm your business up to your customers. For instance, if you make a video explaining the benefits of a given product, a lot of people are likely to buy it because they can see a live demonstration of a solution to their problem.

5. Appeals to most people

Unlike the written word, or any other form of marketing for that matter, most people get attracted to watching videos. Again, a video engages all the human senses thus becoming a better vehicle to send your products message through.

Choosing a video style

Making a video is more fun as opposed to planning it. A lot of people, therefore, leap before they look, by skipping the planning part. This makes their resultant videos unappealing. This is very dangerous if you are to use the video as your marketing tool.

An email newsletter is very similar to a flyer that you’d put in a mailbox, but with a few extra advantages. First, they can be longer and more detailed than a standard flyer since you’re not limited to paper size. Second, you don’t need to worry about printing costs. You just need some sort of desktop publishing software or skill with HTML. Finally, unlike conventional canvassing campaigns, it’s very easy to craft custom newsletters for different types of clients. Here’s how to start.

The first thing you’ll need is a list of your customer’s email addresses. Without this, you can’t send the newsletter in the first place. There are several ways to get access to this vital piece of information. One is to ask for it when people purchase items off your web site. This is the quick way to do it, but if you don’t have an online store front then you’ll need to ask your customers directly. Have a signup sheet at your checkout and tell them you’re developing the newsletter. If you plan on including coupons with your newsletter, telling your customers is a great way to get them to sign up. Collect addresses for about a month so you get a good rounded list of your client base. Please make sure that you follow all applicable laws for gathering and using customer information.

While you’re collecting addresses, you’ll want to begin crafting your newsletter. There are several things to keep in mind. First, you’ll want your newsletter to look good in plain text, HTML without pictures, and HTML with pictures. Color, layout, and pictures cannot take the place of strong copy and shouldn’t try. Second, you’ll want to code your newsletter like it’s 1999. Most email clients will strip out CSS coding or render it their own way, so you’ll have to use older techniques such as in-line styling and tables to get everything to look right. Finally, get to the point of the newsletter as quickly as possible. More and more email fills our boxes every day, so attention must be grabbed quickly.

Test your design thoroughly in different email clients before you send out your first newsletter. It’s impossible to get it to look right in every single one, but hitting the three major web-mail clients (Yahoo, Gmail, Microsoft Hotmail) will cover a large portion of your client base. Again, make sure it looks good if the images or HTML are off. A very important thing to add is an easy unsubscribe option at the bottom. Many people forget that they’ve signed up for things, and giving them an easy way to opt-out can do a lot to soothe tempers. Plus, it might even be required depending on local laws.

Finally, your delivery mechanism needs to be perfect. If your list is very small, you can use the BCC (not the CC!) options in your email client. This will keep your customers from seeing everyone’s email address. However, this method can get very problematic as your list grows.

A more professional way is to use a mailer service like Aweber. Aweber can help you design everything in your news letter from start to finish, but their most useful service is their email automation. They can make sure your newsletter goes to all your clients every time and report bad addresses.

Email newsletters are a great way to dip your toe into Internet marketing, especially if you’re familiar with direct mail advertising. By keeping your message simple and direct, you can have a powerful impact on the behavior of your customers, and start the process of creating the one-on-one relationship that larger social media campaigns make. Fire up your creativity and start making some designs!

Online reputation management is all about your presence online. The sum total of all content about you, including mentions of your brand in places that you don’t control, makes up your business’s biomass online. You need to think in terms of the big picture: maintain a high-quality reputation, ensuring that at every turn your customers and potential customers will find good mentions, excellent content, and stellar reviews. You need to ensure that the cream of the crop rises in the search results, so you don’t find any negativity there instead.

Obviously, this doesn’t always happen. The Internet is full of places where consumers can vent their frustrations with products or services they’ve received. There are whole forums devoted to customer complaints. Customers do, in fact, take the time to comment on a product they’ve received, updating the original content with user-generated content (UGC) that is completely out of the control of the vendor. While this is great for consumer awareness, it can be challenging to present a balanced view of your product if there is vocalized negative press out there, especially when it seems to outweigh the good press.

To get your online reputation management working for your brand, fill the search page with your organization’s content and monitor the activity. For key executives, optimizing profiles or bio pages on your company website works well for ensuring that those pages rank in search. Social media profiles are the other obvious place that key executives will find their way in search. Social media can be challenging as work and personal lives overlap in these spheres. For the sake of the brand, social media activity will have to be kept at a reasonable level of professionalism.

For the long term, your strategy of online reputation management can beat negative content before it has a chance to infiltrate the search results. By keeping a finger to the wind, through tracking mentions of your brand in search, you can ensure that your content positions you strategically to avoid any bumps in the road. Monitor the search results for your brand and the keywords that will find your brand and your product. By keeping close track of this activity on a regular basis, you’ll get an early warning in the event that your content slips from the rankings, and of any negative content you may need to manage.

Keep in mind that reputation management is a major industry in its own right, and there are whole strategies to clear up a smeared reputation. A reputation that has been marred often requires a major effort to clean up, months of work and, unfortunately, a considerable financial investment.

Tips on designing a business website effectively

1. Information

A business website should carry all the necessary business information that the parties involved in the business need. It should have a business description, product/service description, pricing, frequently asked questions, and the contact details. All this information should be well laid out and easily visible.

2. Clear navigation

In order for the business website to be more effective, the content should be arranged in an easy to navigate way. This way, any website user can easily advance from one piece of information/page to another on the same website. The navigation should be so easy such that even a person with limited online experience can follow through the content.

3. SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the different things that one does within the business website, or on other websites that you do not own, in order to gain more online visibility. It is divided in to two: on-page and off-page SEO. A well optimized business website is very effective at driving prospects to your online shop, thus increasing your ranking on the search engines, as well as the sales.

4. Security

Any business website that sells things online needs to have extra layers of security. A SSL certificate is a security layer that protects data from being stolen while on transmission between you and your customers. This protection comes via data encryption. With this in place, your customers can feel comfortable buying using their debit/credit cards on your online store.

5. Social media integration

Besides the obvious backlinks (authority links that point to your website) that you get while promoting your business through the many social media platforms, having good social media presence gives the business a human face. Through these social platforms, you can interact with your potential and existing clients, preselling then to any offers that you may have. This grows trust between you and your customers. The result is consistently rising profits over time.

6. Mobile ready

Technological trends are strongly heading the smart phones and tablets way. This is being further enhanced by the increasingly lower costs of acquiring these gadgets. As a result of this, a lot of traffic to different websites is being accounted for from these gadgets. You should therefore ensure that your business website has a mobile ready version. This way, you won’t loose out on any of this traffic.

7. Contact and FAQs

Finally, an effective business website should have clearly displayed contact information through which a customer can get in touch with you. It should also have a section where some of the most commonly asked questions are answered. The reason why you need this frequently asked questions section is so that you do not keep repeating the answer to the same question to multiple clients.

Applying some of these simple tips on how to design a business website effectively will lead to the success of your online based business.