4040 Media Blog

A Simple Step by Step Guide to SEO

Fri, 25 May 2012 13:46:07 +0100

Some businesses feel put off by the sheer amount of SEO information and guidance on the web. Don’t let information overload dissuade you: this KISSMetrics guide boils SEO down to simple tips that anyone with a website can use. The author covers WordPress plugins which are particularly useful for bloggers as they allow each page to be analysed before the content is even published. Don’t forget quality content: it’s not just about blogging, but a range of different types of useful content can really help with SEO. Don’t know your blackhats from your whitehats? This excellent blog explains it all. Click here to read more.

13 Things to Check Before Hitting 'Send' on Your Next Marketing Email

Fri, 25 May 2012 13:42:00 +0100

Don’t waste a golden marketing opportunity by being careless. It’s all too easy to send out a mass mail to clients containing a crucial mistake, like a missing link or a spelling error. The golden rule is to check, check and check again, perhaps involving someone else to be absolutely sure your email will be sent with pristine formatting and content. Considering things like background colours and subject lines can make the difference between a good return and a client sending your email straight to spam without a second thought. Also make sure you follow stringent anti-spam guidelines to avoid being blacklisted. Click here to read more.

Why Purchasing Email Lists Is Always a Bad Idea

Fri, 25 May 2012 13:36:16 +0100

When creating marketing mailouts, it can be very tempting to take a short-cut and purchase a list. This excellent blog from HubSpot explains why list purchasing is rarely the amazing time-saver you think it is. Here’s the killer: “There’s no such thing as a good email list that’s for sale.” When creating email marketing, it’s all about quality over quantity - and purchasing lists can get you in trouble for spamming. Many email marketing providers won’t let you use lists you’ve purchased, so think carefully before parting with any money. Would you respond to an unsolicited emails from companies you don’t know? Click here to read more.

The 5-Step Guide to Executing an Outstanding Inbound Marketing Campaign

Fri, 25 May 2012 13:29:36 +0100

Inbound marketing is a great way to attract new clients, but putting your marketing plan into practice can be a complex undertaking requiring time and effort. This blog post provides ideas on creating your own DIY marketing campaign - something every startup and SME will eventually need to do. Set aside some time to work through the comprehensive resources in this post and you’ll be able to analyse your metrics to create a marketing campaign that really works. Don’t forget to close the campaign, measure the responses, time-limit your offers and make a note of the results for future reference. Click here to read more.

The Customer Lifecycle: How Following-Up Can Increase Your Conversions

Fri, 25 May 2012 13:20:53 +0100

Customers might visit a website several times before signing up to anything. They may actively follow you on social media without you ever knowing they’re ready to make a purchase. They may sign up for a trial, like the trial, then disappear. How do you cope with ‘silent’ customers, or people who are just waiting to become conversions but never reach out? The KISSMetrics blog is goldmine of useful information, and in this blog, they’ve turned their attention to SaaS. If you’ve never considered a CRM to follow up leads and enquiries, now might be a good time to investigate. Click here to read more.

6 Ways to Grow YouTube Subscribers and Your Exposure

Fri, 18 May 2012 09:54:11 +0100

Without video marketing, many companies are missing out on massive exposure to a near untapped audience of potential clients. YouTube is the second biggest search engine on the web, and for many businesses, it’s unexplored and under-utilised. Creating a great YouTube channel is all about engagement and promotion, and this blog post contains some handy tips on both. There are particular features on YouTube videos that can be used to call people to action, netting the channel more subscribers in the process, and you can embed YouTube widgets and videos in your blogs and web pages to increase interaction. Click here to read more.

6 Tips for Using Pinterest for Business

Fri, 18 May 2012 09:47:02 +0100

Pinterest has changed over the last few months. Up until recently, the site was chock-full of fashion, home wares, photography and travel snaps. In recent months, social media marketing gurus have begun to experiment with the platform. But is there any real use for Pinterest in business - other than posting infographics and hoping for the best? This blog post contains a number of useful tips from experienced Pinterest users on the best way to influence trends on the site. Using boards for portfolio pieces, special offers and follower collaboration are just three of the interesting points made in this useful guide. Click here to read more.

How to get more likes on Facebook

Fri, 11 May 2012 11:25:32 +0100

Online marketing is big business, and some companies will go to extreme lengths to trigger sharing and retweets from punters. If you’re ever been irritated by mountains of social sharing buttons on an interesting blog, have a look at this great blog from The Oatmeal. If you’ve had your Facebook account for some time, you’ve probably been pestered into clicking Like on something you don’t care about, or you may have endured some awful social marketing tactics from your contacts and followers. Sssh: The secret to creating real, genuine social likes and interaction is at the bottom of the page. Click here to read more.

How to Craft an Offer That Can’t Be Refused

Fri, 11 May 2012 11:18:55 +0100

Getting your content right is just one stage of the marketing process. Defining your customer, and figuring out what they really need, is the secret recipe for marketing success. This blog by Chris Guillebeau gives content writers valuable tips on analysing the wants and needs of the audience. Phrasing and tone can help you to figure out the best way to approach the customer without alienating them, and constructing your offer from the ground up ensures you’ve identified any objections they might have before they can even ask. This is a great piece by the author of the best-selling book ‘The $100 Startup’. Click here to read more.

The 10 Greatest Marketing Campaigns of All Time

Fri, 11 May 2012 11:11:28 +0100

Creating a memorable marketing campaign pays dividends for years to come. This entertaining blog from Lauren Sorenson touches on ten of the best marketing campaigns ever created, and the reasons why they succeeded in getting their message across. Indeed, some of these campaigns have a timeless quality, and they have arguably promoted the brand far beyond their original scope. Most of these ads are from the US, although some have international reach, but all capture a central concept which has come to define the brand: ‘Diamonds are Forever’, ‘Just Do It’ and ‘Get a Mac’ are just three you’ll recognise. Click here to read more.

How To Make Money Online

Fri, 11 May 2012 11:04:29 +0100

Making money online is surely the Holy Grail of employment, and there are no shortage of e-books on the subject. But can you really sit at your computer and watch the pounds roll in? Seth Godin has written a 21-point blog offering a fresh window on online opportunities. Some of the key themes are gaining trust and grabbing valuable attention rather than focusing on fads and quick wins. Creating value and building up from a small base is also important, according to his blog. Perhaps the best tip: ‘make money offline’: the same principles apply to both online and offline entrepreneurship. Click here to read more.

The Best and Worst Times to Share on Facebook, Twitter

Fri, 11 May 2012 10:55:33 +0100

Capturing social media traffic is trickier than it sounds, particularly on weekdays when Twitter streams move fast. It can be hard to get your message heard among the noise, but careful timing of tweets and updates can help you to attract the most traffic. New research from bit.ly suggests that 1pm and 3pm Eastern Time are the best timezones to post if you have a global or US-centric audience. Over time we may find those social windows becoming ever more congested by opportunistic marketing tweets, so this is certainly a topic worth revisiting every few months. Click here to read more.

This $20 Trillion Rock Could Turn a Startup Into Earth’s Richest Company

Fri, 04 May 2012 12:41:33 +0100

As natural resources show signs of running out, entrepreneurs and investors are literally looking to the stars for the next start-up opportunity. Last week, fabulously wealthy staff from Microsoft, Google and other companies invested in a new asteroid mining company, Planetary Resources. In time, they hope to develop the equipment to literally harness and dismantle asteroids, mining them for precious metals like platinum. If the company capture a single rock, they’ll easily become the most valuable company on the planet. But there’s one small snag in their business plan: the equipment needed for the job hasn’t yet been invented.

5 Tools to Take Your SEO to the Next Level

Fri, 04 May 2012 12:36:19 +0100

Optimising your website is a complex process, and relying on one tool is not always the best way to approach it. Aj Kumar rounds up five tools that can help with optimisation, pay-per-click, keyword research, social media activity and backlinks. Many of the packages covered in this post are paid, but most have trial periods so you can give them a go before you part with any cash. The last option in Aj’s list, Traffic Travis, is entirely free and has plenty of features, but it’s only available for Windows users; there’s no cloud version or app to go with it. Click here to read more.

The One-Two Marketing Punch: How to Combine Traditional and Online Media

Fri, 04 May 2012 12:28:32 +0100

When you’re struggling to be heard among the social media noise, it can pay to reconsider your approach. This post discusses ways to blend digital marketing with traditional marketing to give your business the best chance of success. Using other channels, such as printed QR codes or email newsletters, you can capture a different type of traffic from a slightly different demographic. But you don’t have to print thousands of leaflets and push them through doors to get results. It all comes down to brand exposure, and reinforcing your brand offline can boost the response you get online as well. Click Here to read more.

8 Tactful Ways to use your Personal Facebook Account as a Marketing Tool

Fri, 04 May 2012 12:20:28 +0100

Here’s a $64,000 question for freelancers and start-up entrepreneurs. How do you promote what you do on your personal Facebook page without turning it into a business website? This post goes through some strategic and technical tips around engaging people on Facebook, allowing people to subscribe to your posts and promoting your business at the same time. Using these steps, you can also tweak your profile to show your professional details publicly without giving away too much of your personal data, such as photos. A little diligence is still needed to ensure you don’t accidentally share your innermost thoughts with your business contacts. Click here to read more.

7 Reasons Marketing & Customer Service Need to Work Together

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 11:04:16 +0100

With social media comes social sharing of praise and criticism, and the way companies react to those messages can become an infinite feedback loop. This can be positive or negative, depending on the way it’s handled. Pamela Vaughan’s article uses the analogy of milk and cookies to describe the way marketing departments and customer service teams should work together to ensure clients are happy. Building relationships over social media may not be easy, but it’s vital if you’re to ensure your company is seen to be helpful, honest and fair. The feedback you get can also steer your marketing efforts in the future. Click here to read more.

How to Steal Killer Sales Copy Straight from Your Prospects’ Mouths

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 10:54:50 +0100

Joanna Wiebe has penned this quirky piece for Kissmetrics on how to recycle customer reviews to enhance your own copy. By drawing on customer feedback, you can tap into the kind of language you should be using. She argues that the real gold - and the fundamental clues behind buying decisions - are in customer reviews, not expert analysis. She also says dedicated review sites are best avoided when you’re looking for inspiration for copywriting, since the polarised opinions on those sites can lead you down the wrong path. If you’re not a copywriter by trade, this could help you get inside the head of your clients. Click here to read more.

The 5 Easy Steps To Measure Your Social Media Campaigns

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 10:50:29 +0100

Social media is a time consuming matter for any business, and it’s vital that your investment of time isn’t wasted. This Kissmetrics blog walks us through analytics and metrics, explains the difference between the two, and offers suggestions for measuring your goals and progress. There’s a really useful tip about a service called SocDir that taps into all available social media tools and tells you exactly what sites to use to generate the results you’re looking for. Also, try running reports on competitors to see what they’re doing right - and wrong. Click here to read more.

How to use Pinterest for business: 7 handy tips

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 10:46:03 +0100

Pinterest is the newest social media buzz site, and marketing companies are eager to figure out how to harness the unique user base the site can offer. A very high proportion of users on Pinterest are women, and visually representing your company is key: there’s no content writing needed here. Cara Pring picks out some basics, such as pinning your own products among classic products from other sources, or pinning pictures of your staff and logos. More advanced Pinterest ideas, such as games and contests, aren’t covered, but this post should trigger a few brainstorming sessions in the office nonetheless. Click here to read more.