Sunday, December 30, 2012

What Are Your 2013 Internet Marketing/ Lead Generation ...

Internet marketers are under more pressure than ever to deliver high quality leads to the sales folks.? That, coupled with the continued role of social media, remains a challenge to most.

2013

It sounds like a broken record; we need to generate more traffic, enhance our brand, improve content, increase conversions, target better, figure out this social media thing, prove ROI, and more.? For B2B firms, lack of staffing and resources is the number one challenge to marketing success as noted on the chart below.

sherpachallenges

Let?s get more granular, and review some internet marketing 2013 resolutions that you can optimize now:

Planning

  • Really understand your target audience; why they buy; what pains they have; why they need your product or service; perform better buyer persona research
  • Re-evaluate your firm?s value proposition; what makes you different, how do you communicate your uniqueness;? have a white board meeting with your executive team, and reassure what you sell and how you sell it is on target

Search Engine Optimization

  • Update your SEO strategy; re-evaluate the keywords your buyers use to find you; and make content adjustments to reflect those keywords.
  • Stop the automated link building schemes.? Utilize a PR professional to begin pitching unique content to high quality blogs and online content websites.? This is the new SEO; I call it ?relationship SEO?

Paid Search-Pay-per-Click

  • Really understand the search terms people use to find you and click your ad. Review ?Matched search query? reports to reassure your keywords are aligned to your products; then adjust and take advantage of negative keywords.
  • Go through each campaign, and take advantage of the following- the integration of analytics website metrics with Adwords, Sitelinks, automated bidding rules, keyword insights, etc.? Many new features in Adwords as well as Bing.? Understand them, and increase your paid search effectiveness

Conversion Architecture

  • Test landing pages for conversion. i.e. headlines, calls-to-action statements, offers, etc.? By utilizing A/B tests, you can significantly increase landing page conversion rates.? And, keep those form fields to a minimum
  • Reassure that when audiences click your ads to get to your landing pages, include trust factor content such as testimonials, case studies, association logos, and a privacy policy link.
  • Take advantage of responsive design for your website, or at least, insure that your website and landing pages are mobile friendly.? The future awaits, and it?s mobile.

Online Display

  • Improve efficiency and increase message reach by considering buying campaigns via a DSP (demand side platform), by taking advantage of real-time bidding and 3rd-party data for better targeting
  • A must for increasing conversions- utilize retargeting or remarketing to bring audiences back to your website or landing page, with a special offer just for them.

Video Marketing

  • Video is a proven marketing tactic that increases engagement and conversions.? Include video on your website and landing page, and let me see your service in action; include motion graphics as well as a powerful voice to attract attention.
  • Utilize event tracking within Google analytics to measure video plays; in fact use event tracking to measure all of your content downloads and other website activity.

Social Media

  • If you?re not actively posting content, engaging prospects, and measuring your activity; readdress your needs and priorities- either rethink your strategy or outsource, but prospects don?t like to see limited Twitter use, or a blog updated rarely.?? Think about it.
  • Are you measuring your social activity correctly?? I recently did a blog post on social media measurement and analytics.? You need to prove that your efforts are improving, or time to optimize. Read about?social media measurement?here.

Content Strategy

  • Assess all of your white papers and content assets.? Are they targeting the right audiences?? What are your content goals?? Review your editorial calendars and content mapping.? Have a plan to promote this content via search, display, and social.? We can help you with this.
  • On the chart above, firms have challenges in developing the right content.? For 2013 review your internal sources, and if necessary, consider outsourcing content strategy, which include not just the planning and writing, but the promotional and SEO elements of content marketing as well.

Analytics

  • Really understand the value of Google Analytics; take advantage of the multitude of reports and advanced audience segmentations.? Why?? Only with these tools can you really determine the effectiveness of your website once you define your conversion goals, and your metrics for success.
  • Finally, just don?t review the data without having an action plan for improvement.? It?s not what the numbers say; it?s how you utilize those numbers to increase conversions and revenue.? Right?

Well, that ends a brief checklist for your?2013 inbound marketing resolutions.??This is just the tip of the iceberg, but if you?re not consistently optimizing lead generation, you?re not doing your job.? Let?s grow in 2013.? Take the steps to improve your successes.

What steps are you taking to optimize in 2013?

Author: Paul Mosenson???? Paul Mosenson on the Web

Paul is a seasoned marketing vet of 25 years. Experienced in b2b marketing as well as consumer marketing, Paul can step in and help problem solve within almost any industry. His vision is to help companies with thoughtful marketing strategy and tactics that cover the entire funnel of ?leads to? View?full?profile

Source: http://www.business2community.com/online-marketing/what-are-your-2013-internet-marketing-lead-generation-resolutions-this-year-0366094

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Saturday, December 29, 2012

I'm I'm Gini Dietrich, Founder of Arment Dietrich and Spin Sucks, and ...

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Firmology?s How I Power My Business?series?profiles the technology?business owners?use to run and grow their business.

Gini Dietrich Marketing in the Round

How I Power My Business
By Gini Dietrich of Arment Dietrich and Spin Sucks

What?s the story behind Arment Dietrich and Spin Sucks?

In true entrepreneurial fashion, I run not one, not even two, but three businesses (unless you count speaking and book writing as separate businesses, in which case there are five).

The core business is Arment Dietrich, which is an integrated marketing communications firm in Chicago. A little more than a year ago, we went virtual (hence no photo of me in front of the business) and we experienced 200 percent growth this year. I truly believe there are two reasons for that: I have an amazing team with really talented professionals who are doing what they?re meant to do and our overhead went from thousands of dollars a month to almost nothing.

Six years ago, we launched Spin Sucks ? the blog ? and nearly three years ago, we began to use it to generate revenue. Today it is the number two driver of new clients for Arment Dietrich.

And we have Spin Sucks Pro in beta right now, which is a professional development site for PR and marketing pros. We are developing this because there isn?t anywhere, other than annual conferences, where our profession can learn about new technologies, new initiatives, and new campaigns. Because things are changing so quickly, it?s important to have a place to learn every day versus once a year.

What apps, software, service or gadgets are essential to the operations of your business?

Because we?re a virtual company and because we have clients in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, it?s important for us to use technology to stay connected, be productive, and manage our time most effectively.

  • WordPress powers our website, our blog, and Spin Sucks Pro.
  • Dropbox serves as our document sharing server.
  • Skype serves as both our telephone system and our instant messaging.
  • Google docs is used for our editorial calendars and client documents.
  • BusyCal is my go-to choice for my calendar and task list.
  • Passbook is fantastic for traveling. You add your boarding pass through your airline?s app and you can use your phone for your ticket.
  • We all use most of the social networks to connect with one another in public ways that builds our culture.

What time-saver or money-saver would you love your fellow small business owners to know about?

There are a few things that have made us more efficient:

  • Dropbox is only $10 per month and it allows us to not only share documents, but access them from anywhere in the world, including on planes without Internet access. Not having the server anymore saves significant expenses each month.
  • VirtualPBX allows us to have a main office number that rings directly to people?s cell phones. I think it?s something like $49 a month.
  • I mentioned BusyCal above. It was $50, but it?s worth every penny. I couldn?t find anything I liked better than my paper task lists before I found BusyCal. Now I use it for everything.

If you?d like to be featured on Firmology?s How I Power My Business series, here?s what we need from you:

  1. Read this example post first:?Wanted: Businesses for How I Power My Business Series
  2. Headshot/Company Photo: Ideally, we?d like a picture of you standing in front of or in your business, but we?ll take your profile headshot by itself or two separate photos too!
  3. Company Logo: Who doesn?t have a logo now-a-days? If you don?t have the file, just send us your website link and we?ll grab it from there.
  4. Description of Business: Tell us about your business! What is your product or service? Extra points if you have a story of how or why you launched your business.
  5. How You Power Your Business: What apps, software, service or gadgets do you use to power your business?

Email the above information to contact@firmology.com with the subject line: How I Power My Business


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Source: http://www.firmology.com/2012/12/28/im-im-gini-dietrich-founder-of-arment-dietrich-and-spin-sucks-and-this-is-how-i-power-my-business/

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Instagram Sees A Drop Of 4M Daily Active Users Over Christmas, But The Terms Of Service Kerfuffle May Not Be To Blame

instagram logoSure, it's not unlike the New York Post be?sensationalist, but, because it is a quiet-ish news week between Christmas and New Year, I am reading a story?it published today on a drop in Instagram users?with a little more than a grain of salt.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Z_jbleIqeAs/

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Simple Methods For Improving Your Personal Finance IQ ...

Knowing how to handle your money responsibly is one of the skills that you should pick up before starting your adult life. If this is something you did not achieve, or if you are just looking to improve your skills, this article is for you. Don?t waste any more time, you can start gaining knowledge on personal finance now. Following is some essential personal finance advice.

Pick your cuts wisely. Wouldn?t you like to be saving at least 100 dollars every month? You might want to cut out some of the little luxuries you are used to treating yourself to, such as drinking coffee out instead of making it at home. Find a delicious creamer and top with whipped cream to make your homemade coffee more of a treat. Pour into portable cups and take it with you.

If you want to keep your personal finances on track, you should work to pay your bills early every month. Paying bills promptly helps you gain an understanding of the funds available for other expenditures and for saving. This also provides a bit of leeway in case you come up against an unforeseen expense.

TIP! Don?t pay full price for everything to help your budget. It is time to stop shopping without thinking and start comparing prices among the brands, don?t just purchase the same old one which is more expensive.

The ability to save money is central to any successful personal financial plan. Start saving now, not tomorrow! Make a habit of reserving a particular sum of money for your savings each month. By doing this, you will start to build up an emergency fund.

If the timing is wrong for you, avoid selling. If you see that the earnings potential for a stock is there, refrain from selling for a short time. You could look at the stocks that you own and determine which ones are not giving you profits and sell them if necessary.

You should avoid unnecessary debt. Loans are unavoidable for the big purchases in your life, like autos and houses. However, as much as possible in your daily finances, avoid credit purchases and either pay cash or go without.

You can set up automatic payments of your credit card by you bank account through your debit card. This is a great way to be sure that you do not forget to pay a bill.

TIP! Never spend as much as you make. Those who spend every dollar they earn or take out loans to cover their spending are unlikely to amass much wealth, as their money flies out of their pocket the instant it arrives.

Re-evaluate your insurance policies frequently. Are you paying more than you should for insurance? There may be cheaper alternatives out on the market that you can use or there might be unnecessary options that you?re paying for. Take a closer look at your policy to see if you could be saving money.

Use a debit card or carry about $10 around to buy small items. There are laws in place that allow merchants to have a minimum purchase price when a customer is using a credit card.

It is important to be well educated in order to have personal financial success. It is a fact that those who have graduated college and have a Bachelor?s Degree make double the amount than those who have not. A college degree is a great investment in your future that can double your income over your lifetime.

Include quality health insurance in your personal financial plan. You never know when you will need a doctor. It is critical that you have some type of health insurance coverage. An emergency room visit or short hospital stay, plus doctor?s fees, can easily cost $15,000 to $25,000 or more. If you aren?t insured, you will be paying a large amount of money.

By having your bank automatically pay your bills each month, you can make sure your credit card payments always get there on time. Even if you are unable to pay your credit card balance in full, making minimum payments on time helps to establish a good payment history. Having an automatic debit assures you won?t have late payments, and when you have extra money you can supplement the payment.

A mature person knows how to properly handle their finances. Fortunately, this is an easy trait to acquire. It is possible for anyone to beef up their personal finance and budgeting skills. Information like the tips presented here can produce positive results for your personal finances.

Work hard to obtain a high credit score. A good credit score will help you when you apply for credit cards and loans. Housing rentals, utility accounts and other such services can be impacted greatly by a bad credit score. Treat your credit with the respect it deserves so that it does remain as high as possible.

Source: http://www.projectpb.net/blog/index.php/personal_finance/simple-methods-for-improving-your-personal-finance-iq-2/

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Friday, December 28, 2012

Obama says immediate action needed on fiscal cliff

President Barack Obama speaks to reporters in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington after meeting with Congressional leaders regarding the fiscal cliff, Friday, Dec. 28, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

President Barack Obama speaks to reporters in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington after meeting with Congressional leaders regarding the fiscal cliff, Friday, Dec. 28, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

(AP) ? President Barack Obama says "the hour for immediate action is here" on a deal to avert the fiscal cliff.

The president says he remains "optimistic" that an agreement can be reached in Congress before a looming year-end deadline to avoid tax increases and spending cuts.

If Congress can't reach a deal, the president says Congress should allow a vote on a basic package that would preserve tax cuts for middle-class Americans while extending unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless and working toward a foundation for a broader deal.

The president says an hourlong meeting Friday with congressional leaders was "good and constructive."

Senate leaders say they hope to reach a compromise that could be presented to lawmakers by Sunday, little more than 24 hours before the deadline.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-12-28-Fiscal%20Cliff-Obama/id-739afe077dc1448aafddbc65d63f80ac

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Fitness Business Ninja Service Helps Personal Trainers and Fitness ...

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PRLog (Press Release) - Dec. 26, 2012 - Rancho Santa Margarita, CA ? Stealthier than a ninja, the new Fitness Business Ninja program is a complete online business solution for personal trainers, martial arts and mixed martial arts instructors, group fitness programs, small gyms, boot camp and CrossFit instructors. Fitness Business Ninja http://www.fitnessbusinessninja.com/
helps fitness pros manage their business, schedule group and one-on-one sessions, increase profits, run contests, improve customer service and build clients.

Fitness Business Ninja provides the opportunity to take fitness services online to expand market reach. Trainers, coaches and fitness pros and their clients simply log into MyFitFiles.com to sign up for a session, visit the exercise library, track exercise and nutrition, and more.

?This is all about making your life as a personal trainer, gym owner or coach a little easier, simplifying and organizing all of your fitness business aspects, while giving you more opportunities to build your client base and increase your profits,? said John Spencer Ellis, founder of John Spencer Ellis Enterprises, a personal development and fitness solutions company. ?One of the great parts of Fitness Business Ninja is that you don?t even need a physical location to sign up for this service; we work with you online wherever you are to help you with your business.?

Fitness Business Ninja provides a central hub of operations for managing a fitness business; this can include scheduling, assigning trainers, creating and running health transformation contents, doing complete health assessments, tracking client progress, offering profitable nutrition programs and more. With a special promotion of $1 for the first 15 days, Fitness Business Ninja can save fitness pros several hours per week, which they can use to make more money. Likewise, the service also offers billing for clients.

?With everything you need for health and fitness in one place, this is so easy to use and it?s convenient for clients and trainers,? Ellis added. ?It creates accountability for clients and gives fitness pros the chance to share more nutrition and weight loss, fitness assessments and personal training services with their clients.?

Source: http://www.prlog.org/12048440-fitness-business-ninja-service-helps-personal-trainers-and-fitness-business-owners-manage-clients.html

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Thursday, December 27, 2012

McBride memorial service will be Friday at Palma Ceia church (tbo)

Share With Friends: Share on FacebookTweet ThisPost to Google-BuzzSend on GmailPost to Linked-InSubscribe to This Feed | Rss To Twitter | Politics - Top Stories Stories, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/273169819?client_source=feed&format=rss

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$1 billion deal major step in Toyota legal trouble

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? With a proposed payout of more than $1 billion, one major chapter of a nearly four-year legal saga that left Toyota Motor Corp. fighting hundreds of lawsuits and struggling with a tarnished image has ended, though another remains.

The settlement ? unprecedented in its size according to a plaintiff's attorney ? brings an end to claims from owners who said the value of their vehicles plunged after recalls over sudden and unintended acceleration.

Lawsuits claiming that the defects caused injury or death remain, with the first trial beginning in February unless another major deal comes first.

Steve Berman, a lawyer representing Toyota owners, said the settlement is the largest in U.S. history involving automobile defects.

"We kept fighting and fighting and we secured what we think was a good settlement given the risks of this litigation," Berman told The Associated Press.

The courtroom claims began with a highway tragedy. A California Highway Patrol officer and three of his family members were killed in suburban San Diego in 2009 after their car, a Toyota-built Lexus, reached speeds of more than 120 mph, hit an SUV, launched off an embankment, rolled several times and burst into flames.

Investigators determined that a wrong-size floor mat trapped the accelerator and caused the crash.

That discovery, and the accident's grisliness, spurred a series of recalls involving more than 14 million vehicles and a flood of lawsuits soon followed, with numerous complaints of accelerations in several models, and brake defects with the Prius hybrid.

The Japanese automaker has blamed driver error, faulty floor mats and stuck accelerator pedals for the problems.

The runaway Lexus case was settled separately for $10 million in 2010, before the cases were consolidated by U.S. District Judge James Selna.

Selna divided them into two categories: economic loss and wrongful death. He needs to approve Wednesday's settlement, which only applies to the first group of lawsuits. The deal was filed Wednesday and Selna is expected to review it on Friday.

Toyota said it will take a one-time, $1.1 billion pre-tax charge against earnings to cover the estimated costs of the settlement. Berman said the total value of the deal is between $1.2 billion and $1.4 billion.

As part of the economic loss settlement, Toyota will offer cash payments from a pool of about $250 million to eligible customers who sold vehicles or turned in leased vehicles between September 2009 and December 2010.

The company also will launch a $250 million program for 16 million current owners to provide supplemental warranty coverage for certain vehicle components, and it will retrofit about 3.2 million vehicles with a brake override system. An override system is designed to ensure a car will stop when the brakes are applied, even if the accelerator pedal is depressed.

The settlement would also establish additional driver education programs and fund new research into advanced safety technologies.

"In keeping with our core principles, we have structured this agreement in ways that work to put our customers first and demonstrate that they can count on Toyota to stand behind our vehicles," said Christopher Reynolds, Toyota vice president and general counsel.

Current and former Toyota owners are expected to receive more information about the settlement in the coming months.

Plaintiffs' attorneys have spent the past two years deposing Toyota employees, poring over thousands of documents and reviewing software code, but the company maintains those lawyers have been unable to prove that a design defect ? namely Toyota's electronic throttle control system ? was responsible for vehicles surging unexpectedly.

Both the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and NASA were unable to find any defects in Toyota's source code that could cause problems.

The company has been dogged by fines for not reporting problems in a timely manner.

Earlier this month, NHTSA doled out a record $17.4 million fine to Toyota for failing to quickly report floor mat problems with some of its Lexus models. Toyota paid a total of $48.8 million in fines for three violations in 2010.

Toyota President Akio Toyoda appeared before Congress last year and pledged to strengthen quality control. Recent sales figures show the company appears to have rebounded following its safety issues.

___

Online:

Settlement website: http://www.ToyotaELsettlement.com

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/1-billion-deal-major-step-toyota-legal-trouble-093805959--finance.html

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Afghan bomber attacks near major US base

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? A vehicle driven by a suicide bomber exploded at the gate of a major U.S. military base in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing the attacker and three Afghans, Afghan police said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

Police Gen. Abdul Qayum Baqizai said a local guard who questioned the vehicle driver at the gate of Camp Chapman was killed along with two civilians and the assailant. The camp is located adjacent to the airport of the capital of Khost province, which borders Pakistan. Chapman and nearby Camp Salerno had been frequently targeted by militants in the past, but violent incidents have decreased considerably in recent months.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in an email that the bomber targeted Afghan police manning the gate and Afghans working for the Americans entering the base. He claimed high casualties were inflicted.

NATO operates with more than 100,000 troops in the country, including some 66,000 American forces. It is handing most combat operations over to the Afghans in preparation for a pullout from Afghanistan in 2014. Militant groups, including the Taliban, rarely face NATO troops head-on and rely mainly on roadside bombs and suicide attacks.

NATO forces and foreign civilians have also been increasingly attacked by rogue Afghan military and police, eroding trust between the allies.

On Tuesday, the Interior Ministry said a policewoman who killed an American contractor in Kabul a day earlier was a native Iranian who came to Afghanistan and displayed "unstable behavior" but had no known links to militants.

The policewoman, identified as Sgt. Nargas, shot 49-year-old Joseph Griffin, of Mansfield, Georgia, on Monday, in the first such shooting by a woman in the spate of insider attacks. Nargas walked into a heavily-guarded compound in the heart of Kabul, confronted Griffin and shot him once with her pistol.

The U.S-based security firm DynCorp International said on its website that Griffin was a U.S. military veteran who earlier worked with law enforcement agencies in the United States. In Kabul, he was under contract to the NATO military command to advise the Afghan police force.

The ministry spokesman, Sediq Sediqi, told a news conference that Nargas, who uses one name like many in the country, was born in Tehran, where she married an Afghan. She moved to the country 10 years ago, after her husband obtained fake documents enabling her to live and work there.

A mother of four in her early 30s, she joined the police five years ago, held various positions and had a clean record, he said. Sediqi produced an Iranian passport that he said was found at her home.

No militant group has claimed responsibility for the killing.

The chief investigator of the case, Police Gen. Mohammad Zahir, said that during interrogation, the policewoman said she had plans to kill either the Kabul governor, city police chief or Zahir himself, but when she realized that penetrating the last security cordons to reach them would be too difficult, she saw "a foreigner" and turned her weapon on him.

There have been 60 insider attacks this year against foreign military and civilian personnel, compared to 21 in 2011. This surge presents another looming security issue as NATO prepares to pull out almost all of its forces by 2014, putting the war against the Taliban and other militant groups largely in the hands of the Afghans.

More than 50 Afghan members of the government's security forces also have died this year in attacks by their own colleagues. The Taliban claims such incidents reflect a growing popular opposition to the foreign military presence and the Kabul government.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/afghan-bomber-attacks-near-major-us-062433819.html

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AT&T, regional Communications Workers tentatively agree on four ...

Updated: 2012-12-26T18:13:54Z

AT&T said it has reached a tentative agreement on a four-year contract with about 20,000 wireless workers represented by the Communications Workers of America District 6.

The agreement covers employees in Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas.The contract still requires the approval of union members. Both sides agreed to start negotiating earlier this month, even though the current contract does not expire until April 6, 2013.AT&T said the agreement, among other things, includes pay raises in each year of the contract ? 2.25 percent the first year, 2.5 percent the second year, 2.75 percent in the third year and 3 percent the fourth year. The new contract also calls for an increase in employee contributions to the wireless carrier?s health care plan.If the agreement is ratified by Jan. 31, eligible employees will receive a $1,000 bonus. The Star

Source: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/12/26/3982074/att-regional-communications-workers.html

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