Did you know there’s a FREE listing on Google for your business, and it’s just waiting for you? Have you claimed it yet?It’s called Google Places and it’s a fast and easy way to build your online presence, even if you don’t have a website!With Google business maps -1. Reach millions of Google users, quickly and for free – More people search for businesses online than anywhere else, so it’s important to make sure your business listing can be easily found on Google Business Maps. Creating a listing is easy, takes just a few minutes and it doesn’t cost a thing!2. Easy to edit – Your business may already show up on Google, but you will need to claim it and make sure the details are correct. Any changes you make will appear on Google as soon as you complete the verification process.3. Practical and easy to manage – Your Google Business Maps listing is an easy way to maintain an online presence even if you don’t have a website. Visit Google Places anytime to edit your information and to see how many people have seen and clicked on your listing.4. Add photos, videos and other custom options, all for free – Make your listing really shine with photos, videos, custom categories, your service area, brand name products you sell, how to find parking; and coupons to encourage customers to make a first-time or repeat purchase.Signing up for Google Places is simple. I’ve listed the steps below to create (or claim) your FREE Google Business Maps listing for your interior design business.1. Get a Google Account – If you don’t have one, go to Google.com or Gmail.com and set up an account. It’s a good idea to create a new Gmail account just for this. That way you won’t mind sharing it with others or passing it along, in case you wish to transfer ownership of your listings at a later date.2. Local.Google.com – On the left side of the screen, look for “Put your business on Google Maps.” Click there.3. Google Accounts – Look for the link that says “Google Places”. Click there and you’ll see a page that looks like this:4. Fill in the Blanks – Add your business information and click continue.5. Claim or Create – If you see your business listed there, Google will offer you a chance to claim the existing listing. If you see one that looks like it could be yours, but there are errors, go ahead and choose it. You can fix the errors. If you don’t see your business listed, follow the rest of the instructions to create a new listing.6. Main Form – Complete the rest of the form and click Submit.7. Verify – Google asks you to verify your submission by phone or postcard. They want to be sure that only the right people are able to change any public data about your business. I recommend the phone call option – it’s fast and easy. Either way, you’ll receive a 4 digit code that you will have to enter into the appropriate box on the page.8. Success – You are now done claiming your listing!9. Customize – Be sure to add in photos, videos and descriptions to fill out your listing fully. If you don’t have them handy you can always go back to add them later.Claiming your Google business maps listing is an extraordinarily important factor in determining how you show up in Google, especially when competing with other interior designers in your area.
What’s the Hardest Part of Marketing Yourself?
In my Fast Track Marketing System I divide marketing into seven very specific modules:1. The Game of Marketing2. The Mindset of Marketing3. Marketing Messages (Your Value Proposition)4. Marketing and Selling Conversations5. Written Marketing Materials6. Marketing Strategies7. Marketing Action PlansAll of these have their particular challenges. But in my experience in working with thousands of Independent Professionals, it’s #7 that seems to be the hardest for most people.After all, most of the other 6 modules are all about preparation to market yourself.You learn the basics of the game of marketing, you work on your marketing mindset, you develop marketing messages, conversations, and written marketing materials, and ultimately choose the marketing strategies to get the word out.And then the rubber hits the road. You have to actually get out there and connect with potential clients through networking, speaking, an eZine, social media, emails, etc.For most, the bottom falls out of their marketing at this point. It simply goes nowhere, or more specifically it goes into the infamous “Random Zone” where things are done haphazardly and inconsistently.If people have worked to develop the whole foundation of their marketing first, know who their target market is, have put together a web site and have practiced their marketing and selling conversations, they are going to have more success.But even the well-prepared struggle with implementation.Why is putting action plans into action so hard? Here are three of the most common ones. Are they familiar to you?1. As soon as you start reaching out, you face possible rejection. What if your message, your talk, your emails fall on deaf ears? What if your potential clients could care less? What if they outright rejected your promotional efforts?We conjure painful mental images in our mind that stop us cold.For this one we need to work again on our mindset, on our thinking, realizing that if we reach out and people aren’t interested, that it’s not personal. They don’t hate us; either they are simply not good prospects right now or our message doesn’t have the impact it could.So reach out to new prospects and keep improving your messages.2. It takes way more time and effort than you ever thought it would. We think of marketing as a few promotional things we do here and there. This should be easy, we think. But it’s not.Time to do a reality check. Any marketing activity takes time, effort and commitment to make it work. Marketing is a bit of an art and nothing works perfectly on the first draft.You need to make detailed and realistic plans based on strategies that others have used successfully in the past. If you just make it up as you go along, your chances of success are very slim.3. It’s never good enough and although you might even know what you’re doing, you put off your marketing launches until everything is perfect… but it never is.What underlies this are beliefs about perfection, not being good enough and being judged by others. It’s not so much rejection you fear, but disapproval. What will others think of you?Well, if your marketing campaign isn’t relevant to those you are targeting, it’s not a big deal. They’ll just ignore it. They won’t think much about it at all. But for the ones that are looking for what you offer, they’ll not only be interested, they’ll respond.Your prospects are not looking for perfection from you; they’re looking for assistance and value. If you’ve got that, perfection is virtually irrelevant.I’ve done a whole lot of marketing action plans that were rejected by most people, took me a long time to implement, and were far from perfect. And most of them have made me hundreds of thousands of dollars!Marketing success is about know-how, value, commitment, and persistence. Everything else is just a distraction.The Fearless Marketer Bottom Line: There could be a lot of other things stopping you from following through with your marketing plan as well. The question is, where are you going to focus – on your fears and worries about rejection, time, and perfection – or are you going to focus on the value and difference you make and give your marketing plans a real chance?
SEO Video Marketing That Can Lead To Powerful Results
If you’ve been looking for ways to generate more revenue for your business along with bringing more credibility to it, then SEO video marketing definitely needs to be part of your marketing strategy. It is simply a great way to promote your business and gain the trust of your customers and potential customers.
In the past few years Google has given more relevance to YouTube videos within their search results. A simple search on Google will result in a few listings that include YouTube videos within the top results. As this trend continues now is the time for you to take advantage of it by creating videos for your business that relate to the products and services that you offer.
There are a few ways that you can go about doing this and I’ve outlined some of the types of videos that are most commonly used with SEO video marketing.
Option #1: Explainer Videos
This type of video focuses primarily on explaining a product or service. It can also be in the form of a tutorial. These types of videos when done correct can go viral based on the informational content. People search YouTube every day for tutorials, and if your video has great content it will result in more views and will give your business more exposure.
Option #2: Promotional Videos
If you are going to create a promotional video you’ll need to ensure that everything that is mentioned is indeed factual. Many videos are flagged daily that are believed to be misleading and commercially deceptive, so you’ll want to ensure that your video is done in such a way that while being promotional still builds trust and credibility.
Option #3: Slideshow Videos
These are the types of videos that you need to avoid due to the high level of flagging that occurs with these video types. A slideshow video usually is accompanied by music in the background and its entire focus is highlighting text with related pictures. These videos were very popular initially, but have recently led to a high level of flagging due to their low quality content.
Now that you know the three types of videos that are usually used in video marketing, you can now go ahead and start the process of determining your niche. That’s the first step you need to take when undertaking an SEO strategy.
Upon choosing your niche and determining your target keywords, then you’ll want to complete all the standard techniques that you use in traditional search engine optimization. This means that you need to focus on having keywords in your video title, body description, along with having your keyword as your video tags. YouTube also has the option for transcription, so you’ll want to include a transcription with your video that is optimized for your keyword as well.
With your video now optimized, the last step is to create quality backlinks to your video along with having social network signals. This simply means to get links from other sites pointing to your videos, along with having Facebook Likes & Shares, Twitter Retweets, along with Google + votes all directed to your video.
By following these simple SEO video marketing strategies, you’ll be on your way to a top ranking in both YouTube and Google for your chosen keywords.