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Here are some of the most helpful tools that you’ll find to give you a chance to keep your business and brand above water during this most recent crisis. Not only that, you may even bring in a series of new customers while you’re at it!
Tweak your keywords to include buzzer words: If you’ve got your digital marketing already working for you, it’s common to notice a sudden decrease in traffic and keyword searches. However, it’s all about buzzer words. When it comes to getting your business to rank for online searches, you’ll want to add in some marketing space for “local” or “online” or “virtual” wherever possible. This will help the worried and home-based shopper to find you easier.
Prioritize enhanced, thoughtful communication: Sure, getting digital marketing going is critical. However, pay just as much attention to communicating with customers. You want to send out social media posts, newsletters, emails and whatever else you can to let people know that you are changing the way that you’re operating to better support their needs right now. This will increase your brand visibility and can help encourage trust if you do it sooner rather than later.
Offer virus-related discounts: This is tricky to get right, but can be great for increased sales. Offer discounts on the hot items that people want and need. The obvious options are cleaning supplies and PPE, but also creature comforts like fuzzy blankets or at-home pampering products and anything else that can relate to your brand. Give the people what they want — at a lower price — when they want it, right?
Update your online content and profiles: You can also use this time to focus on the content that you’ve got posted online. This includes your website as well as social media profiles. Update it with richer content, better keywords and any other upgrade that you think it needs. There’s never been a bette time to invest the effort and focus in your online presence after all.
Get social: Even if you tend to use social media only to promote discounts or sales, focus a bit more on asking questions and sending kind, considerate notes to followers online. Put together polls, share funny or cute photos and do as much has you can to show your loyal customers that you are there and that you care about them. This will go along way for brand visibility as well as loyalty. People are scared and it’s important to acknowledge that.
Now more than ever, business is about more than getting people to buy. It’s about offering comfort and being the trusted source for someone who is searching for a virtual store that takes care of them emotionally and mentally as well as in your products or services. In a nutshell, human connection is how your brand can survive this COVID-19 crisis.
In case you’d like me and my team to professionally help you with your Brands marketing do connect with me directly HERE.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on what strategies you are using for your Business to survive in the comments below. I can be followed on Twitter and you can fan me on FaceBook . Also feel free to sign up for my Free Newsletter for more exciting articles.
The post Digital Marketing Tips To Help Your Brand Survive Through COVID19 first appeared on Digital Marketing Consultant - Ramit Narang.]]>Design an influencer event with free refreshments: The key to getting people in your spot is to make sure that all of the big names are there to see how well you’re doing. The key to that is a priority influencer event where you give away free drinks and/or refreshments so that they can take a look at your spot, get to know your menu, and then push the word out about it to all of their loyal followers.
Put together an email newsletter: While a lot of trends seem to come up and down in marketing success, an email newsletter appears to be here for the long-haul. Put together a weekly newsletter promoting new dishes, sales, deals and more and send it out to subscribing followers every week. This will help remind people that you are still here and it may encourage them to forward it on to their contact list, earning you new eyeballs and new subscribers (and customers).
Take a look at the competition: One of the oldest tricks in the book is to take a look at what the competition is doing. So, do that. Online and in-person, don’t be afraid to look at what marketing strategies they use, and see what you can adopt into your own strategies. There’s no reason that you can’t learn from their failures or successes. Plus, someone else will be doing the same to you someday.
Make sure your website is up to par: Websites are all the rage these days, so you’re going to want to make sure that your website is mobile-friendly, modern, easy to use, up to date with menus and prices, and more. Put the time and effort into finding the right web design and content so that you can make sure that your online presence holds up to scrutiny when interested customers or reviewers take a look at it. Since we live in the online world, the design and accuracy of your website could make or break you.
Use smartphone addiction to your advantage: Social media has its role to play (keep reading), but so do smartphones in general. Instead of relying purely on email newsletters, consider using SMS messages to contact past clients and interested subscribers as well. Perhaps you can sweeten the deal with specialized coupons or discounts that they can’t get anywhere else. Sending your marketing content right to their phone is basically gold.
Engage with negative reviews instead of ignoring them: When we get bad reviews, it’s natural to want to want to pack up shop and run far, far away. However, the best way to deal with a negative or nasty review — we all get them — is to face it head-on. Engage with the reviewer by acknowledging their negative experience and genuinely learning from what they are saying. You can “win” with a negative review by making your business better because of it. Not only will it help placate the reviewer in a lot of cases (and may even cause them to take the review down), it will also show others that you are not afraid to grow and learn.
Put social media to work: Facebook ads are incredible, as are the option of boosting existing ads or posts. When you want to bring in more customers, social media boosting is certainly going to be the way to do it. When you boost your ads or high-performing posts, you’ll bring more eyes to your page and your reach will get bigger — which is always better.
Consider a loyalty card option: Customers love loyalty options. Whether it’s the SMS option, social media discounts or a simple old-fashioned punch card, put together a loyalty program that works for your business and your customer. It will earn their respect and enjoyment of your spot faster than anything else.
Get involved with the community: Consider aligning yourself with a local-based charity that means something to you (and your business). Host themed events or donate a portion of your proceeds from certain dishes to those charities. This helps show your community that you care about your community as a whole and want to establish roots within it as a business.
Design a lucky draw and spread the word via social media: Everyone like free stuff — perhaps even more than a loyalty program — so consider the option of having a draw for a free meal or a dinner party. Spread the world online, through your newsletter and through SMS marketing, and you’ll get more and more interested customers coming your way.
Marketing may be one of those things that seems to take a lot of effort, the reality is that you just need to be smart about how you’re investing your time, resources and energy. These 10 tips are not overnight fixes, but they are not intended to be. They are, instead, long-term rewards to help make sure your business is booming for many seasons to come. All you have to do is put them to work and you’ll see the benefits for yourself soon enough. The goal with marketing is to work smarter, not harder.
In case you’d like me and my team to professionally help you with your restaurants marketing do connect with me directly HERE.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on what strategies you are using for your restaurant or hotel in the comments below. I can be followed on Twitter and you can fan me on FaceBook . Also feel free to sign up for my Free Newsletter for more exciting articles.
The post Ten Strategies to Promote Your Restaurant That Work first appeared on Digital Marketing Consultant - Ramit Narang.]]>The process of using Watermarkly is kept streamlined and simple so that it’s convenient for your use. You simply choose the photo or video that you want to watermark, upload it to the platform, apply the watermark, and you’re good to go. The watermark is easy is apply and is stubborn. That is, it’s not something that can be cropped out and repurposed by someone that isn’t you.
Sure, it sounds pretty great and everything, but why should you use it for your image or video protection? Here are some of the great reasons:
It’s trustworthy: Included in the license of Watermarkly, you know that you are relying on a program that is going to be professional and totally committed to protecting your original photos and videos. Your originals will stay private to you only.
It helps you keep what’s yours: Since the whole goal of sharing photos or videos is to show the world what you can do, using Watermarkly is the best way to do just that. You get to proudly share the photo or video with anyone and everyone and it stays unquestionably yours with the use of a watermark of your choosing.
It’s simple and time-efficient: You don’t have time to mess with uncomfortable software, and this program is going to be simple to use, fast, and focused on a streamline process through and through. This is especially helpful if you are watermarking and posting while traveling and don’t have time to wait for necessarily complex programs.
Lots of photos? Try the desktop app Visual Watermark:
This watermark software is going to be convenient in more ways than one, however. You’ll be able to use Visual Watermark by downloading it to your computer and using it offline. This is especially helpful when you are particularly nervous about uploading originals, or when you have hundreds of photos that you need to watermark at a time. You’ll be able to use this text on photo app as efficiently offline as you will online. No games or tricks to be had. Just the professional treatment that you deserve. If you purchase a license for Watermarkly’s license, you also get free access to their professional version of Visual Watermark. It may be useful when a person wants to watermark thousands of photos or needs to watermark videos.
Whether you’ve been burned before, or you just want to know that you are relying on a dependable program. Watermarkly is your online and offline safe haven for image and video protection. All that’s left is to put it to use and see for yourself. Take that online snatchers!
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Look forward to hearing your thoughts on what software do you use for watermarking your pics and videos. In case you’ve used this software do let me know your thoughts on it as well in the comments below. I can be followed on Twitter and you can fan me on FaceBook . Also feel free to sign up for my Free Newsletter for more exciting articles.
The post How To WaterMark Your Pics and Videos first appeared on Digital Marketing Consultant - Ramit Narang.]]>You’ve finally got your Car Dealership listed on Google Places (Google’s Local Listings for Business) and your listing is ranking!
Then you happen to see someone has left you a review there …. A Negative Review
What to do? How to Respond? Should you respond? I’ll show you what to do.
The first thing buyers do today is research your Dealership online. Most of them will “Google you“ and land up on your Google Places Listing or your Yahoo Local Listing. Now it’s important to have your listings not only look professional but also show that you care for your customers. That means addressing any negative reviews properly.
When was the last time you Googled your Dealer Name?
FACT: 20 % of all Google searches were related to Local Search
For this post we’ll take a look at the reviews for Darcars Toyota of Silver Spring, Maryland. (Disclosure: I’ve worked there back in the day. I am not getting any compensation from them for this post) It’s the biggest Toyota Dealer in the East Coast and extremely aggressive on pricing and has a huge inventory. (At least while I was working there) When you search for them on Google you’ll see that they have several reviews online. Some great one’s on DealerRater and some not so good one’s from Yelp and Yahoo Local and Google Places. Now even though they have lots of excellent reviews on DealerRater, if you were to visit their Google Places Listings (Btw they have several listings as they tried to separate their service and sales dept but used the same tel no and details so Google is showing the same reviews in error for both.) you’d see the negative reviews stand out. Now when a potential customer sees negative reviews while researching any car dealership chances are they would not buy from that dealer even if they were to offer the best service and price in real life. So what can Car Dealerships do about this?
Address the reviews online! Both Positive and Negative Reviews.
Positive Reviews: Thank the person for taking the time to write a positive review. People like to be recognized and appreciated. It shows that you care for their business and you could end up making a lifetime customer who buys only from your dealership. I had Customers that would buy only from me regardless of whether I was selling Toyota’s or Honda’s. They were loyal to me.
Negative Reviews: A lot of Car Dealerships refrain from responding from negative reviews thinking that no one will pay attention to them. Now with Google Places allowing you the ability to connect with those who placed the reviews, one should take advantage. Connect with reviewers and show them that you recognize their concerns and are ready to address them.
HOWEVER before you do that, there are a few things to consider:
1) Relax till you’ve cooled off: You want to avoid responding to a negative review in the heat of the moment. Chances are since you’re upset your choice of words may not be the best and may come back to bite you. If the review upsets you, write your review on a piece of paper and comeback to it to read once you’ve cooled off. I’m sure you’ll realize that your response would have ignited the situation more and done more damage.
2) Listen to the Customer: By Listen we mean, understand what the customer is trying to tell you. People normally complain when they feel mistreated or taken advantage of. ( remember I use use the word “normally” ) Did your Sales Person ignore them for hours? Did they feel they were lied to by your advertised special car? Did you service dept promise the oil change would be done in an hour and not deliver till 3 hrs. later? Sometimes it not what happened to them, but the manner in which your sales and service staff handle the situation that makes customers irate and leave negative reviews. Train your employees to have genuine care for the customers.
3) Take Responsibility: After reading the review and talking to your staff about the incident, if you find that the customer is right, then own up to it. Apologize and let the customer know that you’ll get in touch with them with a solution to rectify the situation. If you promise to connect with the customer then you MUST do that. False promises will get another negative review from the same customer. If there is nothing you could do at the time, do acknowledge that you are aware of the situation and let them know that you are putting steps into play to ensure that it does not happen again.
4) Take Discussion offline: Never discuss details of the customer complaint online. Take it offline. You don’t want to build more links and traffic to the negative review. Offer an email or a medium for the reviewer to communicate with you other than on the review site. I’d recommend providing an email.
5) Be Honest and Don’t Try to cover up: If the Advt car was sold before the customer got to the dealership, let them know that it’s been sold. Don’t let your sales rep pretend like the car is still there and take the buyer on the lot and spend an hour pretending to look for it and then say “oh no its sold, how about this blue one ?” Darcars Toyota was good about placing VIN No on all advt cars to prove that the advt car did exist and be able to prove who it was sold to, if needed.
Now there are times that one should NOT respond to a Negative Review:
1) Reviewer is upset at the world: Sometimes the person leaving the review is really upset and themselves and the world, not you in particular. Recently someone left Darcars a review about 401 (K). There really is no point on responding to this review in my opinion.
2) Spammers: These usually consist of people who are working for competitors to steal your customers away. Responding to them usually leads to a war that is designed to make you look bad. If you can have the review removed as inappropriate. (Google does allow you to mark review as inappropriate and have it removed. The process could take 8 -12 weeks) If you do respond, try to keep it polite and discuss offline.
How to Surprise Customers Who Left A Review
Offer a Free Oil Change and update their customer service records to ensure the service advisor gives them VIP Treatment. Make sure your service department gets them in and out quickly and not have to wait 3 hrs. for the free oil change. If the oil change is free then it should be free, no hidden charge for filter etc. Also do not try to upsell other services on that service. An oil change is not going to cost you much but will go a long way in reputation management. Don’t make it look like you are trying to BUY a Positive Review from them. Also don’t offer a free oil change in exchange for a positive review, as that’s in violation of Google’s Rule of Soliciting Reviews.
Now you should also offer Positive Reviewers a Free Oil Change as well randomly. They don’t expect it but it goes to show that you care for their feedback and appreciate their business. You will get them to be a loyal customer and tell all their friends about the free oil change they got. Word of mouth is the best friend for you.
How to Avoid Negative Reviews Being Placed Online
Offer a place for customers to place feedback and reviews on YOUR own Website and advertise this. It’s best for your customers to place negative reviews on YOUR site then on Google Places. At least you can control the damage online.
Better yet, take care of your customers well so that they are happy!
On a key note, i have to clarify that I have no current affiliation with any Dealership. Also am not liable to any loss of business that any firms used in the eg’s may face due to this post. Also i would not be liable if google decided to ban the local listings for any firm mentioned here for any reason. I am not saying that they indulged in any unfair methods.
Look forward to hearing your thoughts on whether you think that dealers should respond to reviews at all. If you have thoughts on how best to respond in certain cases, feel free to share them with us in the comments below. I can be followed on Twitter and you can fan me on FaceBook . Also feel free to sign up for my Free Newsletter for more exciting articles.
ATTN Automotive Dealers : I am available for consultation on how to Claim your Google Places Listings and how to Optimize all your local listings and implement an automotive reputation management policy in place. Feel free to contact me HERE
The post How Car Dealerships Should Respond To A Negative Review Online first appeared on Digital Marketing Consultant - Ramit Narang.]]>I’m always looking to share ideas about Local Search with fellow bloggers.
I noticed that no one had a list of quality Local SEO blogs put together.
So here’s my List of Top Local Search Engine Optimization Blogs for 2011.
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I also thank all of you who emailed or tweeted me their recommendations. Always Appreciate the suggestions. If i missed someone or if you would like to recommend someone, do post a comment below.
Top List Of Local SEO Blogs For 2011
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If you have any suggestions for other Great Local Search related blogs to add to this list, do write a comment below. In case i have any incorrect info above i do apologize and do let me know so that i could update it.
The above list is in no particular order. The people in my List of Local SEO Blogs is one that anyone interested in Local Search should connect with on Twitter and Facebook and subscribe to their feeds. I’m working to put together a blog that connects to all of their feeds with their latest blog posts. Stay tuned for updates on that.
The post List Of Top Local SEO Blogs For 2011 first appeared on Digital Marketing Consultant - Ramit Narang.]]>I’m putting together a list of the Top Local SEO Leaders and Bloggers for 2011.
Would appreciate your thoughts on your Top Local Search Leaders and Bloggers along with their Credentials and website URL.
Will use your inputs in putting together this Top Local Search Bloggers List.
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Of course you’re welcome to nominate yourself if you have a Local SEO related Blog.
You may share your input by writing a comment below or send your input using the contact page.
Local SEO Bloggers get your pics ready !
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DEADLINE: Please submit all submissions by January 28, 2011 7 PM PST
You’ve got your backlinks done, but how to get them indexed in Google ?
I get a lot of emails from readers of my blog asking me for help indexing their links.
In this tutorial i’ll share with you how to get your backlinks indexed fast in Google.
Happy Holidays !
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I’ve used this method in the past and it works. If you follow the steps, you too can get your backlinks indexed in Google quickly.
Got your Backlinks done from your SEO Guy but dont see any rise in Rankings yet ? Here’s how to
Step 1: Collect all your backlink URL’s created for your site from Article Submissions, Blog Comments, Profile Links, Blog posts, Press Releases into a Text File. (Text Doc)
Step 2: Create an RSS Feed using the text doc containing all your backlink URL’s. You can use IceRocket’s Free RSS Builder Tool. Make sure you add your relevant keywords to your description for the feed.
Step 3: Submit your Backlinks Feed to RSS Aggregators. You may do this using RSS Submit. Its easy to use and the basic version is free. (if you’re a verified newsletter subcriber to my blog, email me asking for how to get the full version for free !)
Step 4: Bookmark your RSS Feed on multiple Social Bookmarking sites like digg. You may use BookMarking Demon or a free app like SocialMarker.
Step 5: Ping your feed. You may ping your feed using Pingomatic which is free to use and quick.
Now all you have to do is wait for the links to get indexed and for your site rankings to go up !
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I’ve moved on from using this technique to using an awesome paid tool that gets all my links indexed within minutes. I’m not going to share that tool details yet ! Maybe next year
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I hope you found this write up on How To Get Your BackLinks Indexed Fast in Google helpful. Do share your thoughts and feedback in the comments below. We do reward regular commentators with do follow links. Don’t forget to sign up for my free newsletter and follow me on twitter ( i will follow back )
The post How To Get Your BackLinks Indexed Fast first appeared on Digital Marketing Consultant - Ramit Narang.]]>.
Today we’re finally announcing the winners of our Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 Giveaway.
As you know three 1 Year Licenses were to be given away, compliments of Kaspersky.
Thanks to all of you who participated. The winners have been selected randomly using an online random generator.
Congratulations to the lucky winners !
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The Winners for Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 Giveaway are :
Blog Subscriber Winner No 1: vazquez
Twitter Follower Winner No 2: @ccboobooy
FaceBook Fan Winner No 3: /ashish963
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All Winners have been notified. Please contact us via the contact page or Twitter DM or Facebook Msg mentioning #KIS2011Giveaway to collect your Prizes.
ALSO DO POST THE BELOW COMMENT HERE AND ON YOUR FACEBOOK AND TWITTER
” I just won a Free License of Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 from RamitNarang.com #KIS2011GiveAway “
Remember, to read the rules of the giveaway here.
Thanks to all those who participated. Keep visiting our blog for more exciting Giveaway’s coming soon.
In case you were not a winner , but decided you wanted to purchase a copy of Internet Security from any of the Top 3 Providers of Internet Security Packages then you may use the below affiliate links to purchase.
The post Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 Giveaway: Winner Announced first appeared on Digital Marketing Consultant - Ramit Narang.]]>
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I’d like to take a moment and Wish all of you a Happy New Year.
Hope that 2011 brings all of you a Prosperous Life.
I hope you are enjoying your holidays with your family and loved ones.
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I do thank all of my loyal subscribers for the support over the year and look forward to starting 2011 on a positive note.
This year we’ll be launching off a few new blogs related to Divorce and Matrimony. As always, I appreciate any feedback or suggestions you have.
Lets make 2011 a year to remember !
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One resolution I have made, and try always to keep, is this: To rise above the little things. ~John Burroughs
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Wishing all of you a Merry Christmas and may this festival bring abundant joy and happiness in your life!
May this Christmas be so special that you never ever feel lonely again and always be surrounded by loved ones !
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” If you can dream it, then you can achieve it. You will get all you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want. ”
Zig Ziglar
Have a Great Day !