The bottom line to successful facebook marketing for emerging businesses, churches or charities has to do with two basic objectives: 1) build your fan base, and 2) convert your fan base into customers. Here are five steps you can use to Facebook successfully.
For the creative businessperson, the fact that Facebook now allows companies to have public pages presents a big opportunity for effective internet marketing and small business marketing strategies to emerge.
Your task is to apply these steps below, and then stick with it overall. This is a bit of a long run play. While some companies may cash in quick, remember, by marketing in Facebook, you are choosing to market in the #1 SOCIAL NETWORK on the internet. Did you grasp that? It's the top social network. With over 500 million users, most people are on FB to swap photos of their kids, talk about the movies, find old classmates, share cool experiences, and other social endeavors. Even so, there are certain aspects to Facebook that are highly attractive to marketers and certain online marketing tools that you can take to lead to success in this enormous online channel!
1) Obtain a Facebook Page for Your Company
Acquiring your company Facebook Page allows you to lock of this important piece of real estate now, while you develop your strategic Facebook marketing plan after. Do this asap. Especially if your company name is common. Here's where you go to start that process. Otherwise, visit facebook.com and look near the bottom where it says Create a Page for a celebrity, band or business. Once someone else gets your name first, you could be stuck with the backup version, which is less ideal, and it may not be the one you prefer. Realize that these pages are valuable becasue they are public, so you don’t have to be logged into the Facebook channel to find them or interact with them. That means Facebookers, non-Facebookers and the search engines can access your page online. That's where the internet marketing ideas begin...
2) Develop Your Facebook Strategy
You have to determine what, exactly, you want to accomplish using your Facebook Page, which will help you determine what you are going to do. If increasing your Fan Count is your initial goal, as it usually is, you could accomplish that by running a Contest or Sweepstakes or Giveaway. These have been very successful on Facebook for companies of all sizes. To learn more about these, Google: Contests on Facebook, or go here. Of course, the best contests are heavily promoted wihtin FB and without FB, so recognize you have to use every asset you have in your arsenal to promote your contests in order to see them utilized and helping you to build your fan base.
One client Pathmaker has been honored to help in this regard is the New Living Translation fan page found here. In Feb of 2010 they had 500 fans on FB, but now after three contests / giveaways and ongoing organic growth they are running at a much stouter level of 24,500 fans plus, and growing.
What you may fail to realize is that when you run contests n Facebook, not only do you build your fan page "likes", but typically, when done right, you also build your email lists. So in the NLT case above, in addition to page fan growth, they have also enjoyed growing their email database by over 20,000 names.
Another strategy for Facebook is to integrate what you are promoting in your business in general to your Facebook page. For example, if you are planning on stocking an entire section of your Sporting Goods Store with fishing equipment to correspond with the upcoming Fishing Season, you might run a Contest to name the area (Anglers Corner, Getting Hooked, Rod and Reel). Also, part of the entry could include the entrant explaining why they think we need to pass the Love of Fishing to future generations. Now your FB contest corresponds directly into what you are doing online and offline! Cross promotions can occur.
Another strategy is to provide an ongoing channel of open communication with your constituents. Use FB to talk with your fans and listen to what they have to say about your company and its products or services. Dialogue
3) Talk to People About Your Exciting Things
When you communicate with your fans on Facebook, talk to them with passion and fervor. Share your enthusiasm for your company and what you do. You can’t expect others to get excited about what you are doing unless you are! Your goal is to transmit enthusiasm and the Facebook channel is an excellent way to do that! In general, while the Best Practice rules for Facebook company page messaging are still emerging, it seems to be that a routine of 2-3 posts per week is currently acceptable. Make sure to monitor your posting for feedback and reactions and get into dialogues with your fans. The key here is to be engaged in a ongoing conversation with your fans and supporters. Be genuine. Be real. Be available. Be active and interactive.
4) Build Your Fan Base to Larger Levels
As you undoubtedly know, when you post something on Facebook, it is spread onto your Fans News Feeds and to their Friends News Feeds and so on. So, obviously, everything you can do to increase your Fan Base is going to greatly affect your outbound messaging impact. As you post more messages, more people are going to see you showing up in FB.
Some ways you can do this:
1. Socialize any email communication you do. See an example here of a client email template Pathmaker just updated to optimize the social networking aspect of their outbound communication. Since you may be already doing email, facilitate the sharing aspect of your messages on Facebook, and other social networks, with methods like these.
Notice the header and footer ingredients of this email template. This client is wanting their email recipients to "Like" them on Facebook and share their Newsletters with their friends and family. Since their email list is much larger currently than their Facebook fans, they are using email to push their FB fan page up.
2. Promote your company Facebook page in the media. If you are a broadcast enterprise, promote you FB page on radio or TV. Or promote it in any print ads you place, or even on your company business cards. Think of all the old school methods you have within your power to cross promote your FB page, and you will see your fan growth improve.
3. Cross promote your FB page online, on your company wesite and blogs. See an example of this at our Pathmaker website where we promote FB up top and down at the bottom.
4. Take out Facebook Ads to promote your company Page within the Facebook community. To learn about that go here.
…And a Bonus Thought Regarding Facebook
5) Provide Your Fans With Opportunities to Become Customers
You will notice that your Facebook Page is going to bring you success in a sequential manner: You will first get Likes, and then Likes and email addresses and finally Likes, E-mail Addresses and Sales. Remember, first you build your base, and then you endeavor to turn your fan base into customers. It is that final step that will make your Facebook efforts a successful business channel, that's contributing to the bottom line for your company.
Ways to do this? Consider posting Facebook only special offers, coupons, discounts, deals or terms. Let your fans know you recognize their support and want to reward them for being good customers. In this way you slowly begin to convert your fans into customers, and enjoy the benefits of watching Facebook successfully contribute to your bottom line.
Randall Mains is the Co-Owner of Pathmaker Marketing, LLC - a Phoenix, Arizona internet marketing agency helping emerging businesses, churches and charities reach their online marketing goals and objectives.
If you attended the pre-mixer workshop at the CBN mixer in Phoenix this April, you heard me present "The Bottom Line for Success Online." If you weren't at the workshop, feel free to download that helpful 10-page White Paper from my website.
Since the internet is my area of expertise, I'll affirm this fact: You must start planting seeds on the web today if you want to enjoy success for your company online tomorrow. Professional fundraisers know this fundamentally, but many small business owners have yet to grasp its significance.
I consider this so important for local businesses, churches, and charities, that I want to offer your company two very practical steps to jumpstart your efforts in this regard.
First, at no charge to you (meaning for free), Pathmaker Marketing will set up your personal and company profiles in Google -- a great initial step for local search engine marketing strategies -- and establish Google Analytics on your company website, so you'll get valuable weekly traffic stats for targeting keywords.
Second, I'm offering you a 50% discount off our Top 100 Local Directory Placements, designed to get your company listed in the Top 100 local, business, blog, video and map directories. That normally costs $995 ($10 a listing) but it's yours now at 50% off for just $495 ($5 per listing)! This effective internet marketing step is a fundamental building block to establishing a proper Internet foundation.
Or you can get our Top 40 Local Directory Placements on sale for just $195 ($5 a listing). At this low price, you can jump start your local business or church marketing 101 for cheap.
Either way, I'm going to extend these two special offers to you until 6pm, Friday, May 6th. (If the deadline has passed when you read this post, call me up, and ask if I'll honor the deal anyway over the phone).
I'm willing to help you plant your seeds today for effective internet marketing, so you'll reap the rewards tomorrow.
Call me today to get started: 623.322.3334
Or Skype me at pathmaker.marketing
Randall Mains, Co-Owner
Blogging is an excellent way to use the Internet to promote you and your business, church or charity. As with any “tool,” however, to be most beneficial it has to be used properly. Below are five basic thoughts you need to keep in mind when using blogging as a effective internet marketing tool.
1) Write About What You Know About—in Detail!
Blogging helps you establish yourself as an expert in your field. As a result, you will want to concentrate on making sure your posts demonstrate your areas of expertise. The key is to share in-depth on a particular topic rather than addressing a lot of topics without sharing any real information. The catch phrase here is “Depth is more important than Breadth.” Be as articulate as you can, because for many prospective clients, your blog will be your first impression to them, and you want to demonstrate your areas of expertise.
If writing content is a real challenge for you, you may want to opt to have someone ghost write your posts, either someone on your staff with more flair for copywriting, or by retaining a professional. You could constent to be interviewed on your topics of expertise, so your specific thoughts come through in the final copy.
2) Be Genuine—Not Promotional!
This is not a time to “hype” yourself and/or your company. Share real information regarding the topic you have chosen. For example, if you are operating a sporting goods store and are blogging about the five best flies for trout fishing in June, elaborate on the various merits on the different flies, not on why everyone should come to your store to purchase them! If your blog is a ministry blog, then make your outreach real, not just hype or hyperbole, If you share valuable and valid information in your posts, people will be drawn back to your blog and, eventually, to your website or online store, or even to the phone meet you in person and get more information—and, hopefully, the five flies too!
3) You need to be Consistent—and if possible, Prolific!
Blogging is often like exercise—we know we should do it, and have every intention of doing it—when we can get around to it! Also like exercising, it is only truly beneficial when we do it consistently. A minimum of one to two blog posts per week will give you the kind of content quantity you need, but if you can ramp up to three-four a week, that would be even better. In other words, be consistent first, then increase your volume over time. One rule of thumb to consider is that Google will start to notice your blog after about 50 posts, and then revisit you for updates. Once your blog is initially spydered and ranked, you can train Google to return more frequently, by posting new content consistently.
4) Choose the Right Blogging Tool
There are two basic blog services you can use—fee-based tools like Compendium and free blog tools like WordPress. While the latter has the upside of being free, the former may be far more beneficial for your needs. Understand that a major goal of blogging is to win “Page Rankings” in Google, Yahoo, Bing (and lesser Search Engines) on your target terms.
It's important to remember that tools like WordPress, Blogger, Typepad may require you to manually search engine optimize your posts to puruse your page rankings, while a Premier Blogging Service like Compendium is engineered from the ground up to optimize your posts for targeting keywords. Based on return on investment in getting you search engine rankings results, Compendium is generally a better blogging tool than WordPress, even though it costs, because of the fact that it helps you search engine optimize your blog posts while writing in order to succeed at getting your desired page ranking results. In other words, a free blog tool is a great deal, only if you are getting ranked in the search engines, or you can generate readership independently.
In truth, our company uses both, with Compendium being the premier blogging service tool we lean on most, and consider to the best blogging service out there, while WordPress, Blogger, Typepad, LiveJournal and others are also used frequently or judiciously, when budget or other reasons need to be carefully considered. See a side by side comparison I did recently on the topic recently.
5) Pick the Right Terms to Blog About.
Using the right search terms by targeting keywords in your business or ministry blog posts will result in increased page rankings in the search engines. This is accomplished by determining your winnable keywords via careful and comprehensive keyword research, and then incorporating those words and terms into the text as you write. You can do this keyword research on your own, using the Google keyword research tool (Google: Google Keyword Tool), which is one of the best keyword research tools to start with. You can also retain a pro services company like Pathmaker, that is adept at the process, to ensure you get it done correctly. Once proper research is done, any company can usually identify a total potential keyword pool of about 1500 terms to pursue. Then you have to rank those terms by winnability: determining their potential for you to win a page one ranking on each of them. Some will be winnable. Others will not be winnable without an enromous budget.
And here's one final bonus step to Successful Blogging:
6) Protect Your Content
WordPress has a documented habit of just closing down blog sites if they determine that the user has violated their usage standards for one reason or another. Unfortunately, bloggers often don really know what those “standards” are, nor do they give you the opportunity to change your content to adhere to their prerequisites, once your site is down. This is one of the hidden little secrets to the free tools out there...you could lose all your content since it's hosted on their servers, not yours.
The best way to protect your content is to install a tool like WordPress on your own web server rather than on theirs. Then blog away. Your content resides on your own servers, not theirs, and you can rest easier knowing that it's safer. A simple task, this is truly a worthwhile endeavor as a precautionary measure to protect your content. Obviously, you should always have local PC backups too for all content posted on your company or church blog.
For more assistance with blogging, don't hesitate to call Pathmaker Marketing, LLC in Phoenix, Arizona at 1-623-322-3334, and we'll be happy to help you sort this out further.
I trust that as you read my posts regarding launching your blog, doing comprehensivek keyword research, and SEO-ing your website, that you have come to realize that the Internet really can work for not for profit organizations, and that the Internet is also a pretty good church outreach idea. A church blog is a major part of this, as it as it allows you to be targeting keywords.
The next thing I want to discuss with you is how link building serves well as a church, charity, or small business marketing strategy. After all, church marketing 101 teaches us that a church is, in fact, a small business and therefore the Internet business marketing promotions that work for companies work equally well for churches.
Have you ever noticed that invariably some of the most important things we need to do are also the most time consuming and the most boring? That is exactly the situation with your website and link building! While an excellent way to strengthen your website's rankings in the search engines, the process of link building back links is often laborious at best.
“Why,” you may be wondering, “is link building relevant to our church, charity or small business?”
Actually, there are two significant reasons that you should plan on making link building a part of your core Internet marketing plan. The first is somewhat obvious - - the more listings you have with backlinks to your website, the more opportunities exist for people to find your website in various locations online, thus bringing you qualified visitors. With a dynamite website, each time someone visits your website you have the chance of having them become a visitor to your church, charity or company.
The second reason deals with the fact that a well-developed and properly implemented link building campaign will increase your page rankings within Google search results. This, of course, is clearly to your advantage, so link building should be an on-going part of your search engine marketing program (to be discussed in a subsequent post), thus allowing your website to be that much more available online.
Your next thought may very well be, “How do we develop a link building battle plan?” Well, there are a number of techniques that you can use. First, get your company placed in as many relevant directories as possible - - national, local, and “niche.” The purpose of this, of course, it to then have your listing in these communities, and get it linked back to your website, driving traffic in your direction from those sourcs.
Work diligently to ensure that you get linked in relevant areas. To be listed in places just because they are available may be a waste of time and, in some cases, may even be counter-productive. As in any form of marketing, you need to identify your target market and pursue them with your link building efforts and dollars.
Next, establish links on relevant blogs, community sites, and forums. These are excellent places to establish your church or charity as a leader in your community for providing services that individuals may be looking for, as you will have the opportunity to interact and dialogue with those individuals who visit the sites, thus making their arrival at your church that much easier.
With social media being the latest buzz, it shouldn’t surprise you that you should be incorporating links from social media sites like Facebook and Twitter into your link building rogram as well. In as much as your Facebook account reaches out to untold thousands, the ability to link back from there to your website should prove to be a major hub in your Internet marketing program as well.
You may have found that there is more to link building than you ever imagined! I trust that you have also discovered what a viable tool this is in your over-all Internet marketing strategy!At the request of my Pastor I created a 20 Step program for Marketing our Church on the Internet. To make it as inclusive as possible, I recruited the assistance of Randall Mains of Pathmaker Marketing LLC. Realizing that the results of our efforts would be beneficial to a number of Churches, I decided to do a 20 part series and place it on the Internet so as many people/churches as possible can be Blessed by it!
To date we have discussed launching a blogging process and doing keyword research. Today, I want to discuss search engine optimization - both what it is and why it is important to you as part of your church marketing program. As we discussed last time, the paradigm shifts in our society mandates that churches utilize small business marketing strategies, and an effective website is an excellent church outreach Idea!
In a nutshell, SEO is used to receive Page One rankings on Google, Bing and Yahoo which facilitates more people to “click through” and find your website and all that you have to offer. As many people think they know a lot about SEO, there are three myths that I would like to dispel at this point in regard to the topic:
MYTH #1: As long as you Google your Church Name and come up “#1” you are in fact, search engine optimized.
The reality is that the major search engines treat your church name as a "gimme.” As a result, this means that in the realm of search engine optimization, this gives you virtually zero clout! In fact, if you don’t get page one ranking when you type in your church name you have a real problem!
MYTH #2: Search engine optimization can be achieved quickly!!!
Actually, nothing could be further from the truth!! It is a long, slow, and sometimes tedious task that leads you to the finish line in this race! There are, as you will learn, several steps involved, each time consuming in their own right. BUT the results are well worth the effort! As you schedule your SEO Program, you will want to allot at least six months to accomplish the task!
MYTH #3: You can accomplish SEO for Free!
The confusion in this realm is the fact that visitors come to your site for free, but the competitive nature of SEO mandates that you either hire professionals to achieve the rankings you desire, or that you plan on investing huge amounts of time and energy to accomplish SEO to your satisfaction!
The myths aside, SEO can be a tremendous boon to the success of your church. If you, through your SEO efforts, you can attain a #1 ranking on a Google search you will get a lot of click through traffic! This may lead to visitors who will, of course, greatly “enhance the chance” of your church growing!
Understanding that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of words related to a church, your goal is to make sure that yours shows up for as many of these words as possible when a potential parishioner is searching them, and that is where your keyword research that we discussed in Part II comes into play!
While the Internet is evolving daily, SEARCH ENGINES is one of the two items that tends to remain constant. Being well positioned allows people to discover exactly what it is that your church has to offer. To better understand this concept, consider the Internet a Super Highway with millions of people zooming along it every day. Your SEO program serves as a billboard, advising them of what awaits if they will take the “proper exit” and wind up at your place! Unless they can find you, however, they will always be “potential parishioners ” and never “your parishioners!” If you aren’t showing up in searches, you don’t have a Billboard! The first step is to conduct a keyword research project, which will allow you to find the rigth terms in order to have a website that is optimized!
As you can see, targeting keywords can lead to more visitors, which strengthens your church outreach. I know this may all seem overwhelming, and would suggest that if you have any questions that you e-mail Randall Mains at randall@pathmakermarketing.net, as he is more of an expert in this realm than even I am.
In the first installment I mentioned that it would be wise to launch a blogging process. In that, I alluded to the fact that you need to Target Keywords that are winnable, and explained how to do so. The next thing I think you need to concentrate on is doing keyword research.
Knowing that comprehensive keyword research is the foundation of an effective search engine marketing program will allow you to understand that, basically, you need to “chase down” the people who need the services and programs that your church offers and lead them to your website. The whole idea is to ensure that your church comes up when people type in their search terms.
You may think that there aren’t all that many words and/or terms, but actually quite the opposite is true. The typical comprehensive keyword search will yield a minimum of 1500 or more keyword variations! Through a variety of filters, you can narrow the number down that you will want to concentrate on regarding your website and your blog posts. The key, of course, is to find “winnable” words, and then prioritize them for your benefit.
While I certainly can’t list 1500 words/terms here, I will give you an quick example of what I mean, using the top 20 terms found when using Chicago churches as our local example:
churchesbible study
catholic churches
orthodox church
youth ministry
church chicago
church in chicago
willow creek church
willowcreek church
chicago maps
churches chicago
churches in chicago
bill hybels
catholic churches in chicago
catholic churches chicago
baptist churches in chicago
catholic church in chicago
churches chicago il
churches in chicago il
church chicago il
Once you have your list composed, you will want to chose the terms that best describe your ministry, whether it be to teens, seniors, street people or other. These are the terms you want to concentrate on as your church Staff compose their blog posts, and as you “tweak” the copy and contents of your website!
That brings me to my next point - - once you complete your keyword research and acquire your final winnable keyword list the real task has just begun! It will take months - probably six or more - to get you to a point that when an individual types in a term/phrase on your list that your church will come up. Remember I said that this list is the “foundation” of an effective search engine marketing program? While the list is the foundation, the “structure” you will build on it will be all the blog posts that you and your staff write! It is those Church Blogs that will help you acquire page rankings from Google, Yahoo and Bing, and that is what will drive people to your website and eventually your church, making the internet an effective church outreach tool for you!
While it may rankle us to have to admit it, “Church Marketing 101” is one of those paradigm shifts that we just need to learn to live with, and Targeting Keywords is one of those internet marketing ideas that will, in fact, allow this to be a viable church outreach idea.
In closing, I would suggest that you read Part III, as we will deal with SEO - search engine optimization - and how to ensure that your website will, in fact, get Google, Yahoo and Bing page rankings!
Jim looked pretty pathetic, to say the very least. Somewhat loud, though never obnoxious!, Jim is truly a sensitive soul and that is why the comment that had been leveled at him had been so devastating. It seems that last Sunday, in front of a whole group of people, his pastor slapped him on the back and exclaimed, “Well, Jim, why don’t you head up the committee for Internet presence. After all, you’re the biggest Bloghead in the congregation.”
“Floyder, will you call Pastor and ask him why he would say something like that about me?”
His puppy-dog brown eyes made it impossible to say “no,” so I gave Pastor a call. I surmised, and verified, that all Pastor meant was that Jim used Blogging as an Internet Marketing Tool for his business more than anyone else. The fact that “Bloghead” sounds suspiciously like “Blockhead” had made Jim feel like he was being ridiculed, which, of course, was not the case. Finishing up with the call, I explained it to Jim.
A visual sigh of relief crept across Jim’s face, making it as placid as a crystal clear lake. As I watched, however, the metamorphosis continued, and the placidity was replaced with a look of total confusion. I waited, as I knew another question/ request would be forthcoming.
“Floyder, is there such a thing as a Church Blog?” indicating by the question that he was accepting Pastor’s offer to head the committee.
“Certainly, Jim,” I assured him.
“Well, what does a church Blog about?”
“Oh,” I explained easily, “there are several ways a church can use a Blog as an outreach tool. They might want to simply employ Christian Blogging to post content that is relevant to members of their congregation. Or they might want to develop their blog into an outreach tool, so that in that case it actually becomes a Ministry Blog.”
“How would that work?”
“Well, it could actually take several forms. For example, they might use the Blog as a discussion forum to facilitate small groups discussions on the pastor's weekend sermons.
“They might also use the blog to feature and highlight the special ministries a church offers their community, such as children's activities, helping the homeless or their outreach to military families.”
"Or they could use the blog as a vehicle for outreach, discussing subjects that matter the public at large, with a biblical point of view.
Jim cogitated on what I had said for a while, and then asked,
“Floyder, should I seek Pathmaker’s help?
Jim was referring to Pathmaker Marketing, which promotes a Premier Blogging Service for churches (LEARN MORE >>). Jim and I have discussed numerous aspects of Internet Marketing, and, on several occasions, he retained Randall to help him with suggestions.
“Well, it wouldn’t hurt.”
Jim smiled and went to a world of his own where he was contemplating his course of action. Me, I was just glad he no longer looked pathetic!
The Social Blogger, typically, is mostly blogging for fun. As a result, they blog when they have a few extra minutes or when they get around to it, and they blog about a myriad of topics. One day they may write about the wonderful new restaurant they ate at the night before, and three days later they might vent about how poorly their favorite baseball team is doing. They will discuss the high price of gas, or how they have begun their Christmas shopping earlier this year. While their thoughts and approach might be very focused, even profound, in each individual blog, they tend to take a “shotgun” approach where their choice of topics is concerned - - spreading a wide range of thoughts to their reading public.
The Professional Blogger, on the other hand, can’t pursue such a haphazard approach to their blogging - - or at least they shouldn’t. Rather, the Professional Blogger needs to be blogging with a specific purpose in mind, always mindful of the fact that their blog site should strive for a depth of content in what they write. Their blogging has to be intentionally focused on areas of expertise - - they must also purpose to provide a steady flow of content posts per week. They must continually be adding quality content to their blog site, always bringing readers back for more. They must not be lackadaisical about this - - they are using this as a major part of their marketing plan and therefore must attend to it religiously!
The Professional Blogger needs to be targeting keywords that they want to win a Page One ranking on in Google, Yahoo or Bing. Once these target terms are determined, they pursue these top page rankings by creating best in class content surrounding those keywords, and, as a result, they also establish themselves as an expert in their field.
While it may seem easy to identify keywords you want to write about, the real trick is to isolate the “winnable” words or phrases, since what's most important is picking terms to blog about that both relate to your expertise, and have some capacity to win you a Page One Ranking. Page One rankings will get your blog qualified visitors, who may convert into names to your email list, qualified leads, product or service buyers, donors, etc.
The subtlety of finding Internet success though, can find you, like the old TV character Maxwell Smart, “missing it by just that much.” Let me give you an example.
Suppose you want to win a page one ranking for “e-mail fund raising,” You already have a wealth of knowledge on the subject, and have been most successful in helping clients with the endeavor. You now, however, want to use the Internet to “recruit” new clients, and decide that blogging is the route to go. So, you diligently begin adding appropriate keyword content to your blog and, lo and behold, nobody is beating down your door to have you help them. The reason? People are not searching on line for “e-mail fundraising,” they are searching for “ephilanthropy” - - by the millions!
Obviously, this scenario could be frustrating to the point of devastation! To determine the keyword marketing terms to pursue, you can either hire a Premier Blogging Service firm such as Randall Mains company Pathmaker Marketing, or you need to invest hours, days, or possibly weeks to research them yourself, using Google’s Keyword Tool or something similar (To learn more about this, read my upcoming blog, How to do Strategic Keyword Marketing Research for Your Blog).
Determining your area of expertise should, at least theoretically, be a little easier. However, you may want to take a broad term and “narrow down” your area of expertise. Let’s use our example of “e-mail fundraising.” Fundraising, obviously, is a term used by non-profit organizations. Now, you may want to concentrate on e-mail fundraising for churches. To be more specific, you may want to be an expert on e-mail fundraising for churches with under 500 members. Once you make the determination of what you want your “niche” to be and you have accurately identified the marketing keywords you want to win pages for, you can begin to employ your blogs as a valuable sales tool! (Don’t miss my next blog, 5 Critical Steps to a Successful Blogging Initiative!)
The bottom line is this: when blogging, be targeting keywords that you've thoroughly researched so that you know you can win page one rankings that will get you readers. That process is called Keyword Marketing, and it can pay off in spades for you.
On May 25th they had 115 total Top 50 Page Rankings:
45 Top 10, plus
30 Top 20, plus
14 Top 30, plus
26 top 50.
The Page Ranking report showed them receiving an overall 19 fold increase in Blog Listing Results vs. January 20, when they had 6 Top 50 Page Rankings (2 Top 20 and 4 Top 30). The premier blogging service we are using on their behalf is really delivering to them substantial results, and we're glad to to have it be a part of their core blog search engine optimization services. What's nice about the system is how it automatically optimizes their blog posts for the search engines, saving them a lot of time and effort performing manual SEO.
If you'd like to consider a substantive tool for your company or church blog, or Christian blogging efforts, then check out Compendium Blogware and then give me (Randall Mains) a call at 623-323-3334 to discuss how this substantial tool could reward your company with more leads, sales and name acquisitions, along with the ability to use the blogging process to establish yourself as an expert in your field.
There are three things that is does really well for me, automatically:
1. It optimizes my blog urls
2. It optimizes my page construction
3. It optimizes my page content
My compended blog system creates keyword blogs from my posts that are optimal for my target keywords. Those three things tend to get me noticed in Google, Yahoo and Bing, and I get really good Page Rankings as a result. Plus, with my system, I leverage my blog posts into WordPress, Blogger, Xanga, LiveJournal, and Vox, so I get the benefit of using those free blog services too, but without having to worry about multiple accounts to upkeep. My central blogging happens here, and the power of the internet flow it elsewhere.
Until someone tells me otherwise, I'm asserting the fact that using any other blog system would require me to manually search engine optimize my individual blog posts, and since I do that for a living on client websites, I know how tedious and complicated that process can be to get decent page ranking results.
Plus, my system allows you to have unlimited user blogs, which is a very hard to beat feature and benefit.
If you want a demo of the high-powered premier blogging service we use to get stellar page ranking results for our clients, give me a holler at 623-322-3334, and ask me to show you the system we use.
But if you’re thinking of adding a virtual tour to your non profit website design, you’ll need to take a number of issues into account before getting started.
1. What is the goal for your tour?
If your Internet marketing idea is to showcase your business, then you’ll want a lot of photos of your campus – this is a more informational type of tour. But if your Internet marketing idea is to tell the inspiring story of how your ministry, church or business started, you’ll want to have more drama in your tour – and this could add to the bandwidth as you include more sound effects and perhaps video.
As you begin to compile information for this particular Internet marketing idea, you’ll want to always keep your specific goal in mind and organize that information in the tour so that it will be easy to present and experience. And you’re going to want to focus on what makes your campus, business, product, etc., unique.
Whether you include a virtual tour in your website as an informational or inspirational Internet marketing idea, you’re going to need to provide a real guided tour – not just drop people off and make them find their own way around on their own. This brings up another point, some people will want to be dropped off and explore, meaning you're going to need a visible map so anyone can find their way around ... and include the words "Begin Here" in the map.
2. Who are you trying to reach?
If your non profit is a university primarily for people directly out of high school, this Internet marketing idea should showcase the sorts of things that appeal to younger people. But if you have a combination of younger students plus people coming back for some mid-career training to stay relevant, you may be talking about two different tours. You need to think this through so filming day takes the approach for the generation you’re attempting to reach, and you’ll want your script, and the narrator, to have the voice of the generation you’re trying to reach. Any information you provide is going to need to be relevant and interesting to your specific audience – from their point of view, not yours.
3. What kind of interactivity will your audience most appreciate?
Some people, especially younger people, want to be in control of their browsing experience. They’ll appreciate choices – where can they click to find out more information? Some older people may want the tour to completely load and allow them to sit back and watch with few needs on their part for making choices. Your tour should be more than QuickTime videos with some text. It should be a special production that integrates many different kinds of media – videos, text, maps, photos, etc.; but these should be done in a seamless way so the viewing experience is appropriate for the audience and flow well. And provide choices for people who want to sit back and watch your tour as well as those you want to get dropped off and do a more self-guided tour.
4. What kind of bandwidth will you be working with?
Your IT department will be very unhappy if a virtual tour suddenly goes online that you have not discussed with them because they have a specific amount of bandwidth to work with, and you need to make sure your project is going to be well served without taking from other functions of the server.
Pathmaker Marketing is a professional fundraising company that serves ministries, non profit organizations and a for profit businesses. We offer search engine optimization services, fundraising services, blogging services, business marketing promotion online, and many Internet marketing ideas. Give us a call at 623-322-3334 to see how we can assist you, whether with a virtual tour or any other kind of website design or online fundraising services.
1. DEFINE YOUR OBJECTIVES - As you craft your Banner Ad or Email campaign or other online ad initiative you need to know exactly what you are expecting it to accomplish for you. There are basically two things that you can hope to achieve from your Internet Marketing endeavor other than exposure -- a lead or a sale. Typically, your product or service will determine which you should expect. For example, if you are pitching your services as an Architect for Church Building Expansions, you will undoubtedly be pursuing leads, not sales. The complexity of the sale process and the probable high cost make online sales prohibitive. On the other hand, if you are selling a $79.95 downloadable resource entitled “6 Steps to a Perfect Sermon,” your end objective is most likely a sale. Once you understand your objective (sale or lead) you can develop better copy and art to achieve your goal, and you can better measure the results of your campaign to get qualified leads or sales.
2. ADD THE “FREE WATCH” - As much as we may want to purchase something, many of us often need that little extra motivation or incentive to push us over the top and make that decision to purchase that which we are considering. One of the best ways to accomplish this with your Internet Marketing is to give a free bonus gift. Mentioned at the end of your offer, this extra incentive often becomes that “little extra” that convinces consumers to act on the offer! Be creative with your "free watch." This could be free shipping, 20% off, an extra goodie, bonus products, a discount coupon for a future purchase, etc.
For further internet marketing ideas, or tips for fundraising professionals, visit Pathmaker Marketing, or call Randall Mains direct at 623-322-3334.
Fundraising professionals, no matter what their cause or kind, understand that they must, at some point in the fundraising stream, connect donors to the end-recipient of their giving. Stories, testimonies and images all can work together to bring that powerful sense of gratification to donors who want their dollars to truly make a difference in the world.
Whether you are raising funds for your local church, a street ministry or the building of hospitals overseas, those who give to you want to see how their gifts are helping. If, as a fundraising professional, you’ve lost sight of this meaningful principle, here are some ideas to help get you back on track with the important discipline of “telling the stories.”
1. Use the Internet. It’s relatively inexpensive, and you pay the same, no matter how many individuals read the testimonies you share. Bring the faces and stories of those who are impacted right onto the pages of your website. Make sure your storytelling is rich with images and effective words, using first person accounts whenever possible. Let the fundraising professionals at Pathmaker Marketing help you build a website (or re-design your current one) to motivate and encourage your donors.
2. Provide interactive opportunities that will tell the story for you. Are you giving your supporters interactive ways to be involved with the ministry other than giving? Prayer is an energizing way to draw constituents in and create community. And, it will truly strengthen your efforts! Let us help you create a prayer area on your website using our interactive prayer walls, prayer requests function and more. Just seeing the many heartfelt prayers that build up on the prayer wall will serve as a form of testimony that will go a long way for you, as a professional fundraiser, to encourage your stakeholders.
We can also help you create an area on your website where both the friends of your ministry as well as those you serve can post their stories and testimonies, much like this one of Gregory Dickow Ministries and this one from Jewish Voice. These accounts will help strengthen the link between donor and recipient as readers see the impact of their giving.
Check back for my next blog post to read two more great ways you can strengthen your efforts as a professional fundraiser by telling the powerful stories of your ministry or group.
7. Developing an Electronic Welcome Series for Your Church Visitors is our 7th of Ten Top Church Outreach Ideas for the Internet.
Whenever you welcome someone new to your church, it is likely that you have a team ready to make sure the new person feels welcome. They serve him coffee, exchange sincere pleasantries and ask for his contact details. Your church does this to make sure that the newcomer comes back to your church and becomes a regular attendee and active participant.
Using the same analogy, your church website can strategically welcome and interact with your first-time and returning visitors by offering them something "ministerial" in exchange for their basic contact information.
There are many ways to do this. For example, you can offer free Christian e-books, spiritual gifts tests, MP3 files of your best sermons, invite them to read your ministry blog, or install a prayer wall where they can leave their prayer request (like we mentioned in an earlier post). In exchange, the website visitor would simply have to provide basic contact information: First Name and Email Address.
Typically, once they have requested your special free offers, your system will have a triggered set of email messages that automatically go out at pre-established intervals: one week later, two weeks later, etc. Each email is designed to get those newcomers further acquainted with your church and encourage them to return, possible even get further involved.
Each autoresponder email message is designed to welcome the newcomer to a different aspect or your church or ministry, and of course, encourage them to get involved. Why not collect email and snail mail addresses on church visitors in exchange for a Welcome Kit about your church, then place those emails into your electronic welcome series?
Some good real-time examples of this practice can be found here:
Gregory Dickow Ministries (Or, see Sign up Now box upper right on Home Page)
By developing an incentive-based e-welcome series, you can be assured that you will remain in contact with people who have shown in interest in your church outreach inperson or on your website. This may not yield instant results in increased church membership, but you are establishing relationships with newcomers, who as long as they remain on your email list, are indicating that their interest remains. Plus, typical results show that for every 100 emails you acquire, 63% of those will also give you their full name and mailing address in exchange for a Welcome Kit from your ministry!
For a Free Demo on how this process works, contact Pathmaker at 623-322-3334.
4. Expand your Teaching Ministry via Twitter is our 4th of 10 Church Outreach Ideas for the internet.
After two weeks on Twitter, my friend´s personal account has had over 100 followers. This means 100 people (whom are both friends and strangers) have been receiving updates about her activities, beliefs, thoughts and anything that she wants to inform her followers about.
Having a church social media account in sites like Twitter is an efficient use of your resources to reach out to your target audience. People who have personal accounts in these social network sites usually visit them at least once a day -- many have their "tweets" sent right to their cell phones. Instead of finding out whether their acquaintances have started dating or broken up, wouldn’t it be more spiritually constructive if you communicated the new spiritual insights you are having as a pastor?
The beauty of using social media marketing for church outreach is that it takes minimal effort on your part to use their built-in features meant for virally spreading information. However, before signing on to just any social network, you should develop a strategy on what would be the most useful content to provide and how to leverage these opportunities wisely.
Since Twitter opens up an international audience for you, of which most of your followers will not be able to visit your church, you need to develop an appropriate strategy to use this tool. One strategic way Pathmaker uses Twitter @PathmakerServes is that we autoflow our blog content into our Twitter networks. This way, since we are committed to creating fresh content on our blog, that content is also populated across the internet via Twitter every time we update our blog. The bulk of our content is developed on our blog, while Twitter posts allow us to drive interested traffic to our blogsite for further reading.
Churches should have a members site on Twitter for generating news of interest to current churchgoers, while opening up a second site with is specifically geared to be more "evangelistic" in its outreach, dealing with subjects of general interest to everyone, anywhere in the world.
For help in this regard, reach Pathmaker Marketing online, or for more assitance, cal 1-623-322-3334.
3. Search Engine Optimizing (SEO) Your Website so Prospective Churchgoers Can Find You is our 3rd ofTen Church Outreach Ideas for the Internet.
I challenge you to open your web browser and type the following: churches in (name of your city). Did you find your church website on the first page of results? If not, ask yourself this question: If you were a new family who recently move into the community, and you were Google searching for churches in your area, would you have the patience to browse through each and every page of the 800,000 results that showed up? Most likely your answer would be no.
In order to maximize your church outreach, you must make sure that people know your church exists in the first place. One of the best ways to do that is to SEO your website. Having a website that is rarely visited by people outside your congregation is like owning a great book that you never got a chance to read just because you cannot find it.
An excellent way to ensure that your website shows up among the top results in web searches is by employing SEO techniques in your websites. These steps include modifying your site content and code to be optimized for your targeted, relevant search terms (aka Keywords). It also includes link building to establish your website firmly within local searches on the internet.
Since SEO requires some technical expertise, it would be good stewardship to invest in hiring a serach engine optimizaton agency like Pathmaker Marketing who can perform the necessary keyword research, copy and HTML code modifications, and submit your website to the search engines. The main takeaway here is if your website doesn't show up in a Google search for: churches in (name of your city), then how is anyone going to find you online?
Rabbit Trail: if you Google search the name of your church and find you are listed at the top, don't get too excited. Google would be remiss to NOT list you on a search for your name. It's their entire job in life to deliver the most relevant results for the search that is performed. The more imptorant issue is when someone searches: church in (your city), or churches in (your city), or best churches in (your city), etc, etc, do you show up. If you don't it's time to SEO.
Get your church website search engine optimized so that you show up in the list of Top 10 results, where people can find you, and enjoy the visitors you receive as a result.
For a free consultation in this regard, visit this Pathmaker webpage:
Fast-forward to today. I am changed person. I have become a person whose basic principles and beliefs are centered on the Bible. I am an active member of the church who often volunteers to make sure its activities go well. I sing in the choir, host Bible studies, share the Gospel and invite my family and friends to church.
So, what happened between now and then? Well, I literally and figuratively searched for God on the internet and was led from one website to another. Finally, all the information I collected in my head translated into spiritual grace moving in my life.
I believe that I was not the only one searching for God at that time. I am blessed that my search led me to my salvation. But, wouldn´t it be a shame if there were someone like me in your area searching for your church but you could not be found?
This is why we are writing this – to make sure that your church is able to use the world wide web to upgrade your church outreach on the internet and to help your congregation grow both spiritually, in number and in resources. To that effect, we've compiled this list of Top 10 Internet ideas for Church Outreach and Online Marketing.
1. Launching a Ministry Blog to Expand Your Outreach and Find New Friends is our 1st of 10 Church Outreach Ideas for the Internet.
A blog is an online commentary that can be read by an infinite number of people at any given time. There are many people out there who follow a couple of blogs on subjects that are of their interest. Chances are you also read the blogs of your family, friends and mentors regularly.
To maintain a ministry blog is a exceptional way to speak and minister to a diverse, often international audience. By writing down your current spiritual insights, excerpts from your sermons, or devotional thoughts, you can communicate powerful messages that would help your readers grow in their faith. Additionally, you also get a chance to interact with many people as they share their own reflections or their point of view in your blog´s comments section.
Truly, a church blog is a wonderful way to enlarge your online ministry and get to know the thoughts of people both within and outside your congregation. That being said, you must remember that there are over 50 million blogs out there. Your ministry blog will easily get lost in cyberspace if you do not use the proper techniques that guarantee that you reach your target audience. So, how can you leverage your blog to expand your outreach while also establishing new friends?
Unless you have plenty of time to search engine optimize (SEO) your blog, you should avail yourself of a premier blogging service from Pathmaker Marketing. It has costs associated with it, but it excels in so many ways beyond the free blog options available on the internet. The compended system in a effective internet marketing tool that helps you write keyword-rich blog content in a search-engine friendly manner. This powerful tool allows you to write one blog and then it populates (compends) your content across multiple "keyword" blogs, thereby saving you enormous time and effort.
It also automatically provides search engine optimization services for your blog (and each keyword blog), making them all friendly to Google, Yahoo and Bing. Plus, you can have as many users as you'd like on your blog system, meaning your staff, associates, youth pastor, deacons, elders can participate too.
The goal of this church outreach tool is to get your blog to display in the Top 10 search results on your target keywords so that people find you online in internet searches. When your blog shows up in a Google display of results, you get reader traffic that can become new ministry friends, new church visitors, etc. As your church blog shows up in Google results, your blog truly becomes an outreach onto the internet, ministering to new people even as it encourages them to become ministry participants or church visitors. For examples, see:
Dr. David Mains´ blog is a 20-Keyword compended blog rich in keywords and spiritual content.
Or examine the Pathmaker Markering blog to see a 50-Keyword compended blog system in action.
You can also Google: Premier Blogging System
For a free demo: Call Pathmaker Marketing at 1-623-322-3334
Well, consider this. With four posts to this compended, Keyword Blog system, I've already gotten to a Top 10 position on Google for this Keyword phrase: Premier Blogging Service. And I intend to stay there by talking about all the merits of this keyword marketing, compended, premier blogging tool.
For one, it flows my blog posts automatically onto the appropriate keyword blog categories. That saves me a ton of time and effort that I get to spend in other areas of my life. This unique feature is called compending. Said in another way, it auotmatically "populates" each appropriate keyword blog every time I post to my main blog.
Secondly, it search engine optimizes all my blog posts, guiding me to create content that makes the search engines, like Google, Yahoo and Bing, very happy. Plus the content is targeting keywords on the internet.
Thirdly, I can have unlimited users on my system so other friends, staffers or colleagues can help me in the blogging process. That doesn't cost me anything extra. And I like the extra help. It gives my blog the edge in developing ongoing, relevant content.
Fourthly, it allows me to generate content that gets flowed all across the internet. In doing so, it finds me new friends, who like what I have to say, and want to consider further the services I have to offer.
Fifthly (is that a word?), I can autoflow all my blog posts from this system onto my other "free" blog accounts.
Finally, it's so easy to use, I just love it. And it comes with complete tech support so that if anything ever goes wrong (which it never does), I'm covered.
If you'd like a Free Demo on this exceptional internet marketing tool, (which can easily become your church blog, ministry blog, church outreach, christian blogging tool, christian marketing tool, non profit marketing tool, or small business blog service), please call me today at 1-623-322-3334. Ask for Randall Mains, and I'll be glad to share my enthusiasm with you about this fine product that you can take advantage of too.
Once you've got your core blog services established and you are blogging away, consider the following process for leveraging your content across the internet.
1. Establish a new account with ping.fm
2. Establish a new account with twitterfeed.com
3. Create a new feed in twitterfeed that pulls content from your source blog and autoflows that content into your ping.fm account.
4. Choose the accounts you want to establish in ping.fm
For example, blog acounts include: Wordpress, Blogger, Xanga, LiveJournal and Vox.
Social accounts include: Twitter, Facebook, Plaxo, Linkedin, Jaiku, Tumblr, etc.
Doing this will populate your blog posts into your free blogging services, and into your social networks, without any need to spend extra time. You can then begin to implement efficient, effective internet marketing.
You can also just use the ping.fm account on its own. This is relatively simple process but it requires you to create a simple message every time you want to flow content out. So it's mildly more involved but still a superior method than updating all your accounts one by one.
I like to autoflow my blog posts across the internet, then use ping.fm for additional messages that are not part of my blogging process.
If you need professional help to get this done for your church outreach or small business, don't hesitate to call me directly at 623-322-3334 and Pathmaker Marketing will be happy to perform the process on your behalf.
I would argue to go with the premier blogging service first. Then add your free blog services later. Let me explain why I feel that way.
The compended blog tool that I use is a superior outreach and promotional vehicle for my company and could be for your ministry, church or small business as well. It gives me the following advantages in effective internet marketing:
1. It allows me to establish multiple Keyword blogs. (See my Category list down the right sidebar of this column). Each of these Keyword blog terms has been carefully researched, then run through 2-3 serious evaluation layers, giving me a high degree of confidence that my Keyword Blogs can bust into a Top 10 listing on Google, Yahoo or Bing. As long as I stay committed to developing relevant content for my keywords, this tool assures me a fighting chance for a Top 10 listing on my terms. It could do the same for you.
2. It populates all my Keyword blogs automatically as I create my primary blog posts. This saves me a hige amount of time and energy. It effectively leverages my writing effort dozens of times over. For example, once I finish writing this blog post, the system will automatically "compend" it to these other relevant Keyword Blogs (Blog Services, Ministry Blogs, Church Blog, Premier Blogging Service, Ministry Blog, Christian Blogging, etc). Do you get that incredible advantage?
3. Each Keyword Blog is also fully Search Engine Optimized on that term for Google, Yahoo and Bing. That begins with each blog having a unique URL. It also includes a nifty color bar tool that enables me to create each post in a way that my copy is fully optimized for my terms. I would have to do these steps manually otherwise, a time-draining process at best, even for a marketing firm like ours. For those who don't understand the SEO process at all, this advantage would be out of reach. If you paid someone to Search Engine Optimize your blog, it would cost you hundreds, maybe even thousands of dollars of income. It might even be money well spent, if it gets you a top listing for your blog, but the point is, I don't have to spend any money on SEO with this tool, because my blogs are already optimized for every keyword in our system. Yours would be too.
4. It allows me to have unlimited blogger accounts. I can open up the blogging process to as many staffers or writers as I 'd like, at no additional cost to me. This gives me the advantage of getting content from multiple sources rather than just relying on myself or a few dedicated writers. If you're a church, for example, you could have your Senior Pastor, Associate Pastor, Youth Pastor, Worship Leader, C.E. Director, even Deacons and Elders all blogging ont eh same system, under one account.
5. It notifies the search engines each time we update our blog. This process, called pinging, keeps Google informed that there is new content available for evaluation. It does this step so you don't have to.
6. It is actively fighting to get me visibilty on my keywords -- it's a true marketing tool. The compending and optimization process, by intent and design, is looking to establish a presence for each keyword in my blog in the Top 10 results of a Google search. This primary goal recognizes that if I get presence on my terms, I will get qualified traffic from those terms to my blog. Qualified traffic to my blog means qualified names added to my email lists, new leads to my church, new sales for my business and/or gifts to my ministry. This system is prospecting for new customers for me even as it establishes me as an authority in my areas of expertise. It would accomplish the same strategic objective for your company.
7. It allows me to autoflow my content to the free blog services. Once my premier blogging service is installed, then I also have the option to begin flowing my blog content automatically into numerous other free blog services like Wordpress, Blogger, Xanga, LiveJournal, Vox, etc. This way I get all the advantages of my superior marketing tool and maintain a presence in the other blog services, without any additional effort on my part.
You would establish a substantial presence across the internet with this tool in your marketing lineup.
8. It allows me to control the posting process. Each post that gets submitted from my bloggers goes into a qeueu waiting for my approval. This allows me to oversee the posts, perform quality control if necessary, and approve them before they go live. You would ahve the same measure of content control.
9. It comes with a superior team of tech support professionals. Although it's really a turn-key process, if you need help in getting to success using this superior tool, the Pathmaker Marketing team and Compendium are both available to help you.
For a Free Demo of these online marketing tools, call me today at 623-322-3334, and I'd be more than happy to discuss in more detail how this resource could be implemented for your church ministry, non profit organization or small business.
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