Creating Service Pages that Rank and Convert: A Step-by-Step Guide

Before your website can convert visitors into customers, it needs to attract those visitors. Creating service pages that rank on Google is a critical step to getting that done.

Creating high-converting service pages is actually a lot simpler than you might think. You just need to do it step-by-step. Think of it like a construction checklist. You wouldn’t build a house by just randomly doing construction tasks out or order and whenever you felt like it.

I’m going to take you through a 4 step process to creating service pages that both rank – and convert

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Step 1: Define Your Target Audience

First off, you need to know your target audience. For instance, if you’re reading this article – you probably are: A small business owner that has a website but is looking to increase your rank on Google so you can land more jobs. Am I close? Of course I am! That’s the intended audience for this article. Literally everything I’m typing is FOR YOU, Mr. Contractor.

First you need to create a buyer persona. There’s plenty of in-depth articles available all over on creating buyer personas, try this one from HubSpot – so we won’t cover it in detail here. What you need to know is that people buy for different reasons.

Say you’re a landscaper. You can have two people who both spend $20,000 on a new landscape but for two different reasons. Customer A is spending the money because he wants to one-up his neighbor who just installed the koi pond in the front yard. Whereas, Customer B just has disposable retirement income and wants to lower his tax bracket before the end of the year.

You can gather that speaking to these two groups will require a different pitch if you will.

You’ll need to first identify your target audience, and then write your service page copy for that audience.

One caveat: Let’s say you want to appeal to both the younger professional dad and the retirement grandpa - you’re better off writing content blogs for each of them and then directing them to your service page.

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Step 2: Conduct Keyword Research

This cannot be stressed enough. You have to research the keywords you’re going after. Here’s the thing - not all keywords are ranked equally.

For instance – ”Landscape design” will be MUCH harder to rank for than “Landscape architect in New Bern”.

While the second keyword is easier to rank for, it probably will have far fewer monthly searches than the first. It’s a balancing act of:

Keyword volume vs. Keyword strength

Well how do you do all this research? How do you know which keywords to rank for?

Here’s a few primers on how we do this in our Search Engine Optimization for our clients:

1. Identify existing keyword searches that you are coming up for, but not being clicked on in Search Console.

2. Find other keywords that are related using a keyword tool such as AHREFS or SEMRUSH

3. Place all those keywords in one of their tools, and it will tell you the monthly search volume and keyword strength

4. Find other service pages that already rank high for the top keywords

If you’re going to target the highest strength keywords, be sure to create service pages that offer a unique perspective than the competing service pages that already rank

Remember, the higher the search volume – the more precise your service page will need to be.

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Step 3: Optimize Service Page Structure

Keep all of your service pages with the same 5 part structure I’ll explain below. Bonus, if you’re using a CMS platform such as Webflow, all you need to do is create ONE service page template, and all of your services will follow the same structure! This is exactly how we build all of our custom website designs.

Here are the 5 parts to a great service page structure:

1. Long form, focused on the benefits (not the features)

2. Proof in the form of testimonials or reviews

3. Images and/or Illustrations

4. Hierarchy of typography - don’t make everything a big paragraph. Break it up.

5. CALL TO ACTION - this cannot be overstated. You’ll want to guide them to the next step

• Discuss the importance of writing compelling service descriptions

• Provide tips for writing effective service descriptions

• Provide examples of effective service descriptions

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Step 4: Write SEO-Friendly Landing Pages

It should be noted that the term service page, webpage, and landing page are used synonymously. For this purpose though, we’re calling them landing pages - because ideally your individual service page is where they should have landed on from Google.

To make your landing page SEO friendly, you’ll want to make sure it has the following components:

1. Optimized Title

2. Optimized meta description

3. Open graph image

4. Proper H1, H2, H3 heading structure

5. Use of bullet points, numbered lists, and pull quotes if you can

The title and meta description are the blue link and summary that will show up on a Google search result page.

So now what?

Well, by now you should know how to create service pages that rank and convert. If you missed some of it though, here’s the steps laid out in order:

1. Define your target audience

2. Conduct keyword research

3. Optimize service page structure

4. Write SEO friendly landing pages

It’s truly simpler than it seems. Of course, in 2023, there are tons of AI writing assistants to help you out. NOTE that I said ASSISTANT. Google has been clear about not using an AI tool to just spit out a full blog. It’s not original content, and it’s generally not very helpful - it’s too bland.

I’ve found that using AI as an assistant works best. I used two different tools to help me write this article.

Copy.AI to help create the outline.

• It gave me 6 steps, I narrowed it to 4.

• Then I took each step and had it write a bullet point for each step.

• From there, I wrote the entire article

• It’s sort of like a journal prompt but for long form content

Then I used StoryChief.io to write the article.

• There was no AI used from StoryChief (though they do have that now)

• StoryChief is a blog editor, it helps you keep the structure of the article SEO friendly

• Plus it offers several other tools for readability, and other optimization tips.

Another option you can do is just outsource the copywriting to someone else.

Copywriters are dime a dozen though. You can literally find a copywriter for $5 on sites like fiverr.com - but you WILL get what you pay for.

In other cases, I’ve seen articles written for as much as $300-400 per article.

We’ve worked with many different copywriters over the years, and have a good list we use. If you need help managing your SEO, give us a shout.

5 Marketing Strategies for Local Service Providers

Every local business owner has the same concern – how do I get customers?

It is a common problem because with no customers you have no income.

Revenue = barbeque on the patio. Less revenue = less barbeque. You know where this is going...

Below I want to highlight 5 marketing strategies that local service providers should consider implementing.

1. Provide a service people need.

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The first step to success is making sure your product or service is a necessity. When someone needs something, they will be more likely to pay for it.

If you provide a service that people can't live without and have no other way of obtaining, then you'll have a better chance at building a successful business.

In addition to providing a useful service, it's also important that the service be valuable in some way. People need many different things throughout their lives: from laundry services and pest control solutions to plumbing repairs or real estate consultation services.

There are plenty of opportunities out there if you're willing to put in some hard work and creativity!

2. Establish a target market

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Before you can start marketing, you need to know who your target market is. This will help shape the types of marketing strategies you use as well as how much effort and money is spent on each strategy.

Start by determining who your customers are. Are they single mothers in their 20s? People between the ages of 35-45? Business owners? Seniors? Once you know this, consider what services they need and how often they need those services (for example: once a month or every six months). That’s when it gets tricky: You have to figure out who your competitors are!

Competitors include other local businesses providing similar products and services, but also people within the same community offering complementary products/services or even other industries that might cross over into yours (such as restaurants serving food). Don’t forget about online options too—your competition could come from anywhere!

3. Create a professional website and online identity.

It's not enough to be on the web. Your website design needs to be professional, and it should reflect your brand.

In a few steps, you can turn your website into an online identity that will help customers find you easily and build trust in your company:

• Use a professional email address – like name@companywebsite.com.

• Use a professional phone number.

• This could be your business line or a dedicated cell phone number for marketing purposes only. Make sure this is listed on the site so that customers can call if they have questions or concerns about service before they schedule an appointment.

• Make sure there is consistent messaging across all of your channels.

It should be clear what they can expect when they interact with you online or in person through communications like social media posts, blog articles or newsletters.

4. Build a reputation.

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The next step to building a thriving business is to establish your reputation. Your customers need to know they can trust you, and that's why it's important to give them reasons why they should both love you and keep coming back. There are many ways you can do this:

• Quality: Make sure your work is always done right the first time around.

• If there are any problems with a job, fix them immediately so that no customer will have cause for complaint.

• Reliability: If someone needs something taken care of by a certain date or time, make sure it gets done on schedule

• And if there are any delays along the way (e.g., weather or other factors), let your client know immediately rather than leaving him hanging in suspense while waiting around for his lawn service guy who might never show up at all!

This helps build credibility by proving how reliable and trustworthy you truly are as an individual or business owner/operator—which in turn will attract more potential clients over time (and probably make current ones happier too!).

5. Get involved in the community and local organizations.

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In order to be successful in any local business, you have to be a part of the community. Just like a person cannot run for public office without first establishing their credibility within their district and earning the trust of voters, a service provider must also establish themselves as being committed to helping out in some way before they can expect people to consider buying from or referring them.

The best way for local service providers to do this is by getting involved in events that have nothing whatsoever with marketing or sales.

A great place for this would be volunteering at local schools; many teachers are short-staffed and could use help on field trips or at school functions outside of class time.

Another option would be joining one of your city's business associations, such as a chamber of commerce.

This gives you the opportunity meet other professionals who work in similar industries and learn about upcoming opportunities such as grant programs or tax breaks that may benefit your business (but which won't usually come up during general conversations).

These marketing strategies can help bring new customers to your local business

When you're starting out, it can be hard to find new customers. The good news is that there are a few things you can do to help bring them in.

• Identify your target market. You need to understand who will be interested in what you provide, and why they'd want it. If you're selling hot dogs on a street corner for $0.50 each, then everyone should have hot dogs! But if you're selling luxury cars for thousands of dollars each, then maybe only wealthy people will buy from you.

• Provide a service that people need (or think they need). If no one needs your product or service enough for them to pay for it, then no matter how many ads or marketing campaigns or promotional events (like parties) you throw at them—they won't care about coming over!

• Create a website that is professional and has a clear message

• Build your reputation, be known for quality work and being reliable

• Get involved in your community

Conclusion

When it comes to marketing your local service business, the key is to be flexible and creative. You’ll need a solid marketing strategy in place before you can implement any specific tactics.

If you want to find new customers, then it's important that your company finds ways to connect with them by partnering with the right marketing agency.

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9 Mistakes Your Company is Making on Social Media

Introduction

Social media has changed the way we interact with the world. But you’re probably overusing it, or not using it effectively at all. The following are some mistakes that your company is probably making on social media.

1. Being complacent

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We've all been there: you've been working so hard on your social media strategy and it's really paying off. You have a good following, you're getting engagement, and people are liking what you're doing. It's really starting to feel like the investment in time and energy is worth it—so much so that you start to feel complacent about maintaining the status quo.

Too much comfort can be dangerous in any area of life, but especially when it comes to social media. Don't get stuck in a rut or get comfortable with where things are going!

Spend some time evaluating how well your strategy is actually working for your company, and if there are ways it could be improved.

Instead of finding yourself thinking "we've got this" or "I know what we need to do," spend some time evaluating how well your strategy is actually working for your company (and if there are ways it could be improved). Don't let your guard down—sometimes even seemingly harmless habits like posting once per day can go wrong quickly if they aren't nuanced enough for specific audiences

2. Inconsistent posting

The best time to post on social media is when your audience is online. This is the golden rule of scheduling posts and it’s not always possible, especially if you run a business that operates in a different time zone or runs 24/7.

If things are going well and there’s nothing new to say, don't push yourself out of your comfort zone just because everyone else is posting at the same time every day. Your content should be relevant to what's happening in your business or industry—so don't feel pressured into posting if it doesn't make sense for your company right now! If there's nothing new to say, wait until there is something worth sharing with fans online before going live again on Twitter or Facebook!

3. Talking at your audience, instead of with them

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If you want to get your customers’ attention and show them that you care about their experience, then don’t be afraid to talk with them.

There are all kinds of ways you can use social media to engage with your audience, such as:

• Responding to negative comments

• Engaging in conversations on Twitter and Facebook

• Posting content that is relevant to your audience

• Responding to questions and comments on your blog

Keeping your audience engaged is important because it will help you build a loyal following. When people feel like the brand cares about them, they’re more likely to stick around.

4. Automating everything

Automating everything is not the same as marketing. Many companies make the mistake of thinking that automation is the same as marketing, which it isn't. The two are completely different things—one automates repetitive tasks and one does not.

Using automation to create content

Scheduling posts for social media accounts can be done by hand or with an automated tool like Buffer or Hootsuite.

5. Not thinking long term before posting

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If you’re like most companies, your social media team is comprised of people who have a lot of experience with the platform; they know what works and what doesn’t. But it can be hard for them to see past their own biases. Asking an outsider to review your content will help ensure that you don’t make any mistakes by not looking at things from different perspectives.

Your brand image is very important on social media because it sets the tone for everything else that happens on these platforms—how people perceive and interact with your company depends largely on how they perceive and interact with its online persona. Therefore, before posting anything online that could potentially damage that image, ask yourself: do I really want this? Then think about how your post will look in six months or even years down the road—will it still align with our current values? If not, then don't post it!

6. Not using pictures and video to their full extent

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While the words you use are important, the images and videos you share are even more important. In fact, visuals are essential for social media marketing success.

Visual content is more engaging

It's a well-known fact that people don't read anymore—they scan. They scroll through their Facebook feed quickly, looking for things that catch their attention and hold it long enough to make them stop scrolling and click on a link or leave an in-depth comment on your post. Visual content has an advantage over plain text: it stands out as something worth reading! When you post a photo or video with your message, people will take notice of it because they're curious about what's going on in the photo or video (and what should they do next?).

7. Not tracking your posts

You can’t improve what you don’t track.

This might seem like a no-brainer, but tracking your posts is essential to making sure that your social media efforts are working and not just taking up space on the internet (although if they do, you should probably fix that). You need to know what content is resonating with your audience and which messages are falling flat so that you can refine them accordingly.

8. Not being timely

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There’s a reason why Twitter is such an effective marketing tool: its users want to know what’s happening right now. If your company is not quick to respond when something happens, you could lose out on thousands of potential customers who are looking for the latest news about that topic in the moment.

Example: A coffee shop was serving lattes as part of their new promotion at a sporting event. It wasn't long before Twitter started buzzing with people talking about how good those lattes were! The coffee shop responded with one simple post thanking everyone for their response and then linked directly back to their website where they could purchase more lattes.

9. Doing it all yourself without a strategy/plan

You've heard it before: "Social media is a team sport." If you're doing social media marketing alone, you're missing out on the benefits of having an entire team involved.

A strategy won't just help you decide what to post and when; it'll also keep track of the metrics that matter most to your business, like engagement rate or average reach per post. (You'll need these figures if you want to convince investors that their money is being well spent.)

A plan will keep everyone on the same page so there are no as-yet-unheard-of screwups in execution or messaging (which can happen when multiple people try writing tweets at once). And while there's no one right way to build a team around social media, having one will ensure that whatever mistakes are made aren't repeated again—and again—in future posts.

Let us help your social media

Make sure you're not missing the mark with your social media outreach.

If you've already decided to start posting, it's possible that you're making these mistakes.

• You're not being consistent.

• Your posts are no more than once a month (if that).

• The content is dull, and doesn't speak to the audience in any meaningful way.

• There's no plan behind what you post and when—you just wing it each time with whatever seems like a good idea at the time, which never really works out because social media is made up of trends and ideas that change quickly over time; if your company isn't on top of those trends, then don't expect anyone else to be either!

• You don't track your posts' performance or engagement rate; this will tell you if people actually want what you're offering them through social media products like Facebook Ads or Twitter Promoted Tweets so that when someone asks why something isn't working out (like how many sales did we make last week? Did we get any new customers from our latest campaign?), then we can show them exactly why things didn’t work out as well as expected before making changes later on down the line…

Conclusion

If you want to avoid these mistakes, take a look at your social media strategy and see what’s working and what’s not. Chances are there will be some areas of improvement that need addressing—and if that’s the case, don’t worry! We know that it can be difficult to identify such issues within your own company (even when you know what needs fixing), but by keeping an eye out for other people’s advice and suggestions from time to time, you should be able find some useful tips for improving your efforts.

Working The Nerve To Make A Video

This video that you're watching right now is what we call a talking head, because it's you see my head and it's talking.

This is called a talking head video. So when people are coming to me for help. They usually say something like: “I know I need to make more videos, but I'm really uncomfortable on video.”

The first thing I would say to that is if you're really uncomfortable, then just don't do it.

There are plenty of people that run great accounts and have great websites, great social media and don't make any talking head videos.

So don't do something that's going make you suffer. First of all, that's the first thing.

The second thing is if you are not sure if you're uncomfortable because you just really haven't given a good go.

Here's what I would do to create a talking head videos. I would just use Instagram Stories because the only last for twenty four hours,

I find that people will explore a little more of that because it just can last for twenty four hours or you can just delete it.

You have to kind of start there because it's just like a quick, a little 15 second talking head that you can kind of make and then just kind of work your way up from there.

The other reason you're doing that with stories is you're getting used to seeing yourself on camera and hearing yourself on camera is really weird.

When you hear yourself back after you've recorded yourself, your voice doesn't sound anything like it. And so it's kind of weird. It's always weird when I edit my own video because I'm listening to myself – but I don't really care.

And the reason why is: I don't do it for me, I do it for you, and so I do it to educate an audience, entertain an audience, and then they hopefully make a new customer.

But at the end of the day, I'm not doing it for me. I'm doing it for someone else. So that's what I would say.

So consider why you're doing it. You know, are you doing a talking head video because you see other people doing it and you think you have to do it or because you really believe, like, oh, I can get over a little bit of awkwardness and if I can just get over that little awkwardness, then I can maybe help someone with whatever specialty knowledge that I have.

So if that's the case, then I would say start with stories, work away from there and then just keep going.

Keep hustling.

Five Features Your Website Homepage Should Have

You may have noticed how many of the elements on your favorite websites' homepages look quite similar. Well, that is the drill! They are, by no means a mere coincidence but a deliberate choice. This is because a website homepage serves as the first impression and is the ultimate key to the site's success and visitor retention. Hence, it should contain all the essential elements. Your favorite site follows similar rules.

It is very important that your homepage, within a couple of seconds, delivers concise information about your product or service. Using this technique, you grab visitors’ attention.

If you are wondering what top features make a homepage effective, keep reading to find out.

Straightforward navigation

Besides the logo, the next element on your priority list should be to-the-point navigation. To put it simply, the site should always have a search tab if the website is highly content-driven. Considering that navigation serves as a guideline or road map, it should be easy and not a hassle to locate. In addition to this, try and have descriptive navigation as it proves to be beneficial when it comes to reducing bounce rates.

Headline

Ever since technology has taken over, attention spans have greatly reduced. Therefore, while designing your site's homepage, make sure it is able to leave an impact and tell what you offer within a couple of seconds.

This is where a headline comes handy! A headline, coupled with a sub-headline, should be able to describe your business and its offerings clearly. You should be able to wrap up everything in 2-3 powerful sentences.

Visuals

Nowadays, people care about visuals and aesthetics.

A photo that demonstrates how users can benefit from your product is always better than a stationary photo. Our brains are wired in a way that we automatically feel a connection when we see a human face. Moreover, visuals, as in photos, add credibility to a site and give it a unique appeal.

Call to Action or CTA

An effective homepage is one that instantly piques customers’ interests and compels them to dig deeper into the site. To make this possible, it is important to include a hooking call to action (CTA) as it can really draw visitors to the interior pages and initiate some sort of contact. Make sure these CTAs are easy to click so that visitors feel like investing their time and exploring your site.

Logo

Your main goal is to make sure your visitors leave with a sense of familiarity; you’re your product or service. Hence, it is important to give your logo placement a major thought. A logo is a direct representation of your brand, product, or service and core values. This is why you should always place it at the top where it is visible. This will allow you to form a bond with customers. Moreover, the logo on a website is often a direct link to the homepage. So, naturally, you should place it in the header for ease and convenience.

By the way, it is no mistake the logo was placed last in this list. As in, this is the least important part of your homepage. It should most certainly include a logo, but the focus should be on user experience (navigation) and conversion (headline, visuals and CTA).

What's On Your Homepage?

Would you like a free audit of your homepage? Get in touch below.

How To Market A Catering Company

How To MarketBelow is the original LIVE Video from Instagram, but you can scroll past for the written notes.

Instagram Authenticity Measures

• STOP using bots, automated crap, automated messages.

• Instagram and more importantly USERS hate that stuff

Instagram Launches Reels

• Consumed or Created?

• Par-baked version of TikTok

• Clunky to create

• I see more people just copying a TikTok video over to Reels

Podcast Stats for 2020

• Why start a podcast today?

• 1. Of the 1Mill podcasts on iTunes, only 250K have been updated in past 3 months!

• 2. Interview guests, and increase the exposure

• 3. Can create additional content from it

Lead Conversion Stats from Convince & Convert

• 41% say video is more effective at CONVERTING

• 36% webinars, 34% blog, 20% ebooks

• Dollars are shifting to social media and website improvement

• 54% social, 51% website, 44% email, 40% content A Catering Company

5 Ways to Make Your Website Mobile-Friendly

Hey, is your website mobile-friendly? Just because you can pull it up on your phone doesn't mean that it's mobile-friendly.

Exactly five years ago today, April 21st, 2015, Google released one of the biggest search engine algorithm updates that ever impacted websites. It was commonly referred to as mobilegedden.

Basically what happened was Google no longer gave search priority to websites that did not have a mobile-friendly or mobile optimized website. If your website was not mobile-friendly, they’re no longer going to show your website in search results when people are searching from a mobile phone.

Now, that was five years ago in Google wanting to put an end to these non mobile-friendly websites, but they still exist today. We still have websites that are not mobile-friendly. Why isn't this even as such a big deal?

You know, mobile browsing is not for just teenagers that are on their phones, it's everyone. Everyone is primarily using their mobile phone to browse the web and interact online.

Now to clarify one thing here, web designers in the past from April of 2015 and on have been making websites that were for desktop – mobile-friendly. But all they were really doing was making it mobile compliant.

They weren't really designing with the mobile user experience in mind.

So this is what I'm really going to be talking about today is ways to look at your website and kind of do a mini audit of your website to see if it passes these mobile-friendly barriers, these mobile-friendly checks.

So I've got five ways that will just tell you whether or not your website is actually mobile-friendly or not.

You just follow along with me through my client's website for a restaurant here. So that way I can show you what components go into making a mobile-friendly website.

Optimize The Mobile Header

The first thing you'll notice is this, a kind of what we call the header. The header is basically the very top part of a website. It often stays there throughout your scrolling experience.

Sometimes it doesn't, but that's actually a sub little thing is, is making, especially on mobile, making sure that the mobile headers, what we call sticky, which basically means it sticks to the top of the page.

That way the menu easily accessible at any time. If you have perhaps a longer homepage or a longer menu page you don't want to have to have that person scroll all the way all the way back up to the top just to get to the menu basically.

But the other part of this header is that you want to make it smaller. I often see websites where the header kind of takes up like half the phone. Every time you go to a new page, you have to immediately scroll because that header is taking up most of the space on the phone. I think that's a big no-no.

It's subliminal, but I think it's enough to make people frustrated. It makes me frustrated anyways, and that's how I usually look at things. If it gets me frustrated, it probably gets someone else frustrated.

Easy Menu Navigation

The second thing is an easy navigation. So if you'll notice here, if I hit and tap on the menu here, this is super easy to navigate around. I don't have to go looking through a whole bunch of things, um, to kind of get what I want to.

Again, this is a restaurant site. I mainly deal with small business website design.

Another thing to consider is, if you'll notice in the top right here, there's a little phone icon that makes it easy for me to call the restaurant. If I tap that call button, it's basically gonna prompt me to open that phone up or phone number up in my dialpad without first having to copy the number down. Or remember the number

Legible Text on Mobile

The third thing to consider is easy text or that the text is legible. So one thing we don't want to do is place it on backgrounds that are very hard to read. So if you'll notice here where it says best sports bar, it's in larger bold types.

Even though there's an image there, it's easier to read. And there's also a bit of what we call an overlay on top of that image. So it kind of darkens the image up basically, so that it is a little bit easier to read that text.

No PDF’s For Your Menu

The fourth thing that is super irritating, this probably drives me more nuts than anything else, is not using PDFs or images to display content.

I'll give you an example here for a restaurant. If I go to their menu, you'll notice here this is super easy to read. I can close or collapse different sections of their menu. This is what I call an interactive menu.

But this could be a services list if you're a service based contractor, or if you're just like a brick and mortar place and you just have like a bunch of images of like your promotional signs and stuff like that.

To me, this is a huge no-no, because when you're viewing on a mobile phone, you often can't read that and you're thinking that everyone's viewing this from a desktop and they're not.

Now what happens is I have to now kind of pinch and zoom my way around that photo, especially if it's a menu. It is by far the most frustrating thing viewing a website is when you use PDFs or images to display your content.

Re-type it, do something, just get it into an interactive form like this menu here.

Use Call To Actions (CTA) That are Mobile Specific

And the last thing is using call-to-action buttons that are specific to the mobile experience. I touched on a little bit ago with the call with the phone call button that was at the top there.

You'll also notice here on the homepage, I have a couple of buttons. One of them is tap-for-GPS and the other is tap-to-call-us. Those buttons do not appear on a desktop.

Viewing this from a desktop, you will not see those buttons there. This only appears when they're viewing it from a mobile device because that's where you're going to be calling from.

Just consider the type of call to action that you want a customer to make device specific.

All in all, what I would just say, go through those five things I just mentioned to check your website out.

Ask: Is your website easy to get around from mobile device. And don't look at it yourself, perhaps have someone else look at it because you're too close to it, you know exactly where all this stuff is.

Give your website to someone that's never viewed it before, like a friend or a family member and just kind of say, Hey, is this easy to browse? Is this easy to get what you would be looking for if you are shopping for my service or product.

If it is then great and leave it alone. Don't fix what's already working.

But if it's broken a little bit, then considering evaluating the content that's on your website and the design and layout.

I offer content strategy services where we can go through your entire website line by line and really discover the broken pain points of it and the things that are working.

Should I post this right now?

If you're worried about wether you should post something because it might be offensive, or it might not resonate with your audience - you're already losing the content battle.

I recently had a conversation with a friend of mine about something he wanted to post, just getting my advice on it.
A long time ago, I heard about how Gary Vaynerchuk just reads comments to gain perspective and the pulse of culture.

How To Develop A Content Strategy

Marketing is so important when it comes to building a successful company; the world of business is incredibly cut throat, so no matter what you do or sell, you will be up against competitors. Clever marketing in general gets your name out there to the right customers, and shows them why they should choose your business over other, similar companies. But it’s not easy to do this, a good marketing strategy should be multifaceted and utilise lots of different methods to sell your project. Content marketing is one element of this, which is complex within itself. 

What is a content strategy and why do you need one?

Creating great content is one of the best ways to reach out to prospects and generate leads, and content strategy is the planning, development and management of content. This not only includes the words on the page, but also images and multimedia such as infographics, videos and more. The goal of content strategy is to create meaningful, cohesive, engaging, and sustainable content that people genuinely find useful and want to share. This helps your content to snowball and in some cases, even go viral. Some of the principles to remember when it comes to content marketing include:

• Create quality content to attract customers, engage and build trust.

Don’t be tempted to produce low quality work because it’s quick and easy, tactics like keyword stuffing are banned and easily picked up by Google- this will hinder your progress rather than help. Cheap article writing gigs can be found on any freelancing site these days, but always choose quality over quantity. Either hire writers yourself, or work with freelancers with a proven reputation, who can create the high quality content you need. 

• Quality content avoids blockers

Research shows that ad blocking software is used by around 30% of Internet users, meaning a third of people will never see the paid advertising messages that are targeted to them. It goes to show the way we need to market our businesses is evolving, no longer is a flashing banner on the screen enough to grab an audience’s attention or sell a product. We have to be smarter- and good quality and valuable content is one example of this. It’s not simply an ad or an annoyance, content marketing provides value to the reader and promotes a product in a way that isn’t pushy or forceful. 

• Pleases search engines as well as the user

To be successful in marketing, you need to please the user (your audience) as well as search engines. Users will expect high quality content that’s informative, and perhaps even humorous and witty. Search engines algorithms use things like proper backlinks and correct keywords to rank your content. By producing high quality content you can appeal to your user as well as rank highly within search engines. 

Getting to know your customers

In order to solve your customers problems through your marketing strategy, you firstly need to fully understand them. Modern marketing now relies less on traditional market research methods such as surveys or focus groups, and pays close attention to things like smart online platforms and tools that tell them everything about their customers’ demographics, online behaviors, and conversations. When you understand how users think and speak about a subject it puts you in a powerful position to tailor content towards them. Some of the ways you can go about this are by:

• Developing personas

Buyer personas are semi-fictional representations of your customer, based on market research and real data that you have about your users. This involves gathering insight from different platforms such as website analytics, social media channels, customer reviews as well as actual conversations with prospects and customers. They help you better understand and get closer to customers, as real humans as you understand who your buyer is. Personas help us to understand what customers need, where and when they need it, how you can help and what solutions you can offer to their problems. They can also give you an idea about location (are they local or global customers?) their age (certain age groups respond better to certain marketing methods) and even if they’re likely to be married with a family. All of these things can play into the way you target your content. 

• Analysing the market and your competitors

If you want to succeed in business, you need to have expert knowledge into what’s happening in your market which includes how your competitors are doing. It’s important to know what’s working for them and what’s not so you can either emulate their successes or avoid their mistakes. Keep your ears and eyes open for what’s happening in your industry which helps you to identify gaps in the market such as needs that aren’t being fulfilled, common frustrations, or trends. It’s crucial that you stay up-to-date and and remain factual based on what’s going on in the world to avoid putting out outdated information. When new information becomes available, update your content or archive it.

• Determine marketing strategy objectives

Objectives specific measurable outcomes that will be achieved within a particular time frame and they help individuals evaluate the success and effectiveness of a particular marketing strategy. They aid marketers to align expectations and plans, coordinate efforts, and hold teams accountable for achieving results

Types of content marketing and their effectiveness

There are a number of methods of content marketing you can utilise, but there’s no ‘one size fits all’. It will all depend on your business and your audience, and finding the best methods can often be trial and error. Here are some of the things you could consider incorporating into your content strategy, and why they could be effective for you.

• Blog Posts

Blogging allows you to constantly refresh the content on your site, which search engines value. It establishes authority in your given area and builds trust, and a stream of new and fresh regular content gives your audience a reason to visit your site and keep coming back. Blogging is an opportunity to offer more value to your readers and enables you to promote what you do without simply spamming links to products on your social media. For this reason, research shows that you'll generate 3x more leads via blogs than through ads and it’s the perfect opportunity for SEO too, which is why it provides 4x the likelihood of being found in organic search (source). As well as publishing content on your own blog, incorporate guest blogging into your strategy as this can be incredibly beneficial. If you work with bloggers who are well established, the backlink will improve your own domain authority and the content will be seen by the bloggers own network which can help you to expand your own.

• Infographics

Infographics are a mix of design, writing and analysis- they are ideal for an age of big data and when users are wanting fast, snappy and relevant information. People love  facts, figures and statistics but in a bite size and easy to understand format which makes infographics perfect. They’re easy to scan, view and process and as a result, they’re more likely to go viral than other forms of content. They show an expert understanding of a subject but without having to go into as much depth as you would with typical written content. 

• Videos

Video is an incredibly important part of your content strategy and is something that most businesses will need to utilise. No longer just one piece of your overall marketing plan, it’s central to your outreach and campaign efforts, particularly your social strategy. Video has absolutely dominated society. According to a research, four of the top six channels on which global consumers watch video are social channels (source). From entertainment to ads, to landing page videos and how-to tutorials for your products, there are plenty of ways this can, and should, be incorporated into your content strategy. 

• Ebooks

The popularity and perceived value of eBooks has made them a favourite of online marketers; instead of feeling like yet another blog post or video, a downloadable eBook feels far more like a real object of value. Writing an eBook also gives you the ability to showcase your authority on a subject in greater level of depth than a blog post allows. One of the main things that people look for when buying from a brand (especially when buying from them for the first time) is that they’re reliable and genuine, and an eBook can certainly help you to gain that authority. However, eBooks aren’t for every business and audience, so it’s important to know if this is the right direction for you to go in. This is because writing an eBook takes time, you don’t want it to be wasted if it’s simply not a good fit for your audience. 

• Podcasts

There has been a rise in audio content, it is becoming more and more popular over time. While it’s unlikely to ever overtake video, it’s still an excellent medium to advertise in some cases. It provides an opportunity to engage people- but only if this suits your type of product and audience. One thing to be aware of is the research- it shows that listeners of podcasts tend to be more educated and have a higher income. If your research on personas shows that your audience is likely to be a good fit then this is something you could try. The downsides to using podcasts as a content marketing method are that metrics can be difficult to measure (since you can see downloads but not engagement) and you need to have lots of information to make them work. As with anything you’ll want to be consistent, and consistently releasing podcasts will require a lot of time, effort and information. However, if they’re right for your business they could be an excellent way to engage your audience. 

• Social Media

Social media is a powerful tool to engage your audience and turn them into leads or buyers. The key to good social media marketing is to use your platform as a way to be social, and not go for the hard sell. It’s best for building up trust and brand awareness, as research shows it doesn't tend to be people’s favourite platform for buying. 2 billion people per month use social media yet conversion rates remain low which is interesting. This being said, it’s a highly important part of your content strategy as building up a following is one of the most valuable things you can do for your business. Use your platform to engage, find out information about your audience that you can then use to target your content. Share blog posts which in turn will hopefully be shared by your followers. 

Publishing schedule

It’s content which fuels online marketing- but if you don’t have a content strategy, you will struggle to generate leads. An effective content strategy requires a well planned editorial calendar which is a schedule of content to be produced and delivered to your prospects through different channels. This includes your blog, social media channels, email newsletters and more, all over a specified timeline. As a brand, it’s important to be consistent, your audience will expect this of you and it also helps you to look more reliable and trustworthy. Following style guides for things like language and design helps people understand and learn what you are trying to communicate, and doing so on a consistent schedule lets them know what to expect. Here’s how you can go about it;

• List the content that should be published based on your content strategy. 

This can include everything from yet-to-be developed content to existing content, or content that will be repurposed for your audience. Certain pieces of content you already have can easily be changed up and republished, allowing you to get the most out of it while keeping to your schedule. For example, seasonal content can often be repurposed each year with a few tweaks.

• Content creation and publishing dates

This includes when the content should be created and when it will be published. It can be useful to use an editorial calendar to ensure the right content is being delivered in a timely manner without the hassle of manually going through everything. 

• A list of channels for delivering your content

You might for example want to deliver part of an eBook and then distribute other relevant content through social networking sites, newsletters and other channels. Think about the way your audience uses their platforms and how best to grab their attention. 

As you can see, developing a content strategy is no mean feat; it’s incredibly complex with lots of room for error if you don’t know what you’re doing. Working with an expert or marketing agency can save you time, effort, stress and money. It’s not something you can just guess at.

Content Strategy vs Content Marketing

Contrary to the opinion of many, content marketing and content strategy are not the same thing. In fact, they are interrelated but serve separate purposes. Something essential to understand if you are to be as effective with your business's marketing as possible.  

Robert Rose writing for the Content Marketing Institute uses the great metaphor that content marketing is like drawing on the wall with magic markers. Whereas content strategy is like writing things down in a fine nib pen.

What he means is marketing takes a more macro view, whereas content strategy is focused on the micro, a subject that will be explained further in the post below.

Content Marketing in the MACRO

Content marketing takes a macro approach because it is concerned with three main things:

1. Telling the story of the organization or product

2. Engaging an audience

3. Using content to change behavior.

Telling a story

There are two critical aspects of telling a story that content marketers focus on. The first is who they are speaking it to. That is the specific demographic of people that they are looking to appeal too. Something fundamental to get right, if the marketing they create is to be effective.

Additionally, the ‘why’ of telling a story is important here as well. That is why you are creating the content, who it will help, and why your business is in the best position to offer something to customers that no one else has.  

Engage an audience

Another part of the macro content marketing approach is a focus on engaging the audience. That is, getting the demographic that you want to appeal to, to sit up and notice what you are trying to say.

Of course, there is a range of techniques that content marketers use for this purpose, including things like using engaging and emotive language or images, ‘and hooking’ consumers in with controversy or subversive content. Many content marketers also use more traditional storytelling methods for this purpose.

Additionally, content marketers need to stay ahead of the critical trends of how consumers access the content they are creating. For example, the rise of subtitled soundless videos is enormous at the moment. The reason being that many people watch them as part of a social media feed without actually clicking to fully open them.

Content to change or enhances a behavior

Finally, content marketers are concerned with the way content can be used to modify the behavior of those that consume it. In fact, in most cases, this is a matter of either enhancing a current behavior or changing a behavior entirely.

A great example of the latter being the governmental health warnings on Covid-19 behavior, as these are designed to reinforce social distances and enough people to stay in their homes. These being things that quite obviously fulfill the overall goal of why the content has been created.

In summary, therefore, content marketing can be described as a form of strategy in itself. That is an approach that uses content to engage, appeal, and create a relationship with consumers. A condition that can be used to change or enhance behavior as the business in question requires.

Content strategy in the MICRO

On the other hand, content strategy is a much more micro approach. It is the bread to the bakery of content marketing if you will.

Creation

To that end, content strategy is concerned with the actual creation of content. Of course, as you would expect from such a well-established tradition, there is a recognized process used to do this.

Generally, such a process will start with the organization working out what they want from their content. That is what the overall goal of creating it is. Whether that is to save lives as in the example above, increase sales, or anything else as defined by the parties involved.

Once an organization has defined its goals, it must then do the work of getting to know their audience. This means market research and lots of it. Something that should help to inform you of the type of content to use. Of which there are many, including podcasts, videos, silent videos, blog posts, articles, games, and images. Additionally, your market research should also inform the platform that it is best to publish on.

The next stage is to actually start to craft the content your business will be releasing. Something that should include reaching the right keywords, tags, and long-tail phrases that are most likely to get your content in front of the people you wish to target.

Publication

Next, it's time to publish the content that you may choose to do organically through one of the social media channels mentioned below, or by paying for its display. In fact, many organizations use a combination of both of these tactics. Although, whatever they choose will be backed up by research into what will most appeal to their target demographic. With some of the most popular platforms for content publication, including Twitter, YouTube, and Google Images.

Managing content as an asset

Finally, another micro aspect of content that strategists concern themselves with is helping organizations to manage content in the right way.

This is because to be as effective as possible, your content needs the correct metadata classification for you to be able to access and use it right away. That is, you need to know what consumers its aimed at and what is within the content. Then you will be able to deploy it most successfully. Something that the content marketers will thank you for because it will make their more macro tasks easier to complete.

Next Steps

In summary, content marketing and content strategy are linked, but definitely not the same thing. In fact, content strategy is concerned with the finer points of creation, publication, and management of content.

While content marketing, on the other hand, is all about the macro functions of telling an organizations' story, engaging an audience, and using content to change behavior.

Yes, they are inter-linked as we have seen, but they are most certainly not identical. A fact that it's well worth knowing if your organization needs to utilize content effectively, as most in the current market do.

How To Create Content For Your Business in 2020

How can I go about creating more content for my business? What the heck do I even post on social media?

These are the questions that I get from business owners constantly. Most of the time, most people just don't know what to post.

In this video, I'm going to show you three quick and easy steps to creating content left and right for your business so it can explode.

Step 1 - Set A Plan

The first step is to set a plan and this cannot be overstated.

Here's what I want you to do:

• Take your service or product and then break it down into categories

• Then break those down to micro topics.

• Under those micro topics, you're going to create a problem, you're going to agitate it, and then you're going to provide three or four tips as solutions to that problem.

This is known in copywriting as the Problem-Agitate-Solve copywriting formula.

But for you to make this really simple so you don't have to overthink it, you're just going to take categories, micro topics and then break that down to a problem and solutions.

As an example, the video that you're watching right now, the micro topic in this case would be how to create more content and the category would be content.

Right now I'm showing you those three ways to help solve the initial problem that I presented in the beginning of this video.

Step 2 - Don’t Overthink The Content

Step two is do not overthink the content that you're creating. It does not have to be a super high production. In fact, I'm going to show you a quick behind the scenes here of how I'm filming this.

All I'm using is my iPhone set up on a tripod and I do have a microphone system and lighting system.

However, for you to get started right now, all you need is your phone.

Even if you don't have a tripod, what I've recommended to people, just prop your phone up on something, prop it up against a book, prop it up against a mug or your computer. Just prop it up against something and just start filming.

The second thing I'd recommend you do is just get yourself a good microphone. You can get a really good microphone by Deity Microphones for $50. This is not sponsored by them, but I use their products religiously. I'm very, very pleased with them. They have a wired mic that's about 50 bucks and it gives you like 20 feet worth of cord.

It will make your video sound a lot better, which arguably is much more important than the quality of the video itself.

Now, if you want to put on a tripod, I'll leave a link in the description in the caption here with one that I've recommended to many clients. It's under 30 bucks, and it gives you a phone holder plus a tripod that can go on your desk or can be floor mounted. It gives you a lot of versatile options.

The other thing you'll notice here as I'll show you in the behind the scenes, I'm swapping up posted notes here. As I've planned out this content, I just wrote down the outline as kind of like bullet points so that way I could just reference the Post-it Note right below my phone every now and then as I'm cutting the video.

Step 3 - MAKE THE CONTENT!

Step three is to just start making the content without overthinking it.

I would recommend using stories as a starting line. They're 15 seconds long, they disappear after 24 hours, so you don't have to worry about it living on your feed. Just start with Instagram Stories to kind of get yourself familiar with video if that's the route you're going to go.

You don't have to create talking head videos like this by the way. You can just create a video showing the service that you're doing or showing a product. You don't have to be in the video. You do not have to do a talking head style video.

If you are going to do any sort of video, even if it's just you narrating over something that you're just kind of showing people, what I would recommend doing, starting with just a one take video.

That basically just means you hit start, you talk for a bit, and then you hit stop and that's the thing you post. You do no editing to that at all

 You can make that successful if you follow the outline that I just showed you, which is one sentence, one problem, one sentence, one agitation equals one sentence, and then provide three tips or three solutions, and each of those are about one sentence.

You can pretty much get 60 seconds of video from basically those five sentences that you're going to talk about if you plan it out correctly. Now, if you do want to take it to the next level and start producing and editing videos, then you could do something like what I'm doing right now.

I'm taking each bullet point or each step and I'm hitting stop, start, and stop on my iPhone and then I'm going to take that into Premiere and edit it right after.

Now, video editing does not have to be complicated. It does not have to be overwhelming. In fact, you can use things like Premiere Rush, which is my go-to for beginners. It's super easy.

You can just take your iPhone footage, put it right into Premiere Rush, and start editing a whole bunch of these clips together.

If you want a personalized one-on-one session on how you can do that, wink, just drop a comment and then I'll reach out to you. But otherwise, you do not have to have a highly produced video. You can just literally hit start, stop, and then you're good to go.

BONUS STEP

Okay, those are three steps. But now as a bonus step, as a fourth bonus step, I'd recommend leaving a CTA at the end of the video, which is a call to action.

This is basically the next step you want your viewer to take. Again, whether you're doing a talking head like this or you're doing kind of a product overview video that you've talked over, either way, at the end of that video, you want to let people know what the next logical step is to take.

The CTA would look something like this:

"Hey, if you've enjoyed this video and you want to learn more or perhaps have a one-on-one video coaching session, then reach out to me in the comments and I'll get back to you and show you how you can easily produce more video content this year so you can explode your business and your goals."

That's it. That was my call to action. That was both a demonstration, but also an actual call to action.

If you wanted more help, reach out to me. But otherwise, that was how you're going to structure your video so that way you can make a whole bunch of these videos.

Again, what I want you to do, create a plan, create a plan of a whole bunch of these micro topics, write an outline for them, and then just start recording, hitting start and stop, and do not overthink it.

Just make the video. Throw spaghetti on the wall, see what sticks. As it starts to stick, then start adding stuff to it, such as editing extra B-roll footage, just this behind the scenes stuff, titles and all that kind of fun stuff. But for now, just start, stop, and post.

That's basically it. If you saw value in this video, go ahead and hit a like button, and I'll see you in the next one.

Best Ways to Get Your Own Construction Leads (Updated 2020)

The average consumer today is nothing like who they were just 10 years ago.

They want to feel connected with the brands they shop with.

This means they want you to share the same values, desires for the future and solving problems that mean something to their everyday well being.

This is the direction of marketing you need to be heading in if you want to gain qualified construction leads that understand and like what you do. 

You don’t need to reinvent the wheel, but you need to reinvent your narrative as the world changes around you. This is perhaps why content marketing has become the focal point for millions of business owners.

Changing with the times means you have longevity, i.e. staying relevant in whatever kind of consumer climate you’re in.

Never forget those who have been loyal to you, and produce content that will show them how you have advanced and improved your services and products for them too.

Importance Of Lead Generation For Construction Businesses

Leads are the oxygen your business breathes.

As more and more people enter into the middle-class, the world will begin to see millions of micro and small business owners.

Without a constant stream of new customers such as these, you won’t stand a chance against the competition.

• They want to see what kind of offices, warehouses, retail stores, high-rise buildings and event halls you are creating.

• They want to see with their own eyes, what kind of materials, styles, designs and interiors you create from scratch.

But only if they click on your content, read your story and watch you at work, will you convert your leads.

Leads are the oxygen your business breathes.

Construction Lead Generation – The Correct Approach

Say it with me now, “content is king”. This is a term that was used sort of a funny joke in the early 2000s. But sweet heaven above! Now it's like a battle cry or a mantra you must chant in your sleep every night! Well, okay, perhaps not that serious. However, you have to realize that consumers are no longer falling for clickbait, what they want is emotional marketing. They want to feel as if the products and services they use, matter in their lives; more than just pleasure, they want to feel a part of the growing world.

Let’s Have A Look At The Best Ways To Generate Construction Leads:

Blog Posts    

Business blogs have become part of consumers’ daily lives.

They read them as frequently as you used to with a newspaper.

This means that the average customer who knows who you are will read your blog posts once a week at least. This could be at home just browsing before sitting down for dinner, it could be on the train heading into work or even as a dedicated read because you’ve just released some jaw-dropping news.

The best part of blogs is, they drive completely organic traffic to your website and can be from SERPs and social media.

On the other hand, you have new consumers who are not quite sure what you do. They should be seen as a juicy lamb to a wolf.

All they want to know is, how on earth will your products and services make their lives better? 

If you’re wondering how to get construction leads, write fun posts about how your products have been used in the past, what your desires are for the future

For example, how people will use your products and services and how you intend to design them in the future.

Be honest, talk about the troubles you’re having when making or improving products. Consumers are very understanding and just like a rambunctious puppy, they wag their tail when you show them more about things that are normally ‘behind-the-scenes’. 

Helpful Videos

Video content is by far the most popular of all the contents. Why? Well, it's kind of like audiobooks, why read something when it can speak to you?

This is why you need to have videos on your landing pages and homepage, to show customers exactly what you do.

On your services page, you need to have short videos, preferably around 1 minute or so, that show what it is you do.

Cover the process from start to finish

• How do you plan things

• How do you design things

• How do you then set about achieving them, etc.

YouTube is the obvious platform where you should be uploading but also, using your 5-second to 15-second ads to drive leads from the traffic. Post your video content on your social media pages and watch direct messages from your accounts come rushing in.

Podcasting

One of the most underrated techniques for how to get construction leads. Podcasting shares the same value as blogs.

Everyone thought they were going away and that they were just a fad from the 90s. Wrong!

Now, a podcast is one of the best ways to become an industry authority. People listen to podcasts to chill out, listen on the way to work or just while they’re doing their laundry and ironing.

They are, however, nice relaxing places where you build a rapport with your customers by talking about fascinating insider-details about the industry you work in.

You should bring guests on to talk about their experiences in the same field you work in and have a genuinely interesting conversation.

It also gives you a chance to inject your personality into the content, which consumers love!

Photography 

Photos are used even to this day but they have to be high-quality. With commercial photography, you’re trying to showcase your products in great detail, from all angles and show the customer what they would be getting. It also gives them a chance to see the dimensions, colors and style of what you produce. Higher quality images are shared more often on Instagram, than low-quality blurry embarrassments. 

Remember, content is king. Don’t be afraid to be quirky, show your personality, talk honestly about the troubles and challenges you face in your business, but also, inspire your customers to be hopeful about the future with great blog, podcast and video content. 

4 Ways To Setup ONLINE Gift Cards - EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE A WEBSITE.

Time stamps to each of the options below:0:00 - Introduction and preface3:30 - Giftfly - This is a great option if you are using CLOVER POS in your store.12:25 - Gift Up - This is an option if you want to use on Shopify but aren't on their $79 plan that has gift cards built in.17:55 - Square - This is perfect if you are already using Square for your POS. Since you have an account already, it's a couple of clicks to add egift cards, and then they supply you with a link to check out online, you don't even need a website.20:58 - Shopify - Again here, you'll need to be on the $79 plan or higher. If you are, it's easy as like 2 clicks to setup gift cards with Shopify.Ok, it's apparent to me that things that seem "easy" to me, are very hard for others! I feel you!I'm showing you step by step how to create new gift card accounts or activate gift cards in your existing POS systems.If you need further help, reach out to me at brad@bearcityimpact.com, I'm more than happy to help.Also, the first two options are great options if you do not have any sort of digital POS system, IE old school cash register, and credit card machine.- Just a note on the legacy POS systems, you will have to keep a MANUAL log book of customer gift cards, because they will get the gift card via email, and there's no way for you to deplete the balance. This will require a manual logging of card balance when they come in and shop.Ok, I really hope this was helpful. If you have additional questions just reach out!#shoplocal #supportlocal #coronavirus