I would like to take this time to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! I am thankful for the clients who have inspired me in so many ways, and for the members of my team who help make our clients’ marketing goals come true. This has been a great year in many ways, and yet I am looking forward to even more next year.
Many businesses look at December as a kind of down time, but I think it’s the perfect time to lay out a strategy for the upcoming year. Because 2013 is so rapidly coming to a close, I want to offer a few end-of-year marketing strategies as my way of saying thanks:
Check Your Google Rankings: Your Google ranking can be the most valuable asset your business has. Score a high ranking and increase your probability of potential customers finding your business. Have a low ranking, and your business is much more difficult to find. Get a free Google rank analysis now, discover areas in need of improvement, gain valuable insights, and start developing a marketing plan to increase your online visibility.
Learn About Web Marketing Success: Use The Strategic Circle as a marketing benchmark analysis to learn about the multitude of ways your website impacts your marketing. Answer the questions about email, website design, Pay-Per-Click marketing, social media, press releases, and search engine optimization to find out whether your website is working as hard as it can for you.
Receive a Website Analysis: Let Search Engine Pros conduct an objective site analysis and provide you with a free 30 page report that tells you how well your website is working and gives you useful suggestions on how to make it better.
Make a Commitment to Learn More About Marketing: Subscribe to our e-newsletter and get a variety of Free Marketing e-Books every month.
Learn While You Lunch: Come to Verde Restaurant every Friday from 12:30-2pm. For $20, you’ll get lunch, a drink, and a chance to hear me talk about how to market your business online.
Over 90% of consumers now make buying decisions on the internet, so your web marketing strategy has to be running at full force every day to attract their attention. Don’t sit back while your competitors get ahead with their web strategy, social media and web marketing. Search Engine Pros are trained search engine marketers who help you meet your online marketing goals. Outsource your marketing to Search Engine Pros and let us do all your online work while you work with your customers.
May you remember all the things you have to be thankful for this year,
From all of us at Search Engine Pros, Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
You’ve heard of newsjacking, but are you familiar with holiday-jacking? If it isn’t an official marketing term, it definitely should be. The bigger the holiday, the larger the interest among consumers and the associated volume of search on Google.
By effectively targeting your marketing materials to upcoming holidays, you can capture the interest of consumers who are attuned to the season. According to the National Retail Federation, a record 170 million Americans say they’ll celebrate Halloween this year. Halloween is the second highest grossing commercial holiday after Christmas and spending in the United States this year is estimated to reach $6.9 billion.
The Halloween market is bigger than ever, and adults are having just as much fun as kids. There’s a huge opportunity for your business to join the celebration with some seasonal online content and clever Halloween social media marketing.
7 Halloween Marketing Tips:
1. Hold A Halloween Contest A fun Halloween contest could be for the best jack-o-lantern, the best costume, the best recipe – you name it. Ask your customers to post pictures of their entries, and don’t forget to offer a prize; a free e-book, gift card, or coupon would be perfect.
2. #DoAHashtagContest Setting up a hashtag can help your Halloween contest or promotion get seen by a wider audience. Even those who don’t participate could retweet it or mention it on Twitter getting you on more timelines and generating more buzz.
3. Engage Facebook fans with images Images are a proven tactic for attracting attention to your website, Twitter timeline or Facebook page. On Facebook specifically, with the new timeline for brands, images pop on your news feed and engage visitors, often earning more likes and comments than other posts.
4. Write A Halloween-Themed Blog Post This idea is truly limited only by your imagination. Relate Halloween to some aspect of your business and run with it. Do you have a pet supply business? Blog about tips for keeping your pet safe when trick-or-treaters flock to your porch. Run a home improvement website? List your top ten scariest DIY mistakes made by homeowners. This is also a good place for “awareness” topics like child safety or drunk driving on Halloween.
5. Make A Halloween Video Dress up team members in Halloween costumes and make a promotional, entertaining, or educational video. Halloween tips are a good place to start for inspiration. Tips for applying Halloween makeup. Tips for examining your child’s trick-or-treat candy. Exercise tips for working off all that Halloween candy. The witch-filled sky’s the limit.
6. Do a tweet-vote A tweet-vote can help you earn new followers and engage your current ones. For Halloween, you could have followers vote on the costume contest you held in your office, which has the added bonus of humanizing your brand.
7. Host a Halloween (social) event Making your event social can help you not only generate buzz and attract attendees before it starts – it can also help you engage followers and fans during the party and after it’s over.
Fun Things to do in Santa Barbara on Halloween:
Downtown Halloween Safe Trick-or-Treat October 31, 2013 Times: 3-6PM Location: Downtown Santa Barbara Address: State Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101 Phone: call 962.2098 ext. 24 Downtown businesses get into the spirit of the haunting season by welcoming hundreds of costumed children with treats, stickers, coupons or other Halloween goodies.
Halloween Bash at Carr Winery October 31, 2013 Times: 7:30PM-11:00PM Address: 414 N. Salsipuedes Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93103 Phone: 805-965-7985 Venue: Carr Winery Join us in the haunted wine cave! Sip wicked wines and jam to music by Tommy & the High Pilots. Georgia’s Smokehouse will be serving up their frightfully delicious BBQ. 21+, Costume required. A Halloween party you will die for…Get on the list before the event sells out.
Voodoo Lounge 2nd Annual Canary Rooftop Halloween Dance Party October 31, 2013 Times: 9PM-1AM Address: 31 West Carrillo St, Santa Barbara, CA 93101 Phone: 805-895-3402 Venue: Canary Hotel VIP Access 8:00 – 1:00 am $75 in advance, space is limited – Enjoy Bubbling Brews and Bewitching Bites- 8:00 – 9:00 pm – VIP Entrance to the Party – Two complimentary drink tickets to be used at the Voodoo Lounge Party – Access to VIP bar General Reception 9:00 pm to 1:00 am General Admission $40CURATED COCKTAILS WITH ASCENDANT SPIRITS October 31, 2013 Times: 5:30PM-9PM Address: 653 Paseo Nuevo Santa Barbara, CA 93101 Phone: 805.966.5373 Venue: Paseo Mall MCASB partners with a new local mixologist every Thursday in October from 6-8 pm to offer unique $5 MCASB signature cocktails. Visitors can enjoy music from DJ Emtpy Priest and guided tours of the current exhibitions: Call For Entries and Bloom Projects: Ro Snell, All that is left.
Google Reveals the highest searched terms for Halloween costumes of 2013:
Thinking of dressing up as a Minion for Halloween this year? Judging by recent searches, you aren’t the only one. Both Google and Yahoo agree that Minion costumes – from the “Despicable Me” movies – are the top trending costumes of 2013. With Halloween less than a week away, here’s a look at the top 5 costumes people are searching for most this year:
1.) Minion – from the movie “Despicable Me” is popular with both adults and kids 2.) Breaking Bad – searches are up nearly 3x vs. last year for the popular AMC series, which just saw huge ratings for its series finale. 3.) Fox – supposedly inspired by Ylvis’ viral video “The Fox”. 4.) Duck Dynasty – searches are 3x higher this year vs. last year; search volume is highest in Texas. 5.) Miley Cyrus – not surprising following her post-VMA performance and latest “look at me” antics.
Join us at Lunch & Learn e-Marketing Tomorrow Time: Fridays 12:30pm-2pm Location: 532 State Street (Next Door Joe’s Cafe) Join The Facebook Event
Lunch and Learn e-Marketing is a web marketing seminar presented by yours truly, Taylor Reaume, Fridays 12:30pm-2pm at Verde Restaurant @ 532 State Street. I would like to welcome everyone to this new venue for our e-marketing discussions every week. VerdeSB.com is a new mexican cuisine restaurant located on lower State Street. At this lunch meeting you will have a unique opportunity to share online marketing secrets with other business owners. Learn online marketing and social media marketing strategy on the web. One lucky attendee will have their web site analyzed live by the lunch group and feedback is provided, to help optimize online presence.
Expand your knowledge of web marketing and learn advanced search engine optimization strategy. COST is $20; Includes lunch, a drink, e-marketing discussions with local business people – GREAT BUSINESS NETWORKING. Discover valuable web marketing secrets that will help you outrank your competition on Google. Bring your questions, business cards and laptop (optional). Leave with a full stomach and clarity/sanity on 2013 web strategy and web marketing options. Attendees participate in a live web site review and offer constructive feedback as part of the group. It’s educational. It’s informative. It’s delicious. Find out if your web site is winning the race to the top of Google. Open to everyone!