Facebook is the current and the next big thing on the internet. Poking your crushes and staying in touch with your family worldwide are just a few things that keep masses across the globe hooked to their computers, which makes Facebook a hot advertising and marketing place for business owners. Businesses of all stripes make use of Facebook to make it popular with possible clients and promote products to a very specific client market.

Facebook Pages

One of the best and primary methods of advertising and promotion through Facebook is by making a FREE Facebook Group for your business. People can visit your pages, view them, become fans and even participate by commenting and liking your updates. Facebook pages enable your fans to receive updates posted on your page, which helps promoting new products.

Facebook gives you exponential potential of growth as anytime someone becomes a fan, all of their Facebook friends can see it too. You can use your page to share details and information about your business, post photos and videos of your products and post updates regarding promotion.

When you create your own Facebook page, you can choose between these options: a local business, a brand/product, or an artist/band/public figure. Choose carefully as the category cannot be changed later and also your decision will affect your promotion later.

If you are a local business, Facebook allows you to promote locally and to a very specific target market. However, if you want to spread your brand name and popularize it, choose your page as a brand/product.

On your Facebook page, appear friendly by using a polite and informal tone. Avoid using too many technical and business terms as you would do on your website. Use Facebook to build community and attract fans and actively participate in discussions and share information about your business. You don’t want to come across as too oppressive.

Facebook Groups

Facebook groups are a collection of people grouped together for a common purpose or interest, in this case, your business. People cannot become fans of your group and neither do they share much information with the friends of group members. This might look like a disadvantage but Facebook groups have their own advantages. People must become members of your group instead of becoming fans. You can send messages to your Facebook group members, which will go straight to their inbox unlike just an update notification as in Facebook pages.

Facebook groups are way more effective if you want to connect to people and future prospects on a personal level. They allow you to provide better customer service and communication with your clients and also receive feedback which brings you closer and dearer to them.

This original article is presented to you by LetsTalkSEO.com © 2010

Creating and developing an online brand is very important as it not only helps to readily identify you with a particular niche but also helps to build your reputation as well. It will also help customers to identify you or your products and what they stand for.

Successful business branding is not a transformation that takes place over night. Instead it consists of a series of online branding strategies utilizing various activities calculated to convey a consistent message.

Whether it is content distribution, article submissions or promotional consistencies a repeated message is being sent out to consumers. Invariably these messages are relating you to a theme, niche or level of quality. Over time this message eventually becomes embedded in the consumers mind and at that point the brand development is complete.

But before any branding strategies can be developed a determination must first be made of what in fact the brand is. This initial step is very important since business branding is much like a tattoo; you CAN NOT just wake up and wash it off if you do not like it.

You need to be right on target as to what it is you want consumers to associate you with. And on the ‘flip’ side you best represent what it is you are trying to impress people that you stand for.

Here are 5 questions you need to answer, and honestly, before you can determine exactly what your branding strategies should be.

What is your specialty?

What type of product or service do you offer? For example do you sell weight loss products or do you offer a computer programming service? Are your products physical or are they digitally delivered to customers? Perhaps you offer consultation or advice in a particular field.

Do you work within a clearly defined niche or do you offer a broad base of products or services? Is your focus short term or do you long range plans within this niche?

Determining exactly what it is you do is your first step towards developing a sense of what your brand should be.

How are you different from your competitors?

Considering the products or services you offer, what makes them different or unique to the customer as opposed to comparable products. Do you have a ‘unique selling point’ you can emphasize in your branding strategies?

How will your product or service impact your customer’s life?

As far as the product(s) you offer and considering any uniqueness they may have why would a customer care? Is there something about what it is you do that would make a difference or impact in the life of the customer?

Why Would Customers Buy from You?

Assuming that there are similar products available to what you offer why would anyone want to purchase from you? How would they benefit? What makes you special or different from your competitors?

Can you list any reasons as to why you standout? If so make a list and the longer the better!

What Are Your Strengths & Weaknesses?

Assess your strengths and weaknesses regarding your expertise in the field and your ability to conduct business in a professional and reliable manner. Take into consideration how this would impact the customers overall buying experience including any necessary activities involving customer service.

Once again by compiling the results of your assessments in a list it will be easier to work them into your overall branding strategy.

Developing a business brand online makes you more credible and identifiable within your niche. Online branding is very effective at improving your ability to do business on the internet.

It is very important however that before you attempt to implement any brand development strategies you need FIRST to determine what your brand is or should be.

If you can answer the above five questions in details, then you will have a good grasp of what your customers think of your brand and your company.

Wonder why some people get better marketing results than others? It’s because they tweak.

One rarely discussed marketing secret (except amongst rabid direct marketers or online marketers), is the arcane art of tweaking. Tweaking your marketing is literally the key to getting more response to any marketing activity you attempt.

Tweak means to adjust or fine-tune.

And this is exactly what people fail to do when it comes to their marketing. In fact, most do the opposite: They develop a web site and never change a pixel for years; they settle on a marketing message and never try anything new; or they give a speaking engagement and don’t try various “pitches” to get cards from participants.

The Science of Tweaking

Tweaking is what scientists do. They test something using an experiment. They get a certain result. Then they change a measurable variable and see what new result they get. They keep at this until they get the desired result (or not).

Good marketers are like scientists, but they have more fun.

Instead of experimenting on rats, they experiment on prospects. They try one marketing tactic at a time and measure the result. Then they change a measurable variable and see if the prospect responds differently.

Good scientists, if they are persistent, get grants to keep experimenting. Good marketers, if they are persistent, attract more clients and often get rich.

Let’s look at a few marketing experiments you can tweak.

1. Ezine signups from a web site

Growing a big eZine list is a great way to grow your business. Let’s look at the two main variables: a) home page of web site and b) eZine sign-up page of web site.

To conduct this experiment you must know:
a) how many people land on your home page in any given period
b) how many people click onto the sign-up page
c) how many people actually sign up

Using a simple web tracker that counts visitors and subscribers, you can get these statistics very easily.

So let’s say in a week, 100 people go to your home page. Of those, 40% click onto your sign-up page. And then 25% of those actually sign up for the eZine. That makes a sign-up rate of 10%.

Now you start tweaking.

You work at making changes to your home page so that more visitors click through to the sign-up page. You might improve the design, the graphics, the headline, the offer for the report you get with the eZine, etc.

Several tweaks might increase the number of people who click on the sign-up page to 50%. Now your total sign-up rate is 12.5%

Next you tweak away on the sign-up page. Perhaps you change the name of the report (more results-oriented), and you change the sign-up form (by making it simpler) and the placement of this form (you put it higher on the page).

Several tweaks of this kind may increase the number of actual sign-ups to 40%. Your total sign-up rate is now 20%. You’ve doubled your sign-up rate. And that’s how tweaking pays off!

2. Getting cards after a speaking event

What I used to say was, “I have a report that covers most of the material I discussed today. If you’d like a copy, just leave me your card and I’ll send it to you by email”.

That pitch got me 30-40% of cards. So I tweaked my pitch.

I now say: “Here is a report that covers most of the material I discussed today. Who would like a copy? (and I get a show of hands) Great, please give me your card with a current email address and I’ll send it to you by email.”

That pitch gets about 80% of people in the room giving me cards. The tweak is that I got people to raise their hands saying they wanted the report. It more than doubled the results.

3. Your Audio Logo

When I use a problem-oriented Audio Logo: “I help Independent Professionals who are struggling to attract clients,” I get about five times the response than a solution-oriented Audio Logo: “I help Independent Professionals attract more clients.”

Go figure.

You don’t have to know all the reasons your tweaking changed the results, you just have to keep tweaking until the results improve.

What are you currently doing in your marketing that isn’t working as well as it could? Time to start tweaking!

This is as close to a magic formula as you can get. There’s a lot more to writing ads than following a formula, of course, but having this framework should get you well on the way to writing a competent, if not great, marketing piece.

If you’ve been digging around at the library and gotten into the archives of the masters you’ve almost certainly discovered the formula of AIDA = Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. that’s a good start, but this is how it’s really done.

As you write your piece, try to get into the head of your client or prospect. What exactly are they looking for and how would they benefit from using your product or service? Furthermore, how would they benefit by buying from you rather than a competitor. So.. give it a shot.

Just one thing.. make sure you budget a whole bunch of time – even a short piece can take a non-writer as long as 10 to 20 hours to get right.

Here you go:

1. Headline (the “Attention” part)

This is, by far, the most important element – this has to be a big, bold promise of some kind. Give them a reason to read the next line.

2. Sub-Headline
Just as the purpose of the headline is to get you to read this line, the purpose of this line is to get them to read the next line. Plus, backing up the promise is really important.

3. Benefits (sort of today’s version of “Interest.”)
Use the benefits of your product (as opposed to features) to put your prospect smack in the middle of the picture. How should your customers feel when they’re using it? How would they feel if they missed out?

4. More Benefits
Skepticism is high these days; it takes a lot to convince people.

5. Proof
Testimonials work. Amazing facts are always good. Easy-to-understand statistics help, too. That sort of thing. Prove that your product does what you say it will do.

6. Risk Reversal
How about a money-back guarantee? There can be no risk whatsoever.

7. Photo
This isn’t required, but it will definitely increase your response rate. Show someone enjoying the product. Illustrate the benefits. Even a photo of you, which personalizes the piece and makes it seem real, helps a lot.

8. Offer (Just one, though)
You have to offer something. It’s amazing how many ads are produced without an offer. “It’s important to get your out name out there,” is the reason heard most often. Sorry – without an offer, your ad is dead. Nothing happens.

9. Call to Action
You must ask your prospect to do something. Really! If the rest of the ad is reasonably well-structured, people will act – they’ll take advantage of your offer and do exactly what you ask them to do. This is where your ad can become your best salesperson.

10. Reducing the Resistance to Accepting Your Offer
It’s that guarantee again. And it’s OK to mention it more than once – reducing your customer’s risk to zero is really important.

Now.. if you really want to kick it up a notch:

11. Create a Sense of Urgency
Use language like: “Just five days left..,” “Only 12 lucky golfers will..,” “Take advantage today and you’ll also get..” You know what I’m talking about, right?

So there you have it. Try writing a couple different versions and split up your mailing or post two different web pages to see which one draws responses. That’s how it’s done.

Building customer trust online is a combination of good branding, good design, and good content. A website needs all three components to be successful in creating a climate of trust that encourages sales.

Branding is about finding a specific idea that you stand for, finding a way to own that idea in a credible way, and ultimately building a total trust that you will always deliver.

Branding for Success

Maybe you think only big businesses need to be branded, but I’d challenge that thought by telling you this – As soon as you open your doors for business (either physically or metaphorically) you become a brand in the eyes of everyone who sees you or buys from you. The only choice you have is to become either a negative brand, undifferentiated brand, or a powerful, motivating brand.

Good branding on a website immediately lets a visitor know what you can do for them. In other words, don’t brand your business by a generic term like “gardening.” Instead, brand your business by showing the uniqueness of what you offer with a benefit statement, “Container gardening for unhappy apartment dwellers who want to be surrounded by nature.”

With Internet branding, you want to present your brand so customers can interact with your message and interact with your site. On the Internet, your prospects have total control of what they see, read, and hear. That’s why traditional advertising doesn’t work on the Net.

Design Considerations

Visitors are interacting with your site when they are shopping. The Internet gives you total control over what your prospective customer sees. Their shopping experience needs to be positive or you lose the sale. According to a 2002 survey by the Stanford Credibility Project, 46% of respondents said that design plays a role in a websites creditability. Even a reputable brand with a poorly designed website would cause people to leave.

Just like in a crowded store, where you can’t find the section you are looking for, a crowded/cluttered website confuses a prospective buyer. Have the website set up with simple graphics and navigation. What you need to do is remove all the obstacles from the selling process. To increase the click-thru rate, your site must offer instant gratification in terms of comprehension and clarity.

Remember, customers are entering your site at different points, so it is important that your brand message is clear on every page of your website. Try to have a consistent look on the site that matches your offline branding. Keep the same colors on your website so that they match your offline marketing materials.

Trustworthy Content

Creating content that gives your customer a sense of safety and security is also a way of building trust with your customer. Fraud and identity theft are big concerns for online shoppers. Sadly, according to Forrester Research, 71% of online shoppers don’t believe the retailer can protect them from fraud. So, they are reluctant to give out financial information. Consumers also believe that only 49% of companies will protect their privacy.

Website visitors need to feel that the information they give to a website will be held in confidence. Before asking someone to give you their email address, be sure you have a privacy policy statement. Make sure the privacy statement is near the email sign-up.

To reassure your website visitors of a secure financial transaction, use the security certification seals of Verisign, Hackersafe, and Thawte. Make sure the seals are prominently displayed on the shopping cart and throughout the checkout process. Forrester research found that sites using these certification seals had a 14% increase in conversion rates.

Another technique is to use privacy seals from BBB online and TrustE. These third party logos communicate that your company can be trusted and have met a standard of measurement for reliability. These seals need to be placed throughout the website: near email signups, registration, cart, and checkout.

Communicate to Build Trust

Building trust online comes down to clearly communicating with your customer. Something as simple as failing to communicate the total purchase price upfront, will lead to shopping cart abandonment. Forrester research found that 57% of shoppers will abandon a shopping cart because the shipping charges were more than they expected.

The goal of an online business should be to create an environment of worry free shopping. Create a website that makes a visitor feel safe, clearly expresses the company’s brand through good design, and boosts website conversions through trustworthy content.