Uncategorized Archives

A Good Attitude

October 19, 2016/0 Comments/in Blogs, Uncategorized /by Morgan Hirschi

Having a good attitude in the workplace is essential to success in the business world, and in marketing in particular. People enjoy and want to connect more with someone who is open and friendly, that allows them to feel at ease.

What is a good attitude?

A person who is cheerful and makes the best of all situations, bad or good, is an example of a good attitude and someone you want to have around. Their positive outlook is contagious and lifts up everyone around them.

This type of attitude is ready to work, willing to do their best, has understanding and sees the best in others. When the day is full of problems or a lot of tedious work, a person with a good attitude helps to relieve the stress and take off the pressure of a heavy workload.

A good attitude can build team morale and encourage the rest of the team to try harder as well. In brainstorming for new ideas, a positive attitude goes a long way in inspiring others to bring forth their thoughts and encourage them to be willing to share, even if their ideas are way outside of the box. A positive person is creative and willing to put in the effort that leads to success.

Attitude Over Skills

According to Forbes.com, attitude is much more important than a person’s skill set. In fact, in a study of 20,000 new hires, 89% of the time, they were let go for reasons based on attitude as opposed to lack of skill in their position.

This statistic shows why an employer place such a high priority on the potential hire’s attitude. Sometimes, people get hired even when they don’t have the required skills because they display such an enthusiastic attitude about learning a new skill; a great encouragement to the business owner.

Personal Benefits

There are also personal benefits to having a good attitude. People who are positive and willing to put in effort are seen as confident and capable. They are motivated and see the positive in situations that others would deem as impossible or a failure in progress. To read more about self-confidence, check out our blog, Want to Sound More Confident at Work?

On the website, Successconciousness.com, “A positive attitude helps you cope more easily with the daily affairs of life. It brings optimism into your life, and makes it easier to avoid worries and negative thinking.” This type of attitude can increase your well-being and see opportunities more readily and clearly.

Be Positive

It is never too late to have a good attitude! The benefits of learning to think this way will help you not only in the workplace, but in your everyday life as well. It can help you to make new friends, take chances on a new venture or even just pass the time a little easier when the day is moving slowly.

Start today just by being grateful. This can quickly put you in a better mind set as you think of all of the good in your life. Or, go out of your way to be kind or encouraging to someone else. Being uplifting can put a smile on both of your faces!

How to Write Quality Content Now!

July 28, 2015/0 Comments/in Blogs, Uncategorized /by Kristi Church

Here’s what we always tell our clients…Writing quality content on a regular basis is one of the most important and essential components to grow your Google rankings and as a result, your business. As your rankings grow, your business grows.

Content became king last fall as Google rolled out an update which affected sites that didn’t have good, quality content. In fact, with the Google Panda 4.2 update that was just released a few days ago, some sites that were hit hard during the last Panda algorithm update may even see an uptick if they worked to reverse that while maintaining quality content as a result since.

Yes, Google giveth and Google taketh away.. Hopefully you’re site is on the giveth side!

First Things First; How Often to Blog

We believe that you should be writing quality content on a regular schedule. What happens is that Google sends out its little bots to check your site. As Google finds that you are actively blogging and your content appears every Tuesday at 10am (or any regularly scheduled date) then your site becomes relevant.

If it finds no posts or updates when the little bots return, it also makes note of that and eventually will stop paying those little visits and you start all over again.

Of course frequency is great, but is it really doable? Meaning…if you start out thinking you can blog quality content twice a week but after a month or two you lose steam and only get a post in every other week, you’re actually doing more harm than good.

Google likes to see consistency.. so set up a realistic schedule you can live with and stick to that on a regular basis. It’s better for you in the long run if you can do one post a week over a series of months that posting sporadically.

How to Find Your Niche Topics

We’re often asked what to write about. Do you know your niche or do you write about everything under the sun? There are quite a few blogs like Lifestyle blogs that write about many different topics but still have a central theme for the blog.

Check out these tips to drilling down what your niche really is.

Write out a category list of everything your business provides to your clients.

You know your business better than anyone and should be passionate about your offering and the results it provides. What do you do to help people every day? What problems are you solving for them? What are the pain points of your clients and how do you make them better?

Write out all the keywords that your business should be ranking for. If you don’t know these–get with your SEO specialist to understand what they are. If you think this is as simple as “Wedding Photographer Phoenix”…..I’ll be the first to tell you that you’re mistaken.

Do comprehensive keyword research (or have it done by a professional like us!) and use those keywords combinations to help give your post added traction to building your website traffic. Many writers miss this opportunity, which if applied becomes the juice that really gets the engine going.

Write down every topic that you enjoy writing about that is also related to your business. For instance, you may love to blog about travel, finance, recipes, parenting, photography, or business in general.
Next, which one or two of these top-level niches do write about more often?

Take a look at your current blog Categories and see how many posts are in each one. The data found here just might surprise you! Hopefully, you have Subcategories under your main Categories.

Do one or two of your Subcategories have the highest number of posts? This is an easy way to see just exactly what you tend to write about the most!

Become a Niche Content Writer

Let’s say you are a massage therapist and write a lot of self-care posts. By looking at your subcategories, you see that you write a lot of tips about making the most of meditation and yoga.

You can become a niche content writer in both meditation and yoga with a secondary niche about massage. Or you can go one step further and become and industry expert on full self-care and wellness, because in your industry you are solving issues that people and have and some that they haven’t even thought about yet, which is golden!

This doesn’t mean that you can’t write about other topics, but your main posts should be on your main niche topic. A key thing to remember is in order to have a successful blog, writing needs to be cohesive. Find your voice and make it conversational to keep your readers in tune… this is uber important! You will lose readers or they will raise a side-eye if you all of sudden start writing about doughnuts and you have a health-food blog.

For your business blog to show your new niche, go with it and make your transition over a period of two months and post on your new niche every other week.

If your blog is solely about one topic and you have lost interest, then start back over with what your business is currently offering and make a new list.

What Else to Write About?

Write about triumphs, successes AND failures. Write about your team and how they currently support your customer base. Report on events, things you’re doing and awards you’re winning… and by all means, make sure that last press release is posted on your blog to reinforce Google that you’re worthy of their support.

If you still need some help—contact us! Our team is here to help you get the traction you need from your blog by adding quality content that helps your business grow! It’s our business and we can help!

If you’re not passionate about your business, then you’re in the wrong business. Writing quality content about what you are passionate about – on a regular basis with appropriate keywords; now THAT should always be your niche!

Easy Ways to Monetize Blog Posts

June 25, 2015/0 Comments/in Blogs, Uncategorized /by Kristi Church

You’ve been blogging for quite a few years now I would imagine. I also would bet money that you didn’t start blogging to make a living at it, but rather for the love of writing. Over the last few years, making an income from blogging might have seemed a far off possibility and quickly developed into a reality. This post is for all my fellow bloggers out there on easy ways to monetize blog posts.

Start With Your Best Posts

Pull your Google Analytics report on your top 10 posts. You can do this for all time, per year, and even per month. Start with the ones that receive the most traffic to go back to and monetize. Install Broken Link Detector plugin so it can notify you if your affiliate links expire. Hit your top 10 posts every quarter by linking them to current posts and adding content updates or adding new links. Don’t let those top ten posts go stale!

Amazon Time!

For every new post that you write, it is safe to say you insert at least two Amazon affiliate links organically into the copy, right? You are doing that aren’t you? When reading through your most popular posts, check to see if you are mentioning any products, books, or services. The products and books are easy enough to find on Amazon. For services, search for product ideas that are similar. For instance, if your post is about AAA and their road service plan, link to a battery charger or first aid kit for the car.

Think Outside the Link Box

Sometimes we overthink how to effectively monetize blogs. Just remember this – no one likes to be sold to. They do, however, appreciate it if you are trying to help them. For instance, if you wrote a post about your awesome trip to Hawaii, include a TripAdvisor link or widget to where you stayed. Also, travel sites like Expedia or Travelocity have affiliate widgets that allow you to specify your destination (even down to the hotel). This helps your readers plan the same trip you did. Don’t forget to add any discount codes that you have been sent from your affiliate manager to the post.

For those fellow bloggers in Nexus states, I’m so sorry that you cannot promote Amazon and other specific affiliate links. Check out both Skimlinks and Viglinks to be able to add affiliate links instead.

Facebook's New Call to Action Button is Kryptonite to Marketers

New Facebook Feature Is Kryptonite Against Change

February 3, 2015/0 Comments/in Marketing, Social Media, Uncategorized /by Kristi Church

Facebook. One of my favorite subjects. It’s not my end all marketing tool, but it is a part of a larger strategy that I use within my plan. Like most marketers and people I know, Facebook and I have a love-hate relationship. Some days I absolutely love it…other days I want to bang my head on my keyboard hoping to knock some sense into my brain. The chase is on to find the golden key to unlock the right engagement for best results and just when we think we’ve got it, Facebook ups their game to have us all scrambling again.

There is one thing I absolutely love about Facebook. They are constantly working to strike a balance between keeping their users happy (both social and professional) while increasing their bottom line. Every time they come up with something that might affect marketers in a less than desirable way…(poof!)…they pop out a new feature that gets us all excited again!

For instance…organic reach. In what seems like a strategic 2 year plan on their part, Facebook primed us for the days ahead starting in 2012 when they first announced the paid reach concept. Chatter struck up in forums of how evil Facebook was for starting to charge—and we read conversations for and against it on both sides of the fence—at the end of the day, people were upset that they might have to pay in order to use what they want as a free service.

I get it. I want free too. But truly, nothing in this world is really free. Eventually we’re going to have to pay for what we want and frankly, I’m thankful that Facebook hasn’t adopted other means for making us pay such as going to a monthly subscription rate. While the negative effects for them would have been drastic and huge, they surely could have done that. Rather, they took cues from Google (okay, maybe not…which was first the chicken or the egg?) and developed changes through their algorithms that keep us hopping.

Similar to that of search engine optimization; starting your business, getting your website up and running and clicking on your neon open sign certainly doesn’t mean you’ll get found on the internet. You need SEO to be found. That may also include SEM (search engine marketing), or Pay per Click ads for a little boost. Over the past five years we’ve come to understand that marketing has changed, especially if we want to gain top-of-the-mind awareness.

**One thing is certain, Facebook is always changing…..**

I’ll touch on some old news for a moment. They have created algorithms that, with their announcement last November, are quickly moving away from organic reach to encourage more paid advertising, which makes it more difficult for us to reach our audience. We knew it was coming so it wasn’t really a surprise. In fact, I really started noticing the effects of this change in mid-January. Again, just because we have followers and are active at posting great content…in most cases you’ll need to be on the pay to play bandwagon to have your posts seen by those that like your page and want to support your business. Early adopters are embracing the change, others aren’t there yet. The key is to develop a boosting strategy for posts that you want to have covered. It should become part of your Facebook marketing plan.

Facebook saves the day!

Here’s a positive development to off-set that announcement. Facebook has given us a new way to engage those that follow us with the new Call-to-Action (CTA) button! Yes, I am enamored with how Facebook is going to allow us to drive traffic to a landing page so that we can convert more potential clients and creatively use this platform to grow our own bottom line as well! Could the new Call-to-Action button become the kryptonite in our tool box that helps us gain more qualified engagement? The answer is YES! Especially when used as part of a strategic ad campaign!

I mentioned in a recent blog post the “4 Reasons Facebook Will Remain a Social Powerhouse in 2015”, that Facebook is great at building trust, but they’re also great at continuing to develop what page admins want. In fact, they want “to release features that will help drive business objectives to align with a business’s goals”. The new Call-to-Action button is a perfect example of that! Woot! Woot!

Here’s how it works:

Next to the “Like” button at the top of your Facebook page sits the Create a Call-to-Action. You can see in the example below that Sign Up is one of 7 different Call-to-Action buttons that are available. This makes it possible to set up your CTA to work congruently with another campaign to help drive clicks where you want them.

Take for example this 3 week test performed by Brian Kim from the famous online retailer Dollar Shave Club. “The Sign Up Call-to-Action delivered a 2.5x higher conversion rate versus other comparable social placements aimed to drive new user acquisition.” That’s great news! Personally and professionally I’m encouraged and I can’t wait to do some testing of my own in the near future!

So.. the 7 options for your CTA are:

Sign Up
Book Now
Contact Us
Use App
Play Game
Show Now
Watch Video

All great options when combining an ad campaign to drive engagement or even as a stand-alone way to promote your business page. The new Call-to-Action button is rolling out to Pages now through the end of 2015.

So as we are all excited and wrapped up in creating our new CTA, let’s try not forget the fact that if we want more than mere 5 followers to see our posts, we still have to pay for that coverage. At least until we pay our ad bill…ouch!

About Us: In addition to our other services, Infinite Reach Agency specializes in advanced Facebook marketing through ad placement and daily social engagement. If you have questions on this topic or have questions on how to implement a proper Facebook ad campaign, contact us for a complimentary 30 minute consultation! We’re happy to help!

Feel free to use this image in your marketing or better yet, share it on Pinterest!

4 Reasons Facebook Will Remain a Social Powerhouse in 2015

January 7, 2015/0 Comments/in Branding, Social Media, Uncategorized /by Kristi Church

With Facebook announcing its Q4 2014 results in just a few short weeks, here’s look at why this media giant will remain the powerhouse in 2015 when it comes to social media.

Facebook is Effective at Building Trust

I remember the day it happened. I’m almost ashamed to admit that I was among them. As we all sat around our computers, Facebook users squawked as soon as paid ads hit their feeds at the beginning of 2012. With that said, paid ads have been extremely successful resulting thousands of dollars of revenue gains since they’ve hit the scene. However, brand awareness and trust has been built on the platform with big companies growing their audiences and being more relevant than ever. In a study produced by Simply Measured of top 100 companies, there were a collective 1.1 billion fans and 77 percent of those companies and individual audiences of greater than one million fans.”

Fast forward to 2015 and Facebook fans are now accustomed to viewing branded content more than ever. Take that one step further. They’re proven to become more trusting to those large brands by becoming fans themselves in support of the brands they follow.

Those ads weren’t such a bad thing after all!

Larger Fan Base = User Recommendations

For companies, brand loyalty is the result of all that good trust juju that’s being built everyday on Facebook and other social media. It’s no secret that people want to connect to the companies and public figures they love by understanding them socially and emotionally. It’s as close to being personal with them as they can get by easily connecting at no cost—a huge benefit on both sides!

However, this kind of brand loyalty and growing fan base also translates into user recommendations. Think of this as the digital word-of-mouth if you will. As of January 2, 2015, aside from Facebook itself, Coca-Cola and YouTube round out the Top 25 Facebook Pages for highest number of fans. On the far right of this chart you’ll see a 1-10 rating on how likely a fan is to recommend the page to friends. More raving fans translates into more engagement and more of a following. Woot! So.. there’s no time like the present to grow your Facebook fans!

Facebook Balances Brands and What Traditional Users Want to See

Facebook relies on users and their engagement to grow their financials. So, posts that are more engaging are the posts that Facebook juices in order to drive that engagement. One thing that Facebook is great at is listening to its audience. While there’s brand loyalty and fan base growth on Facebook, this came loud and clear in a recent Facebook survey that users don’t want to see their newsfeed spammed with sales pitches.

So Facebook is adapting. Yes, again. It’s good news for users, and not so great for marketers. New 2015 algorithm updates reflect different outcomes for brands as engagement remains their focus. What this means for branding is that there will be even less visibility to those posts that solely push people to enter promotions, to buy a product, enter promotions and or sweepstakes or reuse of existing content from ads. Posts with a hard sell take the back seat! (See example below).

example of bad executed fb ad under new 2015 algorithm changes

Facebook’s example of what NOT to do with an ad!

How they’re accomplishing this is that Facebook is simply lessening the competition in the News Feed so that more relevant content gets seen. According to a recent blog post, Facebook remarked “This change is about giving people the best Facebook experience possible and being responsive to what they’ve told us”. Kuddos to you for listening, Facebook!

Facebook Continues to Develop What Page Admins Want

Part of this new January 2015 Facebook update, businesses that have Places Facebook Pages, which simply means having a brick and mortar location, admins are becoming a bit happier! They can now toot their horns a little louder by adding maps, ratings and check-ins to their page. This awesome update gives users more assurance about local brands/businesses they follow while also upping their street cred!

No matter what kind of changes that Facebook is going to make, businesses everywhere are going to stay the course, post their content and pay for ads to be in front of their audiences. They key is going to be relevancy with a focus on giving your audiences the info they want without being perceived as giant spam machine. So.. quit spewing mindless content so Facebook AND your users will love you! Their loyalty will be proven in your Facebook “Likes”.

About Us: Infinite Reach Agency specializes in advanced Facebook marketing through ad placement and daily social engagement. If you have questions on this topic or have questions on how to implement a proper Facebook ad campaign, contact us for a complimentary 30 minute consultation! We’re happy to help!

Social Media Rockstar by Infinite Reach Agency

Become a Social Media Rockstar!

August 15, 2014/2 Comments/in Social Media, Uncategorized /by Kristi Church

I never win anything. It’s true. That fact has never really bothered me though, because I get paid back in other areas. Like…I have amazing parking Karma. There is always a great parking spot waiting for me wherever I go. Oh…and green light Karma too. I usually get to breeze around town from point A to point B without hitting many red lights–hardly at all! And…I always, always, always get the best customers..no matter what I’m selling or what I’m doing. Truly, I can’t complain. During my many years as a sales rep, I’ve won many contests, but that’s because I had control over my own destiny. I once won a sales contest by selling 2,453 boxes of Arm and Hammer Baking Soda to my existing client base. True story. The harder I worked, the better my odds were of winning prizes ranging from trips and cruises to cash.

Social Media Rockstar, NAWBO Phoenix, Infinite Reach Agency

Pg 24 of Poke the Box by Seth Godin

Still.. I hardly ever win just because. The last time I won something, I went out and played bingo with my friend Michael and forced him to shake my hand at the beginning of the evening and make a pact that if either of us won, we had to share each other’s winnings. As luck would have it…I won that night. He wasn’t very happy during that handshake…but I’ll tell you what, he sure was thrilled when the evening was over. Splitting that $1000 was fun!

Last month at the NAWBO Phoenix luncheon I happened to do what I always do…and that’s chit chat out in social media about what’s going on and where I am. I was excited to be at that luncheon as one of my favorite influential women of Phoenix was speaking that day, Sharon Lechter. You can bet she had some great statistics to share — which I sent out into electronic bliss knowing I could help spread the news of her fantastic talk and this wonderful luncheon I was more than happy to attend. I’ve grown very fond of Sharon, especially after sitting in on an interview that Susan Brooks conducted with her for the Thrive at 55 Commemorative Book which I also had the honor of photographing Sharon that day. She advocates for women and teaches our children financial responsibility. She’s special. So this luncheon was a treat for me.

In addition, I happen to not only love supporting my NAWBO Phoenix sisters, but I also have to admit that I love dining at the Phoenix Country Club. A great friend of mine, Robert Roth, is the Director of Catering and I know each and every lunch is going to be delicious, hearty and healthy.

Oh…and that irresistable, mouth-watering, delicious, chocolate mousse — that is the BEST chocolate mousse in town! Even though I’m training for my first triathlon and can usually forego most sweets — that chocolate mousse will always have its way with me when I eat lunch at the Phoenix Country Club — and it most certainly did this day!

So, I’m a Rockstar!

I am super proud to announce to the world that YESTERDAY.. I was a WINNER! I totally didn’t expect it and it took me by complete surprise, but somehow I won this awesome gift pack from NAWBO and InfusionSoft for being the Social Media Rockstar for July! When Dorothy Wolden, president of NAWBO Phoenix called my name, I felt like I had won on The Price Is Right! Oh yeah. You read that right. I swear that lights were flashing on and off, bells were ringing and crowds were cheering! I was so excited…I could hardly believe it! I ACTUALLY WON SOMETHING!

Start A Conversation!

So, just how hard is it to be a Social Media Rockstar? Just start a conversation! Truth be told, it only takes a few quick seconds to take a photograph and a few quotes and send them out on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. When you get in the habit of remembering to stop and take a few moments to document the story of what’s happening, sharing the social love becomes second nature.

Here’s a sneak peek at what I won:

I’ll also admit that I squealed like a school girl as soon as I opened the gift bag to see what was inside! Infusionsoft sponsored these cool techy prizes–from one Social Media Rock Star to another–THANK YOU!! The Infusionsoft gift bag was filled with a beautiful green (did I mention green is my FAVORITE color??) neoprene iPad case, a green stylus that is also a pen (YES!), a charging brick Power Pank–portable power supply for my devices (I am ALWAYS out of juice!) and a book by Seth Godin, Poke the Box! I literally hit the jackpot! 🙂

I’m extremely proud and grateful to have won the title of Social Media Rockstar for July for NAWBO Phoenix. Being good at social media is also part of my livelihood as its huge part of our business. I better be a Social Media Rockstar — our Infinite Reach clients are counting on it!