I have a friend with metastatic breast cancer and they just found a recurrence. I have another friend who was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor right before Christmas. And I am following the cancer journey of this little 5 year old girl who has captured my heart. She is having a rough time.
Don't "the studies" say that by the middle of January, or at least by the end, that most of us will have abandoned our 2012 resolutions? Big deal.
This post is not designed to help you keep those resolutions, nor is it meant to depress you (although I'm feeling a bit weighed down at the moment). In the three situations mentioned, 2012 resolutions likely involve staying alive. That makes many of our resolutions seem unimportant – certainly not worth all the time and energy spent talking or writing about them.
Therefore, I write this post to bring some perspective to the new year – for you and, I guess, really for me.
Since this is a marketing blog focused on professional service firms, let me share with you a secret that is not really that secret - marketing is not that difficult. There are countless marketing blogs dispensing "wisdom" which often makes the reader feel woefully inadequate or, at the very least, behind the curve. Let me assure you that you're fine and that you don't have to worry with much of what is written. Just remember these things:
You may think the final three points don't have anything to do with marketing. You're wrong. In a professional service firm, people do business with people – not brands. Brands may get them in the door but it's the personal connection between service provider and client that is important. Basically, being a jerk is never a good business development strategy, nor a life strategy.
So, see, it's not that difficult – in theory. In practice it can be damn hard.
If you're a praying person, I would appreciate prayers for the three people mentioned above.
Let's see what 2012 brings.
Okay, I admit it. I do love distractions. It can be hard for me to focus but while it's sometimes difficult, it's not always difficult because I also LOVE checking things off my list - big, crazy, detail-oriented projects.
What about you? Read 7 Things Highly Productive People Do (from Inc.) and let me know what works for you.
A great article from Harvard Business Review - How to Accomplish More by Doing Less. But will your partners or boss go for it?
You, dear reader, likely know that SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. We work hard to produce useful content for our target market(s), so we want that content to be found via an internet search. Yet search algorithms are always changing. That's why there are firms dedicated to nothing else but helping us with SEO.
However, if your firm is like most, you are not big enough to warrant these services. What do you do? You try your hardest to include tags as well as keywords in your content in an appropriate way.
Yet, there is a tool to help. The Wordpress SEO Plugin by Yoast allows you to quickly optimize your content for search. There is a great summary of the tool at Blogging Your Passon. Per BYP:
Once you install this plugin, there will be a new feature added just below your content box inside WordPress. This is what allows you to quickly optimize your content.
For example, Let’s say I have chosen the keyword phrase “how to become a mechanic.” If someone uses that phrase to search in Google, then I want to be on the first page and get traffic. The phrase is actual used over 1,300+ times each month.
After I write or paste my content in WordPress, I scroll down to the WordPress SEO feature. It asks for my focus keyword, so I put in “how to become a mechanic.” Now the plugin will tell me either yes or no if my blog post is optimized for the search engines. You can then make some simple changes that the plugin suggests, and then hit publish. See the picture below for a better view.
There are many advanced features as well; however, most of us won't take advantage of them. Here is the list of features for the plugin:
Told ya ... most of these we won't touch, yet the functionality described above is worth it. If you have a Wordpress blog, check out this tool.