Are you trying to start a business and wondering how to get a startup business loan? Maybe you think you don’t qualify. Maybe you have been trying but keep getting denied. These tips, including one that almost no one knows about, will help you obtain the funds you need to get your business off the ground.
How to Qualify for a Startup Business Loan No Matter What
Usually, to get a traditional business loan you need good credit, strong cash flow, and collateral. If you are a startup, you may not have cash flow yet. You may have good personal credit, which can help, but it’s unlikely that you have established business credit. Honestly, you may have collateral, or you may not.
However, there are some loan options you can qualify for with just one of these three things.
5.What Are Your Options for a Startup Business Loan?
Tip number one for how to get a startup business loan is to know your options. This is the hardest part. It can be easy to get overwhelmed when you start looking at loan requirements. Most traditional loan options require collateral, cash, and good credit even if you are a startup.
The first step in knowing how to get a startup business loan is understanding what your options are based on your specific qualifications. Here are a few ideas to get you started.
Options for Small Business Startup Loans if You Have Collateral
If you are looking for a straight business startup loan, collateral-based loans are going to be the easiest to get. You use your assets as security. As a result, rates are lower, and your personal credit doesn’t have as much of an impact. Of course, collateral can be anything. Still, here are some outside-of-the-box ideas you may not have considered.
Securities-Based Financing
For example, you can use stocks as security to get business financing. In fact, you can borrow as much as 90% of their value. Furthermore, you continue to earn interest on the stocks even as they are pledged as collateral.
401(k) Financing
Your existing 401(k) or IRA can help fund your business as well. This is a unique funding tool known by the IRS as a Rollover for Business Startups, or ROBS. There are no tax penalties, and you still earn interest on your 401(k).
Equipment Financing
Equipment financing is a great way for a startup to get financing to buy or lease new equipment. Use your first and last month’s payments to get approved. However, rates vary widely based on risk factors. The lender will undervalue equipment by perhaps up to 50%. Also, this only works for major equipment. Lenders won’t combine a lot of small equipment.
SBA Loans for Startups
There are a few different SBA programs that can work for startups that have collateral.
7(a) Loans
The Small Business Administration’s 7(a) loan program offers federally funded term loans up to $5 million. Generally, these loans can be used for expansion, purchasing equipment, working capital and more. Banks, credit unions, and other specialized institutions process these loans and disburse the funds.
504 Loans
In addition, 504 loans are available up to $5 million. These funds can buy machinery, facilities, or land. Typically, they are used for expansion, and they work especially well for commercial real estate purchases.
Microloans
In contrast, microloan amounts are smaller, only going up to $50,000. Use them to start a business, purchase equipment, buy inventory, or for working capital. Community based non-profits administer microloan programs as intermediaries, with financing coming directly from the Small Business Administration. Banks do not handle these loans. As a result, many entrepreneurs do not even know they exist.
How to Get a Startup Business Loan Without Collateral?
What if you do not have collateral. In the absence of cash flow or good credit, how can you get the funds you need?
You may have to use a guarantor. Simply put, a guarantor is someone who signs the loan with you and agrees to repay the debt if you do not. While traditional guarantor loans are fine, there is an even better option. In fact, with this little known-option for business funding, you can get funds up to $150,000 with 0% interest for up to 18-months!
The best part is, you either need good personal credit (above 680) or a guarantor, not both!
Credit Line Hybrid
The Credit Line Hybrid allows you to fund your business with no collateral and typically very low interest rates. No financials are required. You can usually get a loan of 5x the amount of your highest revolving credit limit account, up to $150,000. You do not have to use a guarantor, but you do need a 680+ credit score to qualify without one.
4. Learn How to Set Your Business Up the Right Way
Have you ever heard the term “fundability?” Fundability refers to abusiness’s current ability to get financing. For a business to be fundable, it has to have a fundable foundation. This means the way you set up your business is a big piece of how to get a startup business loan.
A fundable foundation includes:
Separate business contact information
EIN
Incorporating
A D-U-N-S Number
Dedicated business bank account
A professional business website with an email address that shares the URL
Infographic
The foundation includes only a fraction of the over 100 factors that affect the fundability of a business. However, none of it matters without the foundation.
3. Do Not Underestimate Business Plan Importance
You need a strong business plan that will grab the attention of the lender. They need to see what you plan to do with the money. They need to know you have a strategy, that you’ve done your market research, and that you have some skin in the game.
Many business loan applications are denied because the business plan is poorly put together or non-existent.
2. Don’t Ignore Your Business Credit Score
Many business owners either do not know that there is such a thing as a separate business credit score, or they grossly misunderstand it. Your business credit score reflects the creditworthiness of your business separate from you as the owner. Unlike personal credit, it does not build passively. You have to be intentional about building business credit.
The first step is building the fundable foundation. That will establish your business credit profile. Then, you have to get accounts reporting your payments to that profile before you will start to build a business credit score.
That is easier said than done, because unlike consumer credit where pretty much all accounts report your payment history, only about 7% of accounts that use business credit to make approval decisions will report payment history to your business credit profile.
This tip for how to get a startup business loan is one that very few people know about and even fewer talk about. The best way to get a startup business loan, or any business loan for that matter, is to work with a business credit expert.
How can a business credit expert help? First, they can help you find the funding you need right now. But more than that, they can analyze the current fundability of your business and your business credit profile, and walk you through the steps necessary to establish or improve. Since there are over 100 factors that can impact fundability, this is a huge timesaver. Not only that, but it is helpful to ensure you don’t miss anything. They know what they are doing.
Now that You Know How to Get a Startup Business Loan, Here’s What to Do Next
Why not start at the top and get things off to the best start possible? A free consultation with a business credit expert can point you in the right direction. With an expert guiding you the entire way, you’ll save both time and money, and you will know without a doubt that you are on the right track.
Internal links are a crucial part of a successful SEO strategy.
Small but mighty, simple yet complex, internal links help navigate users through your digital content and give search engine crawlers information about how your website works.
Internal links are found on almost every page on the internet. You’re probably already using them, even if you don’t know it. (Hint: there’s a few included in this intro,)
If you want to optimize your content for SEO, you need to understand how internal links work, where to place them, and why they matter.
In this post, we’ll dive into internal linking and cover best practices.
What Is Internal Linking?
Internal links are links from one page to another within a single domain.
These are different from external links, which point to pages on a different website.
Every website with more than one page should be connected through internal linking.
Think of your website’s home page. In the top navigation, you likely have a menu that links to other internal pages. This could be your About, Shop, and Contact pages.
This internal linking structure is essential for SEO because it establishes a site architecture and improves your link equity.
Having multiple web pages attached to a singular domain improves your chances of being ranked by allowing search engine crawlers to index more content.
Internal linking is a simple issue of site design and architecture, and the search engines expect it. All websites have a design and architecture that keeps them structured logically, such as this common silo model.
But as long as you have a strong internal linking structure, your website will be crawled, indexed, and ranked by search engines.
Internal linking is also an important part of your user experience, as it allows users to uncover related information or find what they are looking for, which improves dwell time.
5 Reasons Internal Linking Is Good for SEO
Internal linking is one of SEO’s most valuable weapons.
As advanced as the algorithm is, there are still simple changes that will give you an immediate boost in SEO without gaming the search engines.
Internal linking is one of them. It’s not a trick or a gimmick, and it’s certainly not hard to do.
Here are some of the benefits.
1. Helps Google Index Your Site
Google’s crawler follows link paths throughout the internet to find and index websites.
If your website has strong internal linking, the Google crawler has an easier time finding new content you publish.
Google’s bots regularly crawl the web for fresh content. If your content is woven together with multiple internal links, crawling happens a lot faster.
As a result, your content will get indexed faster, too.
Improved crawling and indexing can boost your SEO.
2. Increases Backlink-Earning Potential of Deep Content Pages
Take a look at where most of your website’s backlinks are coming from. You’ll probably see a lot of links that send users to your homepage.
When you compare the homepage backlinks to deep page backlinks, this is what you usually see:
Unfortunately, too many home page backlinks are bad for SEO. We call this over-optimizing, and it should be avoided.
What you want to see is the pie chart reversed. The majority of your external links should point at deep internal pages, not your home page. That’s because the homepage doesn’t generally include the type of detailed information users search for.
When a website doesn’t actively publish and promote new content, its link profile looks like this:
Most of the links on the website go to social profiles or standard pages such as “About” or “Contact.”
This provides very little SEO value to the site.
If you create a strong internal linking structure, you can boost the link juice earning potential of the internal pages, by creating clear click paths and indexation throughout the website.
Why? Because you are increasing the overall crawl priority throughout the site with better distribution of your links.
3. Internal Linking Spreads the Strength of the Site to Internal Pages
When your website receives a link to the homepage, some of the link value is passed on to internal pages.
This is often referred to as “link juice.”
If Page 1 then links to Page 2, the “link juice” flows from Page 1 to Page 2, helping it rank higher in the search engine results page (SERP).
The more tightly-knit a website’s structure (through internal linking), the better the overall site will perform in search.
4. Internal Linking with Optimized Anchor Text Is Good for SEO
An internal link is a simple string of HTML that links one website page to another. It looks like this:
<A HREF = “http://www.example.com/internalpage“> an article on cat food </A>
When you create an internal link with anchor text, as opposed to with an image or navigational text, however, the value of the internal link goes up.
Anchor text improves the value of the link by adding keywords and content to the linking process. Google isn’t just looking at an A HREF tag. They are also looking at the anchor text that is part of that link.
The days of keyword stuffing anchor texts are long gone. But, there is value in optimizing your internal anchor text.
Anchor text that flows well with the overall content, versus over-optimized anchor text, is best.
5. It Provides Value to Your Users
This is the most important point of all. Internal linking is an SEO technique, yes. But, it’s more than that.
Ultimately, internal linking is useful for users.
Think about it this way: When you’re researching a topic, do you check one source or multiple?
Do you enjoy exploring other content that reinforces your understanding of the topic?
Maybe, you just like the writing style of the article you’re reading and want to read more work by the same author.
Internal linking on a site increases the value of each piece of content by backing up claims and leading the user to related information.
While it may not drive conversions directly, internal linking does have a place within the marketing funnel—carrying people to a target destination.
As an added bonus, you can help readers stay on your site longer and increase their trust in you by using internal linking.
SEO is about user optimization, not just technical tweaks and sneaky tricks.
Even if you don’t care about the technical value of internal linking, at least do it for your users.
Internal Linking Best Practices
Now, it’s time to get into the nitty-gritty. How do you do internal linking? What’s the best method for creating the biggest value with links?
There are two things you need in place first:
Written content on the site: Even if you have a single article, that’s okay. That’s your starting place. If you don’t have any written content but want to create some, check out our The Ultimate Guide to Writing Epic Content.
Continually writing new content for the site: Getting into a regular publishing schedule is important for internal linking to be effective.
Okay, let’s get into it.
Link to and From Content-Heavy Pages
The best internal links are those that connect one article to another. This creates a strong internal linking structure deep within the site.
If you have good site architecture, you’ll have enough links to the site’s main pages, such as the homepage, About page, Contact page, etc.
You don’t need more links to these pages.
Obviously, if you’re trying to drive conversions using a squeeze page or sales page and the opportunity is right, link to it.
For the most part, I recommend creating links in and among long-form articles. This automatically spreads your internal linking naturally.
Create Text Links Using Anchor Text
What kind of internal links work best?
It’s simple: Links with descriptive anchor text.
What do we mean by descriptive anchor text?
You’re familiar with anchor text, right? An anchor text is the word or words that link to another page. They typically appear as blue text to the reader.
Each of those examples is associating the subject of the link with relevant phrases. The first anchor text contains “10 most important SEO techniques,” which is the subject matter of the article you’re linking to. The second anchor text has the phrase, “Google’s algorithm has been updated,” and the linked article contains information about Google, Hummingbird, algorithms, and updates.
Here are three things not to do with your internal linking:
Do not try to create an exact match between the anchor text and the link target. This technique, known as “exact match anchor text” has been associated with SEO penalties via the Penguin update. Today’s search engines are sensitive to the regular use of exact match anchor text because it wouldn’t frequently happen in regular content. It appears unnatural because it is.
Do not use phrases like “click here.” This adds no value. Anchor text needs to be related to the linked page in some way.
Do not link more than one sentence. An entire hyperlinked paragraph is unsightly and makes for a poor user experience. Just stick to a few words or a phrase when using anchor text to point to an internal link.
Add an Appropriate Number of Links Per Page
When you write a new piece of content, you should include five or more links to old articles. This is really important to your internal linking strategy and how the search engines review and rank your content.
Why?
Websites have a “freshness value” that Google detects and uses as part of its ranking algorithm.
Pinging old pages with a new link helps to boost its likelihood of increasing rank in the SERPs. In the eyes of the search engines, readers who follow your internal links are actually “refreshing” your older content by showing it’s still relevant.
However, be careful not to over-stuff your content with links.
According to Moz, search engine crawlers have a limit of 150 links per page. After that, they stop spidering.
Overstuffing your page with links could negatively impact your SEO.
Be sure to link, but don’t overdo it. This will help both the search crawlers and your user experience.
Update Old Articles With New Internal Links
You’ll get the most power from internal linking if you combine it with another SEO technique—updating old content.
When you update old content, Google’s crawler sees it again, indexes it again, and may increase its ranking in the SERPs.
We always recommend updating your old articles regularly. Here is a good process to follow on your old blog articles:
Add a new paragraph of content at the beginning, explaining your updates.
Add several new paragraphs throughout, adding additional or updated information.
Remove or replace outdated stats or information.
Add several new internal links to content you’ve recently created.
Add links in places where it’s logical and value-added.
Remember, internal linking isn’t only about linking new content to older content. It’s also about circling back to older content and creating internal links that connect to your newer work.
You’re accomplishing two things by doing this.
It updates old content, which improves its ranking value.
It creates an internal link between an old established page on the site and a new not-so-established page.
Add Links Where It Makes Sense
Now that you’ve learned so much about internal linking, you’re probably wondering where you should put your internal links?
It’s tempting to get lazy and throw them in at the end of an article: “For more awesome content, click here!”
Don’t do that, please. Or at least, don’t do just that.
Instead, look for areas in the content where the subject matter overlaps. These are logical points of connection to create an internal link. For example, you can add links to define complex terms or explain a related topic.
Think of internal links as a reference point that improves the experience of the reader.
Only Add Dofollow Links
Don’t add a nofollow tag to your internal links. Nofollow links do not have any impact on the search engine rankings of the destination site.
Some articles in our blog have super high conversion rates. The content is compelling, and the CTAs are so powerful that users convert in droves.
We always make sure to link internally to these pages.
This is where internal linking has more than just SEO value. It can have revenue value, too. The more visitors you can drive to a high-converting page, the more conversions you’ll have.
Take Site Navigation and Information Architecture Into Consideration
Site navigation and internal linking go hand in hand.
Internal links define site architecture and hierarchy by creating funnels that direct users through your website.
Ultimately, this is an important part of your UX/UI and will impact how long people stay on your web pages and how often they come back.
When building an internal linking strategy, consider the most important content on your site and how you’re promoting it.
If you have a piece of cornerstone content that you want more eyes on, point more internal links to it.
Create Lots of Content
The best way to have a healthy internal linking structure is to have lots of internal pages.
When you create lots of content, you’ll have lots of linkable content. The more links to the more places, the better your internal linking strategy will be.
Remember, simply having a lot of web pages doesn’t equal a robust internal linking strategy.
While internal links are essential to your website navigation, repeatedly linking to your homepage won’t move the needle on your SEO score.
Whatever your strategy, do it well and do it often.
Internal Linking Practices to Avoid
Now that you know how to use internal linking correctly, let’s review some of the practices to avoid.
Adding too many links to your content can be detrimental to your score. Remember, Google does not crawl pages that have more than 150 links. It’s also important to note that your header, footer, and menu links are included in your on-page link count.
Don’t overdo it!
Keyword stuffing in anchor text is another internal linking practice to avoid. This black hat tactic was popular in the past, as SEO’s thought it would improve their chances of ranking.
Using internal links in header text should also be avoided. Links in headers signal spam to Google crawlers and can negatively impact your SEO.
Finally, be sure to check all of your internal links before posting them. Broken links don’t spread any link juice and signal to Google that your website is low quality.
Internal Linking FAQs
How many internal links should I include per post?
There’s no set number, but 5-10 for every 2,000 words is a good best practice. Remember, Google won’t crawl pages with more than ~150 links, so be careful about overstuffing your content.
Should I add internal links to my pages with more or less traffic?
According to Databox, internal links can spread link juice from low-traffic web pages to high-traffic ones. That being said, it’s also important to point as many links as possible to your cornerstone content so it benefits from increased traffic.
What is an example of internal linking?
Internal linking is a link that points to another page within the same domain. Internal links show up as hyperlinks, like this: Tips for building better evergreen links.
Are internal links backlinks?
No, internal links stay within your website domain, they do not come from an external source. Backlinks are external links that point to your domain.
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Summary of Internal Linking Guide
Internal linking is a core part of a solid SEO strategy. When done right, it enhances the user experience and can help you rank higher in the SERPs.
While internal links are part of any strong website design, it’s important to find ways to include internal links in your content to ensure you’re getting the most out of your content. Make sure to use optimized (but not over-optimized) anchor tags, and add internal links that provide users with more information about a topic they’re interested in.
What internal linking practices have you found to be the most effective?
You can get thousands of clicks to your site from Google News.
And, you don’t even have to be a journalist.
Smart bloggers, news publishers, and digital content marketers are already tapping into this huge resource for targeted traffic and better search engine visibility.
Google News is reserved for sites and blogs that publish timely, topical articles. You don’t necessarily need to be a news site but if you are consistently posting newsworthy content it’s possible to get accepted.
Danny Sullivan once said: If you aren’t a news site, Google News and its web crawlers won’t likely show you love.
But that isn’t a guarantee.
What is News?
A major search engine like Google defines news as “newly received or noteworthy information, especially about recent or important events.”
If you’re at the forefront of your industry and reporting information that’d be of interest to your audience on a timely basis, then you’re a news publisher.
Google News is a content syndication platform that Google introduced to help organize the world’s news in many ways and to make it more accessible to its users, like a news XML.
Google News sends 6 billion clicks per month to publishers all over the world. Even if you get just 0.0001% of these clicks to your web site, that’s huge. Do the math.
That said, it’s a challenge in many ways to get your website indexed as a news publisher by the Google News sitemap file crawler and your articles indexed and ranked in Google News.
Let’s look at some of the best practices for getting added to Google News XML sitemap and how you can get real-time traffic.
Adhere to the Principles of Good Journalism
If you look at recent additions to the Google News sitemap syndication platform, you’ll notice that Google, for the first time, is no longer 100% focused on news-related “current events”- type content. You can tell that just from looking at the meta tags.
It’s evolved over the years as a news sitemap, leveling the playing field for bloggers, content creators, and news publishing experts. This evolution may not be obvious from the search term headlines but the content reveals this expansion.
However, the principles of good journalism haven’t been discarded by this major search engine. Google still cares about the style and substance of articles, especially as part of its XML. Good journalism is all about being honest and as objective as possible.
Why do you think the Google XML sitemap crawls, indexes, and publishes third party website content from CNN, BBC, Techcrunch, The Wall Street Journal and others in its search results?
One of the reasons is because these sites are true news publishers and adhere to strict standard journalism practices. They’re transparent and they adhere to the same professional standard. Just take a look at their search history and you can see they take their news seriously.
To be included in news XML’s your reporting must be original, honest, and well-structured with quality anchor texts, meta tags, and an authoritative voice.
Standard journalism is all about investigation and not just about search engine optimization. So, you should be able and ready to investigate a story and authenticate it, before reporting it.
For your story to strike a chord with editors, who will in turn syndicate it at Google News, PBS recommends that you present information from the most to the least important content points.
There’s an established application process to get your stories featured on the XML sitemap of Google News. But, before you apply, follow these guidelines:
1. Don’t copy from other sites. Write original news articles.
First and foremost, you need to make sure that your stories are original.
A major search engine like Google doesn’t want to syndicate the same piece of content verbatim and it’s search algorithm will pull you up. You’ve got to make your story original with accurate data points from credible sources. Wherever you got your information from, whether it’s trawling through search history, sitemap files, or exploring web pages – make sure your sources are trustworthy.
Take a look at the Google News homepage. All of the featured stories are original content with credible sources. And, no site is ranked more than once for its stories.
Google is a credible company, a major search engine that is trusted by millions all around the world. Imagine Google reporting a story that’s false, it would be a metasearch engine disaster!
What do you think would happen to its credibility?
And, speaking of credibility, Google is equally concerned with Author Rank.
There’s no better way to become a reputable author than to write for other news and magazine sites. If you’ve never written for trusted news web sites, such as Forbes, Inc. or Business Insider, you need to begin.
Google knows that reputable authors and columnists don’t copy news stories from other sources which is why they get included in their XML sitemaps.
Instead, they go all out to get an original story. Famous authors who publish original stories over a period of time are given credit so that they can build “rank” and improve their reputation, no matter what online publication they choose to write for.
One way to get your story added to Google News quickly is to use a co-author who has a high Author Rank.
In Google’s view and when looking for inclusions on their news XML sitemap file, such an author brings a higher level of authority to your site and the resulting story is more likely to be original and credible.
To get started reporting news, you need original stories. The resource guide below will give you more guidance:
2. Write keyword-rich headlines that communicate the story topics.
Your headline makes a promise to the reader. If you get it right, your news story will likely be picked up by Google and other journalists who can amplify the content’s reach.
According to Poynter, you should “try to keep your headlines straightforward and unadorned. Use concise and familiar words, if possible.”
You may be tempted to use numbers in your news story headlines. After all, users love numbers. But, if you’re going to use a “listicle” headline type, it should provide specific insights and steer clear of “linkbait” territory. There is no way that linkbait and lousy anchor texts are going to get you placed on Googles news XML sitemap file.
I’ve noticed that authority sites that report stories daily rarely use the listicle format or “numbered” headlines.
They simply write an accurate, clear and compelling headline. Let’s take a cue from Search Engine Land.
Just like blog posts, your news story headline determines whether your story will be syndicated by Google or not.
Here are some tips to help you write newsworthy headlines that are sure to appear in the search results and remember the same approach can be taken with your meta tags:
i). Don’t repeat words: The purpose of getting your website or story added to Google News XML sitemap is to get clicks and views from the huge user base. You don’t have to repeat words or keywords in the headline, as though you’re actively doing search engine optimization.
Here’s a weak news headline:
“How experienced investors can mentor about-to-quit investors”
Avoid this repetition of words like the plague.
ii). Use active voice: A news headline is a quick way to demonstrate what’s inside the story and will catch the eye of the search engine.
Don’t bore users or discourage journalists from picking your story. Avoid using a passive voice.
In the passive voice, the subject is receiving the verb. For example:
Passive voice: Mary was hit by a car.
Active voice: The car hit Mary.
An active voice starts with the subject. With an active voice, you can say more with fewer words from the very first time. Brevity is an essential news publisher tactic that captivates the audience.
Using active voice in your news headline also helps to trim down unnecessary words. If you check Digg’s homepage, you’ll see that most of the syndicated stories have headlines written with an active voice.
Here’s an example:
The passive-voice version of the above news headline is obviously weaker:
An Episode of ‘Top Chef’ Was Produced with Help From the CIA
iii). Write in the present tense: This is another important point to keep in mind when writing a story headline with the hope of getting it syndicated on the Google News XML sitemap file.
Even if the story itself or content is written in the past tense, the headline should indicate what’s happening right now. After all, that’s why it’s called “news”, and that’s what the XML sitemap is looking for.
Several stories on the Google News homepage are written in the present tense. Take a look:
iv). Know which words to capitalize: Have you noticed that not all words in a news story headline are capitalized? As a rule of thumb, capitalize the first word of the headline. You must also capitalize proper nouns.
On the Google News homepage, both title case and first word/proper noun capitalization standards are used.
If you use title case, don’t capitalize articles. So, for example, “Judge Rejects Kesha’s Last Effort to Free Herself From Dr. Luke” is correct, but if “to” were capitalized as well, that would be incorrect.
3. Write news-related articles, not evergreen content.
In adding sites to Google News, remember that a major search engine like Google can only include sites that follow their Webmasters Tool Guidelines.
If there’s nothing timely about your topic or story, it’s not news. It’s as simple as that. In journalism, “timing is everything.” Timely content makes it to the top, others get lost in the pages of the search history.
For your site to be accepted, you’ve got to write news-related articles consistently. Evergreen content just won’t work with Google News.
Aside from that, the major search engine Google also has specific types of content that they accept. In Google’s words:
“We generally do not include how-to articles, advice columns, job postings or strictly informational content such as weather forecasts and stock data.”
In the world of blogging, creating evergreen content is your guarantee for sustainable organic traffic. And Google rewards such content in its organic results.
But, that kind of content isn’t news, so a search engine like Google won’t syndicate it.
When you look at the Google News homepage, you’ll notice that the stories are timely – mostly as the events unfold:
4. Write at least 2 news articles each day.
Are you the only one managing your site? If you want to get added to Google News, you may need to make a change.
The majority of the news media sites that are syndicated on Google News are multi-authored. In other words, more than one person writes for the site.
Think about CNN, BBC, Bloomberg, New York Times, Huffington Post, and so forth.
These sites are updated every minute of the day, by a crop of prolific writers who are transparent and accurate in their reporting, it’s why they are so popular in the search engines.
You need more writers who can source for fresh stories, write about them and submit them within hours.
You may find you have to train good writers. You could start by hiring freelance writers, then train them on the journalistic approach that Google News and other media platforms and search engines require for every story.
You should also work to teach your writers how to follow your brand guidelines, especially if they are writing for you for the first time. Let them know the elements that should be present in a news story – the headline, the appropriate voice, the requirement for sources and the rules of citation.
Ideally, create an author page on your site, where you introduce each writer on your team.
Google will ask you for a list of authors who report stories on your site. In fact, you’ll be required to submit contact details for each author, when you apply.
5. Establish authority with your blog.
Google is understandably strict about the content it considers to be news. Not every article is news-related.
Most of the time, it’s not about the story, but the context or angle by which the author covered it, this is why lamestream media can be so popular.
Since Google is passionate about timely, up-to-date stories, you need a way to prove to Google that you’ve adhered to its guidelines.
You need to establish authority with your blog. Authority, on the web, boils down to how many user-friendly sites and web pages link back to yours. Webmasters tool can help you check where you stand.
Let’s say that your 3-month old blog has been reporting timely, up-to-date stories as they unfold.
Another site (say, Mashable) has more authority than your blog and established search history.
Now answer this question:
If your blog reported the same trending story as Mashable, and both news stories followed the news-writing standard, which of the stories do you think that Google would crawl first, index, and offer a high pagerank?
Did I hear Mashable?
You’re 100% correct.
The reason why is obvious: Mashable has more authority in the search engines than your 3-month old blog.
Mashable publishes more timely content because it’s got the budget for a sufficient number of authors. If you’re a small business, you can’t beat that.
Building authority with your blog isn’t a straightforward thing. And, it definitely will not happen overnight.
You need to get off of your site. You should be everywhere.
While you’re building your Author Rank, by contributing to other trustworthy sites, always reference your story in a natural way. Ideally, use your branded keyword or story headline as anchor text to link back to your site.
The more authority sites you contribute to and get links from, the more authority your blog will get and the more you will show up in the search results and the search history. Your blog will build momentum gradually. Be patient!
Social media is equally vital, so spread the love. Get active on social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter.
Don’t try to copy or mimic another author’s writing style. Find your own voice. Stick to it. That’s the only way to stand out from the crowd and get your news-related articles added to Google News.
When your content is unique and compelling, more people will click your headline, visit your site and take action.
But, when your news is like everyone else’s, you’re not making an impact. To the audience, there’s nothing in it for them. Consequently, they’ll leave.
Conclusion
Now that you’ve seen the possibility of getting your website and news articles added to Google News, it’s time to take action and apply.
Don’t be too quick to do this. You first need to create a path, on your blog, that a Google News bot or spider can follow to crawl your fresh stories as they’re published.
Google suggests that you add a Google News Sitemap to make this easier. If your blog is hosted on WordPress CMS, you can find Google News sitemap plugins in the WordPress repository.
Once you’ve installed one of the plugins, you can apply to Google News here. This will connect with your Google Console account, thus making it easier to add several of your sites to Google News. Be sure to use the webmaster tool to check your indexing status.
Does your site meet the Google News requirements? If yes, why aren’t you tapping into Google News for real-time traffic?
As business owners and marketers, we go through manic highs and lows. Things go well for a while, then follow with periods of low performance. This is normal. One way to help get yourself over the hump is with business coaching.
The best business coaches not only coach you in your business but also coach your life as a whole. This post breaks down the details of business coaching to help you better understand what it is and determine whether you need one for your digital marketing.
What Is Business Coaching?
Business coaches help business owners, managers, professionals, and individuals grow as businesses and people. They’re known for offering honest advice and consulting based on personal experience and research.
There are many types of business coaching, but there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. You’ll want to find the type of business coaching services that appeal most to your business and your goals.
What Does a Business Coach Do?
A business coach takes a look at you as an individual. This is the big difference between a coach and a consultant. A coach is going to look at your entire life: all aspects of it. They’ll focus on your achievements, your mistakes, and your behavior to help you grow as an individual.
As you grow on your own, you’ll develop better habits that you can translate into business growth and monetary gain. You should expect the best business coaches to challenge you both emotionally and spiritually. They’ll provide you with honest and sometimes brutal feedback on your performance, and they’ll hold you accountable in your business and personal life.
Your reason for hiring a business coach will likely fit into one of these scenarios:
You’ve hit a roadblock and can’t seem to take your business to the next level.
Regardless of where you are on your professional journey, a business coach can help you accomplish the goals weighing on you.
6 Benefits of Business Coaching
Business coaching for entrepreneurs, business owners, or executives is all about the benefits. Everyone wants gratification without having to put the work in. It’s important to know that the best business coaches require a lot out of you. If you’re willing to put in the work, here are some of the benefits you could receive.
Increased Self Awareness
One of the best gifts we could ever receive in life is self-awareness. When we’re aware of our strengths and weaknesses, it makes it so much easier for us to capitalize on what we’re good at and make the most of every step.
Instead of focusing on our weaknesses, worrying about them, and minimizing ourselves, business coaching should teach us to focus on what we’re good at and double down on it.
Business coaches can help you find the fire inside of you to pursue the things you want, and along the way, you may realize you’ve been doing the wrong things all along.
More Confidence
Business coaching teaches you to be more confident. The job of a coach is not to bring you down but to lift you up and help you realize that you’re better than you thought. Sometimes, low confidence and self-esteem are the only things holding you back.
Sometimes we need someone to kick us into gear and tell us that we can accomplish the task that’s been plaguing us for so long.
However, sometimes we need someone to provide us with a healthy dose of reality, too. Confidence isn’t always about lifting us up and telling us how great we are. The best business coaches also tell us when they think we’re making a poor choice. You can go forth with confidence, knowing what you’re doing is the best thing for you, and no matter what happens, it’ll be okay because you’re capable of taking on anything. That’s confidence.
Comfort Outside Your Comfort Zone
An area that a lot of business owners and marketers fall into is a state of comfort. You reach a point where things are going well with your business, you don’t have to hustle as much anymore, and you can live comfortably off the money you’re making. That sounds great if you’re not at that point yet, but like everything else, it gets old.
Few entrepreneurs are satisfied with this because they’re used to the hustle and chasing after their dreams. When you achieve what you’ve worked so hard for, it’s easy to become anxious for the next thing.
Increased Clarity About Your Direction
On less of a mindset note, business coaches are going to help you with the business itself, of course. Sometimes it helps to have someone come and look at your operations, finances, HR, and everything from an outside perspective. They’ll see things you miss in the day-to-day trenches of running a business.
A business coach can help you identify bottlenecks in your process and provide you with a clear and concise plan for what you should do over the next 3, 6, 9, and 12 months.
This clarity is important because you’ll know exactly what you need to do. It doesn’t mean that if you do those things, you’re sure to achieve any results at all, but the clear goals are what matters. Business coaching helps make you aware of the things you may not have seen otherwise.
A great example is with business owners that want to do everything themselves. The “freelancer” mentality is hard to break because the individual is so used to doing everything on their own, they’re afraid to let go of some of that control.
Business coaches can help freelancers work less “in their business” and more “on their business.” When you see it from that perspective, it becomes easier to make the necessary changes.
Boosted Productivity
Productivity is one of the number one reasons why people hire business coaches. Everyone feels like there are some magic secrets to increasing your productivity, but that’s not usually the case. It’s often something much simpler than you think.
A business coach can help you get on a healthy schedule and develop the right habits. When you’re a business owner or marketer, and no one is standing over your shoulder telling you to work 9-5, it can be a lot harder to get things done.
It’s all about habits. Suppose you can get yourself in the habit of showing up to work at the same time every day, blocking off periods for work, taking short breaks, and limiting distractions. In that case, you’ll have a much easier time accomplishing your goals, which trickles down and impacts a lot of the other benefits of hiring a business coach in the first place.
Better Accountability
This could be one of the most important pieces of the success puzzle. If you don’t have the discipline to kick yourself in gear, work when no one is telling you to, and hold yourself accountable, you’ll likely struggle as an entrepreneur.
Many of us don’t have the discipline and need someone to help us develop the right habits. It only takes about 66 days to develop a new habit, so if you can do something for a little over two months, you should have an easier time sticking to it.
Once you’ve built that initial foundation, you can then train yourself to be accountable for your actions. One thing I’ve found over the years is that I tell myself that “I want to be proud of myself.”
It might be a little vain, but think about it: When you goof off all day, accomplish less than you said, and push things off until tomorrow, how do you feel?
You probably don’t feel very good about yourself. The opposite is said for the days you break through barriers, tackle everything, and walk away feeling accomplished. You feel unstoppable.
4 Tips for Finding an Effective Business Coach
When it comes to finding a business coach, you must choose the right person. This individual or team needs to align with your goals, niche, and perspective on life and your business.
Match them with your niche: You want business coaching from a professional who understands the challenges of your unique industry. If the business coach you hire doesn’t have any actual experience, you might not get the most out of them.
Make sure their philosophy aligns: We all have a certain philosophy in life pertaining to ethics and beliefs. You should never have to change that for success in business. If the business coaching you’re receiving offends or insults what you believe, you should likely find someone else.
Read reviews: Make sure the coach you hire has a strong online reputation and presence. Checking out reviews from other people is a great way to gain insight into what your experience will be like.
Determine your goals ahead of time: Before you hire a business coach, you should have goals in mind, whether they apply to marketing, SEO, keyword research, or mindset. No matter what your goals are, the business coach you hire should listen to them and take into consideration what you want.
Business Coaching Platforms and Resources
As business coaching continues to grow, more and more tools and resources are becoming available. If you’re interested in receiving coaching in your business or life, here are some of the best platforms available.
Interview Kickstart is one portion of the “knowledge coaching” trend. The platform teaches programmers how to handle technical interviews and has helped people land jobs for companies like Amazon and Netflix. This has caused people to take notice: Interest in the company has grown by a staggering 2700 percent in the last five years.
This platform offers trainers, events, and team workshops to help small business owners and managers become the best version of themselves. The company has been around for 25 years, so you don’t have to worry about reputation and social proof. They break down every aspect of your life, from the personal to the business stuff.
Considered America’s number one small business expert, Melinda Emerson offers a ton of great resources for women entrepreneurs and business owners. She has information on how to grow your social media, market your business, and understand the boring financial side of business as well. She can help get your company off the ground or take it to the next level.
I’m a big fan of business coaches that find a great way to meld business and personal life together into one program, and Melissa Dawn has done a nice job of this. She focuses on your spirituality and personal life to help you become not only the best CEO of your business but the best CEO of your life.
Neil Patel
I offer many great resources to help you with your SEO, content marketing, and paid advertising. If you feel like you have most of your business in order but need a little help with your marketing campaigns, we can help with that.
Career, Executive, and Business Coaching: FAQs
Here are some of the most frequently asked questions about business coaching and hiring a coach.
How much does business coaching cost?
The cost of business coaching can vary dramatically from $100-1,000 per session. It depends on many factors, such as the demand of the coach and the level of personalization put into the coaching program.
How to start business coaching?
If you want to start business coaching, there are many ways to get started. Many people in many different industries are looking for help.
What services do business coaches offer?
Hiring a business coach is like having a partner, so the business coach should offer whatever services you need the most. They should put together an individualized plan that addresses your needs.
What is the first meeting with a business coach like?
During your first session with a business coach, they will likely talk about your needs, issues, pain points, and goals to tailor a strategy to help you.
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Conclusion of Business Coaching Guide
No matter who you are, we all need help sometimes to get ourselves back on track. Whether you’re trying to manage your team better, be more productive, or optimize your budget more efficiently, the best business coaching helps you accomplish the goals that have been weighing on you.
Have you ever hired a business coach? If so, what is the number one reason?
Video content creation can be a massive headache. I get it. Even for seasoned marketers, creating compelling content is a challenge. The real uphill battle is trying to create that level of content regularly. That’s why we’re taking a closer look at automated video creation and some of the best tools your brand can use … Continue reading 10 Automated Video Creation Tools, Tips, and Resources
Video content creation can be a massive headache. I get it.
Even for seasoned marketers, creating compelling content is a challenge. The real uphill battle is trying to create that level of content regularly.
That’s why we’re taking a closer look at automated video creation and some of the best tools your brand can use to expand its content strategy.
Here’s the thing—automated content doesn’t have to be terrible. When you produce an hour-long, high-quality interview, you’ve also produced several pieces of smaller, high-quality content.
All you have to do is repackage those valuable tidbits and present them to your audience.
Here’s how.
What Is Automated Video Creation?
Automated video creation is the act of using video editing software to automatically create short, interesting videos you can use for marketing and promoting your content.
Let’s say you recorded a podcast this week and released it to your audience. You received decent engagement, but you quickly noticed a problem. Many of your viewers aren’t watching the entire podcast.
Some viewers love to sit and consume two hours of content at once. Others want minute-long highlight clips, and simply aren’t interested in long-form content. By identifying key moments and topics discussed in your podcast, you can create bite-sized clips and videos that are more digestible. Plus, having long-form content that’s well produced arms you with plenty of future clips to use.
That’s where automated video creation comes in. Make no mistake, there’s a big difference between linking your podcast in your Instagram Bio and posting a 45-second highlight video with top-notch editing.
If you’re making several pieces of long-form content every week (interviews, podcasts, etc.), sifting through hours of content to find highlights and memorable moments can quickly become time-consuming.
By automating that process, you can regularly create custom, high-quality videos. As a result, you’ll add variety to your content, while being able to test unique marketing strategies quickly. For example, you can rapidly A/B test different format styles, or try two highlights against each other to see what resonates with your audience.
5 Tips for Automated Video Creation
Before we dive into specific automated video creation tools, it’s important to understand how your automated video creation journey should unfold. Savvy marketers always develop a clear plan of attack for marketing initiatives, so we’re walking you through the general checkpoints of the automation process.
1. Determine Your Automated Video Creation Priorities
Before you choose a platform, establish your video creation objectives. If you want to test a specific format, find platforms that support that testing. Beyond that, determine what features will serve your team best.
If your marketing team has little to no experience with automated video creation, a tool that prioritizes ease of use can make the video creation process easier. Marketing teams with plenty of video creation experience might need automation tools that offer more customization.
2. Decide on a Platform
As you narrow down your search, take a closer look at how each platform functions. Some platforms offer limited features aimed at supporting brands with little to no video marketing budget. Other platforms want to support your marketing efforts from start to finish.
While many of these platforms sound similar, they focus on different elements that can elevate your content creation.
3. Upload Your Content
So, you’ve established your video creation priorities, and you’ve chosen your platform. Now you can actually create your content. Upload your video and let the tool start to work its magic.
If you’re focused on automating as much of the experience as possible, you won’t need to do much other than confirming certain edits. On the other hand, choosing a platform with plenty of depth means you’ll be able to customize your content fairly easily.
4. Choose Your Visual Elements
When customizing your video content, visual elements like text animation effects can elevate the quality. Other effects like overlays and moving graphics can be implemented without much trouble, as long as you’re using the right automated video creation tool. Make sure your visual elements are consistent with your brand presentation.
5. Publish Your Content
Once you’ve customized your content and created a high-quality video, it’s time to send your content live. With some tools, you’ll even be able to publish your content directly after editing. Instead of signing into each of your brand’s social media platforms, automation means you can post on all of them at the same time.
10 Tools for Automated Video Creation
Now that you understand the process, it’s time to look at the automated video creation tools available. While many of these tools function similarly, they each have distinct features that make them unique.
1. Moovly
Moovly prides itself on being a user-friendly, in-browser automated video creation tool. In addition, they offer a tool that doesn’t demand constant software updates or even any design skills.
Looking for support with your footage-based videos? They can help. Want to experiment with cartoon or doodle styles? Moovly can create those videos, too. If you’re looking for a lightweight solution with plenty of customization options, Moovly might be the right tool for your brand.
2. Adobe
Adobe’s priority when it comes to video creation is efficiency. Using AI technology, they save users time and effort when editing. Some of the more interesting features include auto reframing, where Adobe automatically reframes the subject of a video shot in widescreen when exporting to social platforms.
Their AI also uses color match, changing your content’s color and light values, based on your customized reference point. To be clear, they aren’t just copying a specific color reference point onto your clips. Instead, the AI analyzes every selected clip and tweaks them until they properly match your reference point.
3. Wibbitz
Wibbitz is an automated video creation tool that speeds up production by offering a variety of useful templates and one-click solutions. One feature marketers will appreciate is the easy customization options. Wibbitz provides users with access to logo watermarks, video intros and outros, text overlays, and a full-spectrum color palette.
This automated video creation platform lets you maximize your reach by converting your best videos into impactful social media videos.
4. Kamua
Another browser-based tool, Kamua claims their product will have you working nearly 90 percent faster, without any previous video editing experience. They also feature automatic captioning in over 60 languages, saving you from having to transcribe hours and hours of content.
Kamua’s AutoCut feature actually automates video edits, by finding cut points in your content and letting you decide what to keep. Plus, their AutoCrop feature instantly turns your YouTube videos into TikTok videos.
5. Typito
If you’re limited by a modest marketing budget, Typito could be a great automated video creation tool. Not only is it free to start with, but each of their pricing plans are designed with reasonable budgets in mind.
Of course, it’s worth figuring out exactly what Typito is offering. They provide an easy drag and drop editor and a brand kit, along with 600,000 free images and over 500 free templates.
6. Rocketium
Rocketium understands the digital media landscape is constantly shifting. That frequent change demands an approach to marketing that’s as flexible as it is accurate. That’s why Rocketium aims to accomplish two goals. Eliminating repetitive creative work is their first goal, saving brands the hassle of creating completely new content for new campaigns.
From there, Rocketium aims to make targeted marketing even easier. They use an AI copywriter to help you craft the right visual for different products and unique target audiences. Teams with demanding content calendars should take a look at this tool.
7. Animaker
Developing unique creative content within an automation tool might not sound optimal, but tools like Animaker prove it’s certainly within their power. Armed with their templates, you can make a video in five minutes, according to their official website.
8. OFFEO
OFFEO’s appeal can be broken down into four subsections. Their near limitless supply of assets means that users will have access to hundreds of templates. Being easy to use and browser based, OFFEO lets you animate your content, leveraging the skill of their professional designers to provide you with high-quality animation.
9. Magisto
As an end-to-end video marketing tool, Magisto aims to support users at every stage of the marketing process. When it comes to creation, you can expect the support of a computerized video editor.
Magisto lets you host and distribute video content on your website using their native player. Take those optimized videos and then use engagement analytics to gain clarity about your marketing initiatives.
10. InVideo
For the truly budget-conscious, InVideo offers some fantastic automated video creation support, absolutely free. While there are certain features locked behind paid subscriptions, there are plenty of tools available to users on the free plan.
You can export 60 videos per month, with a maximum duration of 15 minutes. Transcription is automatic, as well as over 4,500 handcrafted templates. You’ll even have access to branding presets, intros, outros, and team sharing.
If you’re on the fence about automated video creation tools, feel free to try InVideo out and see how it improves your marketing efforts.
Automated Video Creation FAQs
Can you automate video editing?
Absolutely, you can! With the help of AI, you can begin automating your video editing, as much or as little as you’d like.
How can I add subtitles to a video automatically?
There are plenty of tools that can do this for you, some offering support in over 60 languages.
Do I need video editing experience?
While it’s certainly a positive, there are several user-friendly platforms that don’t require any previous editing or design experience.
Do I have to pay for an automated video creation tool?
Not always! Some tools are completely free; the only drawback is they lack some key features.
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Automated Video Creation Conclusion
No matter what industry you’re in, there’s no getting around the fact that audiences want quality content. If your brand doesn’t produce something new and exciting on a regular basis, you run the risk of losing your audience’s attention.
Instead of trying to constantly reinvent the wheel, consider using an automated video creation platform to break in-depth content down into digestible clips and share them on social media.
It might seem like a simple solution, but it’s a powerful way to offer more consistent content, expand your reach, and potentially create a genuine moment of engagement with your audience.
Why do you want to automate your video creation? How do you think it will help your brand?
Customer acquisition is a huge pain point for many business owners. Even more difficult is developing a consistent way of bringing in new business.
Your goal should be to put together a system that acquires customers almost on autopilot. That’s easier said than done, though.
This guide should help get you started.
What Is Customer Acquisition?
Customer acquisition is your business’s process of bringing in new customers. The goal of every business is to create procedures that make acquiring new customers simple and systematized. Unfortunately, many small businesses and freelancers have a hard time developing a process for bringing in new clients.
An important piece of the puzzle is a business’s ability to measure its customer acquisition cost. In the digital marketing realm, this is often referred to as “CPA” or “cost-per-acquisition.”
It applies across the board, whether you’re using paid advertising, organic reach, print, radio, TV, or anything else. You should know how much you need to spend to acquire a customer. Once you determine that, it becomes much easier to scale up your marketing because you know you can pump more dollars into your campaigns and get XYZ in terms of customers out the other end.
What Is the Purpose of Customer Acquisition?
The purpose of customer acquisition is self-explanatory. Without a customer, you don’t have a business. Without consistent customers, you don’t have a stable business.
A little caveat here is businesses should also focus on customer retention, which is different from an acquisition. Retention is your effort to keep the customers you already have rather than going through the vicious cycle of constantly needing to acquire new ones. Increasing your retention by only five percent can increase your profits by as much as 95 percent.
When you combine customer acquisition and retention, you have a sure-fire recipe for success. Here’s why:
It helps you make the money you need to cover costs and pay employees, allowing you to reinvest in the business and drive better results for your clients.
It shows steady growth and success to partners, investors, and outside influencers.
Being able to continually drive new business towards your company keeps everyone happy, but it’s not the end goal. The goal is to retain the customers you have as long as you can. Although it costs money to acquire new ones, it doesn’t cost anything to keep them.
Customer Acquisition Versus Lead Generation
There may be some confusion about the difference between the two, but it’s actually simple: Lead generation is one step of the customer acquisition funnel. A person or entity must first become aware of your business before they can buy anything from you. This generally happens as a result of lead generation.
For example, let’s say your business is running a Facebook ad. This usually happens to cold traffic (people who have never heard of you). They see your ad and pause to look for a second. They’ve now become a lead and are no longer cold traffic because they are aware of you.
Maybe they click the ad, fill out a form, and end up having a conversation with you. All of these are steps in the overall customer acquisition funnel. Lead generation is simply one step.
How to Create a Customer Acquisition Plan
Now let’s talk about some of the actionable steps you can take to develop the best customer acquisition strategies.
1. Identify Your Customer Avatar
The first step for every business (before they’re even a business!) should be to create a customer avatar or buyer persona. This is your ideal customer: who they are, what they like, their problems, and their demographic information.
It’s a great strategy for a business to know who their customer is as early as possible. For example, if you sell anti-aging cream, you have a very clear audience who would be interested in that product. Your audience might be women ages 40+ who have a developed skincare routine but are looking for a little extra help. They might be middle to upper-middle class and can’t afford surgery or cosmetic procedures, but they can afford your cream.
If you know exactly who your target is, you’ll have a much easier time acquiring them because your ad copy, text, images, and products will speak their language.
2. Determine Goals
Once you have your customer avatar, jot down some goals and objectives. What are you trying to achieve with your marketing efforts? Here are some examples:
Awareness: Are you trying to spread awareness of a cause, shed light on something, or make yourself known to a specific audience?
In-person: Does your business require people to physically come into a brick-and-mortar location?
Phone call: You might need to convert the online traffic into a phone inquiry.
Form: Is your traffic still in the early stages of learning about you? If so, you might just want them to complete a form.
Conversion: If the traffic you’re targeting already knows who you are, you might simply be trying to get them to convert into a sale.
Regardless of what your goal is, you need to have one. The clearer the direction you take, the easier it will be to convey the proper message and get your audience to do what you want them to.
3. Choose a Platform or Avenue
Once you’ve figured out who your audience is and what you want them to do, you need to determine what method to use to reach them. There are many different customer acquisition channels, both online and offline. Here are some of the most popular:
Content Marketing
Content marketing is a great long-term way to develop customer relationships and drive traffic to whatever it is you’re looking to accomplish. Best of all, there’s no right or wrong way to do it because you can put together content based on your niche.
Just keep in mind that content marketing isn’t as simple as blogging on your website and expecting people to find it. You need to understand basic SEO and realize that this is a long-term strategy and can take months before you see results.
Social Media
Acquiring customers on social media offers a few different avenues. You can use paid ads, which I’ll discuss shortly, or you can do it the slow way by building up an organic following, posting regularly, and reaching out to people to start conversations.
I like using social media in the most natural way possible, and that’s by “being social.” Start conversations, send messages, and provide value to people. They will respond. Seventy-three percent of marketers find social media “somewhat effective” or “very effective” in their business. It all starts with a conversation.
Paid Advertising
Whether you choose PPC on Google or social media ads like Facebook, paid advertising is a great way to get your business in front of the right audience right away. Keep in mind that Google Ads have a 100 percent ROI, but that does require you to understand how to do it right.
4. Set a Budget
You need to have a budget and customer acquisition cost formula if you plan to have success. Marketing can quickly run more expensive than you expected if you don’t have a set budget in place ahead of time.
Start with a small budget and work your way up as you start to experience success.
5. Optimize and Tweak
Once you’ve had a chance to compile data on how people are receiving your ads, pieces of content, etc., you can optimize and tweak as necessary. For example, if you find that a specific demographic is converting the best on a social media ad, you might want to allot more ad spend to those people and take some away from the people who aren’t converting.
3 Examples of Successful Customer Acquisition
One of the best ways to understand how to implement and measure customer acquisition is to see other companies do it successfully. Here are some examples you can piggyback off of:
Shopify: Interactive Content
Shopify is the e-commerce giant responsible for thousands of successful e-commerce stores. One great way that they drive customers towards the site is with interactive content such as business name generators, quizzes, and even product choice suggestions. This is not only fun, but it keeps you on the site longer, which looks good to Google.
The content you create needs to be interesting and unique. The internet is a highly competitive environment, and you can’t just post anything and expect people to read it and react.
Turbotax: Free, Free, Free
Turbotax is a great example of using multiple platforms to convey your message. We’ve likely all seen their ads somewhere when they talk about how their service is free for individuals and always will be. If you understand neuro-linguistic programming, you know that “free” is a big buzzword.
Make sure you’re offering enough value to your customers in exchange for what you’re asking. Advertising has changed, and it’s no longer as simple as telling people what you do. You need to provide value.
Swagbucks: Referral Marketing
One of the best ways to get more customers is to have your customers get them for you. Referral marketing is a powerful method because it doesn’t cost much, and you’re rewarding the customers you already have, which can help increase customer retention.
This method is especially useful at the beginning of a business’s life when you’re trying to grow your network and establish credibility. Offer something to your customers for every lead they bring your way.
5 Tips to Improve Your Customer Acquisition Strategy
Here are some bonus tips to help you nail down your customer acquisition:
1. Master the CTA
Your call-to-action (CTA) needs to be perfect once you know your audience and have traffic. At this point, it becomes all about what you’re doing to convert the traffic you have. Conversion rate optimization becomes the key, and it usually starts with having a crystal clear and persuasive CTA.
2. Track Everything
You should be tracking every little detail about your prospective customers. Most importantly, focusing on the right metrics will take things to the next level. Demographic information, heat maps, abandoned carts, retargeting—all of these are important. This data can help you understand more about your audience so you can further optimize the ads for future success.
3. Make Sure the UX Is Perfect
If you’re getting traffic, the ads are working, and everything seems to be going well, but you still don’t have customers, there could be another reason. Make sure your site is fully functional, mobile-optimized, fast-loading, and easy to use.
4. Be Patient
It can take as long as a week to build up enough data on Google ads. If you change or cancel an ad before that time, you might be shooting yourself in the foot. The same applies to content marketing. It takes a long time for Google to recognize your content and index it properly.
5. Diversify
I believe in spreading yourself around and making sure you’re reaching as many people as you can. If you think some of your audience would respond to a different method of customer acquisition, set a budget for it, and give it a go.
Customer Acquisition FAQs
Below, see some of the most frequently asked questions about customer acquisition.
What is a good customer acquisition cost?
A good customer acquisition cost is whatever you need to be profitable. It will vary from business to business. All that matters is that you’re not spending more to acquire a customer than they will pay you. Keep in mind operating costs as well.
How do you manage customer acquisition?
Many businesses have people in charge of this or an entire department. Of course, it can be difficult for small businesses, so it might make more sense to outsource it.
Is it more cost-effective to keep a customer than to acquire a new one?
Acquiring new customers has been deemed the “startup killer” for a reason. It’s much cheaper to retain than acquire, but you can’t have one without the other. Make sure you’re focusing on both.
What is acquisition rate?
Find this number by dividing the total number of people who opted into your campaign by the total number of people who saw it.
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Summary of The Customer Acquisition Guide
There are many ways to approach customer acquisition, and while most of the methods lead to the same place, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. You need to figure out what marketing method works best for your business and how you can implement it consistently.
If they’re clicking to your site from the search engines, chances are they’re finding you through longtail keywords. This free traffic is a huge bonus for your business, and understanding how to integrate longtail keywords better can help you do this.
Here’s how you can integrate longtail keywords in 2021.
What Are Longtail Keywords?
Longtail keywords are long, specific queries letting search engines know not just what words searchers want to know about but why they want to know them.
For example, “longtail keywords” is a keyword; “what are longtail keywords?” is a longtail keyword.
When you run your keyword research, it’s easy to be attracted to the short tail or head keywords. These are the keywords like “SEO” or “keywords,” and they’re likely to have a high search volume, attracting the attention of many marketers.
Where there’s search volume, there’s lots of competition. Longtail keywords with slightly less volume tend to be a little easier to rank for.
Why Should You Integrate Longtail Keywords in Your Blog Posts?
What do you want from your content marketing?
The first thing is probably traffic, and after that, you want conversions. Longtail keywords can make a massive difference to your business in both of these areas.
Paid advertising is a great way to get your brand in front of your target audience, but there’s a catch. You’re paying for every click. If you can gradually replace those paid clicks with organic traffic, not only do you save money, you could see better results. In fact, Google’s Economic Impact Report states organic search is five times more valuable than paid search.
Searches of more than four words make up 95.88 percent of Google searches, meaning there are lots of clicks to be had. Because these searches are more specific, the people making them tend to have greater buyer intent.
Compare the two searches:
“Real Estate” vs. “4-bed real estate in Naperville.”
Which search indicates a buyer who is more ready to purchase?
Longtail keywords often indicate a searcher is well on the road to conversion, and that alone is a pretty strong reason to use them in your content.
How to Integrate Longtail Keywords in Your Posts
Longtail keywords are essential for any business. It doesn’t matter how authoritative your site is; the sheer volume of longtail keywords means they’re something you can’t ignore.
You can’t just take longtail keywords and try to stuff them into your content, though. Modern SEO is about providing the user with the best experience. To do this, you need to integrate longtail keywords into high-quality, relevant content.
1. Set Your Content Marketing Objectives
What do you want to achieve with your blog post?
Your honest answer can help you create user-friendly blog posts to rank more highly in keyword search results.
attract potential customers to your marketing system
explore prospect pain
illustrate benefits
overcome objections
build your reputation with search engines
With hard work and patience, great content marketing can achieve any of these goals. The best approach is to choose one or two core goals that you want every piece of content to achieve.
Whatever your goals, if you want to attract new prospects, you have to find out what longtail keywords they use. This allows you to create valuable, evergreen content based on those longtail keywords.
Plus, longtail keywords likely play a big part in Google’s algorithm, so you need to understand how to align them with your goals.
Generally, when potential customers find their long-tail keyword search terms in your post, it will increase engagement. It’s about matching user intent.
Longtail keywords can help you achieve different goals, so you should define what you want to achieve before starting writing.
2. Create Buyer Personas to Help You Understand User Intent
If you’re going to match user intent, you’ve got to understand the people searching for your products/services (your buyer personas).
Without a clear picture of what your buyer personas look like, you’re just guessing at what people search for and how they search for it. Instead, you want to have a clear image of how your target audience searches for information, why they look for it, and how you can respond to their queries.
Creating buyer personas is a simple way to help you respond effectively. It’s a representation of a specific ideal reader you’d like to attract to your blog or site.
Put yourself in the shoes of your buyer persona and ask yourself what questions they have, what information they’re looking for, and how they search for it?
You need to understand how your audience searches and use this information to match user intent by integrating longtail keywords.
3. Research and Select Your Longtail Keywords
You have to be picky about your longtail keywords.
Step 1: Go to Ubersuggest, type your main keyword (e.g., car insurance), and click the “Search” button:
Step 2: Click “Keyword Ideas” in the left sidebar:
Step 3: Choose your long-tail keywords from the results list, by identifying keywords with four or more words.
Step 4: Filter the results in search of high volume, low SD long-tail keywords:
For this industry, which is highly competitive, I set the SEO difficulty to no greater than 40 while keeping the search volume in the 2,000 to 7,000 range. Here’s what you get:
Not only are there 80 keywords meeting the criteria, but many of them are prime candidates. For example, “cheapest car insurance in Michigan” is desirable. Here’s why:
5,400 monthly searches are more than enough to move the needle (more on this below).
A relatively low SD of 34 shows ranking on the first page is attainable.
A CPC of $37.89 proves it’s a high converting keyword (typically, the higher the CPC, the better it converts).
So, if you decide to target “cheapest car insurance in Michigan,” the next step is clicking on that keyword. Doing so displays the following:
This is a list of the top search results for the keyword, complete with:
URL
estimated visits
links
domain score
social shares
A few things stand out to me:
Estimated visits per month for the top three spots are strong.
The average number of backlinks of page one results is 16.
None of the websites in the top five have done an outstanding job with social media.
In other words, this is a long-tail keyword you can win.
It’s important to remember that Google and the other search engines aren’t just about numbers, though. At its heart, Google is about the experience: giving people the information they need in a way they enjoy. Longtail keywords won’t get you where you want to go unless you understand user intent and can provide them with the experience they’re looking for.
This means your goal can’t just be to rank. It’s got to be to provide the user with the highest quality content that matches user intent.
SEO requires caring about your users and solving their problems. This is why smart long-tail keyword use helps you with search engine results, not hurts you.
Your content is there to help your visitors answer questions and solve problems, and keywords firmly take a back seat to this.
Having done significant research, make sure you’re using your longtail keywords to demonstrate your content matches user intent.
If you’re creating content matching user intent, you should be able to incorporate longtail keywords naturally. “Naturally” is the crucial element here.
Some marketers look at one keyword per 200 words as a good benchmark, but quality is far more important than quantity. For a 2,000-word article, I generally aim to use my keyword 10-20 times—but it’s not a hard and fast rule. With some articles, frequent use of both standard and longtail keywords flows naturally; for others, you won’t use them as much.
As long as your content is good and your context is clear, you usually don’t need to panic if your keyword only shows up less often.
Remember that titles and headings are essential parts of your content, so again, try to integrate your longtail keywords. This will also make it clear to the user that you match their intent, encouraging them to read on.
Again though, I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to be natural. In the early days of SEO, Google’s algorithms weren’t as sophisticated, and people did benefit from putting their keywords in at every opportunity. Today though, Google is super smart, and it’s focused on the value your content offers the user. If you’re keyword stuffing, you won’t get far.
Longtail Keyword Integration FAQs
What is considered a longtail keyword?
Longtail keywords are keyword queries of generally four words or longer and can demonstrate high buyer intent.
What are examples of longtail keywords?
Take the word “dogs” as your regular keyword. Longtail keywords might include “Labrador dogs for sale,” “How to look after a dog,” or “Why should I get a dog.”
How do you target longtail keywords?
You can target longtail keywords by creating valuable content answering people’s questions and helping them solve their problems.
Do longtail keyword phrases need to be exact?
Google is good at understanding semantics, which means it knows how words link together to create meaning. As a result, your longtail keywords don’t always have to be exact.
Longtail Keyword Integration Conclusion
Search engines want to see you provide your users with the best possible experience. To do this, you’ve got to understand your target audience and how they search.
Longtail keyword research should be a big part of your content marketing strategy. Successfully incorporating these keywords into your content will enable you to match user intent and give your visitors a great experience.
When you boost your traffic and engage users better by using the language they use to search, it can bring significant results for your website.
Have you had success with longtail keywords?
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