This tutorial covers the first step to a great looking website…theme installation! Using two different methods I’ll show you how to quickly and easily install your PageLines theme. One method involves the Wordpress theme uploader and the other uses FTP access. Enjoy!

In this tutorial we’ll go over the basics of using Firebug, a popular web development add-on for the Firefox browser that allows you to easily inspect the html and CSS of your web pages. I know you’re gonna love this tool!

This tutorial is all about using a little bit of CSS to create a splash page from an existing page template. With a little bit of detective work and minimal CSS coding you will be able to transform one of your pages into a squeeze machine. If you’re feeling lucky try going to, http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_reference.asp, for more CSS rules and parameters.

Also see Getting Started with Firebug.

You own an online business. You have a domain, a great looking site, and all the functionality you need. Everything is set up exactly the way you want it except for one problem, you log into google analytics and there is no one coming to your site. You have no comments and no readers. Life sucks!

Well, backlinks are one of the most important ways to increase not only how many people are coming to your site from other sources, but how highly you rank in google– they give a lot of precedence to sites with a lot of backlinks.

Part of the problem is that you are focused on getting your first dollar instead of getting your first follower. Even online retailers today need to build their online networks to improve sales. The bottom line is that you have to provide value to get people to pay attention to you. Google is what it is because it provides a variety of free services! Getting traffic isn’t rocket science, but it does take patience, a bit of dedication and some generous backlinks.

Just think to yourself what can I offer that people will want to know about or what can I put in my status update that will get people’s attention. The beauty of social media is that while you may need to provide something of value to get people following you, once they are fans or followers the lines of communication are open and you are able to tap directly into a valuable resource–the customer!

The other great thing is that you don’t have to wait for people to come to you. For example, In twitter and in community forums you can search for keywords to see what people are saying about certain topics. You now have a targeted group of people interested in exactly what you offer and can join in on the conversation

You now have a targeted group of people interested in exactly what you offer.

It is your job to build authority within this group. However, don’t leave comments on a blog or forum if you don’t have anything to say. Leaving comments about how much you enjoyed a post is fine (authors love feedback), however, keep in mind that you will not get noticed by readers and if you link to yourself while doing so it looks like you are only interested in your own agenda.

If you are going to comment you have a few options that will make you seem like a valuable contributer:

1. 1. Add information that you think might be missing in the post
2. 2. Add a link to an example that might clarify the post
3. 3. Ask questions that will engage other readers and the author

Now go post like it’s your job!!

Adding a custom header to a Wordpress theme is crucial for adding brand strength to your site. In this tutorial I will show you exactly how to add a custom image header and hopefully convince those without this functionality in their theme to make a switch for their own good.

The “look-and-feel” of your website is crucial to building a professional and established brand on the world wide web. While PageLines provides you with a great design, the need for you to customize your site and brand is important, however, content management systems are not fool proof. Here are some common mistakes made by CMS users.

1. Line Spacing

Proper line spacing and whitespace is essential for both the graphic elements of a site and the readability of the content.

Take for example this paragraph. It seems congested and hard to read. In fact it becomes harder and harder to read the longer the paragraph gets. Even with insufficient line spacing you can improve readability dramatically by shortening your paragraphs.

Likely you won’t have to change the line-height unless you change the font size or family, but knowing how to make this minor adjustment makes a world of difference.

2. Image & Content Alignment

Web design is all about the organization of information. Everything on the page needs to be aligned and flow correctly. Apple’s website is a great example of how well spaced and aligned each element needs to be. Each image has the same amount of whitespace around it and everything looks consistent, which is the key to any successful professional brand.

One of the most common mistakes people make when entering a new post into their site looks like this:

The image and text run into each other and it creates a very sloppy effect!

Although I don’t necessarily recommend justifying your text it helps us to show here just how crucial the juxtaposition of image and content can be.

3. Consistency

Whoever crafted your theme spent a lot of time making sure it was consistent on every page. It is your job to keep it that way while you add content to your site. If you know what is good for you DO NOT copy formatted text into your theme unless you do it everytime the same way. Copying text from other websites is especially problematic. It creates inline formatting which will cause the articles that you write and don’t write to look inconsistent and unprofessional.

Following a formatting protocol will eliminate this problem. For example, if you write posts in Microsoft Word then paste into your CMS, do it every time no matter what!

4. Balance

Images can be used to dramatically enhance the affect of text, however, poorly configured images are a step backward, not forward in information organization.  Pages heavy with images need to be balanced so that readers are guided through the post to each segment of information. It can often be hard to judge what looks “right”, just remember that images need to be as thought out as the copy your placing next to it.

Today, I attended a talk given by Guy Kawasaki—who I consider the master of ‘personal’ branding. The talk was entitled “Using Social Media to Market Your Business,” and it was focused on Twitter. Prior to this talk, I thought I knew everything there was to know about ‘social media,’ and had come to the conclusion that Twitter was primarily “marketing people marketing to other marketers.” But after hearing about how Guy Kawasaki used it, I realized that Twitter is bound to evolve and it will play a useful role for business strategy in the future.

As of 2009, Twitter is primarily being driven by marketing people, who outnumber general consumers 4-to-1. However, as this service moves ‘across the chasm’ and into the mainstream it will most likely replace email marketing and become the new interface between companies, and their customers.

So with that said, what will Twitter mean for your business? The trick to understanding this is to realize that it’s not about Twitter itself but about the apps designed to interact with it. Guy talked about some of these (he’s online 10 hours a day)—so here are five ways Twitter has helped him and can potentially help you with your business and strategy…

Twitter for Customer Insight

You probably want to know what you’re customers are interested in. There are a bunch of really good tools for finding what people are discussing related to your product or industry. Some quick searches and you might see customers complaining about competitive features, or talking about issues they want fixed.

Twitter for Sales Lead Generation

Guy Kawasaki recommended a service called TwitterHawk, that automatically responds to Twitter posts, with wording that you specify. He also gave us the caveat that this service can cross the line from marketing tool to ‘spam’. Tools like this—or even direct messaging users can be used for lead generation. Just be careful about how you are perceived.

Twitter for Customer Relations

Use CoTweet to manage your account with multiple users. The easiest application of this is to tie your entire company to one or two Twitter accounts for posting information, customer support, marketing & sales.

If your struggling to grow your business, you probably have a weak value proposition—it’s as simple as that. Its a common problem; and in fact, lack of focus around a core value proposition is the root cause of most business growth challenges. This is why your value proposition is a critical piece of business strategy.

After you define a target market, you must work to clarify your ‘desired’ value proposition. Without it, its hard to resonate strongly with customers and can invisibly destroy your business. But what exactly is a value proposition? And how is it different from ‘elevator’ pitches and USPs?

Elevator Pitches & USPs

Value propositions are often confused with elevator pitches or unique selling propositions (USPs). But its impact on your company’s success is fundamentally different.

An elevator pitch answers the question “what do you do?” Its a one sentence answer that defines your customer and the general area you help them with:

“My business works with small companies that need help designing their products”

An elevator pitch is the foundation of a value proposition; but much weaker.

A USP answers the question, “what makes you different?” And looks like the following:
“We are the only company to guarantee service in two hours or less”

The USP is another piece of the value proposition, but again it lacks the impact of a strong value proposition.

The Value Proposition

A value proposition is a clear statement of the concrete results a customer will get from purchasing and using your products and/or services. It is focused on outcomes. So as opposed to the above examples, the smart business person will always speak in terms of results that products can create.

A good example might be: “Our products help people leverage the internet to triple their market reach and cut marketing costs in half when launching new products.”

Value As Strategy

Strategy is all about direction and sales are all about creating results. Since the creation of value is the end destination in business—it is important to establish what your value proposition will be in the future.

So as a first matter of business, figure out what your value proposition will be to customers. If you will help improve operational efficiency, its time to assess by how much. Then talk to your customers and ask them if your plan is based in reality.

To roll this out as a piece of your plan, simply state a value goal in your business or marketing plan, e.g. “we plan to reduce Cost of goods sold while improving inventory controls for large food carriers.”

Once you have established your core “value strategy” you will have a measuring stick to measure your efforts. And then you can use your value strategy as a basis for making decisions—whenever you have a choice to make, you can ask yourself, “will this improve our value proposition.”

Keep it simple

If you were to do some homework on creating a strong segmentation and target strategy, you will probably find many resources that either

1) provide you general guidelines or

2) a comprehensive list of tasks that makes target strategy seem like quantum physics.

In my research I have found that Steve Jobs of Apple, has come up with a fantastic way of analyzing a market and identifying opportunity. It can be seen in this video:

Part 1

Part 2

Even though the way Steve presents this analysis is simple, it is not easy. You will need to have as much information as you can gather about your primary competitors and your potential customers.  As a summary here are the basic steps.

Step 1: Product & Markets

The first step in segmentation and targeting is to identify the product classes in your marketplace, meaning solutions that solve similar problems for your potential customer. For  example, in the vacuum market you might have: standard home vacuum cleaners, shop vacuums, portable vacuums… you get the idea.

Step 2: Competition

Create a diagram with the product segments of your target market listed on the header. Now visualize the top two competitors in each product segment. Steve did this as a bubble roughly relating their size to their percentage market cap in that market. This helps you recognize the competitive pressure within a given customer segment.

Step 3: The Emerging Market

The best way to approach a market is to target the emerging opportunity within a sector. Think about where the market is going to be in a 5 year time frame.  Where your market will be five years from now is typically where the emerging market is today. Create your products accordingly.

Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat. — SunTzu

You need a Digital Marketing Plan.

Any company no matter the size or industry can benefit from a strong digital marketing strategy. In this article we will be discussing some of the best practices in putting together a digital marketing plan that allows you to strategically outperform your competition and create results in the marketplace.

Overview

In digital marketing, like all forms of business, it is best to have your strategy defined before you dig in to implementation. So before you create your first Youtube video or Facebook group, lets begin by discussing what you need to think through:

1. Your target customer & the problems you are solving
2. Differentiation and branding plan
3. Customer assessment (where they are and where they will be)
4. Competitive analysis & timeline
5. Your tactical plan
6. Results and feedback

Once you have figured out the following you can begin to think about which marketing channels will be best for your business.

Targeting your customers

The first step in most marketing strategies is to figure out who your target customers are.  It allows you to focus your message, differentiate your product and  figure out how you will reach people who might buy your product.  Unfortunately, many companies approach this step incorrectly.  In an attempt not to exclude any potential revenue, a common mistake many companies make is to describe their targets by a range of values and characteristics.  For example, any company with over $5 million in revenue in the business of selling blue widgets. This doesn’t allow you to focus at all.

The right way to do targeting is to narrow it down to one hypothetical target individual, or if you need to, one target individual in every market segment you care about. And then tell the story of this individual.

Why Targeting is Important

A high-end ski resort would want to pick a single character profile e.g. Jim, a 42 year old physician living in in L.A. He is a republican, went to college, loves skiing and will be taking his family on a ski trip this year.  The idea is to focus on a single person and maximize the width of your value curve by catering to others, not marketing to them.

Other factors you could look at in your hypothetical target customer include the following:

• (If part of a business) Company Size, type, revenue($), business model, cash available, etc…
• Buying habits – How do they find and learn about product they buy.
  • (Do they use the internet? Then a digital marketing strategy is probably right for you).
• Psychograph (e.g. social characteristics (A-type, B-type), political views).
• All the problems they have including the problems you can help solve.
• Other products they use.
• Why they will buy your product.
• Why they might not buy your product.

Digital Branding & Differentiation

Contrary to what many believe, branding isn’t about your logo.  Branding is about how your company makes your target customers feel. It can be extremely difficult, but very powerful once mastered.  Here are the steps.

Step 1 — Are You Differentiated?

Differentiation is key to Apple

One major key to effective branding is whether or not you are differentiated.  It turns out that our brains are hard wired to only notice what is different.  This means that everything that you do should be as unique, yet consistent, as possible to ensure you are noticed. This process starts with your company name and logo, but covers everything from your advertising to the service you deliver.  Consider the differentiation Apple has created with its website, advertisements, retail stores and actual products.  Fundamental rule to remember: Be different yet consistent.

Step 2 — Are You Focused?

As we just stated,  to maintain your differentiation, you need to provide a consistent message.  You don’t want your customers to see a fuzzy picture of you or your company.  To make sure you are focused, take the focus test below and see if you can answer the questions in one sentence or less, in a way your competitors can’t.

The Focus Test

• Who are you?
• What do you do?
• Why does it matter?

Step 3 — Do You Communicate?

The last major question in your branding strategy– Do you have a good plan for communicating it?  If you want to do this online, this means getting digitally integrated, which is what Pagelines is all about.  Digital Brand integration is the science of creating a consistent message across several digital marketing channels and media.  It means always being consistent no matter how many people are working with a brand.  One way of testing if you are communicating your brand, is to consider every point of contact your company has to your customer, and make sure they can tell whether something is from your company without you telling them.

Visitor Sourcing