Provoke Design

Provoke's Online Marketing Insight, What Would You Like To Know About?

Has The Blog That’s A List No Longer Making A Fist?

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Grabbing eyeballs for the quick scan! It may be true for home page headline grabbers and above the fold ‘calls to action’ but increasingly blogs have become little more than simple ‘what to do’ and ‘what not to do’ lists! And that was never the point of writing socially engaging content.

In the arsenal of long time favoured marketing strategies by business owners, listing benefits has always been top of the list! Everyone loves a list of course – it’s quick and easy instant gratification. But are we getting listless with endless lists of lists getting longer and longer by the upload? “Not another list!” we cry!
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Why Some Calls To Action Lead To Visitor Dissatisfaction!

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We should all know by now the fickle behaviours of website visitors, which lead to page abandonment for the slightest reason. One moment of uncertainty and they’re gone! Too often it’s the annoying, unclear calls to action, links, buttons and navigation which cause confusion, impatience and the rapid exit!

Helping your site visitor from landing to conversion continues the online marketing cycle. From instant, first impression, through to searched-for relevant content, the journey should be a smooth, effortless process achieved in one or two clearly signposted links. We all know about the vital importance of website accessibility, but still too many sites are a minefield of confusing instruction, business jargon, and jumbled copy. It does little to endear your brand identity to first time visitors and you can forget about retweets!
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Waving Not Drowning In The Social Swim!

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Website owners swimming in the open seas of uncharted social media tend to stop frequently in an effort to contain the flowing waters of content sharing behaviour. Having dived in the deep end and flayed around for a while to no avail, they suddenly want to know who their targeted customer is and the social media services they consume!

The endless quizzing over social media utility and the return on time and effort continues unabated. The incorporation of social engagement into a 21st century ethos of online marketing has never sat too easily in the minds of some business owners. But having been grudgingly persuaded to get involved or get left behind by the Facebook and Twitter revolution, it’s all too apparent how little to no thought has gone into what they are doing with the channels and what results they might realistically expect.
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2011-The Year We Migrate To Mobile Heaven!

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Laptops and netbooks are getting thinner and lighter by the upgrade even as iPad marches at the head of a growing tablet army! If predictions prove correct, the game is already up for the PC warhorse as the versatile might of the mobile smartphone swoops into view!

It’s likely you are already offering some specific mobile apps for your niche consumer use. However, it really is time to optimise website accessibility for the mobile internet. According to recently released stats, it is estimated that there are now over five billion mobile phone connections worldwide and in some regions, more than one connection per person.
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Blogging First Blood-Signs Of Social Media Cut Backs?

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The festive period may be nearly upon us but business eyes are staring straight ahead as eCommerce braces itself for the coming months of the new year when dire predictions for the onset of a new age of austerity are supposed to kick in.

Already there may be signs of inevitable kneejerk reactions! Business owners, directors and other decision makers may be deciding it’s time to cut back on social media activity and focus instead on consolidation through the traditional quiet months of the new year. They may even be redirecting their online marketing teams back to using their time in good old fashioned ‘hitting the phones’ and ‘getting the orders in!’
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Strictly Glancing Media With Social X Factor Talent!

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Enterprises who ‘get’ social media are speaking with their niche audiences – they’ve got the X factor! But many companies still shy away, unsure about how to engage, who’s going to do it, afraid to lose control and feel they’ve nothing to share anyway.

We’ve all seen those websites, still packed with acres of dense, impenetrable corporate jargon intended to impress their potential b2b market readers. Nope – they still haven’t got the message about eye scanning!
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Spam Fighting With Sharing And Liking!

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Google has lost the fight with link spammers! In an age where link building is the key to PageRank, content quality less so and trust becomes the casualty, Google now turns to a social referral solution to help sort genuine content from spam.

In a very short time, a trusted culture of rich inbound links to genuine, quality websites identified by competent, well-constructed content has been eroded by the rising tide of sophisticated link spam.
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Link Building Blog Traffic – Not Spamming!

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Annoying, useless comments from spammers! They don’t read the post, and leave an irrelevant remark just to grab a cheap n’ nasty link. Except of course, everyone grits their teeth and many upgraded blog platforms remove. Yet the mindless spamming activity continues, even though it’s least likely to build organic traffic and get into Google’s good books.

Of course the spammers do it for the same reason that vast piles of junk mail once arrived through the letter box or email requests for help with large sums of money sitting in a foreign bank account, or offers on those little blue pills – someone, somewhere …!
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Mobile Marketing Moves Hyperlinks Offline

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See it – want it – scan it – got it … is basically where online marketing is now headed! Mobile internet is shaping up to overtake deskbound PC and laptop as we start to click onto links in the real world for the fastest web experience!

Of course, the concept is already with us in the form of the ubiquitous bar code printed onto practically every physical object we come into contact with in our daily lives, but currently can only be ‘read’ by dedicated scanning devices. Smartphones are poised to kickstart the offline revolution to cut out the need for search by simply using our mobiles for instant link action!
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Social Media ‘Everyones’s Doing It’ Online Marketing!

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Many companies have been busy catching up this year by relaunching their shiny new websites with Twitter and Facebook logos, even a blog hidden amongst their pages, and now expect magic to happen. Meanwhile, a hard core of non-believers continue to bcc their entire database …

What’s been happening is that many website owners have come to accept that since ‘everyone’s doing it’ they better not get left behind and miss out on potential business. Hence, the fair-sized flurry of website refresh activity that’s been a feature of 2010 as companies try to get to grips with creating content for online marketing to the web 2.0 business world.
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Getting Real With Social Media

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What do you want from Social Media? How will it help your business? By focusing on a clear aim towards achieving a realistic goal, you can use your time more effectively, just as you try to do with regular marketing activities.

Most sensible website owners work with their web design and marketing team to maximise inbound visitor traffic performance. Understanding the organic online marketing process is key to the endgame of increasing sales conversion.
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Mobile Makes Local Search Social!

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The power of the canny consumer! Using smartphone and social networking sites to quickly find nearby local businesses and leisure venues. The emergence of social media driven, location-based services such as GooglePlaces and Foursquare is placing increased importance on online marketing to local search.

Recent ‘proximity marketing’ trends are seeing ‘local segment’ as the clear word-of-mouth winner in social media conversations. It seems that social networking sites are becoming more locally focused. Both online media and mobile internet are linking together to be a primary source of local/regional business and eCommerce information for instant, prequalified search.
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