The Best Small Business Marketing News & Blog Posts of the Week — January 20, 2012

Posted January 20, 2012 by DIYSEO Team (1 comments)

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This post is meant to be helpful for all levels of SEO expertise. You can also find DIYSEO posts classified by level of expertise on the following pages:

SOPA and PIPA absolutely dominated the Internet this week. It was great to see the government to reconsider these potential laws. But it was also an amazing showing of solidarity and demonstration of how much power the Internet society has over the real world. Now, it’s time to take a break and find out what else was going on in the world of online marketing this week.

Perhaps the most popular topic this week was consumer behaviour and meeting their needs, but there were a ton of other great posts you’ll want to check out. Let’s get started, shall we?

Beginner SEO and Marketing

YouTube Facts, Social Media Marketing — Considering the idea of marketing on YouTube? Looking for some extra information or just have a thing for stats? Buzz Booster published a great infographic this week.

4 Free Online Marketing tools Every Small Business Owner Should Use — If you’re new to the world of online marketing, you’ve likely seen tons of posts on must have tools for small businesses. This one has some different tools you usually don’t find these types of posts. We think you’ll love these fresh new ideas.

The Consumer Needs Every Site Must Meet — Every successful website does one thing and one thing only: it meets the needs of its users. Here, Lisa Barone looks at the needs every website needs to satisfy if it’s ever going to succeed. If you’ve been looking to make your site better, or are getting ready to build a new one, have a read and make sure your site satisfies each of the needs listed here.

7 Insights Every Blogger Should Know — Creating a blog is easy. Creating a great blog takes effort and insight. Do you know what you need to know to create a great blog or content strategy? Entrepreneurs Journey had seven important insights you need to know before moving forward.

Intermediate SEO, Marketing & Business Tips

Mobile Marketing — Rachel Rodriguez guest posted on the Joy of Direct Marketing this week. In her post, she introduced readers to mobile marketing strategy. But the real gems of information hidden in her post were some great ideas and inspirations for integrating mobile, online, and direct marketing. You’ll love it.

5 Ways to Get Your Customers to Create Content for You — Content creation is a constant problem. Not only do you have to find topics and types your audience finds interesting, but you also need to invest time or money to get it. But when you get customers to create the content, it can help with both of these issues. Getting them to do it, however, is another matter. Duct Tape Marketing’s John Jantsch has some fantastic tips for this.

4 Things Lady Gaga Can Teach Us About Social Media PR & Online Influence — Love her or hate her, you can’t argue that Lady Gaga has a knack for marketing. Her career was built on it. This week Ashley Zeckman from TopRank looked at the pop star’s strategy and how you can use those techniques to make your audience go gaga over you.

Advanced SEO, Marketing & Business Links

How to Be a Good B2B Content Cross-Promoter — Cross promoting always runs the risk of failing and causing some nasty side effects. B2B Online Marketing’s Dave Thomas looks at the ups and downs of cross promoting to businesses and how you can get better results out of it.

PPC on Brand Terms: Pros and Cons — Everyone who does PPC will eventually have to decide whether brand terms are worth investing in. Robert Brady looks at the pros and cons of bidding on these terms and makes it easy for you to decide whether this is one investment worth making.

Email Marketing: The Importance of Lead Nurturing in the Complex B2B Sale — Did you know that 73% of all B2B leads are non sales-ready? That means you’ve got a long way to go to make the conversion happen. Jen Doyle has some helpful advice to help you close that gap. She shared some important information with Marketing Sherpa readers on email marketing and improving B2B conversions. To further add to the discussion, head over to Vertical Response and read their post entitled Do Your Email Lists Deliver? The post looks at segmentation and how you can further improve your conversion and click-through rates. A must read for anyone using email marketing to build their business.

30 Recent Google Search Quality Changes — Google has been making a ton of changes lately. This is nothing new; Google is constantly making updates, but you’ll want to have a look at the list iNeedHits has compiled. It will give you a brilliant look at where the search engine is going.

Great Posts Published This Week Everyone Should Check Out

Google Launches “Search Plus Your World” and Twitter Isn’t Happy About It — Twitter used to have its results piped into Google’s search results, but that ended along with the expiration of their contract. Now Google has added Google+ content to its search results and Twitter is quite upset. You can get the details here.

Google Caught Accepting Illegal AdWords Campaigns — Scalping and the illegal sale of tickets has always been a problem with just about any event. But usually when we think of this problem, we think of the people standing outside the event centers trying to sell their wares. This time, however, Google AdWords became the man standing in the shadows after the BBC reported it was selling ads for illegal tickets to the London Olympics.

Touche Google & Yelp! Foursquare Now Has Restaurant Menus — Foursquare had some news of its own this week. It now includes restaurant menus. This is great news for users, but how does it affect Google, Yelp, and others in the local search space? Matt McGee gave his opinion on the matter and some great food for thought this week.