Author: Franz Malten Buemann

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We are currently living in the age of the internet, and that means your business must cater to it. Promoting your business, your brand, and your product or service can all benefit from digital marketing.

There is an audience to be reached online and a reputation to build from your presence. There is, however, a right and a wrong way to do digital marketing. Check out these common mistakes to make sure you are doing it effectively.

1. Not Having a Blog
Remember that you are not only trying to market your site as a business, you are also trying to market yourself as a trusted industry leader. Publishing blog content that is valuable, informed, and accessible will establish you as a voice to be trusted. Additionally, each blog post is another indexed page for your site, and more indexed pages lead to your site showing up more in Google search results.
Don’t just create the blog, it’s also important for it to be interactive. Ask questions in the comment section to get responses. Also, add guest posts or interviews from researchers or successful professionals in your field. Utilize this blog post writing guide for creating the most impactful post each time.
2. Avoiding Social Media
You might think you can get away with not using social media. I’m sorry to tell you that you’re wrong! It’s an essential way to turn leads into customers. Spreading your content, reaching your audience, and engaging with users will help you promote your business online. But don’t try to do it all yourself; learn why you need a social media manager.
3. Forgetting About Mobile Users
Mobile browsing accounts for about half of web traffic worldwide. So, as you are optimizing your site, don’t forget to also optimize it for mobile users so that the load time is equally as fast as on desktop. Ensure the design of your site is also adjusted to be viewed on mobile.
4. Not Offering Discounts and Promotions
A survey from Retail Me Not revealed that two-thirds of customers made an unplanned purchase solely because of a discount. Online coupon codes or limited time offers are great pop-ups for your site, especially on the landing page or when they may abandon their cart. Your site should also have a call-to-action that can be incentivized with a promotion.
5. Underutilizing Keyword Research
Potential customers need to be able to find you online, so it’s essential to focus on SEO. Identify what keywords are the most relevant, have high search volume, and are relatively easy to rank for. Then, monitor where you rank for each keyword, how much traffic you’re getting from each keyword, and whether the visitors coming from that keyword are turning into leads.
6. Targeting a Broad Audience
Spending your marketing budget to reach as many people as possible isn’t an efficient use of your money. Pinpoint a clearly defined target market that will yield more relevant leads.
Don’t make assumptions or rely on guesses for information about any audiences. Do your research to determine your target audience and the best way to reach them.
7. Having Subpar Customer Service
A visitor who hasn’t done business with you before is taking a risk if they choose to become a customer. Having good customer service is important to lower that risk, because 70% of customers will continue business with you if their complaints were resolved well.
Offer help in a clear place on your site so that visitors know they have access to it. This may be a Contact Us page, a 24/7 virtual chat box, a helpline, or other methods. Just be sure that if someone goes to your site, they clearly see they will have help if they need it.
8. Ignoring the Competition
It’s likely that there is someone else out there offering the same thing you are. Don’t pretend that they don’t exist; instead, find a way to stand out. Figure out what makes your brand special and highlight it on your site. It should be loud and clear on your site what makes you different from the competition.
9. Not Using Social Proof
Seeing examples of happy, satisfied customers encourages more conversions. Testimonials, case studies, and success stories ensure your web visitors that other people are happy with your business. They can feel reassured that they will be too.
10. Lacking a Clear Strategy
Without a plan and a vision, there are no goals to track or research-backed methods. This can often be a waste of time, money, and resources. Start building your marketing strategy by defining your target audience, setting reasonable goals, understanding what you need to achieve them, and keeping track of your progress.
11. Failing to Convert Web Traffic to Customers
Visitors to your website who don’t end up becoming customers have little value, unless they happen to do some word-of-mouth advertising for you that introduces a lead. Getting visitors to your site is goal number one, but goal number two is to turn them into customers. Develop a strategy for converting web traffic into sales.
12. Having Poor Website Design
A website that is constructed with digital marketing in mind should have a call to action and a well-optimized landing page. Any promotions or discounts should also be displayed front and center. Having an informative and inviting website is important in your efforts to turn visitors into fruitful leads.
13. Not Tracking Your Leads
Online leads can come from a variety of traffic sources such as keywords, email blasts, referring links, social media, etc. One of those sources might be pulling in leads that rarely turn into customers, while another might be consistently garnering them. This is important to know so that you can adjust your strategy accordingly.
The Power of Digital Marketing
Your business needs the proper marketing tools and strategies to thrive. Digital marketing opens you up to endless opportunities for learning and growth. Boost your business to its highest potential by fixing your digital marketing strategy, targeting the right leads, and creating an optimized website.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in October 2008 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Companies often rely on blogs, articles, and social media to engage with their consumers and attract new clientele. However, creating new and exciting content can be a time-consuming process. A great solution to this dilemma is to repurpose existing content.
Repurposing content doesn’t have to feel redundant or boring. In fact, with a few great strategies, old content can gain a fresh new perspective and reinforce critical points. This article will go over a few ways that businesses can reinvigorate their old content while increasing their potential reach.

Content Reach Examples
Here are some great examples of content that reaches, engages, and delights a large audience.
1. State Farm

Have you ever heard of “Jake from State Farm”? I’m sure you have. He’s been featured in nationwide State Farm commercials, blog posts, memes, and videos — State Farm hit gold with this idea. The insurance giant’s content reach consists of the repurposed use of “Jake” in new and inventive ways. This includes creating intriguing storylines that mix plausible life situations with the use of its insurance policies. Customers can see themselves in the everyday interactions Jake has with his customers.

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2. T-Mobile

T-mobile’s Newsroom constantly makes old content new again. The brand’s Loyalty Program, T-Mobile Tuesdays, for example, has been around for five years. The content strategy involves images, videos, app links, and articles that strive for engagement through consistency and fun contests, polls, and incentives. The Loyalty Program runs every Tuesday with slight alterations each week.

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3. Netflix

Netflix has created a new way to introduce its content: by sponsoring articles. The company often chooses content that works alongside its tv shows.
An example includes a New York Times article on women inmates for the Orange Is the New Black series. These articles are recycled with fresh storylines to attract new readers and customers.
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Best Content Reach Strategies
1. Add Visuals
One way to give languishing content a new twist is by adding visuals. Research shows that clear, concise visualization aids can boost engagement in even the most complex subject matter. This can include graphs, charts, videos, and infographics.
2. Use Keywords
SEO, or search engine optimization, is a way for consumers to find blogs and posts quickly. Google’s search engine has algorithms that search for the best content to give to its visitors.
This content is typically full of helpful words and phrases related to a particular subject. The result is a more helpful site for the reader which can bring more traffic to your site, too.
3. Use the Power of Social Media
The great thing about social media is that it is versatile. People can like, share and comment on many platforms and move these conversations to other platforms. You can repurpose older content to get a fresh take from users on other social media streams.
4. Try Backlinks
Backlinks are an example of this kind of approach. These are hyperlinks from one site that link to another. This signals to the search engine that the content in the two articles is related. The anchor text used to link the two articles together further helps the search engine infer the relationship between the two, which can give your page and site more authority if your backlink strategy is done well.
5. Make Your Content Interactive
Content doesn’t have to be two-dimensional. Bring old content to life with games, polls, videos, and even clickable slideshows. Research shows interactive content boosts engagement and sales. You can use tools like Slideshare to create colorful slides to make sharing your message easy and attractive.
6. Write an Ebook
Ebooks are a great way to repackage information from multiple sources, like blog posts into one educational resource. You can optimize ebooks for mobile or desktop and even include interactive content.
7. Send an Email Newsletter
Email newsletters can also serve as a way to repurpose older content by reminding audiences of previous campaigns.
The e-newsletter is a good way to mix in new content with older content in templates that cater to specific audiences while maintaining the interests of existing subscribers. Some excellent newsletter services include MailChimp and Constant Contact.
8. Include an FAQ or Resource Page
Placing an FAQ or resource section on a website is a fantastic way to reintroduce older content. You can link to prior articles and posts that are relevant to the customer’s needs. This can reinvigorate interest and attract new audiences. FAQs and resource pages can also condense hundreds of pages into just a few clicks. This can ensure a cleaner site and allow audiences to connect with your brand.
9. Use a Podcast
Turn an old blog post or article into content for a podcast. Podcasts are an excellent way to connect with consumers since they appeal to auditory audiences and offer an alternative (and efficient) way of consuming information. Podcasts also allow for a more personable approach that can make your audience feel like a part of the story.
10. Use Consumer-Generated Content
Take old customer reviews and use them as the basis of newer content. For example, if users point out that your business has a quick turn-around time, capitalize on this by creating content with this in mind. You can post blogs or articles about the importance of timeliness and link to many of the reviews. This approach spotlights the consumer and makes them center stage … and what customer doesn’t want to be in the spotlight?
11. Recommend Old Articles in New Posts
When writing new blog articles, you can create a new experience by placing older content on the page. This can be done using links or snippets of the post to capture the reader’s attention. You can also get new eyes on pages with less traffic by placing recommendations at the end of posts or blog entries.
12. Create a Part-Two
Follow-up posts are a good way to repackage content. It can posit a concern or problem that is still relevant while adding new points. This approach can bring a whole new dimension to a subject. It also allows for a more thorough analysis of old information.
For example, if you own a coffee company and have an article related to “Great Drinks for the Morning Rush,” you can follow up with “Great Drinks for the Evening.” You can then reference the prior article while highlighting some of the other products you sell to create new and interesting content.
13. Invite Others to the Experience
Guest posting is standard on many blogs. Refresh your content with new opinions and perspectives from people outside your company. This approach keeps things fresh without sacrificing core goals or ideas.
For instance, an expert baker may have great things to add about your catering company. You can use some of their tips and ideas in new content and couple this with references to older content.
14. Create New Campaigns Using Old Ideas
Companies often do this to re-energize marketing. This approach utilizes new marketing strategies such as viral video to engage consumers with old, tried-and-true content.
An example of this can include companies offering for a limited time a “retro” look or producing giveaways that include old merchandising. Businesses can build new, solid campaigns around these ideas.
15. Rewrite and Repost
Awkward phrasing, misspellings, and low SEO rankings can hurt your ranking potential, but it’s common in old content. Editing with services like Grammarly can eliminate some of these issues. In addition, updating statistics and replacing old information can make a world of difference for your traffic potential.
16. Combine Old Posts
If your content library gets large enough, posts could begin to overlap. Generating new content can be as simple as taking similar posts and combining them into one. This method can bring great ideas and repurpose them for a new audience while creating cohesiveness.
Improve Your Content Reach
Improving your content reach can mean more sales and a bigger client base. You can recycle and repurpose old content in new ways. Get creative and make the most out of your content. The result is a stronger, better online presence.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in June 2011 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Imagine you’re tasked with baking a cake for a friend’s birthday. You’re not exactly an expert baker, so you hop online and look for an easy-to-follow recipe that will help your dessert be the star of the party.

Your mouth is watering as you scroll through photo after photo of delicious-looking cakes. Finally, you settle on a gorgeous strawberry shortcake photo and dive into the recipe. It has a list of ingredients and then one line of instruction that says: “Bake cake.”
Confused, you frantically scroll down looking for more guidance. With none available, you end up wasting ingredients when you have to remix your batter and it takes forever to bake because you have to stop and repeat earlier steps or start from scratch because you’ve done something wrong.

Your cake is an utter failure and you end up swinging by a bakery on your way to the party.
Perhaps you’ve never had to bake a cake, but no doubt, you’ve been given assignments at work that leave you wishing you could rely on a bakery.
The only information provided to you is an end goal and you struggle to meet your boss’s expectations because you have no idea how to complete the task they’ve given you.
It happens more than you think, and if you’re a manager, you may even be guilty of doing this to your employees.
When this happens, projects don’t get done on time or don’t get done properly, employees are frustrated and employee satisfaction tanks, and with missed deadlines or no finished product at all, customers will go elsewhere to have their needs met.
If only there were a way to avoid this type of problem.
You probably guessed that there is. It’s called business process mapping, and you’re going to learn how this could help save your business.
Business Process Mapping
What is process mapping?
Creating a process is when you break down a project into a series of tasks and activities that will eventually create your desired end result. Process mapping is a strategy whereby you create a visual representation of this process which is easy-to-follow and can be communicated to everyone involved in the project.
Going back to our cake example, a process is the steps that take you from gathering and measuring your ingredients, all the way to leaving the cake in the oven for a prescribed amount of time, and everything in between. You are transforming inputs (ingredients and steps) into outputs (delicious cake).
When you get the process down on paper or on a computer, you’re able to see inefficiencies, bottlenecks, and the challenges that your team or your customers may be facing. Armed with this information, you can tweak your process to correct these problems and create a well-oiled machine.
The Benefits of Process Mapping
No matter what industry you represent, product or service you offer, or department you work in, process mapping can help you improve efficiency, employee and customer satisfaction, and your bottom line. Here are just a few of the benefits of incorporating process mapping into your organization:
1. Identify redundancies.
If you make a product, materials may be wasted if employees have to repeat activities before they get them right. Whether you offer a product or a service, your employees’ time is valuable and care should be taken not to waste that either. To that end…
2. Improve employee efficiency.
It’s been stated that between 15% and 20% of employee time is wasted due to overlap in jobs and not understanding roles and responsibilities, redoing tasks that have been done wrong, and not having a full set of instructions before they begin their activity.
When you clearly state every step involved in creating an outcome, and who will complete that step, employee efficiency will improve as will your company culture.
3. Increase employee satisfaction.
Most people don’t enjoy being confused. Employees want to know exactly what they are responsible for and how to complete those tasks. With this information, employees are happier, less likely to look for a new job, and more likely to treat each other, and your customers, nicely.
4. Foster happier customers.
When customers receive their product or service in a timely fashion, delivered by employees who are pleased with their work and excited to help them, customers are happier. They then return as customers and tell their friends to do business with you as well.
Why should I use process mapping as a marketer?
As a marketer, you may be wondering how to do process mapping for your projects and responsibilities.
Just like producing a product, you have certain steps that you must follow in order to reach your end goal: attracting leads and converting them into customers. You might not even realize that you’ve been doing it all along.
For example, do you create random content and visuals before you know who will be seeing them? Hopefully not. Do you close your eyes and point to a marketing route without researching where your ideal customer spends time? If you do, you’re probably not seeing a lot of ROI.
No, you have a series of steps you take to identify the right opportunities to reach potential customers and then speak to them. Now, we’re going to get that process down so it can be improved, tested, communicated, and replicated.
How do I use process mapping as a marketer?
The first step to process mapping is to determine your desired outcome. Your process may look slightly different depending on your goals and your company’s specifics, but here are seven steps you can use to guide yourself and your team through a marketing process map:
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1. Do your research.
Research who you want to market to, where you will find them, and when they will be there.
2. Segment your audience.
Allocate your audience into groups of customers or potential customers with similar attributes. This will help you perfect your specific messaging.
3. Target the best fit segment.
Identify who needs what you want and has the ability to buy it.
4. Position yourself apart from the competition.
What makes you different? This is called a unique selling proposition and will help you craft your marketing message.
5. Determine what you will offer.
Then strategize around how much it will cost, where it will be distributed, and how you will promote it to your audience.
6. Implement your process.
This is where you put your strategies into action. This may include marketing automation.
7. Measure your success.
Use the goals you’ve set to measure how you’re doing. These may include reach like web traffic and conversions, or revenue-based goals like profit.
Don’t try to change your process until you’ve mapped out exactly what it is you do now. Once every activity is listed, you can begin looking for ways to improve. If you have a team assigned to process creation, you can assign roles and responsibilities to each member.
Process Mapping Tools
When you’re ready to begin process mapping with your team, there are a variety of tools that you can use to get the job done. Some of these can be used for free while others have a paid version that’s helpful or necessary to create your process map.
We’ll take a look at a few of these options here.
1. LucidChart

LucidChart is a professional diagramming software that can be used on any browser or device.
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It can be integrated with productivity apps such as Google Suite and Microsoft Office and allows users to chat and comment in real-time.
2. Google Drawings

Google Drawings is a free mapping software that allows you to create various diagrams and charts with basic shapes.

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Google Drawings is browser-based and completely online. It includes free storage without expiration.
3. Edraw

Edraw is process mapping software that looks similar to the Microsoft Office interface. If you’re familiar with that environment, this tool will be easy for you to navigate.
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Edraw includes an automatic layout for mind maps and allows you to customize everything simply.
4. Gliffy

Gliffy is great for those of us who are not particularly artistic. With a variety of templates and themes available, users can create professional looking process maps without a lot of headache.
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With Gliffy, you can easily revert back to a previously saved version of your work. This is a helpful feature if you missed something or encountered an error while you were working.
5. Cacoo

Cacoo is the perfect process mapping tool that can be integrated with a number of apps.
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Cacoo is extremely collaborative and allows multiple users to work on a project, tracking changes, reviewing the status, and working together to reach the goal.
Depending on your needs and your budget, there are a number of tools that can assist you along your process mapping journey.
Process Mapping Examples
Remember that your process may look different than the next marketer’s. Because of this, the visual representation you use will differ as well. You can find a number of process mapping examples. Use the tool and the setup that works best for your business’ needs.
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When you create your process maps, remember that “good” is sometimes good enough. This doesn’t need to be a museum-worthy work of art. It just has to be a functional, easy-to-follow plan that everyone can understand. Keep it simple. Ultimately, this needs to work for you and your situation.
Marketing is inherently risky. You never know if the money and effort you put into a campaign or ad will produce results. To mitigate the risk, spend more time on the planning phase before you move on to execution.
Once you know who your audience is and how you will reach them, you can focus on the messaging and the specific strategies that you’ll use to attract new leads and convert them. Without this step, you’re basically crossing your fingers and hoping for the best. Luckily, when you use process mapping to map out your project’s plan, you’ll have a better chance of seeing the return on investment you were hoping for.

The auto connection Phantom is pretty much useless now with the weekly limit of 100. I’m currently searching profiles and then scraping 80 profiles a day. Out 140 profiles scraped I returned14 emails (10%), 7 of those emails were from non 1st level connections so essentially looking at a 5% return which is still pretty good but obviously with the Phantombuster suggested rate limits the returns are slow to build up. Is there anything else I could be doing to increase returns? Secondly, I have a LinkedIn premium account with 4,300 connections. Their blog post says an account with 5k connections can scrape 150 profiles a day and a premium can scrape 300 a day. It then goes onto say Sales Nav max search result extractions 5000 a day. Should you only scrape 300 a day if you have Sales Navigator? https://phantombuster.com/blog/guides/linkedin-automation-rate-limits-2021-edition-5pFlkXZFjtku79DltwBF0M The same blog says you can auto connect to 300 profiles a day with a premium/sales nav account so a little bit concerned this information might be out of date.
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LinkedIn isn’t just for keeping tabs on your old colleagues anymore. Many small business owners have found incredible benefits from including LinkedIn as part of their social media strategy, from building brand recognition to connecting with valuable mentors to finding new clients.
While you can gain plenty of traction simply by posting now and then, there are tools you may not know about that can improve your impact. Read on for a few new ways to start using LinkedIn today—along with examples of how a few entrepreneurs have put them to use.
1. Start a Newsletter
You can already easily share your expertise by publishing articles on LinkedIn, but for another way to build up your thought leadership and possibly a decent following at the same time, check out LinkedIn’s newer newsletter feature.
Publishing a newsletter is similar to publishing an article, with one key difference. When you publish an article, only a small percentage of your connections will see it in their feed, depending on the platform’s algorithm and how much they’re paying attention. When you publish a newsletter, on the other hand, every single one of your subscribers gets a notification that you’ve shared new content, making it much more likely to lead to a higher engagement rate.
Newsletters are an ideal strategy if you want to write content on a focused topic and can publish great ideas on a regular cadence. For instance, Latesha Byrd, CEO of talent development agency Perfeqta, started a newsletter on the future of work and within two months of publishing weekly she had almost 5,000 subscribers.
Latesha Byrd’s LinkedIn newsletter, The Perfeqta Future of Work.
The ability to publish a newsletter isn’t currently available to everyone, though. In order to access it, you have to turn on creator mode on your dashboard and meet certain access criteria (at least 150 followers or contacts and a recent history of sharing original content). Once newsletters are available to you, you’ll see a “create a newsletter” option when you click “write an article” at the top of the home page.
Scroll down on your profile page to find your dashboard, where you can turn on creator mode.
2. Host Live Conversations
Live videos are an ever-popular type of content across social platforms, and LinkedIn is no different. There are a lot of possibilities with LinkedIn Live video, but what we’ve seen work the best for small business owners is hosting intimate conversations or roundtable discussions.
For one, it allows you to tap into the incredible and ongoing engagement that video content offers. Just like on many other platforms, LinkedIn Lives stay up as a recorded video after the event is over, extending your potential reach.
Sherrell Dorsey, founder and CEO of The Plug, has found great results from hosting Live discussions. “We may have 400-500 people viewing the discussion live, and then I’ll look up a week later and 4,000-5,000 people have watched the video. That engagement has led to great conversions to our newsletter,” she says.
LinkedIn Live discussion hosted by Sherrell Dorsey of The Plug.
LinkedIn Live can also be a great way to connect with other leaders, tap into their audiences, and provide valuable content to your followers. “I get to bring on some phenomenal people that are actually doing this work,” says Byrd of the Live conversations she hosts. “Other companies can see that it’s possible for them or get some tangible and tactical strategies to take back to their organization.”
Similar to newsletters, this feature isn’t currently available to everyone. You must meet the same access criteria and then submit an access request to be able to stream live.
3. Create or Reshare Video Content
If going live is a little too daunting for you, that’s okay too. As is true for most of the internet, video content of all types is performing well on LinkedIn right now, and like we’ve seen elsewhere (Instagram Stories is a good example of this) your video content doesn’t have to be nearly as well-produced as videos for other platforms.
“The great thing about LinkedIn is that it doesn’t have to be super polished or professionally edited,” says Byrd. “I shared a video of me where I just got in front of the camera and talked for a minute about the scary process of rebranding my business. It got so many likes and views that it even got the attention of the LinkedIn team.”
Sheena Russell, founder and CEO of Made With Local, agrees that you don’t have to be quite as curated when posting videos on LinkedIn. “It feels like a low-pressure and low-stakes environment where I also feel a lot of other founders are sharing more freely.”
She’ll even go so far as to repost videos created for other channels—like Instagram reels—that feel applicable to her personal brand on LinkedIn. “It’s not what it’s built for, but it does tend to do well,” she says. “We’re not a formal or stuffy brand at all, so I want our little corner of LinkedIn to feel authentically us.”
Sheena Russell of Made with Local reposts a behind-the-scenes on her LinkedIn feed.
4. Hire or Find Clients on the Services Marketplace
LinkedIn is synonymous with hiring for many, but they also have an entire marketplace dedicated to finding contractors and other service professionals. This can be great for small business owners who often can’t afford full-time help just yet.
Simply head to the Services Marketplace and search for the support you’re looking for: graphic design, public relations, accounting, lawyers, and more. You can send more information about your project and request a proposal within the LinkedIn app.
Marketing strategists on the services marketplace.
Or, if your company is a service provider, use this feature to find your next client! At the top of your profile page, click the “Find potential clients” box to add information about the services you offer and show up in the marketplace.
Set up the services you offer on your profile page.
There’s a lot that LinkedIn can offer. I hope these suggestions help you get started if you aren’t already leveraging LinkedIn as a part of your overall social media strategy. Whether it’s one of these options, or something completely different, building a strong LinkedIn strategy can have a major impact on your personal brand or your small business, check out these same entrepreneurs sharing more about how LinkedIn has impacted their businesses here, and reach out anytime on Twitter if you have suggestions for other topics you’d like to see us cover here!