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Posts Tagged ‘internet marketing’
Thursday, April 18th, 2013
The reason you decided to outsource your online marketing is because you don’t have the expertise to make it successful. Or, it could be that you don’t have to the time. Either way, you still need to be involved in the process.
Your Internet marketing consulting firm is going to rely on you for certain information. And they may rely on you to implement certain key aspects of your online strategy. You shouldn’t let them down.
Here are 5 specific ways some companies sabotage their own online marketing efforts.
- They aren’t involved in the process – Don’t just hire an Internet marketing firm and never communicate with them. Instead, be a part of the process. Create an ongoing dialogue with your company and learn how the process works. The more you know about what they’re doing, the less likely you are to get into trouble that could cost you more in the long run.
- They aren’t fully committed – Are you committed to the SEO, social media, or other marketing program your firm recommended? If not, let them know. Nothing can kill a campaign faster than the client not being fully committed.
- They don’t review their keyword lists – If you don’t review your keyword lists, you’ll end up targeting keywords that won’t help your business. You’ll get the wrong kind of traffic and see fewer conversions. That will cost your business money and lower your ROI.
- They don’t do what they say they’re going to do – If you promise your online marketing consultant that you’ll do something, follow through. They could be waiting on you before moving to the next stage. You’d expect the same from them, right?
- They are slow to respond to requests – If your Internet marketing consultant requests something from your staff, there’s a reason for it. Don’t blow them off. Your input is a valuable part of the overall process.
Internet marketing is not a “set and forget” process. You have to be involved in every stage of the program. That doesn’t mean you have to spend all of your time looking over your consultant’s shoulder, but the more input you provide the more likely you’ll see positive results.
Tags: internet marketing, online marketing, online marketing consultant, online marketing strategy
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 26th, 2013
It doesn’t matter if you operate a local business trying to market yourself online or if your audience is global, online surveys can be a resourceful way to get feedback on your products and services, help you improve your delivery, and grow your business.
The first, and natural, benefit you get from online surveys is realtime reporting. You can see results as soon as they are available. Realtime metrics makes this possible, and if you need data fast to make a quick decision, then an online survey can be your rescue team.
A second benefit is you can often mine great data from your customers. Provide a couple of open-ended questions on your survey and see what people come up with.
If you want to roll out a new product or service and have several options to choose from, ask your customers or website visitors. There’s nothing worse than rolling out a new product that no one is interested in because you didn’t ask for their feedback before putting out the cost. Instead, present a survey and ask which product or service respondents are most interested in. Ask the right questions and you can get invaluable feedback before you spend the money.
Don’t forget to thank your survey respondents. The best “thank you” is a valuable freebie or discount. If you offer an incentive for taking your survey, you are more likely to get the feedback you desire.
Tags: internet marketing, online marketing, online surveys, surveys
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | No Comments »
Friday, July 27th, 2012
Great content is everyone’s goal. That is, everyone who attempts to market their business, product, or service online. But why is great content so important? Can’t you do the same thing with mediocre content?
That seems like a silly question, but there is a lot of mediocre content on the Internet. And a lot of bad content. After all, not all content can be great.
Great content is that content that sets itself apart from the rest. It’s content that gets attention without effort. In other words, if you write a blog post and find out three days later that it has attracted thousands of unsolicited links, there’s your great content. But what made it great?
That’s the million dollar question. Greatness is in the eye of the beholder.
Great content is not necessarily well-written content. It can be content that connects on an emotional level with a lot of people. And then, because it’s great, it attracts a lot of links. Those links are not what makes the content great. They are the evidence of its greatness. But that’s not to say that all content with a lot of links is great content. Sometimes, bad content can get a lot of links because the content creator went out and built a lot of links to it thinking it was great. They just wanted to increase their search engine rankings.
Not everyone can create great content. And no one can create great content all the time. So when you sit down to plan your content, don’t think in terms of what will make it great. Instead, think about what questions your readers are asking, then answer those questions.
Tags: content, internet marketing, link building, links
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, July 3rd, 2012
Blogging, more than any other kind of marketing, is multi-dimensional. In fact, I’ve identified 5 key dimensions of your blog and they have all equal value. When you blog you should keep each of these 5 dimensions in mind.
Here they are, the 5 dimensions of blogging:
- Search engine optimization – Every blog post is a separate web page. Since search engines rank web pages, if you blog every day for a year and each blog post is optimized for 3 key phrases, then you’ll have 1,095 potential No. 1 rankings for your blog alone. And that’s not counting the benefits you get from internal link building, photo and image optimization, video embeds, etc.
- Social media – Your blog is a conversation. That conversation starts off site at places like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Savvy marketers figure out how to get the conversation from these social media outlets to their blog.
- Branding – The best bloggers create a brand. Your brand is your message. Speak it loudly, speak it boldly, and make it memorable.
- Customer Service – Customer service begins at first contact. For many marketers, that first contact is through a blog. Build your customers one conversational piece at a time. Readers become customers, customers become evangelists.
- Reputation Management – Your reputation is everything. By keeping your blog posts focused on your core competence and mission, and because you promote your message through the various social media outlets, every time you present yourself in some corner of the Internet you build your reputation. Do it one step at a time.
Blogging is multi-dimensional Internet marketing. Create a strategy and stick with it. You’ll be glad you did.
Tags: blogging, Branding, internet marketing, Reputation Management, search engine optimization, Social Media
Posted in Blogging for Small Business | 2 Comments »
Sunday, June 3rd, 2012
Have you checked your website’s health lately?
If not, you might want to take it in for a checkup. The Web changes and what was considered best practices in web design and search engine optimization five years ago isn’t the same as it is today. You want to ensure that your website follows the best practices and helps you reach the right prospects so that you can help people achieve with the benefits you offer.
When you have your website evaluated by a professional, we’ll take a total look at your Internet marketing plan to see where you can make some improvements. Specifically, we’ll address the following concerns:
- Is your website search engine friendly?
- Are you targeting the most relevant keywords for your niche?
- Are you turning customers away with your website?
- Are you getting good links or bad links to your website?
- What are your website’s statistics saying about the performance of your website?
- What can you learn from your competition to gain a competitive advantage?
- How can you tell what your prospects are really seeking and how you can deliver it to them?
- How you can put yourself in front of more prospects
- Where are the best opportunities online for a website in your niche or industry?
These are pertinent questions for any marketing plan. We’ll help you answer them. All you have to do is ask for a website health checkup. It’s the beginning of a more effective Internet marketing plan.
Tags: internet marketing, search engine optimization, website checkup, website design
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | 2 Comments »
Sunday, January 8th, 2012
Think about commercials on television. Which ones can you just not forget? You know, the ones you catch yourself singing their theme song or repeating verbatim parts of the commercial? Those are the ones that are constantly on the TV. Every time you turn around, they are showing the same commercial again. This is a good market strategy.
Yes, they are annoying to us. However, they are bringing in money for the company by inundating the viewing public. That is what small businesses need to do with their online marketing campaigns.
It’s sort of like brainwashing. For instance, if you are constantly hearing in the background about a certain cold medicine. You are not really listening because you don’t need it. But, when you get sick, your subconscious is going to quickly remember all the commercials you have heard about this certain cold medicine. And, you are sick enough you want to try it.
Online marketing needs to be out there on a regular basis. Not just one ad all the time. Mix it up and have different ads going all the time so that your brand, products and website are getting ingrained in people’s minds. This is one of the oldest forms of advertising and still one of the most effective.
Since you are already thinking of new advertising campaigns for this year, think about how often you can afford to place ads all over the internet and especially social network sites. You just never know where your next customer will come from.
Tags: advertising, facebook, google, internet marketing, online marketing
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | 1 Comment »
Saturday, January 7th, 2012
If you look back just 15 years, you would never have thought that you could do all the things you can do with smart phones. You certainly never thought you could access the Internet from your cell phone, right?
Now, technology allows you to do all kinds of things from smart phones or iPhones. Is your website ready to be accessed? It needs to be because more people today are using their phones to access the Internet and you will be left in the dust as far as users to your site go if you are not mobile web ready.
So, how do you do it? It is really quite simple. Your first step is to see if your site is mobile ready. You can do this with a free service called MobiReady. This will give you a report about how easy it is for your site to be viewed.
Then make sure your site is a clean, easy-to-read site. This in turn will make your site faster, which is what you need for it to be accessible to cell phones. It’s also a good idea to not use Flash on your website. It is not necessary for a site, especially when viewed from a smart phone.
Make sure you use HTML phone numbers instead of making users type in a phone number and use voice search. More users are using their voice option on the phone. This is another step to your marketing strategy.
As you can see, it’s quite simple to make your site mobile ready. You don’t want to be left in the dirt when it comes to users wanting to go to your site but don’t because they can’t get to you on their phone. They are not going to wait till they get home, so you need to get up to speed and become mobile web ready.
Tags: internet marketing, mobile web marketing, online marketing, search engines, website
Posted in Mobile Marketing for Small Business | 1 Comment »
Friday, January 6th, 2012
Just as in the old days, word of mouth was one of the best forms of advertising. It is basically the same today in cyberspace. Online reviews about your business, yourself or your products can and do go a very long way in bringing customers in.
The way it works is that if you put your website on other sites for review, consumers will be able to review your site and make comments. As others come to the site, they will read the reviews and will be influenced by what they read. It’s just like word of mouth.
This is an easy way to market your business and put it in a glowing light with consumers, providing you are providing a good quality product, interact with your customers and are available to your customers.
On the other side of the coin, if you don’t provide good customer service, or your products are always shipped late or your website is just not user friendly, you will get bad reviews. This in turn will keep potentials shoppers from your site which will be bad for business.
Between reviews and social media sites, your on line presence will grow and so will sales. Give the review sites a chance. Try something new. You never know, this strategy may just boost your business better than you ever thought. And, every business needs a boost now and then.
Tags: advertising, Branding, internet marketing, local business, online marketing
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | 4 Comments »
Thursday, January 5th, 2012
Have you ever wondered where all those ads on Facebook and Twitter come from? And, how do you get your business ad there? Although some people may think that the advertising are interrupting the games they play on Facebook, or are just annoying. However, it is a really good place to put your business. More people will see you just on social networks alone.
If you would like an ad on Facebook, you can log in to your account and go to the advertising link at the bottom of the page. From there you can insert your website into the ad. You will be directed to a series of questions to target your audience. You will be given options for paying for the ad. For instance, there are pay per clicks and pay per views. Pay per clicks are only paid if someone actually clicks on your ad or pay per view is paid every time your ad is placed on someone’s page.
Advertising can also be done on Twitter with Twittad. Follow the instructions for Twittad and you will be advertising on Twitter in no time.
Social advertising for small businesses is an effective way to generate more customers to your website and help you make more money. Think about ways to create catchy advertising so your ad will stand out on the page and get someone’s attention.
On line marketing techniques will help you in the long run with your small business. Adding business marketing to your current advertising campaigns can only boost your customers which in turn will boost sales.
Tags: business, facebook, internet marketing, online marketing, PPC, Twitter
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | 27 Comments »
Monday, January 2nd, 2012
If you look at several websites, you will see different links that will take you to related content. This is a great way to pull your website into the related content. How do you do it? It’s actually quite simple and you will be amazed at why you have not used links more.
There are a lot of different techniques but the main one is using document sharing sites. On document sharing sites like Scribd, you can upload your documents into a pdf file. They can then be distributed all over the Internet. Create links in the document back to your website. This increases your chances of getting found in the search engines.
At the same time, you can also search for relevant content to add to your website. This is a great way of sharing information and using various ways of getting back to your site.
It’s also important to link to previous content within your own website. You may have written an article or something a couple of years ago. But it is still relevant and will get readers to read that as will.
Link building or link marketing has been around for a while but it is still a very resourceful tool for your online business. You can always visit with consultants to find out which link building technique or sites that are best suited to your needs.
One thing to remember, where you get back links is more important than what you do. Be sure to use multiple sources to get the best exposure.
Tags: content, internet marketing, link building, links, online marketing, small business
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | 5 Comments »
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