Marketing Strategies for Your Small Business!
Below are recommended ideas to optimize your business exposure.
Search Engine Optimization:
SEO stands for “search engine optimization”, and is the process of getting traffic from the “free,” “organic,” “editorial” or “natural” listings on search engines. All major search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing have such results, where web pages and other content such as videos or local listings are shown and ranked based on what the search engine considers most relevant to users. Payment is not involved, as it is with paid search ads... see Pay-Per-Click Ad Campaigns below. Optimizing your website for the search engines include the process of improving your website's content and structure in order to improve the volume and quality of visitors to your site.Read More...
The term also encompasses a broader definition to include the continual promotion of a website to help it climb higher in search engine results for major search engines like Google and Yahoo. SEO includes extensive keyword research to determine which words a website's target audience are using, changing pages within the website to accommodate these words and phrases, and adding new pages to target specific audiences. It can also include tasks such as creating inbound links to the website from other highly ranked websites and blogs.
Social Media Marketing:
Social media marketing refers to the process of gaining traffic or attention through social media sites. Social media itself is a catch-all term for sites that may provide radically different social actions. For instance, Twitter is a social site designed to let people share short messages or “updates” with others. Facebook, in contrast is a full-blown social networking site that allows for sharing updates, photos, joining events and a variety of other activities. Social media marketing is the process of marketing through social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. By utilizing the social aspect of the web, social media marketing is able to connect and interact on a much more personalized and dynamic level than through traditional marketing.Read More...
Why would a search marketer — or a site about search engines — care about social media? The two are very closely related. Social media often feeds into the discovery of new content such as news stories, and “discovery” is a search activity. Social media can also help build links that in turn support into SEO efforts. Many people also perform searches at social media sites to find social media content. The articles from Search Engine Land below give some more background on all of this: A social media marketing strategy can be as simple as having a company blog, a Twitter account, or attaching "Digg This" and "Tweet This" tags to the end of articles. It can also be as complicated as having a full campaign that encompasses blogs, Twitter, social networking and viral videos through YouTube.
Email Marketing:
Combining the development of an electronic mailing list and also sending old-fashioned letters will put you a step above the rest. Most businesses have harnessed the power of e-newsletters, and they have proven to be very effective and cost-effective. But, because e-mail marketing is now nearly ubiquitous, you can quickly separate yourself from your competitors, by occasionally sending personal, snail-mail letters to customers and prospects. Read More...
The e-newsletters, or paper letters, must provide something that customers want to read. They should be appealing to the eye, short, yet detailed. You might be sending an analysis report of recent events in your field, new premium offers or maybe news on discounted items or services that you are providing. "This mailing has to have value to those who read it, so it reflects the value of what you offer," says Leslie Ungar, an executive coach in Akron, Ohio, and "Remember, the best way to sell is to tell." The process can be simplified by creating a letter template, envelope or customer label mailing list in Microsoft Office Word in Office Small Business 2007, which can be printed. The mailing list is easily created in Excel and then imported into Word.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) or Cost-Per-Click(CPC) Ad Campaigns:
Paid search marketing is the process of gaining traffic by purchasing ads on search engines. It is sometimes referred to as CPC (cost-per-click) or PPC (pay-per-click) marketing, because most search ads are sold on a CPC / PPC basis. Jay Lipe, a small business marketing consultant from Minneapolis, Minnesota, said “Using pay-per-click advertising, you can cheaply drive traffic to one-time news events or specialty offerings.”Read More...
Lipe recently set up a Web site for a client, and quickly attracted customers via pay-per-click ads. "The effect was overnight" says Lipe. "Traditionally in the marketing world, it takes weeks or even months to generate acceptable awareness and traffic. Here we saw traffic spike overnight." Pay per click advertising can be a VERY profitable way to increase sales and leads and should be part of every business owner’s Internet Advertising Campaign
Business Cards:
Business Cards not only open the doors for you and your product or service, but in most cases, they will keep the door open. The recipient, if you have made a good first impression, will keep your business card handy for an extended period of time. It is important however, to include all important contact information on the card, be creative, and strive to produce a card that is uniquely yours. Read More...
Elliott Black, a Northbrook, Illinois marketing consultant who specializes in small business, believes that “The business card notepad is referred to almost daily, kept for 30 days or so and carries a high remembrance factor." I have had business cards produced through Vista Print at a very reasonable cost. Click on the following this link to take you directly to Vista Print to: SAVE UP TO 90% + Get FREE Shipping at Vista Print.
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