Essential Online Marketing Strategies

Top 4 Online Marketing Strategies

Without further ado, here are the top 4 online marketing strategies that you MUST implement immediately if you want your business to remain competitive. Doing all 4 would be fantastic, but this is often not possible for many people, especially those just now jumping into online marketing, so start with a few (we have prioritized these for you) and work your way to doing all 4 of them in the very near future.

#1 SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

Over 80% of all transactions start online, usually with a search engine. Google currently (as of 9/10/09) has a market share of over 65% over other search engines. People click on the natural / organic results in Google over 60% more often than the paid / sponsored results. All these numbers mean is this:

YOUR WEBSITE MUST BE RANKED WITHIN THE TOP 1-5 ORGANIC RESULTS ON GOOGLE

Here’s how to get there:

1) Optimize your website to meet the guidelines provided by the search engines. Here is a great document provided by Google detailing what they recommend to every webmaster –Google SEO Starter’s Guide

QUICK TIP: Optimize the title tags, alt tags, meta tags, headers and urls of every page of your website. Do NOT stuff keywords into these tags. Make them something natural and useful.

2) Consistently add new, relevant, quality content to your website. Copying and pasting content from another website and putting it on yours does NOT count. Changing and updating existing content can be useful, but adding new pages that are targeted and well written will be much more valuable.

QUICK TIP: If you’re not a writer, get one. It will be the best investment you make for your website. Check Craigslist to start your search for a quality writer. You can get a quality writer for less than $40-$50/page.

3) Get other, quality, relevant websites to put a link on their website that points back to your website. The search engines value backlinks from other websites to yours as they show the search engines that other websites are voting for your website as a popular, authoritative resource.

QUICK TIP: Like referrals, ask for links from other people often. Put link requests in your email signatures, on your website and anywhere else that reaches people you communicate with often. Make it easy for people to link to you by providing explicit instructions on what they need to do. Before any of this though, make sure your website is something that someone would want to link to first. Set your standards high and aim to make your website as authoritative as a site like Wikipedia. People naturally link to Wikipedia often because it is a great resource for just about anything.

Check out our post on Best Practices for First Page Rankings to learn more about how to use SEO to really help your business gain the exposure and business it needs to be competitive.

#2 SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

YouTube has just as many videos as the number of people in the world. Facebook and Twitterhave more than 500 million users between them. People, between the ages of 18-35, spend more than 40% of their day on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and YouTube. All these numbers mean this:

YOU MUST INTERACT WITH PEOPLE ON THE TOP SOCIAL NETWORKS TO REMAIN RELEVANT

Here’s how you get there:

1) Setup accounts on Facebook and Twitter. For Facebook, setup a PROFILE for yourself and a FAN PAGE for your business. For Twitter, setup an account for yourself as a representative of your business. For both Facebook and Twitter, select a good username (i.e. your full name or your business name). Once you learn the ropes, post useful information and post it often. By any means, DO NOT advertise your products or services on these networks right off the bat. You must build authority first before this is even an option for you.

QUICK TIP: Before your start engaging people or posting updates on Facebook or Twitter, LISTEN to other users on these networks first. You will learn how people talk on them and, more importantly, you will learn how to effectively engage other users to build your following and authority.

2) Start a YouTube, Vimeo or Viddler account and start uploading your own videos. If you can afford a professional video production service, then put them to work immediately. If you cannot afford one, then buy a quality HD video camera like the Flip Camera and shoot your own footage. The goal is to get short (30-60 second videos) online that represent your business. These videos should not be traditional product commercials because no one will watch them. Instead, get creative and make some fun, funny, entertaining, viral videos that people will want to pass around to their friends.

QUICK TIP: Once you have some videos created and uploaded tell the world about them. Embed these videos on your website somewhere, grab the url of the page of your website where the video sits and then use Facebook and Twitter status updates to let your friends and followers know about your videos. This will help to drive traffic to your business website or blog and will also start to build your reputation online.

3) Setup a blog on WordPress. More importantly, write in it, a lot! We are huge proponents of WordPress for so many reasons that a large of community of millions of users will support. Just take our word for it, WordPress IS the cream of the crop when it comes to the best blog platform to use. One recommendation we do have is to hire a professional to create a great looking design for your blog as the default WordPress design is not the most aesthetically appealing. If you need a reference for a company to use for this, please leave a comment below or email us at info@businessmarketingblog.org.

QUICK TIP: A blog is essentially a website, which means that it too needs to be optimized. Check out our post on SEO for WordPress to get your blog optimized the right way. Once you have optimized your blog and posted a lot of great content on it, the next step is to let the world know about it. Take advantage of Facebook and Twitter to promote your blog posts to these two widely used social networks.

Check out our post on How to Generate Leads with Social Marketing to learn more about how to use social networks to really help your business gain the exposure and business it needs to be competitive.

#3 PAID SEARCH MARKETING

There is no faster, more immediate way to get targeted traffic to your website on a consistent basis than with Paid Search Marketing, also known as Pay Per Click. Google AdWords provides the most popular pay per click platform for advertisers looking to get valuable exposure on Google’s search results pages as quickly as possible. Search Engine Optimization and Social Media Marketing both take some ramp up time, which is where Pay Per Click marketing can become extremely valuable.

Working much like a newspaper or magazine ad, the more you pay Google for each key phrase the higher your chances of your advertisement showing up in the search results for the key phrases you bid on. Bid price is not the only factor as Google uses ad and landing page quality to place ads appropriately. The playing field is leveled for all advertisers, large or small, and we highly recommend that every business utilizes a strategically setup PPC campaign to advertise their business online.

We have noticed that businesses with a 1st page result in the search engines AND with a sponsored ad on that same first page receive 6 times more traffic then if they just had one or the other. This is all about branding and exposure so take advantage of it. This data means this:

THE MORE EXPOSURE YOUR BUSINESS HAS ON THE SEARCH ENGINES THE MORE LIKELY SOMEONE WILL FIND YOUR WEBSITE

Here’s how to get there:

1) First learn the ins and outs of the platform you are using (Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing, Microsoft adCenter) by using a small budget on your live account. Each system provides great learning tools and resources, especially Google AdWords with their robustLearning Center.

QUICK TIP: Hire a PPC professional to manage your PPC campaigns for you. We always recommend to learn as much as you can and attempt to manage your marketing in-house; however, PPC is one of the forms of advertising that can make a novice burn through money faster than they think. Expect to pay anywhere from 5% – 40% of your ad spend for a  management fee to use a PPC professional. If you need a reference for a company to use for this, please leave a comment below oremail us at info@businessmarketingblog.org.

2) Run your PPC campaign for at least 60-90 days as it takes a little time for these platforms to kick in 100% in terms of spitting out the accurate data for your campaigns. In addition, this minimum time frame allows for you to collect a good sample of data to analyze and use for many aspects of your marketing.

QUICK TIP: Setup reports to be automatically sent to you each day, week and month from these systems so you can easily stay on top of your campaigns. In addition, setup Google Analytics on your website to properly compare your website’s traffic from the paid results with the traffic coming from every other source. Check out our post on website analysis to learn how to read Google Analytics as it pertains to your business.

3) Use quality landing pages, do NOT direct PPC traffic to your homepage. If you are hiring a PPC professional this should be one of the first recommendations they give you. If not, make sure to ask about them as good landing pages can (1) increase conversion rates and (2) increase quality scores which will help to reduce your Cost Per Click. Here are some creative landing page samples from Marketing Sherpa if you are not sure as to what a landing page is.

QUICK TIP: You MUST test your landing pages consistently. Setting up a landing page and never changing it again is not smart. Utilize multi-variate testing to try different combinations of your landing page’s elements until you find the combination that produces the highest conversion rates. Again, this is something a PPC professional should know and implement for you, but if you are trying this out on your own, then just make sure to always test things constantly.

#4 Email Marketing

Right up there with sleeping, eating and watching TV; email is one of the most common activities that we all spend huge portions of our day doing. Studies show that over 75% of Internet usage is email related (checking, writing, sending, organizing, etc). This data means this:

YOU MUST USE A STRATEGIC EMAIL MARKETING CAMPAIGN TO MARKET YOUR BUSINESS

Here’s how to get there:

1) Use an email marketing system that allows you to (1) use professional looking email templates, (2) track the effectiveness of your email campaigns and (3) auto-schedule email messages to be sent at set times in the future (a.k.a. drip marketing).

QUICK TIP: We highly recommend iContact or MailChimp for those looking to use top notch email marketing systems. All of the features required above are included and these two systems have very high deliverability rates as well which means that your messages will actually get to your contacts more often.

2) Do NOT abuse your email contacts. Having a solid database of email contacts to be able to market to is extremely valuable. That said, even one abusive email campaign to your contacts can completely tarnish your reputation and the success of any future email campaigns.

QUICK TIP: Make sure to provide double opt-out options for email contacts. In addition, make sure to consistently scrub your email lists so that you are not sending emails to those who are clearly not wanting to receive your messages. Constantly sending messages to those who do not want your messages or who have asked to stop receiving them will get your account flagged.

3) Always keep accessibility in mind when sending email messages as everyone has different email clients, computers, browsers, etc. Some people might be able to see your entire message while others may only be able to see blocked images.

QUICK TIP: Include a link to a version of your email on your website towards the top of your email message so people can easily navigate to that in case they cannot view your entire message. Also make sure to always include links back to your website for other calls to action as email marketing can be one of your biggest referrers of website traffic if used correctly.

Understanding the Basics of an            Online Marketing Strategy

1. Generate Traffic to Your Website

It probably comes as no surprise that the first step in using your website to sell your products or services is getting potential customers to visit.  Part of your strategy for drawing traffic to your site may include paid advertising, but that’s another topic for another day.  Today, we’re going to focus on content marketing as the centerpiece of your online marketing strategy.  That means creating great content, optimizing that content for search engines, and then actively working social media to get that content maximum exposure.

2. Convert Traffic to Leads

Bringing prospects to your site is only the first step.  Traffic is nice, but it doesn’t pay the bills.  In order to make website traffic profitable, you have to draw the right visitors and then convert those visitors to prospects by collecting their information.  Pair your content with relevant offers or make the content an offer itself by providing a free e-book or white paper to visitors who enter their email addresses and other contact information.  The ability to follow up with your website visitors is critical to your ROI.

3. Convert Leads to Sales

Depending on the nature of your business, some visitors to your website may make an instant purchase or pick up the phone to place an order.  In most cases, though, it will take some follow-up to convert those prospects into customers.  Use the information you’ve collected to maintain contact with your visitors, providing additional information they may be interested in based on their original download, extending special offers and otherwise keeping your business in their line of vision.

4. Track and Analyze

Most businesses track the volume of traffic to their websites and of course all have records on the number of sales completed, but few keep and analyze the kind of detailed records necessary to truly maximize ROI. Determining what works and what doesn’t for your company means not only counting website visitors connected with a particular campaign but also tracking how long they stay, whether and how often they return, whether they ultimately turn into customers and how much additional effort was required to convert them.

5. Adjust

Data and analysis are only as good as the adjustments you make based on your findings.  As you analyze the results of your inbound marketing efforts, identify any point in the process where you’re losing prospects or the system is otherwise breaking down and fine tune it until you’ve reached peak performance at every step.

On average, inbound marketing leads come much cheaper than those acquired through pay-per-click and other cost-based advertising methods.  The right online marketing strategy can significantly reduce the cost of selling your goods and services, but creating an effective online marketing strategy takes time, effort and review.  Make that investment—you’ll be glad you did!

Plaza Bridge Group

Plaza Bridge Group

Online Marketing – A Definition of Terms 

It is often the case when dealing with professionals in any industry, from flyfishing to insurance litigation, that various phrases come up often… and yet are completely foreign to the outside observer.  Flyfishing, which I’ve recently taken up with the help of my father-in-law, Dave Allen, has proven to completely stymie and confuse me… and that’s only after the kind of fly for that day has been discussed! At times, it helps to have someone around to help you understand what is meant by the unique terms in each field. Here are some of my own definitions for key terms that get tossed around in most online marketing conversations:

A Definition of Terminology

1. Adwords – This is the name for Google’s Paid Advertising Solution.  It allows advertisers to pay money to display on Google’s search engine, as well as other sites that have legal affiliation with Google.
2. Conversions (Goals/Leads/etc)- This is a generic term for the intended large goal of a website.  In an ecommerce site, a conversion is probably a hard sale.  In a service related website, a conversion is most likely a “lead” or a “contact me” request.  It is essential to determine what is (or are) the goal conversion(s) for your website.
3. Conversion Optimization – This is the art of utilizing various elements to increase the number of conversions on a website or advertising channel.  This generally involves things like: different forms of testing (Running side by side A/B ads), historical data comparison (did something work before that doesn’t now? Or did we change something we shouldn’t have that used to work?), and many other methods of optimization.
4. CPC – Cost per Click.  In this advertising method, a company pays for every time their advertisement is actually clicked.  Variations of this are: CPM (Cost per 1,000 Impressions – number of times the ad is viewed) and CPA (Cost per Aqcuisition).  For example, Amazon’s Seller Central is a CPA marketplace in that the business only pays Amazon when they sell an item.
5. CTA – Call to Action.  This is an essential aspect of a website but one that is generally not considered well when a site is designed.  This is the goal that you are leading your visitor to on every page.  It should be the goal of that page and one that uses theme design and wording to cause the visitor to desire to “take the next step.”  It generally involves action and verbs.  For example, if someone is on the “About Us” page, perhaps the call to action would be a very obvious box with phone number and “email us” button that says: Want to Learn More?  Call Us Now!  This is a simplistic example, but it demonstrates the aspect of “leading” the site visitor to the next step in the “path” you want them to take.  Here are a couple of articles I have written on this that you may find helpful:  Is Your Website Guiding or Distracting Your Visitors? and How to Give New Life to Your Old Website.  
6. Google Display Network – This is part of Google Adwords that allows the advertiser to target picture, video, or text ads around the internet on websites that have opted in to displaying ads from Google.  The targeting has continue to increase in accuracy so a specific website can be chosen based upon content or visitor demographics.  This can be a good channel but it is tricky and it’s easy to allow non-targeted clicks through if not careful!  Many ad agencies will charge more for the Display Network because of ad design (image or video) and the amount of time it can take to build and target the campaigns accurately.
7. Google Search Network – This is part of Google Adwords that merely shows text ads on Google’s search engine as well as other search engine affiliates that display Google results.  This is the most common place to use advertisements with Google Adwords.
8. Keyword – This is the term for any word or word phrase that can be bid on (PPC) or used for site optimization (SEO).  For example, this is one keyword: widget, and this is one keyword: buy widget in billings mt.
9. Landing Page – This is a generic term for a page on a website that is used specifically for the purpose of sending people there first.  There can be one main landing page or 1,000.  It is generally a good idea to have a landing page be as targeted as possible to a specific target audience and ad group.
10. Organic Search Results – This refers to the part of a search engine that display unpaid results.  For example, in Google, this is the main column underneath the initial 3 ads that are generally shown.  These results are chosen by Google with an extremely complicated and super-secretive algorithm that uses a large variety of factors to determine ranking.
11. PPC – Pay Per Click… simply another way to say CPC.
12. SEO – Search Engine Optimization.  Short answer: This is the art of helping a website appear higher in organic search.  Long answer: Wikipedia article.
13. SERPs – Search Engine Result Page.  This is a term describing the page that appears when someone types a keyword into a search engine (like Google or Bing) and then presses the search button.  What displays with all of the search results is called a SERP.
14. Target Audience – This refers to the intended group of people you are most invested in reaching.  Sometimes a target audience is not necessarily who you think they are.  Sometimes there can be more than one target audience.  For example, a basketball manufacturer may find that their target audiences are: (1) college Athletic Departments (2) street-ballers (3) parents with toddlers (who want small basketballs for backyard play).  It is then helpful to designate various landing pages targeted specifically to each target audience.  It should also be noted that there will always be anomalies and unique individuals that visit for various reasons.  A target audience however, is identified as a majority of people that you most want to reach for a specific purpose.  It is then wise to organize and theme the website (or the website parts) as specifically as possible to those target audiences.
15. UX – User Experience.  This is a term used in marketing/web design to identify elements that should be a certain way because of the fact that a real person will be looking at them/using them.  A good marketer and a good web designer will always keep UX in their minds and be thinking about how each change or suggestion will affect real people interacting with the website.

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