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Posts Tagged ‘Marketing’

Small business Internet marketing can seem like a labyrinth to a small business owner new to the term. There is so much information available--much of it conflicting--that it's easy to get lost and begin to suffer from information overload.

Here are a few ways small business owners can get started marketing their business on line.

* Blogging. A blog is simply a website which is frequently updated. While blogs used to be considered more personal, and resembled on line diaries more than websites, recently businesses have been starting to blog as a way of staying in contact with their customers. Even better than that, Google loves a blog. The more you update your site, the more the Google bots will visit, and the more the Google bots visit, the better chance you have of getting your business's site found.

* SEO. SEO, or search engine optimization, is a huge topic. SEO simply means setting up your site to be friendly to the search engines by giving them the information they need in the places they expect to find it. Using title tags and meta description tags, clearly defining your keywords, and getting other sites to link back to your site are all a part of basic SEO.

* Pay Per Click. Pay per click is a form of advertising where the advertiser buys space through an auction style system, and only pays when someone clicks on their ad. The results that you see at the very top of a search results page in Google are often pay per click ads, as are the smaller (and more obvious) ads off to the right of the page. Pay per click is very efficient at driving traffic to your site, but can be risky as well. You'd do well to hire a specialist in this area rather than plunge in by yourself.

* Article marketing. Whether you're in the business of selling flowers or washing machines, chances are you have knowledge that someone wants. By giving this knowledge away on sites like EzineArticles.com or GoArticles.com in exchange for a link or two back to your site, you can gain greater exposure for your business, and bring visitors in who would otherwise never have noticed you.

* Social Networking. Social networking is word of mouth advertising for the digital age. Instead of Aunt Suzy calling up Cousin Ida to ask who she hired to install the new windows, @AuntSuzy is posting questions about window installs on Twitter and Facebook. If your business is installing windows you'd be well advised to monitor those Twitter conversations. Help out @AuntSuzy with 140 characters of advice about choosing windows and who do you think she'll be recommending to her friends when they need windows?

* Forum posting. Forums are just another form of social networking, except the conversation is generally more focused around a particular topic. No matter what business you're in, there is a forum dedicated to it. Search Google for your topic +Forum and you'll find them. Get registered, start conversing, and as your reputation grows so will your business.

Are you a newbie in the online market and wanted to promote your small business? There are actually many small business marketing strategy that you can implement and target your market using them. But before you go about the process, the one thing that you need to consider is your budget. Are you ready to invest good-sized money to do all the small business marketing strategy? For beginners, this is really intimidating, especially to those who are not knowledgeable about the internet marketing “technology”. But don’t get frustrated because with a little help from the experts, which they call themselves internet marketing gurus, you can fuel your small business marketing strategy and get the results you need for your small business online.

Email marketing is quickly becoming one of the most popular forms of Internet advertising. This is because there are many distinct advantages to the concept of email marketing. However, email marketing does have some disadvantages as well. In this article we will examine the advantages and disadvantages of email marketing and will also provide some insight into how to plan and execute an effective email marketing campaign.

Email marketing certainly has a set of unique advantages over other types of marketing both online and offline. Perhaps one of the most significant advantages to email marketing is the ability to reach a worldwide audience with minimal effort. It is certainly possible to reach a worldwide audience with other types of advertising but traditional types of advertising such as television, radio and the print media are not nearly as effective for reaching potential customers around the world all at once.

Another major advantage to email marketing is it is extremely affordable. This is significant because there are many other types of marketing, including Internet marketing, which are significantly more expensive than email marketing. The costs associated with email marketing are minimal. Ideally you will already have a list of email recipients who are interested in your products and services so there is no cost associated with obtaining a list of email addresses. Additionally the cost to send out emails is minimal and can be considered part of your regular operating costs. All of these factors already make email marketing extremely cost effective.

However, there is some cost involved in email marketing. Primarily this is the costs associated with writing the advertisements and creating any graphics which will accompany the email advertisements. This will require hiring a writer to write the copy for the advertisement and a designer to create and implements the graphics. The cost of these services will vary pretty widely but in general you will pay more for writers and designers with more experience. This is because these writers and designers are expected to be able to produce a higher quality of work than those with less experience could produce.

The most obvious disadvantage to email marketing is the possibility of having your email marketing viewed as spam. This is a very important problem because it could prove to be quite costly in terms of the profit margin for your business. Each day Internet users are bombarded with unsolicited emails serving as advertisements. This problem has reached epic proportions and the abundance of spam infiltrating the email boxes of innocent Internet users has to be cautious and suspicious about any email they receive which is unsolicited and appears to be promoting a particular product or service.

Emails which contain subject lines or content which appear to be similar to spam may be automatically transferred to a spam email folder by the email system. Emails which are not automatically deleted may be deleted without being opened simply because the recipient does not recognize the sender of the email. Both of these problems can result in essentially wasted time for the business owner because the recipients are not even viewing the emails advertising the products and services offered by the business. Additionally, they may result in complaints being lodged against the company for being a purveyor of spam.

Now that you understand the advantages and disadvantages of email marketing, you might wonder how you can maximize the advantages to use email marketing to your advantage. The most important factor to consider is your email distribution list. This should consist of former customers who have expressed a desire to receive emails with information and advertisements as well as potential customers who have also expressed interest in more information.

The content of the emails should also be carefully considered. They should certainly highlight the products and services you offer but should do so without appearing to be a hard sales pitch. A writer with experience in writing this type of copy should be able to assist you in providing insightful and accurate copy which also entices the reader to find out more about your products and services. Finally your emails should provide the readers with a call to action. This should be a statement urging the reader to take a specific action such as making a purchase or researching a product.

Small businesses often fail because they lack the knowledge to get their business running smoothly online. The Internet is a huge environment that connects business to clients from all over the world. Having small business online marketing tips available to consider is critical to your business. If you plan to operate an online business, then you will need to know how SEO and Internet marketing works.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a method used by millions of online Ecommerce and corporations nationwide. SEO includes link building, video marketing, Meta tags, relevant keywords and terms, and much more. Video marketing currently has the highest rating in business marketing because many users online prefer visual aids to web content or text.

Right now over 6 million visitors go on YouTube to view videos. If you are creating videos to market your business, learn some tips to help you create effective Internet marketing videos. Most videos shown online are produced in 1-minute. Longer videos does not capture the audience attention, rather it sends them on to find other videos. Make your videos short and to the point.

Narrow down your audience. Why would you target a broad audience when you are selling healthcare products, or auto parts? Instead, you would focus on your products or services to find out which group fits into this category. Studies show that small businesses who research their targeted audience, narrowing it down to fit their category, produce more results than those who do not research.

Pay-per-click Ads attract loads of attention from online users. PPC ads offered by Google however are expensive, as each click costs you money. If you are building a web site, find a hosting company that offers you $100 free PPC ads. You can use the free money until you build your business and start paying for PPC ads on your own. It is a good way to get started with marketing your business online.

Set up an E-mailer campaign. E-mail campaigns should not include spamming, otherwise, you may find yourself losing customers and banned. Research the Internet to find effective E-mail campaigns, or build your own client list and send out E-mails daily to your prospective or current clients. E-mails should include new products, services, sales, discounts, etc.

Speaking of discounts; small business online marketing tips include offering discounts to your clients. Give your clients money-saving solutions to encourage them to return to your web site and buy more products.