Marketing Archives - Page 4 of 14

Advantages of Niche Business Marketing

The best way to achieve success on the Internet is to find a niche business market and research that market to find out if there are people searching for that product, the cost of the product, the delivery of the product (digital or by mail) and what kind of affiliate tools are available.

You don’t have to create your own product at first, so you are going to be selling someone else’s product. However, before you do that, you have to do some keyword research to find out what people are really searching for. You can use Google AdWords Keyword tool to do so.

Can you define niche marketing?

This is the smaller part of something bigger. In marketing terms, that means a small group of people in a certain group who would be looking for your product.

This is what niche marketing in general really is. However, here are some examples to help you to understand better.

1. If you are selling baby diapers, your niche market would be parents who have just given birth.

2. If you are promoting canvases, your niche market would be artist and not a building contractor.

3. If you are marketing hammers, the reverse is true that your niche market would be building contractors and not the artist.

4. If you are selling a book about menopause, your niche market would be women over 50 years old and not men.

5. If you are doing a promotion about starting an online business, you need to find out the different forums that newbie marketers hang out and not where the guru visits.

I hope this explains and helps you to understand what is niche marketing.

Advantages of niche marketing

This has many advantages, but the one that stands out more is the fact that you are targeting a specific group of people who are already hungry buyers. That makes your work much easier than just putting up a product and hope that someone buys it.

Once you identify your audience, you will then go ahead and search for an affiliate product that your audience will want to solve their problems. So you have become the middle man – the person who listens to the need of your prospect and find the exact solution to their problems.

You would then go ahead and begin to do research, write articles with valuable information and submit then to article directories. Put up a blog or squidoo lens and put information daily on these portals that will help your target audience to find some of the immediate solutions they will need. This will let them begin to trust you and then they will buy from you. It is that simple.

Cost-Effective Marketing Strategies of Small Business Marketing Experts

Whether your business is old or new, you marketing should be dynamic and timely. Often times marketing in small business involves sending several outgoing calls and walk-in customer service satisfaction. But are these small business marketing ideas still operational today? Or is Internet marketing becoming the next norm for small or big business.

Adding to the dilemma is that, these days, the business magazines, newspapers, Internet and even your email Inbox are filled with small business marketing ideas from just anybody. Inexperienced businessmen or women can easily feel lost in these barrages of small business marketing views, advices, strategies, etc. So let me give you more centered strategies that harness one effective small business marketing strategy: Internet marketing.

Six Top Ideas for Internet Marketing

1. Pay Per Click Marketing (PPC)

For a tech-savvy business man or woman, Pay Per Click marketing proves to be a strong business marketing method. But, entrepreneurs using Pay Per Click should know what they’re doing or their cost per conversion could rapidly break unknowingly. The key to a productive Pay Per Click marketing drive is continuous oversight.

2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Unlike Pay Per Click advertising, Search Engine Optimization pays off slowly but a lasting prospect is feasible. On average, 75% of a business website’s traffic come from organic search engine queries. Remember that search engines wouldn’t mind your advertising budget. What they look into is the SEO strategies you employed on your site What are important are the SEO strategies that you have on your site.

3. Public Relations (PR)

Public relations are perhaps the parent of all small business marketing ideas since advertising campaigns was started. Nailing your offline and your online PR campaign is a very good way to build-up awareness, authority, trust, and loyalty to your business. Online public relation through PR Wire is very cost-effective small business marketing strategy, for example.

4. Twitter and Facebook Places

Adding to the micro blogging and the syndication power of Twitter and Facebook are their new free service to all business marketers: the Twitter and Facebook Places. This application allows you to integrate your Tweets and Facebook updates to display a map where your business is located.

5. Online Business Directories

Today, clients are prepared to junk yellow pages in favor of the more interactive online business directories to find local businesses. If you’re not included on several online business directories, then it means you’re losing on a lot of small business marketing ideas. You’re missing on citation burst that could have tremendous positive impact on search engines.

6. Online Word of Mouth

And the last small business marketing strategy that’s paying huge dividend is online word of mouth. This includes glowing customer reviews on online directories, blogs, and social media sites. Seventy percent of future clients trust online reviews, so it’s time to start looking into ReviewBiz, for example, and start strategizing.

I know that was a lot of online small business marketing ideas to study let alone implement. In fact, imposing and managing all these online marketing ideas can even be time consuming. Don’t worry though because there are solutions you can find on the Internet that should help you implement the marketing strategies above.

In closing, small business marketing ideas such as online directories, etc. are a potent means to reach more local clients. These tried & trusted methods are permanent, and your business will fall if you don’t have these strategies in place.

Monica Patni,Freelance Website Designer, Freelance Website Developer, Internet Marketing

I INTRODUCE THE MOST CREATIVE AND ORIGINAL IDEAS

Hello, I’m a freelance Web & UI designer in Jaipur, India. I have 6+ Years of experience as a Web Designer, Web Developer and graphics designer. Good design is obvious, Great design is transparent. I passionately move pixels and lines of code to craft clean, responsive, and user-friendly websites.

I have built all kinds e.g. Static, Responsive, Web apps, Custom made WordPress design from the scratch including logo, graphics, banners, social media banners etc.

I can help convert your Adobe Photoshop design (PSD) into well-written SEO friendly XHTML/HTML5 and CSS3 code that’s clean, pixel perfect and meets current designstandards.

As a user interface designers, I need a little inspiration from time to time. This is what I have been doing since 2010. Started as a UI Designer, I quickly grew into a professional with many of respectful clients. What separates design from art is that design is meant to be functional.

The Good thing about websites is websites promote you 24/7: No employee will do that. While designing I highly focus on layout, color, graphics, fonts, and SEO friendly Content so that website can rank easily in search engines. Please connect with me I am here to help you to grow your Business.

Who Should You Hire a Freelance Web Designer or Web Design/Development Company in India?

You Might ask this question to yourself, should I hire a freelance web designer or a web development and design company in India. This could be because of various reasons like lack of knowledge, budget constraints, and previous bad design hiring experience.

I will make easy for you, Hire a freelance web designer or ui designers if you want hassle free, No delay, Not getting fooled and wants to start your website design and development quickly. In most cases, companies struggle to get the right talent for stunning Web design. All web development companies hire mediocre designers and developers to work on more than 5 projects simultaneously to cut the cost and increase their profits.

Most of the web design companies work on the same methodology they claim to complete your project in a single day at the cheap rate. They treat every web design or development project as same and just use different templates and bad coding method.

With bad user friendliness and cheap design clients only not struggle to get business but also run behind these companies to fix problems.

You have to understand one thing that no businesses will pay from their pockets if they are giving same services at lower cost despite standard rates than you must be compromising with quality or running behind them to get your project completed ontime.

With Freelance web designer you can interact them individually you will get to know the person who works on your design personally.

How Much Do I Charge?

Frankly speaking, I am expensive than most of the freelance web designers and Design agencies in Surat. I am an expensive designer because I give personal attention to my client’s websites, 2x times more time than any other Freelance Web Designer agency and give 100% to deliver results in minimum time.

I work on a single project at a time so that I have full attention for each and every project.

There is no point hiring a cheap web designer if he fails to deliver a user-friendly website that will give you business in a long run and your all the money is wasted for nothing.

Why Should I Hire Freelance Web Designer in Surat, NCR Only?

It will be easy to communicate and meet if you hire a freelance web designer in Surat, noida, gurugram or faridabad if you are based in Surat/NCR (India). You can easily show your requirements and can get to know each other face 2 face rather than skype or phone.

Also being a freelance web designer I love to meet my clients to create business relationships.

Can We Meet and Discuss or Call You for Website Design Requirements

Yes, sure I am always open for Cofee…

If you nearby in Surat, Noida, Gurugram or anywhere in NCR. We can fix place over call a place which is Central to our location and discuss the project. If you are not near Surat/NCR then no problem we can do Face-to-Face meeting over Skype and discuss the project in details.

hello@monicapattni.com

5 Must-Haves While Looking For A Digital Marketing Agency For Your Startup

Every startup or small scale business holds the potential to grow if it has the right ingredients. The ingredients are the right idea, funding & a professional digital marketing agency to hoist the digital campaigns & plans for such business.

To expand any business’s horizons it has become important for them to be a part of such a digital era. Digital marketing over conventional marketing is becoming one approach that is no doubt output-oriented, steadfast resulting and most of all cost-effective.

A brick & mortar business in today’s time requires a website, social media presence & some key strategies & actionable tasks to evolve as a recognized brand in the market. But before starting with the process, the key is to understand what your startup must look for in a digital marketing agency before partnering with their services – apart from their digital marketing startup package.

Here are the 5 must-haves to look for in a digital marketing firm of today other than digital marketing startup package:

1. Hard to miss – their website

The first thing you need to approach is their website, their website will help you decide how well they can plan for your website’s marketing. Check if their website is up to date and has all the capabilities that any website should host. Their website will speak volumes about their agency, their achievements, competency and the efforts they may be willing to put in your startup’s website to make it trending & best-selling.

2. Referrals for the credibility

It is the most crucial thing to do – to check the company’s profile & market image before extending a contract with them for their service. You can contact their ex-clients or customers to get the preview of their work pattern & check how well they have managed to publicize certain brands in the search engines. The best way could be testimonials & the portfolio embedded on the website.

3. Veteran of the current technology, software & marketing methods

Digital marketing is effortless if it doesn’t house the latest technologies, software, tools & the methodologies. Look for the veterans or experts that are familiar with the latest social media performance monitoring & analytics tools, knows the search engine’s guidelines and can come up with customized strategies suitable to the brand/company profile.

4. Complies well with your startup’s goals & ideas

A well-reputed online marketing agency knows how to come in terms with any startup’s shared goals, nature & idea behind it. An agency must comprehend the nature of business & must revert the strategies or plans that work in their demeanour.

5. Flexible in terms of making communication with the client

Such marketing firm should be easy in terms of bringing right communication on the tables. They should not lapse in terms of communicating the core messages like the process, progress or the suggested actions for the certain project.

It takes the right digital marketing firm to flourish any startup to with creativity, innovation, insightfulness in their coming process.

Internet Marketing Running on Steroids!

Our goal is to build an Internet business second to none. Is that possible or maybe we need to work on new plans and get more focused if we’re going to bulk up like we’ve been hitting the steroid bottle or too many energy pills.

Anyway, as “they” say, there’s no free lunch and that does seem to be true at our house and I’m guessing yours too. Even with a few challenges we believe that GRATITUDE is our mainstay for living to enjoy the good life.

Internet Marketing and “possibilityTHINKING” go hand in hand. Nothing seems to offer the same or even a similar opportunity for us to build our own home business and turn it into a “cash cow” of huge returns. We like that option for you along with our entire mastermind team. I’m confident you agree and

we’re programed (focused) on making it happen.

Where’s the problem with this picture? Sometimes our family members or close friends bring out the negative board with NO way or impossible, you’ll never make any money so get yourself a job, right? J.O.B = “JustOverBroke” or you’re not smart enough, you don’t know how or worse, it’s a stupid idea.

Some will say that YOU need to get yourself settled into a big corporate position, big salary, perks and all the goodies, a retirement pension, nice car, insurance extraOrdinary. Maybe an NFL starting line position, right?

Unfortunately, times have changed across America, the entire world seems likewise, many former “grunt” jobs are long gone along with many executive positions most of us have known in the past.

A high percentage of the “workforce” today is living with parents well into their 20’s and 30’s for survival. Many starting jobs are low pay often found in the food industry, sales jobs on commission or large box stores packing and shipping to name just a few employers hiring in most areas.

All you have to do is look around your local environment, notice where most of your peers are working, others standing on the corner doing “nobody” knows what except it’s illegal, criminal or financially a poor choice in the marketplace.

Any of us can “paint” a bad picture or see things from the negative side but there are still opportunities available for the go-getter willing to start at the bottom and work up the ladder to prove their value to an employer.

I’m convinced there will always be new industries, new discoveries, inventions showing up as income possibilities for the dreamers and thinkers willing to believe in “possibilityTHINKING” along with a few trials and tribulations.

Sitting back on your hands will never get the fire started but those with some ambition and motivation are the ones with a “fire in the belly” worth our notice and a knowing that good will come and develop into a valuable asset in time.

Many people are turning to the Internet Marketing challenge, learning from those trainers and coaches with good tracks, integrity, honesty that remains intact for the discerning to validate, vet with due diligence prior to making a leap into the world of building your own home based business.

Regional Marketing Strategies and Master Franchising Conflicts

When entering a master franchise agreement one must pay particular attention to the section on advertising and marketing requirements. Generally speaking franchisors are interested in secure brand name recognition in the assigned master franchise territory (County, State, Country). The franchisor also understands what works best for their business model in attracting new business, and or has probably given careful consideration to how this will affect the master’s franchise sales, and the over-all brand name.

Still, it would be irresponsible to believe that the marketing and advertising that has worked in one region or country will work the same in another. Indeed, there needs to be regional variation’ and often the master franchise buyer will have some decent insight into their own territory. What works one place will not necessarily work everywhere. Therefore the master territory buyer will need to look into the master agreement and may need to negotiate some changes.

Global Franchise had a particularly telling article in their 2016 December issue titled; “Fourteen Questions for a Master Franchisee Buyer” and the well written piece noted that master franchise buyers certainly need to ask themselves; “Who is responsible for advertising in my Territory?” and went on to say: “The master franchise agreement sets forth the parameters of who is responsible for advertising, marketing and related activities. The master franchisee will likely have the obligation to develop and implement a marketing plan for each territory. The franchisor will either require or reserve the right to review and approve the marketing plan and any materials used for advertising purposes.”

One thing I had learned in setting up master franchises for my company was that what worked in California did not work so well in Pennsylvania, Texas, Florida, Arizona or Colorado. The weather was different, the culture slightly different, and the buyers were not always the same types. And mind you, this is all one-country. As I set up master agreements in other countries the regional variation with advertising, branding and marketing got even more diverse, and that was a good thing too. Had it not, or if I’d forced my master partners to do things the way I’d always done them, I doubt they could have succeeded or stayed on schedule as they developed their cluster of franchisees to extend our brand name.

Let’s face it, as a franchisor, the worst thing that could happen would be for a master franchisee to go out of business and then have burned territory and a tarnished franchise brand name in that territory. It’s hard to pick up the pieces when that happens. Suffice it to say it’s better for all concerned when regional variation is in the mix when it comes to marketing and advertising. So, master agreement signers ought to realize that franchisors ‘get this’ and are often willing to negotiate the terms under these provisions. Think on this.

The Feasibility of Social Media Marketing and Consulting

A lot of research is undertaken regularly to determine new trends and developments in the online business. These exciting occurrences are conveyed to industry players and the general public as well. The online advertising market has grown enormously through the years and this growth is not at all waning.

Social media marketing and consulting has been acknowledged as one of the most viable online business opportunities. You just have to do three things to make it click.

You need to take care of the business painstakingly to make it grow and succeed for the long-term. Begin with a practical and realistic business plan. Be careful with your implementation and network with possible clients. Make sure that your customers are satisfied with your deliverables. Start slow by getting one client at a time until you are able to perfect the system and have the competence to take on many clients.

Teach a business organization to become more personal and put in place the effective foundation for success in any online venture. This concept makes it much easier for neophyte entrepreneurs to know more about social networks and brand conversations.

Give emphasis to the importance of the brand and crucial aspects in internet marketing like blog writing, put together strategies, outreach projects, brand analysis, profile enhancement and web software design.

Here is a useful advice if you want to go into this business as a competent Social Media Marketing Consulting Firm and provide professional help to new industries.

The Social Media Marketing Consulting provider must be capable of attaining the three things mentioned earlier and achieve satisfactory results. The brand becomes popular and benefits about this brand are immediately spread around because of this technique. Information is passed from a single individual to hundreds and even thousands of people. Positive information saturates the search engines and the result is website traffic shoots up. With the help of the experts, it becomes easier to acquire more customers. Converting them into loyal and satisfied customers become very manageable. These companies adhere to ethical practices and make use of effective systems to give the bets coverage for a particular business. The Social Media Marketing Consulting Company continuously upgrades its programs in enhancing awareness and upgrading the websites of their clients.

Your endeavor being one of the most feasible online business opportunities can support all types of businesses in their effort to propagate research and development, marketing promotions and advertising. These are the search engine optimization authorities that are committed in providing internet advertising and social marketing techniques as well as SEO that will surely enhance the online undertaking. Of course, the unique strategy of employing social media networking to reach out to more audiences should not be forgotten.

Social Media Marketing is now widely used by enterprising and inventive businesses. Social media has become very useful to most marketing campaigns. Business owners acknowledge the fact that this line of attack is capable of penetrating a wider audience. This technique is exciting and creates fresh opportunities to generate more visitors and inbound sales.

The Secrets for Successful Revenue in Digital Marketing – Benchmarking Process

According to the British Quality Association (1989) characterized TQM as follows:

“TQM is a corporate business the board reasoning which perceives that the client needs and business objectives are equivalent”.

The accomplishment of significant worth is in this manner achieved by near and dear incorporation and duty, given to a relentless improvement measure, with quantifiable level of execution by totally concerned.

The Basic Stages in Problem Solving are:

– Identify the issue, alongside progress objectives:

– Develop a System Orientations as follows:

A bit of the General Tools to Benchmark are:

(I) Cause and Effect Diagram (Ishikawa Sketch Diagram)

Conditions and sensible outcomes diagram helps with reviewing the assorted anticipated explanations behind an issue or situation. With this quality control instrument, one can assess the contributing components as arrangements and subcategories. You could fuse and find the hidden driver of an issue; uncover the bottlenecks in your cycles and perceive where and why a cycle isn’t working.

(ii) PERT

PERT speaks to Program Evaluation Review Technique. High-spirited charts are gadgets used to plan tasks inside an endeavor – making it less difficult to schedule and sort out partners accomplishing the work as a TEAMWORK.

Proactive diagrams were made during the 1950s to assist manage the creation of weapons and assurance envisions for the US Navy.

(iii) TAGUCHI Methods

The Taguchi procedure for quality control is an approach to manage planning that underlines the pieces of creative work (Research &Development), thing plan and headway in reducing the occasion of defects and disillusionments in made items.

(iv) KANBAN

Kanban is a system for managing the creation of things with a weight on consistent conveyance while not overburdening the improvement gathering. Like Scrum, Kanban is a cycle or cycle expected to gatherings to chip away at groups viably and with the standards of collaboration for non-stop achievement.

(v) JIT (Just in Time Principle)

These are the 5 essential principles of JIT Management:

Total Quality Management, Production Management, Supplier Management, Inventory Management, and Human Resource Management.

JIT won’t suffer if there is definitely not a strong emphasis on TQM (Total Quality Management).

(vi) BATNA

Is the ability to perceive an arbitrator most ideal choice as opposed to a Negotiated-Agreement, is among one of the various bits of information mediators search for when characterizing bargain making and trade systems.

If your current game-plan shows up at a gridlock, what’s your another Best Alternative.

I immovably suggest you read the book ‘Getting to Yes’ by William Ury.

Or on the other hand simultaneously, I recommend you read ‘Moving beyond NO ‘ by William Ury if your values and principles don’t agree to the customers / clients with a win-win deal.

(vii) Poka – Yoke

Poka-Yoke is a Japanese articulation that means “bungle fixing”, “botch sealing” or “coincidental bumble expectation”.

A Poka-Yoke is any instrument in any cycle that empowers a stuff executive to keep a Strategic Distance from Mismanagement or Miscalculating.

Its inspiration is to dispense with by Preventing, Adjusting, or Causing to Notice Human Mistakes as they occur.

(viii) Kaizen

Kaizen is a thought symbolic business practices that tirelessly improve all limits and incorporate all agents from the CEO to the consecutive development framework workers.

Kaizen is the Sino-Japanese word for “advancement and ceaseless improvement”.

(ix) Mission Statement – Have a convincing Statement of Purpose, with Brand Esteem, your Moral Methodology Systems and Standard centered organization in all times of your Digital Marketing approaches and prepares.

(x) CIT – (Continuous Improvement Team):

Nonstop Improvement Team a deliberate group from a comparable work fragment sitting reliably to improve a particular cycle, cycle or action

(xi) CAT (Corrective Action Taken): A work pack or Team under the activity of the local manager outlined to deal with a particular issue.

A segment of the Specific 7 Quality Control Tools are according to the accompanying:

STAGE (1) – STRATIFICATION: is portrayed as the show of organizing data, people, and articles into specific social affairs or layers… This data grouping and examination methodology confines the data with the goal that models can be seen and is seen as one of the seven basic quality instruments.

STAGE (2) – TALLY SHEET or Check Sheet is a structure (record) used to assemble data continuously at the region where the data is delivered. The data it gets can be quantitative or emotional. Exactly when the information is quantitative, the check sheet is sometimes called a tally sheet.

STAGE (3) – HISTOGRAM: It resembles a Bar Chart, anyway a Histogram bundles numbers into ranges.The height of each bar shows the quantity of fall into each span. Likewise, you pick what scopes to use! Model: Height of Olive Trees

STAGE (4) – PARETO ANALYSIS: is a regular strategy supportive where various potential diagrams are weighing for thought. Essentially, the issue solver assesses the favorable position passed on by every action, by then picks probably the best exercises that pass on a total bit of leeway reasonably close to the maximal possible one.

STAGE (5) – Cause and Effect Diagram: Ishikawa diagrams are causal graphs made by Kaoru Ishikawa that show the possible explanations behind a specific event. Typical occupations of the Ishikawa plot are thing plan and quality flaw expectation to recognize potential factors causing an overall effect.

STAGE (6) – Scatter Diagram: A disperse plot is such a plot or mathematical framework using Cartesian bearings to show regards for regularly two elements for a lot of data. If the centers are coded, one additional factor can be appeared.

STAGE (7) – Control Chart: A Control Chart shows how a cycle varies after some time, while perceiving uncommon explanations behind assortment and changes in execution. Like a run diagram, it fuses quantifiably made Upper and Lower Control Limits.

Watch the Benchmarking by Robert C Camp on YouTube for more details.

[Source / Reference: Dr. D. D. Sharma (Total Quality Management – Principle, Practices & Cases)

Marketing Crypt Tales: Are You Just Earning the Badge?

How Will COVID-19 Impact Holiday Shopping?

COVID-19 is a global crisis that has affected economies, supply chains and retailers around the world. Your customers’ purchasing decisions this fall/winter may look completely different from what they did last year.

As marketers, we’ve had to pivot our strategies in the face of COVID-19.

Those tried-and-true marketing tactics that worked for us before may not anymore. No matter what type of small business you have, it’s crucial to realize that because the retail landscape has shifted, your holiday marketing plan must too.

Take a look at these recent stats from Think with Google:

56% of Canadian shoppers say the pandemic will affect how they’ll shop for the holidays this year. Almost 65% of those who plan to shop this season said they will shop online more than they did in previous seasons.
73% say they will browse for gift ideas online and not in-store.

So as we head into the 2020 holiday shopping season, here are 3 ways to ensure your small business stands out from the competition and reaches your target audience effectively.

1. Embrace communication.

Communication is always important, and even more so when customers may have health and safety concerns around in-person shopping.

Contactless buying and curb side pickup are already incredibly popular, so expect that to continue into the holidays and beyond.

As part of your holiday marketing plan, think about how you can share these types of advantages with your customers, whether it’s a blog or adding keywords like “curb side pickup” to your social media posts and paid ads.

Before you share your seasonal messaging with people, make sure your inventory is up to date. Many shoppers will be searching online for products or services with the keywords “available near me” before heading out.

You don’t want someone to drive over to your shop because they saw a trendy toy on your website or loved an outfit they saw was “available near me,” only to arrive and find out that you don’t actually have it in stock.

I’m sure there are many other examples of how COVID-19 will impact holiday shopping.

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READ: How to Create an Email Marketing Campaign Your Audience Will Love

An email newsletter campaign can be an essential part of your marketing plan, and not just during the holidays.

Sending consistent newsletters to your followers gives you the ability to develop a “Know, Like and Trust” relationship with them that will dramatically increase your brand visibility and market reach.

Yet many business owners and entrepreneurs pass up this golden opportunity to build relationships and increase sales. Are you one of them?

I’m sharing some reasons why your small business should create an email marketing campaign and offering tips to help you increase open rates.

Where Does Social Media Fit Into a Business Marketing Plan?

According to The Social Media Examiner’s recent Social Media Marketing Report, “The number-one advantage of social media marketing is generating exposure for the business, indicated by 85% of all marketers, followed by increasing traffic [to a website] (63%) and building new business partnerships (56%)”. With 65% of the marketers stating they are relatively new to social media, many questions arose as to how to implement it effectively without “wasting” a lot of time.

Let’s take a look at the overall Internet Marketing plan of a business to think about incorporating social media into that plan.

How are your potential customers finding you?

Traditional advertising such as word of mouth, TV, Yellow Pages, News Paper ads remain somewhat effective to get traffic to your business. Many of you have discovered that using the power of the internet through the search engines is making those methods nearly obsolete. Social media is an outstanding method to find people interested in what you offer and get traffic to your business.

An essential piece to marketing on-line is a Website & a blog. Most of you reading this will find that “old news”. The design, optimization, and content of the website and an informative blog will certainly be the hub of your internet marketing plan. Yet there is more to consider. You want people to find your website, visit it, stay for awhile and become a loyal customer.

The first step of an internet marketing plan is to ask yourself these questions: Have you carefully completed your market Research? Do you know if people are looking on-line for what you are selling? If people are searching on-line using the internet do you know what words they use to locate what you are selling or providing? These terms are known as your “Key Words”. It is important to have completed the “keyword research” to know if they are searching on line for a solution that you are providing.

The next step would be Search Engine Optimization, SEO – Designing the site and its content so that it is found by the search engines. This is not an exact science nor is it magic – experts in the SEO field understand specific things need to be in place so your site gets found. Having your site reviewed often brings to light details that are easily added to affect your search engine ranking.

Local businesses need to be maximizing their listings in Google Places, Yelp and other local map applications to get found quickly, locally. An optimized listing provides legitimacy and validates the content on your website increasing search engines recognition of your site.

Paid on-line advertising is another option. “Pay per click” ads through Google and Facebook are available. PR, articles, and blog posts drive significant traffic as well and many resources are free. The links back to your site from these resources again, legitimize your site. They “vote” for and provide validity of the authenticity of your website. These are just a few of the useful tools that can increase the number of potential clients to your site.

Social Media fits into this piece of the marketing plan by getting your message out there, increasing your visibility and building a following of people interested in your services.

Blogging, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and local networking groups are just a a few of the many social media options out there. Choose your plan carefully Map out the possible services and gradually incorporate those that make the best sense into your plan. Start with one piece. Gradually add in the other pieces.

“Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and blogs were the top four social media tools used by marketers, in order.” according to the Social Media Examiner.

Blogging is easily updated keeping content fresh. It is used to inform, educate and entertain opening the door for clients to interact. Build your expertise, talk to followers using the known words that engage – give them what they are looking for, solve their problems, offer them solutions and educate them. Here is where you want to make sure you “capture” their contact information – what do your customers need that will entice them to give you their contact information? Provide it to them, and follow up.

With the analytics available on-line, you can test and determine what works within your marketing plan. What pages are holding their attention? What pages are the ones they leave from? How long do they stay? What interests them?

Building relationships– encouraging loyal, returning customers through social media significantly adds to your overall marketing approach. It has been said it is cheaper to keep a customer than find a new one. This is the phase in which profits are made.

What is your business mindset?If you strive to be helpful and known as the local expert willing to educate your potential customers, you build trust and loyalty. As a consumer, what keeps you returning to your favorite businesses? It is these strategies that keep you prominently in your customers mind.

Follow up. Stay in touch. If you don’t have a way to get information to your customers through email, it is time to implement that plan. Email is an excellent, inexpensive way to do this.

Social Media is one piece of a strong marketing strategy implemented over time. A social media marketing plan is designed with your client and your business in mind. Where do your potential customers go to find information about the products or services you offer? If they are on-line – you should be as well. With a few tools and a great plan, you just might find this your favorite way to interact and relate with your customers. It is another dimension to networking. See you on-line!