Marketing

Marketing is marketing, right? Well, yes and no. Yes, marketing in general is what we do online but things on the Internet have changed so much over the last few years, that to avoid wasting money and missing sales, we really do have to do things differently, plus making effective use of the new technology like Social Media 2.0.

Marketing online involves differentiating yourself from all those other people who are selling similar products or services, for instance Google comes up with 29,600,000 search results for the keyword B&B. How on earth will you stand out from that size horde?

Marketing – unique, creative, clever, low cost marketing, that’s how!

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Due to many different factors, ongoing changes to your website have to become a part of your Internet marketing strategy. To find out more about some of these changes, email us for a free report on Google’s new search engine algorithms called Caffeine. Click here to email

Become more aware of how to differentiate your website from others selling the same or similar products or services. Amongst others, here are changes you could include in your new marketing strategy:

• Present your products and services from the customer’s point of view – show how your products/services solve his/her problem or fulfill a particular desire. Stay away from telling the world how long you have been in business or how many outlets or staff members you have etc. Your mother cares but no one else really wants to know.

• Every site needs the best SEO it can afford. SEO (search engine optimisation) is probably one of the best and least expensive strategies to adopt for raising your visibility to search engines and therefore, to visitors. Make sure all of the structural elements are in place (meta, alt tags and descriptions, etc.), the site loads quickly, is easy to navigate, has the right search terms (keywords) used in the text, has effective “calls to action” on the pages so people know what they need to do, and so on. These are all part of good and necessary SEO.

• Keep your site fresh with new content, pictures, articles, etc. Informational articles on the site adds considerable value to your visitors’ experience as well as adding value to your site since search engines will find you through your articles.

Blogs also help keep the site fresh by offering new ideas, useful tips and really useful, interesting information. You may find that your information is so useful that people start using your website as a reference resource. That will certainly differentiate you from the horde!

Information can be added to a blog by you and your customers. Because Caffeine will be judging the value of your website by the amount of activity, not just traffic, but human activity the site has, why not encourage your customers to add their “two penny’s worth” to updating the content as well as adding to the activity stats that Google relies on when evaluating sites for positioning in searches?

• Build creditability by asking for and using endorsements or testimonials from satisfied customers or people your visitors will trust, these can actually pre-sell your products before people even visit your website.

• A link building campaign is another one of those “must have” elements for your site getting found. This has become far more important since Caffeine came into effect. One of the key elements of Caffeine is that websites should have plenty of incoming links from other quality sites.

Many people you know have websites these days and their page rank can help yours so be sure to ask for links from your family, friends and customers’ websites.

Google sees incoming links as a vote of confidence for your site. If your information is really good, more people will link to your site, thereby showing greater confidence, which translates into Google ranking your site higher in the searches, which in turn, results in more traffic and sales. You’ve got to love this chain reaction!

• Do research on your competitors’ sites. Don’t become complacent, thinking you’re offering the best, when compared to your competition, your offering may not be that great. Know what you’re up against, then you can hone the message, the product, the deal and add massive value for your customers. Only with knowledge can you BEAT the competition!

• Email marketing. Although we all talk about spam, surveys show we still like getting information through emails and marketing done in this format should still be part of your marketing package. Give your customers tips on how to make the best use of your products or how to save money by buying in bulk or let them know what’s new. Emailing is a great way of reminding your customers you’re still here, ready and willing to help.

Take seriously what your website says to potential customers. Remember, people will often check out your website before they contact you in response to seeing your business card, a mail shot, an advertisement, hearing word-of-mouth advertising from a friend or happy customer, etc. What messages is your site sending? Could any of it be turning people away?

If your website hasn’t been updated or changed for a while, take a really long, dispassionate look at it, look for the places where it doesn’t work or where that critical bit of information, calls to action, etc. is missing.

Then, either make the changes yourself or call on the professionals at Red Hot Web Hosting Click here to email us for ideas and help making the changes that will encourage people in for a long look around as well as making the site easy for the search engine ‘spiders’. Unlike so many of the bugs one finds on the Internet, these are creatures you want to have visit regularly!

 

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