Launching Your Online Marketing Strategies

By Gen Wright

If you have a business, there are lots of different ways to promote it and make sure you get customers. Having a website is of utmost importance, and by using some of the many online marketing methods available, like blog marketing and article marketing, you can be sure to get a lot of visitors coming to your website. Having the right mix of marketing tactics can eventually lead to increased sales and to the success of your business venture. Here are some of the best online marketing strategies you can use:

Blog Marketing
With blog marketing you can start a blog about anything related to your company. You can market your business by giving people advice and tips. People always want to get more information or learn something new, which is why blog marketing works so well. Once you get people returning to read your blogs on a regular basis, you will have built quite a fan base for yourself. Leaving comments on other people's blogs with a link back to your blog will also get you some links.

Blog Marketing also allows visitors to get to know a real person in a company. This kind of "intelligent brand marketing" gives your company an element of a human-ness on your marketing campaign. People like to interact with people, and having a blog gives you that advantage. Also, having a blog allows you to give your personal opinion on any given subject matter and also allows the author to appear as the expert.

Micro Blogging
Twitter is the biggest. Micro blogs allow you to get short bursts of information out to a loyal following. This is great for promotions and other time related marketing tactics.

Social Networks
Using social networks is another way to attract customers to your website. Your friends have friends that will also be able to see your public page where they might find something interesting. Likewise, friends can invite each other to join groups. You can create a group about your business so that people can see what you do and join to be kept updated.

Directory Submissions
Using business directories and community business web pages is another great way of doing advertising. You might find a few directories that can add your website address to their list of online businesses. In this way, people looking for something specific that you happen to be offering will find you easily.

Banner Advertising
One of the most effective forms of online marketing is banner advertising. These advertisements will be placed on other people's websites. You have to do some research to find the sites where your ad will get the best results. These advertisements can be quite costly, especially if you want to have the best possible presence on the home page of a major website.

Email Campaigns
An email campaign is a perfect way to target specific people for a business or product. You should get help setting up an email marketing campaign because you want to make sure that people read them. You also want to make sure that they do not come through as spam. This is why using a professional sales page or email campaign manager would be a good idea.

Link Exchanges
Another good way to get marketing for your business is to use various link exchanges. This will also help the page ranking for your website on the various search engines. The more websites you are listed on, the more chances there are of customers finding you.

Press Releases
You can submit a formal press release to a press release site that mentions your new blog or website or any new products or services you may have. These press release websites will distribute your release to many other PR sites. Hopefully, you will get links from these press releases. Some PR sites are free and others aren't. Look online and see what's best for your business.

Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising
Pay per click advertisements usually appear in a colored box on a search results page. With this form of marketing, you buy search engine traffic based on relevant keywords that you buy in an auction. You are paying for every click, so it's important to target your keywords. Over time, PPC can be costly and if not monitored closely, can be more costly than traditional Search Engine Optimization techniques.

Article Marketing
With article marketing, you write interesting articles about various aspects of your business and submit them to article distributions sites. These articles contain an author resource box at the end that usually has a link to your website. When different sites pick up your articles, they must keep the resource box intact so if someone finds the article interesting, they can click through to your website. The more interesting and valuable your articles are to your readers, the more traffic you could get.

Using these various marketing methods to promote your business is a sure way to get inbound links. You can make quite a lot of contacts through many of them and eventually get more customers coming to your business. You can try one method at a time, adding another when you feel comfortable or try them all at once. Any way you do it, using these methods will get potential customers to your website and hopefully, ordering your product or services.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com
(my own article directory)

Enzo F. Cesario is a Copywriter and co-founder of Brandsplat. Brandcasting uses informative content and state-of-the-art internet distribution and optimization to build links and drive the right kind of traffic to your website. Visit our website to learn more about how we can deliver higher traffic and more profits to your website. Go to www.Brandsplat.com or visit our blog at: www.brandsplatblog.com.

The Benefits of User Generated Content

By Helen Walker

In today’s evolving web, consumers want to be more involved with the products and brands they purchase from. These types of consumers have been nicknamed, “prosumers”, entering us into an era of prosumption. The voice of these consumers come through in many forms of user-generated content (UGC), such as blogs, product reviews, testimonials, tweets, Yelp reviews, ratings, etc.

As any SEO expert can attest, these types of UGC can be used to improve the organic search results and conversion rates by many websites who are online for business purposes. Before you leverage UGC for your online business, take note of these benefits so that you can make the most educated and informed decisions.

UGC can benefit a company in several different ways. It can be very precious and free content for your site that will feed search spiders well. It is also a great source of information for any unique visitor to your site. They will be able to understand how your products and services can better help solve their problem. It is also reassuring to know that real people have solved their problems as well.

Consistent and quality user-generated content can also help create a community environment, empowering these content creators to feel like they not only used your service, but are contributing to its implementation toward other people in need.

Some of the most popular forms of user-generated content are: ratings, reviews, lists, customer images, tags, discussion forums, blogs, and social networking.

Some companies who utilize the benefits of UGC will offer incentives to those who continue to come back with more reviews. These UGC creators can become a “trusted” user of your product and service and may carry more weight with their comments than others.

User-generated content, however, is not risk-free. When a website allows users to submit content, they run the risk of being attacked by competitors, unsatisfied customers, spammers, or unscrupulous people. You also lose some power over what is being published on your site.

It is recommended that you develop a user guideline and offer it to any contributors. This gives you moderating power and the ability to efficiently handle any challenge that may present itself in the advent of a nasty contribution.

You can use similar metrics to UGC that you use to evaluate any SEO efforts for your site. It is recommended that you focus on these four areas:

1. Content quality

How many pieces of content have been created and what level of quality do they measure up to. If there are tons of misspelling, profanity, bad grammar or unnecessary slang, it may be time to erase that user.

Content linkability

Is your UGC interlinking the content on your site? If the UGC is improving the navigational ability for your visitors to find what they want, you are on the right track.

Content Strength

Is the content keyword-optimized? If so, how can you optimize that particular post? Take these in consideration when monitoring any contributed content.

Content Conversation

What is the conversation that is happening about? Are they satisfied with your business? This is a great way to gain constructive criticism and improve your business overall.

In this increasingly digital era, the power of the online brand and business falls more into the hands and voices of the consumer. These prosumers want to be heard, whether it be to evangelize your brand or bash it into the ground. Either way, it boils down to how good you are at what you do.

You can have an excellently built site with optimal SEO tactics, amazing navigation and very useful content. However, if your product or service leaves everyone unsatisfied, you should focus on changing your business fundamentals. If UGC is bringing you in tons of traffic and conversions, your momentum will carry you far into this century.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com
(my own article directory)

Ethan Luke. seo - At Volacci, we have top SEO consultants who know what it will take to make your SEO campaign a success.

Web Designer vs Web Template

By Joan Culbert

Many of my clients ask me about website templates. I have had to give some thought to that question. Yes, there are many website templates available, some are free some are not. Some guide you through simply while others require extensive software and experience to design and manage.

Deciding on a web designer as opposed to a web template is a decision you should make based on your needs, your expertise and how you value your time.

With the rapid development and growth of the Internet it is becoming clear that a web site presence is an important factor in the development of your business. The extent of your website needs will help you to decide which is best for you.

The importance of having a unique and individual website is an important consideration in deciding on your website needs. Do you have a vision in your head you want to share with your clients, potential clients, and the rest of the world. How important is your business to you and in turn do you want your website to reflect that. If your website and your business image are important to you and you intend to grow and develop as a business and you want your website to reflect that, a professional web designer will help you to accomplish that.

A professional web designer will work with you to create a custom web site based on your needs and your clients and potential clients needs, and will help your website grow as those needs change and grow. You will get exactly what you want as a result of custom web site development.

Cost is another that new business owners use to justify using a website template. How important is your business to you when taking cost into consideration. At this point, it is best to look at the long term. A web template will be instantaneous and inexpensive, but over the life of your business, will it be flexible enough to serve your needs and will you get your best bang for the buck.

As a new business owner you may not have the time required for the commitment required to update and maintain the changing needs of your website and it is a huge commitment. In addition, not all website templates are flexible enough to allow those changes.

And finally, with a template you are probably on your own for your SEO, Search Engine Optimization, which is an important part of your website presence. If no one can find you, your site can’t do its job.

It is important to clearly define your needs and the image you want to portray when making this very important decision.

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Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com
(my own article directory)

Pinksky Productions is a leading Web Design Company Toronto offers services like web design toronto, Professional Web Design and Development services across the world.