You've probably seen plenty of business sites with blogs, but maybe you've been hesitant to get one going yourself. After all, it takes time and effort to make sure that you're putting out content for your audience - wouldn't it be a better idea to focus your efforts on techniques that will actually help get customers to your doorstep?
So you went out and bought the most expensive web design that money could buy, but did you really get your money's worth? Just because you've paid for something to be extra-fancy doesn't mean that it's useful for your visitors, or that it's doing you any favors in terms of SEO. Here are some of the traps people frequently fall into when they assume that more expensive sites are automatically better.
If you're one of the literally millions of people who is using LinkedIn only as a personal résumé and business-related social network, you're missing out on the numerous ways that this powerful site can help your marketing strategy. Here's a list of tricks you can use to turn your LinkedIn account into a marketing workhorse:
Getting traffic to your website is the first key to getting people to buy your product or service. If you've been having trouble getting those numbers heading in the right direction, it may be time to switch things up a little and try some different tactics.
As we head into February, hopefully you're starting to see how the changes you've made to your marketing strategy for this year are manifesting. However, trends are hardly static, and as soon as you start implementing one set of tactics, new developments emerge that can help you decide how to fine-tune your efforts.
Social media marketing is obviously a huge deal in the context of building a name for yourself online, and converting that name into followers, and then into leads. But in a sea of countless social networks, among which Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ are the current frontrunners, how can you know exactly where your efforts would be best spent?
For most of us, social media benefits our businesses for two reasons. One, it gives us a way to engage and interact with both customers and potential customers on a personal level. Two, it gives us a platform from which we can market our products and services in a way that will help us connect with the largest audience possible.
2010 was a big year in terms of businesses starting to establish a social media presence, and 2011 expanded on that with an explosion in the number of businesses that started taking social media seriously as a marketing tool. Now that we've done an adequate amount of setting things up, it's time to start thinking of 2012 as the year when we really push forward and begin to innovate in terms of using social media in the best possible way, and customizing the experience so that each business is serving its own customers in a manner that suits their particular situation.
Over the past few years, online marketing, and especially social media, has developed into a situation where there is less "businessy" talk, and more real human interaction between businesses and customers. Spouting slogans and pasting logos everywhere is no longer the best way to get customers - you have to have actual conversations with the people you are marketing to, and let them know that they're dealing with real humans, not some corporate machine.
Believe it or not, it's already December, and if you haven't already started thinking about how you want to modify your social media, SEO, blogging, and other aspects of your online marketing strategy for the coming year, now is a good time to get started.
In this age of the internet, the entire world is pretty much at our fingertips. From a commerce standpoint, this has to make a business owner wonder if it's appropriate to market to a worldwide audience. After all, if all anyone has to do to see your product or service is visit a website, why not market to as many people as possible?