How Employing The Services Of An SEO Consultant Can Win You More Local Custom

If attracting more local customers to your business is important to you, then an SEO consultant could help you achieve your goals faster than you might think.

Let’s say you’re running the type of business where local custom is vital to you. In fact, it’s the lifeblood of your business – because 100 per cent of your custom comes from within a five-mile radius of where you are based.

To illustrate the point, let’s say you run your own driving school based in Newbury. You need your driving school to feature in the top search engine results for driving schools in Newbury. So whenever someone types: “driving schools Newbury”, into their search box, you want your company to come out top of the pile (or at least on Google’s first page).


We know for a fact that most people who conduct global searches won’t venture past the first two pages of search results. In a local context, however, being returned among the top 10 results is even more crucial.

If our driving school business does not appear on the first page of Google (i.e. the first 10 search listings) when a potential customer types in “driving schools Newbury”, then more than likely, business which could have gone to our driving instructor will go to somebody else.

Of course there are many other considerations with keywords too. A person wanting to learn to drive might not use our standard search term. She might use: “learn to drive Newbury”, “driving instructors Newbury”, or “pass my theory test Newbury”. We are assuming in all cases that the location will be an essential part of the search term as anyone wanting to learn to drive will want a service which is local.

It’s vital that our business owner thinks like a customer rather than a business owner. So what steps can our driving instructor reasonably take to ensure that his driving school business can compete with his local rivals?
Find out what keywords/ search terms his customers use most frequently.

Use Google’s Keyword Tool or Wordtracker which offers a 7-day free trial (great for determining long-tail keywords strategies).
Using these specific keywords and search term suggestions push his website up the rankings.

One of the benefits of ranking highly in the search engines for local companies is that those people searching for your product or service are more likely to be ‘primed to buy’ than those who search globally. People who search globally could be looking for information or making price comparisons, but those who actually enter a specific location can be considered ‘qualified buyers’.

It’s well worth spending time researching your customers’ online behaviour patterns so you can plan your marketing strategies accordingly. Don’t they say that “time spent in reconnaissance is seldom wasted?”

If you’d like some assistance with SEO techniques that will help more customers find you rather than your competitors, you can trust an experienced SEO consultant to drive your website into pole position.

How Creating A Compelling ‘Vision Statement’ Can Benefit Small Business Marketing

We’re not Virgin or Coca-Cola, why would we need a vision statement?”

“Vision statements . . . mission statements . . . aren’t they just whimsical phrases big companies put out to impress investors?”

“I’ve got a small business which employs five people . . . a vision statement seems, well, a tad fanciful.”

Fine. Having a vision statement is of course entirely optional, though it can be just as helpful for the sole trader as the multinational concern.

A vision statement can be both aspirational and inspirational. It will be at the heart of your small business marketing strategy.

So what is the difference between a mission statement and our vision statement?

Mission Statement: Defines what’s wrong with the world and how you intend to fix it.

Vision Statement: How the world looks after you’ve fixed it.

For example:

Microsoft: “To enable people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full potential.”

Google: “To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

Harley-Davidson: “We fulfil dreams inspired by the many roads of the world by providing remarkable motorcycles and extraordinary experiences. We fuel the passion for freedom in our customers to express their own identity.”

The best vision statements are truly personal to a business rather than generic.

To begin to define your own vision statement for your business think about your ‘brand story’ to date. What are your hopes and dreams for your business? How might you articulate your vision in one or two concise sentences?

Once you have created your vision statement, share it with everyone connected to you: management, associates, team members, investors, customers, suppliers and include it on your website, blog and other marketing materials. You can also build it into your email signature and company newsletter if you have one.

If you would like some help with creating a knockout vision statement that truly represents your brand, your friendly business marketing specialist will be delighted to sit down with you and create something uniquely memorable.

It’s quite likely also that if you’ve been in business for some while that the vision statement you started out with will have changed over time. So don’t be afraid to revise an outdated vision statement so that you are working to a vision which accurately reflects your business today.

To sum up, a vision statement isn’t just for big household brands. It can be a useful working tool for keeping your business and marketing plans firmly on track . . . the beating heart of your brand in action.

Article Directories and Publishing Articles

As part of a search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy, many companies go down the route of writing articles to publish online. The theory is that unique, interesting content can draw visitors to your site along with boosting the site’s ranking on search engine results pages. In fact, article publishing is held in such esteem that any SEO company you enlist the help of will likely suggest it as an integral part of your optimisation process.
              
The dilemma for many companies is whether to publish the articles on their own site or use dedicated article directory websites.

The benefit of using an article directory is that your quality articles will be exposed to a large audience; potentially far larger than your company’s site currently reaches. The general idea of the directories is that website owners publish content for others to use and copy. It is usually free or at least cheap to publish the articles and in return you receive links back to your website.

On the other hand there are some potential drawbacks. Firstly, if you publish a top notch article through an article site, the majority of internet traffic it generates will be for the article directory site itself. Readers of the article are much more likely to link the content with your company if it is published on your own website.

Moreover, the users of your website will actually have to navigate away from your site to read the article.

Finally, anyone that links to that article from their own site will only be improving the search engine ranking of the article directory and not your site!

So is there any point in using article directories at all then?

In a nutshell, yes there is. Despite the potential drawbacks, if you submit content sensibly there is no reason you cannot benefit from submitting your articles to online directories.

Firstly, keep the best content for yourself, particularly if it is likely to generate incoming links. Post your good content on article directories and never publish anything that has been copied or is poorly written.

In addition, check that the article directory you are using includes a link back to your own site somewhere in the article. This way there is at least a chance that your articles will generate traffic towards your website.

Finally, do not publish individual articles in more than once place as search engines tend to use only one version in their rankings. If someone copies your article then fine, do not lose any sleep over this. Reposting your own content though is a waste of your time.

To conclude, article directories can certainly be used as part of an SEO strategy if treated with caution and care. For a full SEO package, consider enlisting the help of an SEO company or talk to leading marketing companies who will be able to draw up a comprehensive plan to increase your search engine ranking. Meanwhile, if you are looking for somewhere to start, article directories like Ezine Articles and Buzzle are widely regarded as two of the best.

Social Media Advertising – Which Sites Should I Target?

With millions internet users of all ages logging onto social network sites every single day, it is no wonder that social media advertising has exploded over the last few years. It can form an integral part of any business’ marketing strategy and be an extremely cost effective way to sell your brand and image to a mass audience. The question is then, which sites should a company target?

In short, the answer is that it entirely depends on the type of company, its target audience and the style of advert it wishes to run. Internet marketing companies often specialise in social media advertising and to make the most out of the tool you may want to consider enlisting their help. Meanwhile, here are some of the most popular social networking sites and why they might be suitable for your company’s advertising campaign.

Facebook

The largest social networking site on the internet is Facebook, boasting over 900 million active members worldwide. Its users range from as young as 13 years old to over 100, meaning almost every possible demographic is represented on the site.

The adverts are either based on a cost per impression basis or cost per click, meaning you can choose to improve your company’s brand awareness or increase sales. There is also a tool to control how much you spend on advertising each day, meaning you can carefully monitor your budget and how effective the advert is.

One of the beauties of Facebook is that adverts can be tailored to specifically target an individual audience as niche as the football team they support. Also, by building up a community around your business page, you can quickly develop a completely free fan base with whom to share your company’s good news, promotions and special offers.

Youtube

 Youtube is another fantastic place to advertise your business. Uploading videos is completely free whilst the cost of monitoring them can be carefully managed. Anyone on the internet can watch your videos making the potential audience gigantic.

The site offer a service called ‘TrueView’ that, coupled with Google’s Adwords system, means you can specifically target an audience with your videos and advertisements. The TrueView tool means you only pay for the videos that are watched by your specified target audience!

By regularly uploading advertisements, press releases and other videos from your company to YouTube you can quickly establish a following. If a video becomes popular, users will quickly share it across the internet meaning it will be seen by millions of viewers in a matter of days or even hours.

LinkedIn

Finally, LinkedIn is a social networking site aimed at professionals and those seeking professional positions within a whole host of different industries. It is much more suited for more serious advertising campaigns although, with 150 million users worldwide, LinkedIn is still home to a huge number of potential target audiences.

Companies also use the site to advertise job vacancies due to the nature of its demographic. Nevertheless, it can be an excellent place to commercially advertise your brand or product.

Once again, advertising can be paid for on a cost per click or cost per impression basis.

These are just three of the many social networking sites around and an internet marketing strategy should certainly at least entertain the idea of advertising in at least one or two of these locations.

If you are aiming for a comprehensive marketing package, establishing a relationship with one of the internet marketing companies around is certainly the best way to go. Be sure to ask them about their social media policies before you sign up.

6 Ways You Can Write Your Way To Website Success (And Keep Panda & Penguin Happy!)

Since Google Panda, and more recently, Google Penguin arrived on the scene and began targeting low quality website content, duplicate content, and blatant spam, many website owners have found it difficult, if not impossible to keep up with the almost constant changes that have occurred in the search engine giant’s ‘jungle’.

While some website owners who genuinely believed they were offering ‘quality content’ to their visitors, have found themselves penalised – with little or no idea of where they went wrong.

Sure enough you do come across websites and articles where the content is poorly written and where the copywriter has repeated the phrase they want to rank for in just about every sentence. This does not make for readable or informative content and understandably, will reflect in poor rankings. This is in direct conflict to what any professional SEO consultant would advise.

So what can you do ‘content-wise’ to curry favour with Google and all its complex minutiae?
One of the best things you can do, is to focus on creating unique content for your visitors and thus adding value to your website.

You can do this through:

Writing ‘how-to’ guides which you can give away as PDF downloads in return for your visitors’ email addresses. Alternatively, if you are running a membership site you could choose to make your guides available to members only if you prefer.
If you have a corporate blog, start writing posts on a regular basis – daily if possible.
If you don’t already have a business blog start one.
Build microsites (a separate space dedicated to a particular aspect of your business, or featuring a stand-alone product or service).
Develop infographics – a way of showing complex information through eye-catching graphics. Infographics are great because they are more likely to be shared among peer groups, or on social media sites.
Create weekly press releases. Because editors are busy people what tends to work well nowadays is submitting a list of bullet points rather than a complete story. Try it for yourself.
If you produce great unique content on a regular basis, then (at the time of writing), you will generate more quality links, improve your page rankings and attract more visitors to your website.

If you’d like professional help with link-building activities that will keep Google’s ‘little helpers’ happy, your expert SEO consultant will be on hand to assist you. Simply get in touch for a no-obligation chat about improving your website’s page rankings.

Want Web Design That Works? A Professional Internet Marketing Company Will Help Deliver The Results You Deserve

Do you think a good website design should be based around your business? In other words, all about you? ‘This is us. We have been established for 6 years. These are the products we make. Here’s a selection of our press releases.’


Not desperately inspiring is it?

Or do you firmly believe the essence of great web design begins by looking at the process from the prospective customer’s point of view? What are they searching online for? What are their ‘wants’ right now? How might you fulfil those requirements?

Sadly many websites are produced without a thought for the ‘customer experience’. Oh let’s see . . . we’ll have a Home page, an About Us page . . . a Testimonials page, because that’s what everybody does isn’t it? It’s the norm. It’s expected. It’s almost like selecting items from a takeaway menu.

What it boils down to is this: who are you designing your website for? If it’s simply to provide information about your organisation, then possibly a very basic website that can grow alongside your business might do the trick.

However, for the vast majority of business owners, they require a website that will do more than look pretty and provide information. They desire a website that will actively sell their products and services to a hungry audience. Therefore, the content must be exclusively designed to appeal to that target audience. This is absolutely vital.

And once your website is up and running, your chosen internet marketing company will teach you what you need to do in terms of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Google AdWords and Social Media Marketing, if these are aspects you wish to carry out in-house.

Having a bad website design is like trying to run a marathon with sprained ankle. You might make it to the finish line eventually, but you’ll have done a whole lot more damage in the process.

With an internet marketing expert on your side, getting a bespoke website that does your business justice is easy.

If You’re Not Happy With The Way Your Company Website Is Performing . . . Kindly Read On

If you’re in business then you need a website that works well for you. But building the website was the hard part right?


It’s all to easy to harbour the “if I build it they will come” mindset. After all, commissioning a website isn’t cheap. Or maybe you designed one in WordPress yourself. And from what you can gather everything looks great.

But if people (potential customers) don’t know your site exists or where to find you, you could be waiting a long time for your first visitors. So all the resources you invested (time and money) putting your site together, could be wasted.

You see, a website isn’t something you can create and then leave to its own devices. Least not if you want it to be successful. If you want it to rank well in the search engines – which of course you do. Else why would you bother spending money on one?

But the good news is, with consistent effort and input, your website can do better. Much better. If you’re not sure you have the time to spend on ‘wooing’ Google and the other major search engines by working on something called Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), then perhaps you should consider engaging the services of an SEO consultant to fix it for you.

An SEO consultant will take a good look at your website, find out about your business, your targets and objectives. Then he will put together a plan of what needs to be done. More than that, he will actually undertake the work for you.

What you don’t want, is an SEO consultant who will tell you what you need to do then leave you to it. These people know full well that you won’t have the time to execute their plans – it’s money for old rope.

So make certain you choose an SEO consultant who will not only carry out the work necessary to propel your website into the top echelons and keep it there, but also the consultant whose services come will a full and hassle-free guarantee of satisfaction.

Not all SEO consultants are created equally so make sure the one you choose comes with top testimonials too.

A top SEO consultant’s services will more than pay for themselves over time and you should begin to see a return on your investment in as little as a couple of months.

There’s no point is wasting good money on a website that’s going nowhere, so make sure yours is heading for the first page of Google, with input from a leading SEO consultant.

 

How To Achieve High Website Conversions

When it comes to e-commerce, driving high numbers of visitors to your company’s website is only half the battle. When the visitors have appeared, you need to use all the methods at your disposal to convert them into paying customers – otherwise all your SEO and online marketing efforts have come to naught. Whether you choose to do this yourself or hire a web marketing company to take advantage of their extensive knowledge, here are some of the most popular tips for achieving high conversion rates:


Easy Searches: If a potential customer visits your website looking for a certain product, they want to be able to find it easily. You may think that sending a client through a maze of related products will encourage them to buy more than they had originally intended, but in fact the result is more often that they will get bored and try another website. Make sure that every product or service you offer can be found easily from your home page.

Clear Content: In addition to making products easy to find, the descriptions of each item should be clear and concise, leaving clients in no doubt of what it does, what advantages it can bring them and what it will cost them. Also, be upfront about any shipping costs so the customer knows exactly how much they will have to pay before they start the payment process.

Speedy Checkout Process: Make sure that the process of buying products through your website is quick and simple. I’m sure we’ve all been in the position of trying to purchase something online, but it’s taken so long to go through that we’ve given up and gone elsewhere. And even if the client sticks with it and makes the payment, they won’t have had a particularly positive experience of visiting your online store and are unlikely therefore to give you that all-important repeat business.

Update Regularly: If your website doesn’t appear current, customers may be put off buying from you so make sure you update it as often as you can. Even if you don’t have any new products to add to your online range, you can keep things fresh with regular promotions, sales or even adding industry-specific articles to demonstrate your expertise in the sector you serve. If you appear to be knowledgeable in your field, potential customers visiting your website are much more likely to see you as a trusted supplier and spend their money accordingly.

Hire An Expert: If after the above you’re still having trouble achieving high conversion rates, it’s highly recommended that you employ the services of a web marketing company. They will be well aware of all the latest techniques for online marketing and will also be able to research what your competitors are doing and apply this to your own business. It is easy enough to learn the theory of web marketing, but sometimes implementing it practically can be an entirely different thing.

Online Marketing Pitfalls To Avoid

Online marketing can be a tricky business as there are so many different facets to consider. Hiring the temporary services of an online marketing consultant can be invaluable in helping you to implement the latest marketing tools, strategies and technologies, but there are still plenty of common mistakes that any company can fall foul of – particularly if you are just starting out. Here we look at some of the most common online marketing mistakes and how you can try to avoid them:


Ignoring Social Networking: Almost every online business now is using social networking in some form to broaden their contact and increase visitors to their websites – and yet some companies still persist in thinking this is a fad that will go away. If you’re ignoring social networking then you are losing a valuable (and free) opportunity to become a real online presence in your industry sector.

Being Unavailable: Every website should include a contact email address for the company, but some are not so scrupulous about replying to queries or comments and this is a big mistake. Your visitors need to feel that you are available in some way and it’s also important for you to listen to and respond to their feedback if you want to make improvements in the way you do business. If you don’t respond to emails, you can’t build up relationships and trust with clients and they won’t want to come back to your site.

Ignoring Marketing Trends: The world of online marketing changes very quickly and you need to keep an eye on the latest trends. Some companies, however, insist upon using outdated methods because they have worked for them in the past. Yes, it can be a difficult task to keep up with every development, but if you really find you have no time at all to do this I would recommend you bring in the services of an online marketing consultant from time to time to keep you up to date with the latest strategies and tools. Otherwise, you risk being left behind.

Over-Complicated Website: Another common mistake made by online companies is to try to cram too much information into their websites. If you have a confusing number of links and too many graphics it will be difficult for users to navigate and they may get bored before they find the product they are looking for and make a purchase. Keep it clean and simple to use, and you stand much more chance of getting higher conversion rates.

Ignoring The Competition: Some companies are so busy working out their own strategies that they forget to keep an eye on what their main competitors are doing – and this can be disastrous. Visit competitors’ websites to find out what they are doing, whether they are using any new marketing methods and whether these seem to be working for them. There is no shame in taking ideas you have learned from competitors and integrating them into your own marketing plan – indeed, this is part of what business is all about. Another useful thing to do is to visit online forums in which you or your competitors might be discussed and see what clients or other businesses are saying about your relative strengths and weaknesses.

How To Improve Your Website’s Visibility

If you conduct a lot of your business online then ensuring you maintain high search engine rankings should be a major priority for you. There are plenty of ways you can do this – indeed, sometimes the advice you can find online is overwhelming – so the key is to find a search engine marketing strategy that will work for you and is simple enough to maintain long-term. Here are some examples of some of the steps you can take:


Design Is Key: To begin with, please do make sure that the look of your website is clean, high-impact and that it is easy to navigate. It’s no good spending a lot of time driving traffic to your site, only for visitors to be put off by its content the second they arrive. This will not encourage them to recommend other visitors and your visibility will suffer as a result. Also, remember that SEO is not just about getting visitors to your site – it’s also about converting those visitors into clients.

Update Your Content: Your website rankings will quickly drop if you don’t update your content regularly. Not only this, but if your site does not contain fresh information it will seriously undermine your credibility with clients, who will not be encouraged to return. Make sure that you are updating it with something new at least once a week, whether that is a fresh product line, an industry-specific article or news items.

Hire An Expert: Many people are put off by the extra cost involved in hiring in an expert to develop their search engine marketing strategy. It really does pay off, however, as they will be able to do your market research for you and identify the keywords you need to incorporate in your content to get relevant visitors to your site. Not only this, but a person whose job it is to know all the latest online marketing strategies and technologies will be able to give you a much better chance of gaining higher search engine rankings than your competitors. They will, for example, be aware of all the latest analytical tools so they can check your stats and use them to make your future marketing campaigns more targeted and efficient.

Blogging And Networking: Become a blogger to show off your knowledge of your industry sector. If you build up a reputation as somebody who knows what they are talking about, your readers will want to click on the link to your website because they will feel you are somebody trustworthy with whom to do business. The same applies to social networking: go on Facebook or Twitter and get involved in discussions relating to your sector. This is a great and free way to gradually generate a buzz about your business.

How To Boost Your Online Sales

An online business, like any other business, is always going to experience sales peaks and troughs. Sometimes the down periods will be owing to market fluctuations beyond your control, but more often there are some simple areas you are neglecting or overlooking which, if rectified, could help to boost your sales immeasurably. Whether you choose to hire an SEO marketing consultant to develop your marketing strategy, take steps yourself to improve your website functionality or hold special promotions, there are plenty of things you can try:


Website Design: To convert visitors to your website into paying customers you need to give them a positive user experience. This means it needs to be designed in such a way that it is easy to navigate, isn’t too cluttered with unnecessary and confusing imagery, and has a quick and simple payment process. If you don’t have any of the above, you are unlikely to get repeat business and this is where most companies get the majority of their sales from.

Product Range: The list of products on your website should come with clear and simple information on aspects such as their specific features, whether they come in different variations and how much they cost. Also, it helps if your product range is focused on one specific area. If you try to offer too many different kinds of products it can be confusing for customers and may also cause problems when it comes to SEO.

SEO Content: There aren’t many online companies these days that won’t be using SEO in one way or another – and there is a good reason for this. Identifying the right keywords and using these to boost your search engine rankings is a proven way to increase traffic to your website and win new customers. If you are unsure how to implement an SEO strategy, hire an experienced SEO consultant who will be able to get you up to speed with the latest trends in SEO, research the market for you and generally get you on the right track.

Targeted Email Marketing: In addition to the above, you should never overlook the effectiveness of a well-planned email marketing campaign. You should always organise your mailing list into categories of clients so you can target emails with certain product promotions to those who are most likely to be interested. A good product promotion or online sale is useful for providing a quick sales spurt if you are going through a particularly slow time.

Pay-Per-Click: If handled correctly, pay-per-click advertising services, such as Google AdWords, are a great way of getting new customers to your site in a relatively short space of time. You have to be prepared to put a certain amount of your marketing budget into this (so work out how much you can afford to pay per click) but the results will often speak for themselves so it’s worth looking into if your sales team are having trouble generating new leads.

Using Google AdWords To Increase Sales

Google AdWords or pay-per-click advertising is now one of the most popular forms of online marketing. It can provide a great boost to your sales if used correctly, but bear in mind that it pays to really understand how it works before you start using it: if you jump straight in at the deep end you could just be throwing money away to no purpose.


So how can Google Adwords benefit your company? To begin with, it is a relatively cheap way of getting your company’s adverts displayed on search lists and relevant sites and can help drive a lot of new traffic to your website in a short time, compared to other marketing methods which are more slow-burning.

Google AdWords is fairly cost-effective because you only pay each time somebody clicks on your ad, meaning you can be sure that for each payment you will at least have one new visitor to your website. Also, because it is quite a targeted form of advertising (the ads tend to be displayed on relevant websites) these visitors are more likely to be converted to paying customers because they are probably already interested in the kinds of products or services you offer.

Of course, there are a lot of potential pitfalls to using Google Adwords and if you don’t know what you are doing you may be paying out for each click and getting little back in the way of conversion rates. Because of this, many companies choose to hire a Google AdWords consultant to help them get to grips with how it works and implement an effective strategy.

Some companies think it is easy to learn about pay-per-click online and then dive right into it, but learning the theory of how something should work and actually putting it into practice are two very different things. A Google AdWords consultant has to keep up with all the latest trends and strategies in this area – it’s their livelihood – whereas you as a business owner or sales manager will have many other different things to think about and will never have the time to follow every single development in what is very rapidly changing world.

A good consultant will provide essential services such as researching the market and identifying the right keywords for your ads, finding out what methods your key competitors are using and showing you exactly how to manage your AdWords account so that you know how to review your progress, analyse conversion rates and generally ensure that your advertising is working for you rather than sapping your marketing budget and giving you little in return.

Why Hire An Interim Marketing Director?

Marketing is an absolutely crucial part of any company’s activities, so if you are running a business you need to have somebody in place who understands how the world of marketing works. If your marketing director leaves, you are a start-up company with a limited budget or you simply want to boost flagging sales, one option for you is to consider hiring an interim marketing director to keep your marketing efforts on track and even bring in some fresh ideas.


Often companies simply hire in temporary marketing directors while they are looking for someone more permanent, but in fact one of the biggest advantages of hiring someone in is the fresh perspective they are able to bring to your company. They will be aware of the latest trends and will be able to train your sales and marketing team in the most effective ways to implement these. Therefore, even if you are not looking to hire a marketing manager full time, you may still want to consider bringing someone in on a temporary basis.

There are other good reasons for hiring outside your company: If you are having trouble generating new sales leads and decide to hire an internal employee to fill the role of marketing director, they may not have enough knowledge of the wider market context or awareness of what your competitors are doing. Sometimes what you need is an entirely new approach and somebody who has been immersed in your particular company culture for a long time, however capable they are, may not be able to provide this.

Hiring an interim marketing director is also much quicker if you need to fill the role in a hurry. For example, what if your current marketing director resigns suddenly and you have a very important promotion or event coming up? Going through the process of interviews to fill such an important role can take a long time as it’s crucial to get the right person. The great thing about interims is that they are used to working in a different way – they don’t need to take time to settle into a role so instead can grasp what needs to be done quickly and get things moving.

Lastly, when it comes to the end of their time with you, your interim director can be invaluable in helping your hire a more permanent head of marketing to carry their work further. They will be able to comment on a candidate’s experience and qualifications and will know the right questions to ask in interviews in order to measure their suitability for the role. Also, because somebody who specialises in fulfilling interim marketing positions will have no interest in the full-time role themselves, they can be completely impartial and offer you solid, objective advice.

How To Market Your Online Business

The world of e-commerce is moving so fast these days that if you don’t have a strong e-commerce marketing strategy your company not be able to keep up with the many competitors out there. In the days before the internet, it used to be much simpler to market your company, but now there are so many option open to you online it can be confusing. Here are just some of the online marketing strategies you can use to get your e-commerce business noticed and increase your sales:


Email Marketing: Make sure your website includes an email registration form where visitors can sign up for product information or special promotions, for example. Ensure the form asks for relevant information so you can categorise your clients according to their priorities and preferences. Then, when it comes to sending them marketing emails you can employ a targeted approach rather than sending the same emails to everyone on your list.

Blogging: Blogging on your website is a very cheap and easy way to promote your business online, as long as you are providing the reader with relevant and useful information. If you do this, you can become established as an authority on your market sector and, hence, a reliable supplier.

Pay-Per-Click: Pay-per-click advertising services, such as Google AdWords, are rapidly becoming one of the most popular forms of e-commerce marketing. You pay each time somebody clicks on your advert and is directed to your website, so it can be a very quick way to drum up some new business. There are other equally effective marketing methods which are more slow-burning, but if you are in a hurry – say, for example you have a limited product promotion – this could be for you.

Use Social Media: The majority of online companies also now recognise the benefits of using social media such as Facebook or Twitter to draw attention to their activities. The trick when doing this is not to advertise your products too belligerently – social media is about taking part in discussions and forums, and building up an online presence in a more gradual way. You can also use your posts on these forums to build back links.

Use SEO: Search engine optimisation is important for improving your search engine rankings. You need to use the correct keywords in your headers, categories, meta descriptions etc. to boost your online presence and increase traffic to your website. It may even be worth hiring in a specialised SEO consultant to do this job for you because it’s quite a skill but it’s a key part of your online marketing strategy.

Businesses Of All Sizes: Internet Marketing Consultants Can Help You Maximise Your Potential

Does your report for this term’s sales and marketing results say “could do better”?


If so, you’re far from alone.

Even taking social media out of the equation, many business owners are overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the Internet and the constant time demands marketing their business online entails.

As a business owner, it could lead you to believe that the options for marketing your business used to be a lot simpler before the Internet came along and complicated everything. But looking on the bright side, cyberspace has given us a lot more marketing opportunities too.

Providing we know what we’re about.

Little doubt that there is potential for companies of all sizes to benefit from the extensive marketing power of the Internet, although there is by no means a ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution for all businesses.

This is where capabilities of your chosen Internet marketing consultants can have a significant bearing over how successful your business ultimately becomes. So it’s vital to select your advisors wisely.

You see, anyone can call themselves a ‘consultant’, whether they’ve had fifty years experience in business, or five minutes. Or more worryingly, none at all. Perhaps you’ve been put off using marketing agencies or consultancies by a bad experience in the past. Maybe you were charged too much for the consultancy seemingly doing too little. And at the end of the contract you didn’t get the results you were promised.

It’s hardly uncommon, unfortunately.

By contrast, a professional marketing consultant – one who knows his stuff inside out – will have built up a solid reputation over many years. He will have worked alongside many different businesses and will have marketing experience across a variety of industries.

Above all, he will have the credentials to prove his worth: through results generated from previous marketing campaigns and glowing testimonials from many satisfied clients.

Quite simply, the right Internet marketing consultants for your business will be able to combine the right marketing elements so that you get the right marketing mix – with guaranteed results. They will add value to your organisation and become a trusted ally to your sales team.

If you know your business could be performing better with professional help, then don’t delay – talk to your friendly Internet marketing specialists today. Normally you’ll qualify for a free marketing consultation with no-obligation to take things further. And you could come away with lots of great ideas to make your business thrive.

Company Directors: Internet Marketing Consultants Can Help With More Than Just Digital Marketing

When you think about Internet marketing consultants what comes to mind?


Oh they do stuff like building websites, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and create Pay Per Click ads on Google. Oh and they sort out your Social Media needs for you: like Facebook and Twitter.

Well, yes, they do all that.

And they can also do a whole lot more besides . . .

An Internet marketing consultant can help with things like:

Finance and Funding

A recent survey by accountancy software company Sage, revealed that out of 1000 ‘small firms’ interviewed, only 42 per cent had a business plan in place, and that ‘poor business planning’ was to blame for the majority of loan rejections within the same surveyed group.

If you are looking for finance from your bank, or seeking investment from a business angel or venture capital firm, or perhaps looking to secure grant funding for your company, Internet marketing consultants have the experience to give your finance or funding application the best chance of succeeding.

Market Research

Winners in business know what the competition is up to. They have their fingers firmly on the pulse of their particular markets and know everything they need to know about their competitors and their customers that will give them a winning edge.

Your marketing advisors can implement a range of research initiatives to ensure your company stays ahead of the pack.

Creative Marketing Ideas and Concepts

When you’re that close to a business, it’s sometimes difficult to see how you could do things differently. How you could be more effective with your marketing perhaps. Your trusted marketing partners, however, will have experience across all types of trades and industries and will be able to come up with some fresh marketing ideas that will help you win more business.

Direct Mail

Even when the latest technology dictates we spend more of our time doing digital marketing, direct mail can be a really effective route to winning new business. Your marketing consultants can create mailers and brochures designed to grab attention and get your target audience focused on you.

PR

Many companies are reporting that it’s much more difficult to get ‘free’ PR these days. But not if you know the rules of the game. Journalists are constantly on the lookout for publishable stories – as opposed to the thinly-veiled sales pitches they receive in their inboxes every day. Regular write-ups in the press and trade journals can be a wonderful way to gain more custom, because it is viewed as unbiased reporting.

Again, your trusted marketing consultancy can help your business get the publicity it deserves.

So if you’re thinking your business could be performing better with a little expert help, give your friendly online Internet marketing consultants a call and find out what they can do for your company.

Internet Marketing Companies Can Help Your Business Soar To New Heights

Internet marketing companies – they’re all pretty much alike aren’t they? They all offer the same services: Search Engine Optimisation . . . Pay Per Click . . . Social Media Marketing . . . Website design . . .


While it’s true that many Internet marketing companies do provide similar options in terms of the range of services offered, the results of their marketing efforts can vary dramatically according to the competencies of the ‘experts’ concerned. With the upshot being that you may not always feel you are getting value for money.

This can lead you to believe that throwing your budget at Internet consultancy services is a complete waste of money.

We hear it all the time in the media: “PPC doesn’t work, Social Media is too difficult to get to grips with and as for SEO – well it could take me years to get anywhere in the ‘organic’ search listings.”

None of which is true . . . providing you know what you are doing.

When looking to work with Internet marketing companies, it’s vital to weed out the ‘can dos’ from the ‘cannots.’

An expert Internet marketing company will look closely at your marketing plan, (or put one together for you if yours is out of date), and create a plan of action that will help you get where you want to be as quickly and as economically as possible.

Where the ‘can dos’ among Internet marketing companies really earn their corn is in the quality of the leads they generate. In other words, the number of qualified buyers that are sent to your website on a daily basis.

Because it doesn’t matter one jot if 500 people visit your website every single day, if none of them are in a position to buy from you. In fact, you could be wasting your valuable time trying to engage with people who have no inclination of buying from you. Ever. Higher volumes of traffic don’t necessarily indicate a greater ratio of buyer conversions.

So how can you ensure your business has the best chance of succeeding in the Internet jungle?

Your chosen Internet marketing consultant will devise precisely the right strategy to attract the kinds of people your business is aiming at. People you can convert into satisfied and loyal customers, who will stay with you for years. And they’ll tell their friends about the exceptional service they can expect from a great company like yours.

An Internet Marketing Consultant Can Send Your Business Mobile

Want to know something your competitors don’t?


Want a larger audience for your products and services?

Want to go mobile with your business advertising?

You may be aware of the quiet revolution that is mobile marketing. So why quiet?

Well, although many of us currently use mobile devices to access the Internet every single day, the potential remains relatively untapped in terms of marketing brands, goods and services.

This is great news for someone like you who can recognise the enormous advantages of mobile marketing and is prepared to take action, before the competition wakes up to this exciting phenomenon.

So apart from the relative lack of competition, what are the benefits of mobile advertising?

Huge Audience

Unlike with traditional forms of advertising such as print, TV, or radio ads, which your target audience could easily miss, millions of mobile subscribers could potentially view your marketing content every day.

Pinpoint Targeting

Whereas someone may not open an email for several days (if at all), mobile marketing means that your communication will reach your target audience exactly at the right time and date you want them to.

Multiple Marketing Strategies

Just like with Internet marketing, mobile marketing offers a host of different possibilities for reaching your target audience. You could use text messaging, click-to-call ads, mobile display, paid search advertising, organic search advertising, click-to-map ads – just a few of the many advertising options you could use to target customers.

Niche Segmentation

Mobile marketing allows you to target specific groups of people according to set criteria. This can enable companies who want to channel their products or services to a narrow group of people, to do so, thus ensuring that the advertisements are highly relevant to their audience and thereby increasing the likelihood of a positive response.

Many companies are yet to recognise the incredible reach-power and sales potential of mobile advertising, which is fantastic news for savvy business owners like you. Now is a really good time to get in on the act and steal a march on your competitors, before they know what’s hit them.

Your professional internet marketing consultant will generate a bespoke mobile marketing campaign that will put your company at the forefront of your target audience’s mind and create a buzz around your brand that gets people talking.

Is Your Website Costing You Customers?

You might have a superb business model with bags of money-making potential, but if your website isn’t up to scratch it could be costing you vital custom. Perhaps you could do with some help from an experienced Internet marketing consultant.


Although it’s considered something of a necessity for businesses these days to have a web presence, having an ugly or dysfunctional website can be worse than no website at all.

Just imagine for a moment that your website exists as a bricks and mortar shop. What if your shop front was run down, with paint peeling everywhere? You could have the most tremendous products inside, but it’s all to no avail if nobody comes through your door.

Here are several of the worst offenders:

Bad design

To a degree, design is a subjective thing defined by individual taste. It can also be dictated by the type of industry you are in. Generally speaking, the more conservative your industry, the more sober your website is expected to be, whether we like it or not.

Websites with colours that clash are a no-no, flashing images can be disturbing to some people and as for poor quality images or clip art – let’s not even go there.

Lack of quality content

Too many businesses think it’s enough to fill their website with content from a brochure say, rather than specifically-written, high quality content that will engage and involve their visitors. Is your content enticing enough? And does it contain a ‘call to action’ where you prompt your reader on what to do next?

On average, your visitors will look at four websites before making a purchasing decision. Inviting them to ask for a free quotation or consultation could be the difference between them contacting you, or a competitor.

Aiming At The Wrong Market

Your web designer should have installed an analytics programme which means you can track and monitor the visitors to your website. How often do you check the data produced? Hopefully, at regular intervals, because you could find that the keywords used by visitors who arrive at your website are not the same ones you were expecting when the website was commissioned. This is because sometimes your online market can differ from your offline market.

This valuable information can help you make sure that the keywords you use in your content remain in alignment with your goals. Also, uncovering the keywords used by your visitors can prove a great help when planning future online marketing campaigns.

If you need some help getting your website into shape, or building a new one, then try asking some Internet marketing consultants.

Using the Internet for your Small Business Marketing

If you have a small business then creating a successful marketing campaign is vital to your success. This article will give you some of the most popular ways to use the internet to assist you with this.


If you want to make your business successful then having a presence on the internet is absolutely vital. There are a number of ways that you can approach this and you can choose to use as many as you wish to really increase exposure for your business.

It is however still worth remembering that as effective as online marketing can be, you may still need to consider methods of small business marketing offline as well. By using both methods in the right way you will be able to get word of your business out to a huge number of people around the world.

Using Social Networks

You cannot get away from the many social network sites that exist online; with perhaps the biggest and most popular being Twitter and Facebook. These days they are becoming used more and more as a way of marketing businesses. With so many people using these sites you are guaranteed a huge audience to help you promote your services and/or the products that you sell. Once people are aware of who you are they can search for you and then receive your updates and news of deals or events on their feed as you post them. This is a great way to keep your business fresh in people’s minds. By following your business your page will appear on their profile which means that you may also attract their friends.

Remember that you need to create updates on a regular basis and communicate with those following to keep them interested. Many choose to offer special promotions or discounts just to those who follow them as an added incentive! Just be sure not to be seen as ‘spamming’ as this can really put people off if they are constantly receiving updates from you; they may even choose to leave your Facebook page.

Using Blogs

Another great platform for you to concentrate your small business marketing is creating a blog. This gives you a way to explain to others what it is you do and let them see how your business works and what products or services you are working on. Blogs are proving really popular these days and many people have one of their own which allows them to then follow others. By doing so they will be able to see when you have created a new post which means that you do not have to constantly contact people directly. Be sure to include pictures and perhaps even videos to keep your content interesting and appealing.