Tag Archives: Internet Marketing

Internet Marketing Strategies That Will Always Be Relevant

When it comes to running small businesses, internet marketing can be an integral component of the overall marketing strategy. Every small company needs effective internet marketing strategies whether it is doing online business or not. However, it is imperative to note that strategies that were effective in the past may not work in the future. Every business owner has to be aware of how dynamic the online marketing environment is. Relying on out-of-date online marketing strategies is going to be costly and futile. Below is a rundown of proven digital marketing strategies that are not only highly effective but also timeless.

Relevant Internet Marketing Strategies

Email Marketing

Email marketing has been proven to be one of the strongest internet marketing strategies in today’s world. Powerful email messages could stir the hearts of customers into supporting business and make purchases for the benefit of your company. The primary purpose of email marketing is to develop brand awareness through transmission of advertisements or to solicit sales and get donations for business recommendations. This can be achieved by sending emails to selling lists or the existing customer base.

Email marketing can take two distinctive forms: direct email and transactional email. Direct email marketing has to do with sending emails intended for communication through promotional messages. An example of this approach is when a company sends a catalog of products or email information concerning a special offer. The email addresses may be known to the company or may even be rented from service companies. On the other hand, transactional email marketing strategy makes use of the messages produced through customer’s reaction to a company. In other words, this type of communication is to customers who have agreed to receive emails from your company. The message can be in the form of forgotten password resets, reorder emails, basket messages, and order confirmation emails among other forms.

Content Marketing

Content marketing has to do with providing valuable information to potential customers. The information can be about your product or general issues of interest. Your articles, website, videos, blog posts, photos, and other forms of communicating must deliver high-quality content material that is useful to your target audience. When you deliver excellent content, people will get to know, like, and even trust you. They will use it, share it, and eventually buy from you.

Social Media Marketing

Whether you like them or not, social media platforms cannot be ignored. Some of your customers are obviously using social media sites such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram among others. It is imperative that you integrate your business to social media sites and ensure that you post regularly. It is also important to engage your audience and ensure that the content you post is not only relevant but also great in quality. However, you have to analyze your audience to know the social media sites they are on to avoid wasting time on the sites they hardly visit.

Search Engine Marketing

People use search engines when they want to find something on the web. Hundreds of millions of searches are conducted every day on search engines such as yahoo.com, google.com, and msn.com among others. Some people will be looking for your website or for a product that you deal with. So, how can you capture the people that are searching what your business has to offer? This is achieved through a technique known as search engine marketing.

The idea is to make your company more visible when people search for products that you offer. The aim is to rank highest or make your website appear on the first pages of the main search engines when people search for products your company sells. To achieve this, you might need to seek assistance from experienced internet marketers offering search engine optimization (SEO) services.

Local Search Marketing

Although the internet allows us to interact with anyone anywhere in the world, we do not always need the worldwide part of the web. In fact, the number of local business searches done on the Google is on the rise as more and more people realize how adept the major search engine can be when it come to providing more localized search results when required. To take advantage of this, it is imperative for you as the business owner to understand the value of local search marketing.

The greatest advantage of local search marketing has to do with the quality of the traffic you are likely to attract. Most of the people searching for goods and services are looking for local. Thus, defining your location will give you exposure to the people that matter most.

In conclusion, it is apparent that there are several effective internet marketing strategies you could integrate into your overall marketing strategy whether your business is online or offline. Discussed above are the online marketing strategies that will always be relevant. Whichever strategies you choose, always emphasize quality before quantity.

internet marketing strategies

SEJ Article: Tread Carefully If You Hear Any Of These From An SEO Agency

Everyone once in a while I come across a gem that’s worth mentioning here and giving a back link to. It’s rare that I find anything really quality on Search Engine Journal anymore. I’ve often looked elsewhere for up to date news, but a post about looking for an SEO Agency this morning caught my eye and I thought it was worth summarizing here.

Tread Carefully If You Hear Any Of These From An SEO Agency

I really want to take a few of their titles and really expand and give my thoughts on them and really looking out for yourself when it comes to picking an SEO Agency. You can never be too safe when it comes to choosing the correct agency, and all of their suggestions hit home when it comes to keeping yourself protected among the sharks out there.

Number & Quality Of Links

SEJ Wrote:

One of the first aspects most clients like to get their head around is the link building side to SEO. Most agencies will try to educate the client to understand exactly what the agency will do for their website. If you notice that they are slightly reserved when it comes to their link building techniques, this is your first Red Flag.

I see both sides of this argument. In one way, the SEO Agency should be honest when it comes to their linking practices, and in another they should be reserved because SEO is an absolute cut throat business when it comes to competition. I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve heard “well company x does it this way,” giving a rough outline of how the company has success in link building and strategy.

Another thing however, is that reserved or not the SEJ article hit it on the head. Make sure any SEO Agency that you potentially deal with is saying the right things about the kinds of links they should be going after.

Owning Content & Links

SEJ Wrote:

This has only happened to a small amount of clients, but they had paid for a year’s worth of SEO agency and they had stuck out the contract and reaped the benefits; however when they left the agency, their traffic and sales suffered. They didn’t know what had happened and when they came to us, we realised that the previous agency had taken down all the guest posts and links they had got throughout the year.

Wholeheartedly agree with this and I’ve actually seen it happen. Especially if the business in questions pays for links from a source. Those links are then removed when the payments are stopped, leaving the client dead in the water. It’s an issue of why buying links is a failure for most small businesses.

An SEO Agency That Guarantees Of Sales or Traffic

SEJ Wrote:

If they mention guarantees of traffic or sales start running because it is impossible to guarantee anything in the SEO world. They might forecast some targets, but it is very hard to guarantee anything because some changes Google might make are out of your hands. Forecasts are great, but Guarantees are BAD.

I went ahead and emphasized the bad because this is something that I literally can’t repeat or preach enough. Sadly however, this is another thing that I’m familiar with in the industry. Any time either the salesperson or the SEO him/herself gets caught up saying that they can offer x amount of visits or leads in a certain time is setting themselves up for a failure and will do nothing but frustrate the business owner in the end.

The article has more points worth reading. It really drives the point home in the fact that there are shady SEO Agencies out there looking to just make a quick buck. Always research and prepare questions when you’re looking for an SEO or Internet Marketer.