Digital Marketing Consultant

Social Media Use

People are changing the way they shop for products and services. They go to the Internet to find and gather information so that they can make an informed decision. It is much easier to get the information that you need by searching on Google than to look up a phone number in the Yellow Pages and then call. We just don’t want to be sold to.

Besides searching on Google, people are also looking for information on a number of social media sites such as:

• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Blogs
• Twitter
• Stumbleupon and other bookmarking sites

These social media sites enable us to get the “word of mouth” recommendations and advice that we all seek when considering making a purchase of a product or service.

Generation Y

Many of us in the “Baby Boomer” community think that social media is a trend for the younger generations “X” and “Y” as they are the most active in this medium.

The Generation “Y” population is over 70 million in America and by 2010 they will outnumber Baby Boomers. They will become our future leaders and the majority of them have been raised with technology and belong to one or more social networks.

Companies must start incorporating social media strategies into their marketing initiatives to engage with the Generation Y’s now to avoid being left behind in targeting this growing segment.

If you have not already, you should check out our free Wisdom Book.

You know where your website is, but can your target market find it?  Improving the visibility of your website is of utmost priority if you are wanting to generate traffic and obtain lead conversions.

Basic steps you should take to improve your website’s visibility to your target market will improve visibility.   Improving visibility is an ongoing process.  You must also maintain visibility by making improvements on an ongoing basis.  

This can usually be provided for around $30.

Evaluate your call-to-action and landing page.  The solidity of these portions of your website will result in more  visitors providing you with their contact information including phone number and email address.  Obtaining this information allows you to build campaign and marketing strategies for this target market.

Create a blog to complement your website.  Blogging will improve your website visibility by indexed page creation with each blog post.  This will significantly increase your indexed page volume with quality content provided with quality blog posts.  Blog post provide opportunities to build content using keywords that are profitable for your website.  The end result of a quality blog is increased visibility.

Keyword-rich page titles that are both meaningful and unique will improve visibility of your website.   Keyword research will result in identifying strong keywords or what is known as powerful keywords.  Key word research may take some time and effort, but the end result of using these powerful words will be worth it all.

Improving visibility for your website does not stop here.  But it should be emphasized that these few areas are a good starting place which can lead to increased conversions for your website profitability.  Want to know more?  See our free Wisdom Book.

Most successful website owners agree that having a blog is a necessity for building traffic to your website.   The most effective blogs are generally simple blogs that connect directly with your readers or visitors.

Creating and maintaining a blog does not have to be rocket science.  Simply tell your own story and share your own expertise.  For the most interesting blog, you also should be willing to share your journey to success.   Presenting yourself has a natural way of bringing your blog to life. 

Nothing is more valuable than life’s experiences, and sharing your experiences provides for true and tried solutions to problems which will lead to success.

Another benefit of breaking down topics for your blog post into smaller portions is that you will have several days of blog material on a general topic.

You can add a little creativity to your blog post by using videos.  A video helps to gain attention to your blog by making a visual appeal to your audience.   The variety also helps build attraction and keeps your visitors interested.   Demonstration videos are excellent additions to your blog.

A personal video which serves as a direct connection with your audience is a real winner.

A blog is created to help you increase traffic and conversions which equates to sales and revenue.  An opt-in box should be included with your blog.  There is not much in the world today that is free, but with an opt-in box on your blog you will discover you have access to free leads.

So what are you waiting for?  Build traffic by creating a blog.

Perhaps you have said to yourself in the past a blog is a blog is a blog.  I beg to differ with you.  There are blogs and then there are blogs.  If you want your blog to work effectively for your website, you will need produce blog post with some inspiration.

Inspiration comes from the heart, and whether you are blogging about the greatest kitchen gadget or how to save your marriage, if it is to be an effective tool for building traffic and customers to your website, it must be inspired.

Don’t wait to get the inspiration the day you need to post your blog.  Throughout your day, every day  you are doing business on your website or just going through your daily routine, you have ideas and thoughts that just seem to pop into your head.   That’s inspiration.  The problem most people have is that they fail to recognize these nuggets of golden thoughts as the inspiration for their next blog post and then others simply forget the thought or idea as quickly as it came.

To capitalize on these inspirational thoughts and moments, you should write them down as soon as they come to you.   Yes, even if you are busy with other things.  Keep a note pad and pen (or maybe something like an iPad?) available within reach throughout your day just for this purpose.   An inspired thought that never finds fertile ground will never produce what it was intended to produce. 

You can spend hours and days searching for blog content that will be ineffective when the highest quality blog content was at the tip of your tongue at one point but you failed to take it to the tip of your pen.

Perhaps you could benefit by recording your thoughts which can easily be done with your cell phone and other electronic gadgets if you desire.

Capture those fleeting inspired thoughts and watch them come alive on your blog.  Your well of quality blog content will never run dry when it is fed by the fountain of inspired thoughts throughout your day.

Oh, and one last point: a blog is the key to your Search Engine Marketing.

If you have ever taken a road trip of any distance, you probably understand that somewhere along the road you are going to have delays and detours.  Perhaps you are remembering your last road trip that ended in a detour simply because you missed a road or made a wrong turn.  

 

Learning the ins and outs of SEO can be much like a road trip with delays and detours along the way especially if you are not using an expert in the field of SEO.

If you are planning a road trip, preparation is completed in stages.  If you are a professional driver, you will need to make sure each of the following stages is completed for a successful road trip.

1. Complete any vehicle service that is due such as oil change, tire checks, and take care of any mechanical problems you may have.   Failure to do so may find your planned road trip has come to a complete halt.
2. Clean the inside and outside of your vehicle.  This is for your comfort and for your image.
3. Double check to make sure your registration and insurance cards are available and up to date.   Failure to do so could be costly.
4. Get a map of your planned route.  This is a breeze with MapQuest or Google Maps.  You should do this for a back up even if you have a GPS.
5. Plan for any meals and lodging needed along the way.  
6. Fill the vehicle up with Gas and plan for refuels in plenty of time to prevent walking instead of driving to the gas station during your road trip.

If you run a professional business, Internet and Digital Marketing Planning includes the following essential steps:

• Search engine submission
• Keyword and phrase identification
• Meta tag development utilizing the best keywords
• Quality original website content with appropriate keyword density
• Build incoming links associated with keywords and relevant content
• Incorporate article marketing
• Get involved with social media marketing
• Implement blog marketing
• Add various other SEO marketing tools and processes

Almost each one of the steps noted are not a onetime shot or fix for your website.  These steps have to be repeated consistently and frequently to attain and maintain high ranking on the search engines.

Save yourself a headache and increase your rankings on the search engines as quick as possible by using an experienced International Digital and Internet Marketing Consultant in the field of search engine optimization.  You know your business; they know theirs.

Does your business have a blog?  If so, is it used effectively?  Not having enough time to blog is the biggest reason some businesses fail to either have a blog or to have an effective blog.  Improving your blog strategy will be the foundation upon which you can build an effective Digital and Internet Marketing tool out of your blog.

Your blog should first build upon your business branding strategy.   Blogs that have a SEO focus will dramatically increase your online traffic and visibility.  The best blogging strategy will start with unique content of high quality for your website and web distribution.

1. Keep your blog topics aligned with your business niche.
2. Maintain a blog calendar to plan for and track your blog topics
3. Write your blogs for reader value
4. Add variation to your blog topics, content and style.
5. Utilize best practices for blog writing
6. Assure alignment with your website SEO and your blog SEO
7. Add links to your blog
8. Incorporate video and images into your blog
9. Allow your blog to go viral
10. Use a conversational tone and encourage interaction 

As a Digital and Internet Marketing tool, it is important to have a blog that supports your business niche.  Use catchy titles to get the attention of your readers and provide valuable information.

A calendar will help you to organize topics and when to write them.  Prepare a list of topics to be covered and then plan the order of writing them. 

One very important point: If you can't get it done, pay someone to get it done.  Just Do It!

Traffic is what keeps your blog alive and well.  Without traffic a blog can be considered to be dead online.  A blog with no traffic has no life and no value. So if getting traffic to your blog is of great importance, how can you accomplish it?

The first thing that can help your blog get traffic is good quality content.   Your content needs to provide valuable information from which your visitors can learn something or have a take away.   Good content is important, but it is not the only thing that is needed to obtain traffic.

Keywords

Keywords play an important part in getting traffic to your blog, just as they do to your website.   Consider keywords when you are writing your blog posts.  Use keyword tools to find the best keywords to use for your blog topic.  Keep the keyword density about 4% for your blog posts.  This will enable the contents to rank well with the search engine results.

Social Bookmarking

Social bookmarking sites allows you to bookmark specific pages of your blog to obtain traffic.   Use of social networking sites is also another way to obtain traffic for your blog.   A good strategy is to join all social networking sites and place on your profile advertisement for your blog.  Add as many friends to your social networking sites as you can.   This can provide greater visibility for your blog.

Other ways to increase traffic

• Promote your blog on your email signature for greater exposure. 
• Feedburner use can also successfully increase traffic to your blog.

Consistancy

Having said all of the above, none of them has any importance if you do not publish regularly...preferably every day.  After about 100 posts, you will begin to notice increased traffic.

The key to keeping your blog alive and well is traffic.  With that being said, you will want to use several different strategies to continually increase the traffic to your blog to keep it alive.  Bury you blog with traffic so it does not become a dead blog on the web.

And finally, if you would simply like to read some excellent material on the subject, go to http://bit.ly/WSIwisdomBook starting at page 93.

The economical challenges today create both a need and opportunity to identify low cost strategies to build and Digitally Market your business.   There are several cost effective strategies that can be utilized.  Link building is one of the best traffic building strategies available for internet marketing.

You can also write articles for submission to some of the article submission sites.  Provide relevant material for your articles to prevent spamming.

You should have social bookmarking placed on your content and product pages on your website.  This will make it easy for visitors to share the content, services and products on your website with others.

Set aside time on a weekly basis to continue building links using the strategies noted.

Guest Blogging Opportunities   

This is different than just posting comments on a blog.  The time it takes to produce good quality blog post will limit the number of posts you can provide each week.   Thus, it may take several months before you can receive the results you are expecting.

Forums

Popular online forums also provide opportunities for one way links.  Simply register on the forums, setting up your signature with anchor text including your website link and begin posting.  Be careful not to directly promote your website in the post.  If you do, you will probably be kicked off the forum.  Again more posts results in more links.  

Professional Services

You should not close the door too quickly on hiring a professional service for building links.  If you do not know the ins and outs of link building, a service could be a cost effective method for you to consider.  A trustworth Digital Marketing Consultancy will deliver higher search engine ranking faster and more effectively.

Is your article marketing program as good as it could be?   It pays to take a good look at all of your Digital Marketing campaigns including articles. 

7 Tips to Enhance Your Articles

1.     Know your market.  You need to understand who your market is in order to write articles with content that will reach out to them.  You can learn more about your market by use of blogs, forums and social networking.  Find out what their needs are, what questions they have, what their preferences are, and, more specifically, what you have that they need or are interested in.  The answer to these questions will provide you with visitor-relevant topics for your articles.

2.    Optimize your articles with keywords.  This is for the search engines, but the search engines are delivering the results to your potential visitors.  Effective use of keywords in quality content articles can produce high rankings on the search engines.  To please both your visitors and the search engines, make sure your keyword flow naturally within the content of the article.

3.    Maintain fresh content in your articles.  At all cost make sure your content is not the product of plagiarism or duplication.   Fresh unique quality content articles will build credibility and trust with your readers.

4.    Article marketing is a way for you to connect with your visitors.  The more conversational your writing is the more your readers will feel a personal connection.    They will place value on your expertise and advice.  Rather than just words in an article, the words will pop off the page in a conversational manner.

5.    The resource box of your article must be written to entice and draw the reader to click to your website.

6.    Develop an effective Call to Action.  In other words, have the text ask the reader to do something.

7.    Submit your articles to article directories and sites.

Probably the most important tip I can give you for your Digital Marketing success is to create and maintain a consistant blog of articles.  Oh, and do check out our Wisdom Book.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a big deal for online business today.  It is the way a website obtains higher rankings on the search engine results for keywords.  SEO is a strategic marketing method that has the ability to increase income for a website as it attracts and drives more traffic to the site.

Some of the benefits of SEO include:
•    Increased internet exposure
•    Affordability
•    Availability
•    Popularity

If you feel any of the benefits listed above could be beneficial to your online business, you will want to make sure that you obtain SEO for your website.

It is fundamental that a higher ranking improves your visitor attraction when your site is listed in the top 10 or 20 results on the search engines for keywords.  The reason for this is relatively simple in that the end user will generally focus on the first page of results from the major search engines.  When you are on the first page of the search engine results, all users will see your site first and most users will never go beyond this first page.

Pay-per-click (PPC) is another way to obtain more visibility.   Pay-per-click is a method of purchasing advertising space and can be successful at improving popularity of a site.  But sometimes there is not much gain, and, frequently, actually the website owner loses on the campaigns.  Done the right way, Pay-per-click is a proven method of getting results faster while you wait for the SEO tactics that you use to take effect. 

SEO is a proven marketing technique and guidance, assistance and education from an SEO expert can provide lasting results for your business.  Unless you can afford an internal staff, you should outsource SEO completely.

I have written much about what SEO includes and about the process.  SEO not only improves accessibility but is improves availability at the same time.  

Most people don't think about it, or don't have the capacity, but  article writing or blogging is a SEO technique that provides information to your potential customers.  It is useful and describes the products and services you offer on your site in an indirect manner.   As your potential customers gain knowledge about the products and services that you offer, they become interested in the services/products themselves.  

Most of all, BLOGGING IS THE MOST POWERFUL tool you have available.  Video is powerful, but can cost an arm and a leg like PPC.  It must be done right.

As SEO increases your site popularity, users will begin to socially bookmark your website pages.  The more social bookmarks your site has, the more popular it becomes among Internet users.

Start by watching our free webinar and free whitepapers, and by visiting our wisdom book.