Free Internet Marketing TipsSome valuable internet marketing tips to help your small business website improve it's ROI. Esther C Kane
October 09, 2008
The free Internet marketing tips are based on my own Internet marketing of my websites. As an SEO webmaster at Eckweb Designs, Inc,
it's natural that I would own and operate several websites and of
course, I experiment all the Internet marketing and SEO techniques on
my own websites before I attempt them on my clients' dime!
So, without further ado, here are some marketing tips to help you with your online marketing campaigns...
1) Articles - although pay per click (PPC) and for pay directories
(like Yellow Pages) help bring in traffic, once I stop paying the fees,
these services stop. So, for effective, long term Internet marketing
awareness, I have found that the combination of SEO (search engine
optimization) and article marketing have given me the best ROI. If you
can't or don't have the time to write articles for your own business,
hire someone to do it for you. Believe me, the investment will pay off
in the long run. But you must understand, it's not a one shot deal, or
even a short term deal. Writing is constant. You don't write 5 articles
and then call it quits. It takes many articles, continuously being
written. After all, even print journalists spend years writing before
they're recognized.
To give you an example, I've been writing daily for about 4 months now and I'm just beginning to see the ROI!
Write your articles and submit them to free article submission sites (there are hundreds),
2) Social Media - your name, your company needs a following. Every
brand does. So, create that following by joining and participating in
social media programs. I'm talking about Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Knolstuff,
etc. Submit your articles to these places, engage in conversations with
others, find others in your niche or in your target audience. The #1
rule I can tell you about social media programs is do not become a
salesman. Do not join these programs with the intention of just
selling. You won't gain ground. The point of these programs is to
showcase your expertise. Let others know who and what you are and why
your product/service is valuable for them.
You know, these social media programs are SO much like business
networking groups. I remember years ago when I attended these types of
groups at chamber of commerce meetings, BNI, women's business groups,
etc. it was easy to notice that the business folks who came to the
meetings and immediately began selling, pitching their business, they
never lasted long. Why? Because they didn't sell. Why didn't they sell?
Because they didn't give anyone a chance to learn who they were. They
didn't give others the opportunity to build trust in them. My goal at
these meetings was to educate. Not many people know about SEO and the
ones who do, know very little or have been given falsehoods about it.
So, my goal was to educate everyone I met about what I did. If they so
chose to purchase my services, great. If not, that was great also. I
never went to a meeting with the intention of coming out with a sale.
And you know what? It's been 4-5 years since I've gone to any of these
meetings (yes, business is doing well) but I still get calls and emails
from people I met all those years ago looking for SEO work.
The online social media programs are the same, except you can do it in
your pajamas. The purpose and intent of the social media programs is
for you to showcase yourself, your business. Who are you? What do you
do? Why do you do it better than others? How can you help? etc.
Four months ago I began submitting my articles to Ladies Who Launch,
a social media program. Today, I checked my website statistics and
guess what? The #1 website (other than search engines) that refers
clients to me is Ladies Who Launch and better than that, the conversion
rate (the percentage of visitors who come from that website and then
contact me) is 12%. That's a very good ROI! The proof is in the pudding.
3) SEO - I just can't say enough about the importance of getting your
website optimized for the search engines. And no, I don't mean just
tweaking the meta tags. I mean really optimized. Some websites have to
be taken apart, literally and rebuilt so that their structure is easy
for the engines to read. Keyword research needs to be conducted, page
optimization needs to be implemented. That means placing those
important keyword phrases in all the right places. Making sure that the
pages link to each other the way they're supposed to, ensuring the site
has a 301 re-direct, there's a robots.txt file, there's a sitemap.xml,
and so much more! As the website owner
you don't have to know all the details of SEO (you bring the car to the
mechanic because he's the expert, not you). BUT, you do need to know
enough to know if you're getting your money's worth. So make sure that
your SEO firm keeps up with the latest trends, that they're investing
their time in your business (and not just theirs) and always, always
look at your ROI. The average ROI is 1% - 3%. If you fall within that
range your site is doing well. If you are above that range, your SEO
firm deserves a bonus. If you fall below that range, something needs to
be changed. I'll leave it up to you to decide what to change.
So, I do hope these free Internet marketing tips will help your website
gain ground in the extremely competitive world of the Internet. The
returns are absolutely worth the effort so don't be shy, plunge in!
If you have any questions about these Internet marketing tips or SEO services, please feel free to contact us at Eckweb Designs, Inc.
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