The powerful strategy to immediately launch your online presence
With all the marketing and advertising plans available today (email marketing, pay per click, banner advertising, display advertising, free samples, etc., the many traditional print advertising and marketing methods including brochures, direct mail, newspaper and magazine advertisements, radio and television broadcasts, and others) the one true, best way to position your particular kind of service or product (herein referred to as product) is the good, old fashioned word-of-mouth.
If your small-to-medium-sized business is similar to most, you have a blog or a Web site and you are hoping it will produce business, or leads, or at least some activity. If it isn’t performing like you had anticipated, maybe you left something out of the business marketing equation. Don’t feel ashamed, because many businesses do the same thing.
Time and again the business owner or executive will try to save money and get a Web site up and operational via the many software programs and creative designers on hand for a low or reasonable price, and suppose they are now on the Internet like other businesses, and can expect that the Web site will do for them what it is perceived to be doing for their competition. Well, it doesn’t work that way, and why should it?
Think of it this way; when you want to try a new restaurant, do you trust the restaurant you know something about over the one you do not? Do you visit the restaurant that has many cars in the parking lot or the one that has very few? Why?
It is not the business who advertises the most or the most often that establishes its standing the best, it is the business that is perceived to be the authority, or the most excellent in their market niche, or at the very least the capable business that will receive lucrative sales from that niche market.
Let’s assume you have an working Web site, and you need to position your business as the authority in its niche and be situated in the top ten (first page) of Google, Bing, and Yahoo, along with other search engines.
If you do not yet have a Website, determine a strategy and pricing structure to plan the quarterly expenditures and monitor the results, before your new site goes active.
Website marketing ideas
First step: optimize your web site for search engines. Either expend the time reading and learning how, or find a dependable source for search engine optimization (SEO).
At this stage, I recommend to my new clients placing as much relevant matter about your market niche on your site as often as you can. Your business is attempting to catch up with other companies who are steadily placing content on their site and on the Web, and you are also trying to stay ahead of others who are attempting to accomplish the same thing.
Here is where I have demonstrated to be very advantageous to my clients, and if you use my services you will never run out of information to put on your Web site or in your marketing mix.
I favor the plan of placing at least an article a week to keep the search engines in action and alert to your business brand. A cost-effective marketing tactic includes a weblog or RSS feeds at your Web site, with a Share This control that will allow you or others to effortlessly present the article or blog to social networking sites such as Twitter, Digg, LinkedIn, and many others.
For a mere $40, I generate multiple versions of an article that I write for $100 (which is always 600 words or more for this particular use), distribute them to several hundred sites, 4 to 5 articles or more per day, for as many days consecutively until the sites have accepted the articles. That’s hundreds of articles and potential links to your site (also known as inbound links or back links).
If clients want to save money and provide me with content for an article, I will edit the article for search engine optimization for $40, and then create multiple versions and submit them (for $40) to the many submission sites. That will require that clients apply some of their time but it is one option to take into account, especially when there are down times when clients can write more if they want to.
Incidentally, I am willing to bet you have a few stories of times when things went amiss for whatever reasons, and you could share those stories to show how you handled the situation; that makes for important reading.
Social networking sites (like those in the Share This device) are very significant and it doesn't take a lot of content to communicate this way. A brief mention of something notable or something others can use; something of value to the reader is appreciated and can produce more interest in the rest of your Web site and may evoke a reaction--a customer contacting you; that’s what you want!
Use social networking to your marketing benefit
Remember to find blogs from other sites to periodically post useful comments on. I know of successful business people that make a habit of bookmarking certain sites and every week (and often multiple times per week) these sites are visited and comments are posted at their blogs.
I suggest to my clients to post a couple of comment sentences on these blog websites, or if there are many and it consumes too much of the client’s time, I will for $1.00 per blog comment. Clients get the blog sites and let me know.
But be wise not to create articles on social networking sites sales pitches or they will get removed and you may be penalized. You want to inform and educate primarily. A greater way to get reaction is to ask engaging questions! People usually like to add their two cents worth and it can be enjoyable and entertaining to others such as titling a post, "What do you do when things fail?"
Your new site should have a blog where people are going to be able to read your blogs, and you want them to visit and comment on your blogs. Why? Because it builds relevant content, and search engines love that. It is also more content that you do not have to generate or pay someone like me to create. It also builds connections to others and extends the rapport to others that builds on your business’s credibility and expertise.
Here is what to do now and persist to do: If you can't compose a book or a guide, write an article for magazine publication (as a ghost writer I can really assist you here). This is one of the best ways to acquire credibility, and it can be altered to fit various publications. This allows you to refer to your published material and adds more credibility to your business.
Even better is to write a progression of articles for publication in magazines. This is very potent and exponentially increases your business's credibility, but also takes more time and preparation so it is never too soon to begin this endeavor.
Everything counts as you ramp-up your authority. It may seem expensive at this point, but it really is an investment for the long term and will prove your business's credibility within your market niche that do not yet know your company's worth to them.
Evaluate your how your site's internet pages are performing with free analytics
It's important to have a plan in place to both measure the results, and to prepare for expenditures, or reductions in expenditures (such as recurring downturns). My marketing plans are structured for maximum effectiveness so you can govern more precisely what types of customers will need your services and when, who to make contact with and how, what their hot buttons are, and so on.
I have an account that I have been writing and editing and optimizing older articles and press releases for, and discovered that he did not know whether or not his site was registered with directories and was unfamiliar with all the different submission websites he could be distributing marketing content to until I showed him. In just three weeks he saw abrupt improvement in his site’s activity, and in subsequent weeks customer interest, with no expensive pay per click campaigns that he had tried and were getting him nowhere.
He also had a website designer who made a small error that he discovered; he couldn't understand why he wasn't getting emails, until it was revealed that the Web site had somehow inadvertently disconnected his emails from him. He had about 100 emails (a few of which were over 30 days old) from interested visitors. He informed his designer and that was corrected, but it demonstrated the positive effect that my writing and tactics are working for him, and can be for you, too.
Using Google's free analytics to review the activity of the site and specific Web pages can inform a business volumes about what is most significant to the customers in that market niche.
The website marketing plan that works
Online marketing takes effort. I have been contracted to function as an offsite communications administrator to provide services for others that do not have the time or inclination to process these various responsibilities and it is working for them.
Internet marketing plan (12-month)
1. Optimize the Web site.
Ensure that links within the site permit easy navigation for search engines to key words and key phrases. Add meta tags and description tags to each page. Add one (articles, blogs, RSS feeds) page of content to Web site plus appropriate meta tags and description tags.
2. Submit Web site to directories for search engine placement and registration/inclusion.
3. Write a 300- (or fewer) word blog three times per week and place onto client’s Web site. Spans 12 months; begins when Web site is optimized.
4. Register with social networking sites and batch- or select-submit a fragment of information of 140 characters along with blog (or RSS feed) URLs to desired websites (up to 200).
5. Batch-submit each blog from the Web site to 50-plus submission sites. For the first month, each blog posting will be batch-submitted immediately; weekly batch-submissions thereafter for 11 months.
6. Write 10 or more (500 to 600-word) news releases/press releases per month and distribute each at J Howard Company’s database hub spanning three to six months; biweekly articles for six to nine months thereafter. Begin within first week after the website is optimized.
7. Batch-submit multiple random versions of articles to 500-plus article submission sites. Note that this can build links to the website quickly and efficiently; simultaneous with step 6 above.
8. Submit press releases/articles to specific, individual submission sites (up to 50) beginning first week. Note: All written material must be optimized for search engines without sacrificing reader comprehension.
9. Approach magazine publishers with press releases.
Each magazine has their word count requirements; determine which publications would be appropriate to suggest informative articles to. Then, a query letter must be written and sent to each individual publication’s editor explaining why this article would be in their readers’ interest.
Create a list of print publications with the purpose of submitting a query letter to, whose readers you believe will gain from your company’s products, and if the magazine editor responds to the query, present an informative article or press release.
Within the article or press release offer something of value for free (such as a brochure, a useful item of information, or something the reader can profit by) to every reader who responds by providing you with their email address, whereby the information can then be downloaded immediately (assuming you have the information prepared, which you should, and the capability established for the reader to download immediately).
This technique gathers email addresses to qualified prospects. Cherish this key information.
10. Email leads and customers periodic offers. .
For at least two months, introduce services or products weekly that your customers can use. Direct them to a Web page that tells more about the email notice. Think about a recurrent (biweekly or monthly) newsletter to stay perfectly positioned in the customer’s mind.
Use my services and I will put together a proposal on what is best for your particular Internet marketing needs.
Author Resource:
Jim Angel is a freelance copywriter and communications director in Dallas, Texas specializing in Web concepts and strategies for business, with clients nationwide.
http://www.jhowardco.com
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