Online Marketing Focus: SEO and Social Media

Small business owners have a wide array of marketing choices when selecting the right online marketing strategy to pursue with the goal of finding new leads that actually turn into sales. The most popular being paid advertising, SEO campaigns, and Social Media Marketing. Making a site that is streamlined to be attractive to the search engines through Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the most talked about tactics that drives traffic to websites generally through Google. It is always important to build a website based on proven SEO principals, but in today’s online world failing to engage with the community through social media sites is a big mistake.

Google now puts value on the number of shares, likes, +1’s, etc. that a site receives when producing its search results. Therefore social media campaigns also have an impact on a company’s search rankings for their desired keywords. A great SEO strategy with lots of backlinks is no longer enough to gain high visibility and traction online. The best marketing campaigns for a small business include a combination of both solid SEO principles and promotion of social media channels. Paid search advertising and banner ad space can get a new site the exposure it needs to reach customers; but it is usually way too expensive for most small business marketing budgets.

Basic SEO Principals

In order to get the most out of your social media campaigns it is wise to have a site built based on best practices concerning search engine optimization. The following are a few guidelines that are important for your web development team to follow when designing your site. But doing these alone will not drive the traffic you desire until you begin sharing your website’s content on Twitter, Facebook, and elsewhere providing readers the opportunity to share, like or +1 the content you are distributing.

• Create a site map.
• Develop unique page titles, keywords, and page descriptions.
• Use keywords in headers and body of text, but don’t overdo it.
• Create backlinks, but use a family of similar keywords not just one or two.
• Include blog titles in the URL for the company blog

Of course there are dozens of other aspects for building a website with SEO in mind and so it is important that you have a web developer that is adept at SEO techniques when building the website. Many small business owners fall into the trap of trying to implement what they read about SEO strategies that pertain to affiliate marketing companies that are only seeking traffic through Google search and are not actively selling a product themselves or building a brand that customers will return to.

Social Media to Drive Traffic

Using Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Youtube, and other sites to promote content about the business, products, and services provided should be the majority of your focus. Building a community of people interested in the industry the business is in, is much more effective than building thousands of links on irrelevant websites. Individuals that actively follow a business on Facebook or engage with the company on Twitter are actually helping to promote the brand to their followers and friends simply by engaging and having a discussion. This can be the best kind of exposure as the business is able to reach additional people that may have similar interests. By focusing on creating an effective social media marketing strategy the business has a much greater chance of being noticed by others that will take the time to write or comment either on the social sites, but also on their own blogs and other websites which can result in very high quality links. Building links is a huge part of any effective SEO plan and one of the best ways to get others to link to your content and discuss your brand is through unique and original content that is shared through social sites.

Make sure your site has the basic requirements that the search engines are looking for. Be sure to have a well-designed website and leverage social media to generate the high quality links and discussions that will really send traffic to your site. If you have the ability to create original content then you don’t need to worry about creating an intricate link building scheme as it will more than likely end up getting sniffed out by Google anyways. Small business owners are much better off spending their online marketing budgets building value for their community and actively participating in industry focused discussions throughout the web.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

Discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.

Tips for Getting More Clients from Marketing Activities

joint venture marketing

joint venture marketing

The new year is always a time to review last year’s execution and make plans for growing the business. The following tips and techniques can be used to maximize your existing marketing activities in getting more clients. If you have a product or service that is currently being marketed through your own activities or from your joint venture marketing partner then it’s necessary to close every lead and potential deal that is on the table. To acquire a customer it often takes several different attempts with layered marketing of the company and its offerings. By quickly following through with every marketing activity you can potentially hit a customer in multiple channels.

Blog Posting

A blog post may about a new product or new company information that is posted in order to educate customers and potential customers about the product or company. Blog posts are a great foundation to build on and leverage for improving the companies rankings in the search engines. It’s important to expand the reach of your company blog by using the following actions and services on websites to promote the blog post.

Email – Blast a company message with the title, link, and summary of the blog post to people in your newsletter lists.

Facebook - Post a link to your company’s blog post. These should be posted on both companies Facebook pages if it’s a joint venture.

Twitter - Post a link to your company’s blog post. The co-branded blog posts should be posted on both companies Twitter accounts.

Fiverr - Hire someone to submit blog pages to social sites like Reddit, Digg, StumbleUpon and other locations. Hiring additional people to also promote and engage with the content can help posts gain traction faster in the Search Engines.

While results may not be instantaneous, if you follow the steps above your blog posts will receive more value in search engine rankings for your target keywords from Google due to the links that will be created directing back to your specific blog posts. This will help create more traffic to your company’s main website through promoting your content.

Facebook

Facebook can be a unique place to advertise for many businesses. However; there are a few strategies that can work for companies and their joint venture partners that are looking to gain access into specific local markets and have a solid presence on the social network.

• Facebook ads can generate interests from a partner’s existing customer base that follow them. Create an advertisement special that customers of a partner can have access to if they post a message in there Facebook status about your brand. Getting more clients from Facebook requires them sharing your company with their friends.

• If you want to build a following of people, then as a company you have to be educational and have interesting content that makes people want to subscribe to your content. Create interesting videos that provide specific details about a topic in 2 – 3 minutes and post them to your Facebook page as well as on Youtube.

• Create an interesting ad that targets very specific demographics. The ad itself needs to be short and sweet and catch the attention of viewers for the target market your business is after. Purchase ads to the exact details of the market that you need to reach whether it’s regional or based on the individuals occupation, age or gender. Facebook allows for creating amazingly detailed ad campaigns. Make the campaign about clicking like to your Facebook page versus redirecting to your website or a sales landing page.

Brochures / Mailers

If part of the marketing activities is sending out a regular printed brochure, catalogue, or promotional newsletters / sale offerings then it is important to maximize each piece of mail, due to the cost of regular mail campaigns.

Email - Sending an email at the same time as a physical mailing is a good way to use the marketing material twice and help reinforce the physical papers that may get shuffled around for a few days before being reviewed. Invite them to a webinar that will be conducted concerning a topic related to the products or services that are being offered in the mailer. Include a form in any emails that can be filled out and sent in requesting more information as some people prefer to communicate through these channels rather than making a call.

Phone Call – Making a follow up phone call 5 – 8 days after sending a letter / package to a perspective client is always a wise idea. If you are conducting a massive mail campaign and neither you nor your business partner has a call center, it’s ok. There are people that can be hired for a fairly affordable rate that can quickly understand your company’s basic information and products to make lead generation calls to provide hot leads to your sales team. Train sales people making follow up phone calls to get email addresses during the conversation as it’s the easiest way to ping potential customers on a regular basis.

Have a great 2012; enjoy growing your business and maximizing all of your existing joint venture marketing activities to get more clients.

christian fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A joint venture marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

Discover more joint venture marketing Strategies join his free report on joint venture marketing.

joint venture marketing

joint venture marketing

How to Market Effectively through Joint Venture Websites

The content on joint venture websites amount to the largest portion of most marketing campaigns. There are a few core basics that every joint venture marketing website should have set in place. Using video is an excellent way to communicate specific messages directly to the consumers. Crafting and placing banner ads that actually target the real demographic of visitors to a website is important if there’s any hope of converting traffic into sales. This is especially true for small niches. Creating blog posts on both joint partner’s websites as well as category specific blogs set up on landing pages are crucial for consistent content that engages the community and provides the search engines the content needed to drive better rankings in natural search results.

Video Content

Using video content is one of the most successful ways to effective marketing on joint venture websites. When the right video has been made, it will not only peak a customer’s interest in a new product or service, but assist in the sales process to encourage either a click through and purchase or result in the customer making a phone call that the sales rep is focused more on closing versus selling. Videos can serve many purposes and are excellent tools for quickly explaining who a company is and the core details about a product or service. Videos are also perfect for social media campaigns and engaging with different communities on the web. There are countless numbers of video sites like YouTube that a video can be posted to in order to increase visibility of a product or service. Using video in social media channels also encourages others to help pass the content along to their friends only furthering the exposure that is sought when marketing a new product or service. These types of social focused videos are most suited for consumer based products and videos that can achieve going viral pose the possibility of produce an incredible return on the investment.

Banner Ads / Affiliate Ads

While most Internet users have become savvy enough to surf the web without clicking on many ads, if the ad is very relevant to the specific interests to the reader there’s a likely hood of gaining their attention and click increases. This is why it’s very important when spending time developing online joint venture marketing relationships that the demographics of the website visitors is really understood. Doing a big campaign with a new partner that is supporting a different market is a waste of every one’s time and resources, but still plan on having some killer banner ads that are short and sweet and sell your product and service, and make sure they are only served on the right pages.

Blog Posts

Blogging is one of the best ways to generate fresh content on a joint venture website. Setting up a website to market a new JV opportunity is easy to do and with “one click installs” like WordPress or easy set up with Google Blogger, every marketing related website should have a blog. If maintaining a quality blog is too much work, it is easy to find individuals that enjoy writing and will be knowledgeable about the subject that they are hired to write about. These marketing support team members can maintain daily or weekly fresh content on a blog at a very reasonable rate. Asking JV partners to write guest posts on a blog is another excellent way to get low cost content that is very relevant to the marketing of the joint venture. Getting a new partner to commit to writing content occasionally for a website blog is a way to ensure continued participation in the efforts that will produce a long term benefit to the partnership since every new article is increasing the websites exposure to the search engines and improving the results in natural searches.

Joint venture websites need to be taken seriously in order to make sure that the right content is being used to market the partnership. Develop engaging content that clearly explains the products and services. JV partners should constantly increase their capability to consistently produce new articles and videos to keep building a stronger presence on the web for long term SEO results.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.

5 Secrets to Internet Traffic You Need to Know

Your online business needs plenty of traffic if you’re going to build a solid customer base. That may be the biggest reason to consider partnering with another business for some serious joint venture marketing. However, even if you sign on with a good JV partner, knowing how to increase website traffic will make a big difference in the success of your partnership.

We have five secrets to increasing Internet traffic that you need to know for your joint venture.

SEO

Search engine optimization is essential if you want to increase your rankings on the search engines. This is a complex and ever changing technology that requires research to stay abreast of the updates.

The proper use of keywords and phrases can make all the difference in how many people find your website. Tools like Google Keyword or Keyword Discovery can make a big difference in finding the best words to incorporate to drive the most traffic home.

Social Bookmarking

In order to drive more traffic to your website and increase the benefits of your joint venture, you will have to get social today. Social networking has become a viable method for driving traffic to your site, as well as keeping customers up to date on your latest promotions and products.

Rather than just bookmarking your main site, spend time adding bookmarks to your articles and backlinks for the greatest return on your efforts.

Article Directories

Submitting to article directories is a must for both you and your JV partner. When you

write articles for directories, you immediately establish yourself as an expert in your industry. This will increase consumer confidence in your company, so that those who do click on your backlinks to find your website will also be more likely to purchase from you.

Articles on the directories should come with backlinks and social bookmarking to help readers find your business.

Backlinks

To ensure you get the greatest return on your backlinks, watch the content to which you are adding your backlinks. Pasted content is easily detected by search engines today and automatically goes to the bottom of the pile, where your potential customers will never find it. By the same token, generated content that was so popular at the beginning of the Internet marketing era is now considered taboo by most search engines. You are much better off to create new, unique content for your backlinks that will be seen by more potential customers.

Blog Commenting

Commenting on other people’s blogs is a free, effective way to get your business name around the Internet. Add a backlink to your blog entry and wait for potential customers to find you. Look for blogs that would attract your market base for the best return on your efforts. It is also important to find high traffic blogs that have done much of the tough marketing work for you.

Internet traffic is the key to any successful online business today. Even joint venture partners can benefit from increasing website traffic using these simple techniques listed above.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.

How to Get the Internet Traffic You Want

When you open a brick and mortar store, you employ plenty of tricks to entice new customers to walk through your doors. When you start your business online, the same philosophy applies. You need to attract customers to your website, so they will be enticed to shop for your products.

While joint ventures are the first step in increasing website traffic, what you do with that partnership will make all the difference. We have the basics of how to effectively bring more customers to you.

Social Networking

Social websites are the hot spot today, with Facebook boasting more than 500 million users. With so many people signing on, it is foolish for business owners not to make the most of this online tool. Social marketing strategies are one of the most effective ways to drive traffic to your website today. Social networking can also help current customers keep up with your business by alerting them to new products or special promotions when they arise.

Advertising with Search Engines

One of the best ways to drive traffic to your website is through savvy use of the search engines. When your business rises to the top of the ratings, more potential customers will find you every day. Tools like Google’s Adwords and Yahoo’s Overture may cost money up front, but they will offer plenty of value in higher rankings and more customer traffic in the long run.

Write for Websites

Some websites allow you to write articles that include a link to your website. When you write an article on a topic related to your industry, you establish yourself as an expert in your field. Once a potential customer reads the valuable information you have to offer, he will be much more likely to click on your link and peruse your website as well. If you are not much of a writer, there are professionals selling their ghostwriting services for a reasonable fee.

Add Video

When you add video to your landing pages, you can improve your presence almost instantaneously. However, like the content you produce, the video must be relevant and informative to produce the desired effect. It might be best to hire a professional for the job to ensure your video is top quality and as effective as possible.

Link Up

Links are a fabulous way to network your business throughout the Internet. Link exchanges are common in joint ventures, where you are attracting a similar target market. However, links are equally effective with websites where you can publish articles and add your link with your tag at the bottom, usually in a biography or resource box. In addition, you could swap banner ads or classified ads with your joint venture partners.

When it comes to marketing an online business, driving more traffic to your website is the first step in building a good customer base. As the world of e-commerce becomes bigger, the process of increasing website traffic also becomes more complex and competitive. With these tips, you will help more potential customers find your website, increasing your sales and your bottom line.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.