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.

Effectively Integrating Your Joint Venture with Social Media

Developing an effective strategic plan to integrate your joint venture and social media is essential for growth. In nearly every industry, social media influence has led to major changes in how joint venture partners do business. Finding and communicating with their customers are the two primary goals.

The tools for a joint venture and social media

Over the last ten years businesses have increasingly diversified their advertising budget to include online resources. The first wave of change was creating appealing and informative websites. The last three years have seen the rapid integration of joint venture and social media profiles for products or services with these websites. For a business with a large product line and customers from all corners of the globe, using these tools are practically required. The building blocks of your strategy is a website featuring links to your profile on Facebook or Twitter. YouTube is also very helpful, especially when educating customers about a new offering. For a business-to-business focused joint venture, LinkedIn is an essential social media channel. One of the newest trends is geotagging your social media content.

Using social media to communicate with joint venture customers

Whether it is breaking news or building product buzz, social media has accelerated the sharing of information. It’s not an exaggeration to use the cliche “faster than the speed of light” when referring to how quickly a joint venture can send information. Governments and businesses continue to learn how important it is be ahead of the information curve about their organization. Over the last three years, we have witnessed how quickly word can travel thanks to social media whether it’s positive or not.

A brief mention of a “fly-in-my-soup” kind of experiences can spread within minutes thanks to the exponential growth of social media usage via mobile tools. If an influential user with a smartphone posts a complaint on Twitter, it is retweeted five times within minutes of sharing. And that is just the beginning. This is damaging for banks or blue-chip companies. But the average neighborhood shop or small business might find themselves severally hampered by a critical review or unconfirmed rumor. These types of joint ventures thrive on their reputation and a damaging social media image can hamper growth.

Facebook has become one of the top three search tools consumers use to learn more about a company’s product or services. It is also the first place they go online when not pleased with customer service or the product they bought. At the bare minimum you should set up a free Google Alert via email for the name of your product or service. Choose the as-it-happens option for delivery. The faster you respond to criticisms as well as compliments, the better.

Relationship building with your customer

The ongoing integration of your joint venture and social media communication is a key method of building relationships with your customers. Allowing your customers to have the opportunity to join a dialogue with you is a great way of building trust. Consistent and quality content shared via social media allows your joint venture to quietly stay on the radar of your potential customer. Perhaps they do not need event planning help today, but what about next month? If they read on Twitter your party planning how-to tips regularly, then when they need the services of an event planner, you might be the first call.

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.

Using Social Marketing to Build Your Customer Base

Social marketing is a relatively new advertising concept that was originally introduced in the 1970s. Philip Kotler and Gerald Zaltman discovered at this time that the same strategies used to sell customers products and services could also be used to sell them on ideas, attitudes and behaviors. The primary purpose of the approach was to benefit the general public by influencing behaviors in an advantageous way.

Today, social marketing has become an effective method for generating website traffic, as well as persuading consumers to purchase a broad range of goods or services that fit well within a single category. It can also be used successfully through a joint venture, as long as both businesses are onboard with what social marketing is and how to use it effectively.

The Components of Social Marketing

A successful social marketing strategy includes the following components:

• Product – This does not refer to a specific product, but rather a spectrum of products that fit within the intangible ideas the advertiser is trying to get across, as well as the benefits the consumer stands to gain.

• Price – As opposed to a set monetary value, the price in social marketing shows what one must do to get the product in question. The actual price is minimized in a successful social marketing campaign.

• Place - This component refers to how the product reaches the consumer, and it requires a basic knowledge of the habits of the target audience to reach them effectively and fit with their lifestyles.

• Promotion – Promotion incorporates a wide range of methodology to alert customers to the product in question and creating a sustaining demand for it.

When all of these components are successfully integrated into a social marketing strategy, you are much more likely to succeed in your social marketing endeavor. It is also important to remember that the ultimate goal of social marketing is to influence behavior, rather than simply sell a product.

How to Use Social Marketing

To incorporate social marketing into your joint venture, you must first develop a thorough understanding of your target market. Social marketing begins by identifying the market need and then addressing that need directly for a better response. To legitimately influence one’s behavior, you must provide good reasons why that behavior change will reap serious benefits to the consumer.

Once you have convinced the public that they need a behavioral change, make it easy to follow through by ensuring your product or service is easy to find and purchase.

While social marketing is often used in industries like health care, it can be effective in other fields as well. The primary principles to keep in mind when launching a social marketing campaign are that you are ultimately interested in action by your target audience. You promote this action by offering a fair exchange that is beneficial to your customers, offering concrete benefits whenever possible. When these steps are carefully followed, you do much more than sell a product; you sell the idea of your product, complete with benefits that will keep customers coming back for more over the long term.

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.