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.

5 Reasons to Consider Pay per Click

Pay per click is an advertising method used by many Internet marketers today. Instead of paying for an advertisement to be posted on a website, the business only pays when the ad is clicked.

There are many good reasons to consider adding pay per click advertising to your next joint venture. We have five potential benefits of this marketing strategy right here.

Little Cash Up Front

One of the biggest benefits of pay per click advertising is that it costs little investment up front. Some search engines might charge a small fee to set up an account, but others don’t even tack on that charge.

Instead, you pay each time a customer clicks on your site, in hopes that at least a few of those customers will be making purchases to help pay for the cost of the click. This means you only pay for your ad when it gets results, making it a savvy marketing choice for all joint venture partners to consider.

Effective Targeting Ability

Successful joint ventures are all about targeting the market correctly, which is why most begin with two companies that offer related, but different, products or services.

Pay per click utilizes this strategy to the fullest by using techniques like geo-targeting, keyword research and selection of websites according to demographics. When your marketing is targeted to those most likely to purchase your goods and services, your pay per click fees are more likely to be paid for in additional sales.

Easy Tracking

Pay per click ads are very easy to track, making it a snap for your joint venture to know just how effective your marketing campaign can be. This process is completed by tracking keyword successes, conversion rates and other techniques. When you know precisely how well your pay per click ad is performing, you can target your advertising dollars to the most effective sources more efficiently.

Anyone Can Use It

Pay per click advertising puts every business on a level playing field, whether they are a major corporation or a small business running out of the basement of the owner. The people who see your pay per click ad for your joint venture won’t have much idea of just how big or well-established your company is from the ad alone. This allows you to compete with much larger companies for your target market.

Instant Gratification

One of the best features of pay per click advertising in joint ventures is that it usually sees almost immediate results. First, these advertising campaigns can be set up in a matter of days, rather than a matter of months. As soon as your advertisement is placed, you can begin tracking the number of clicks that result. You’ll also get a higher place in search engine ranking, ensuring even better returns right from the start.

Pay per click advertising has become a popular way to get online businesses into the market mainstream. When you use this strategy wisely in your joint venture, you can enjoy big results for a minimal investment.

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 Ways Joint Ventures Speed Up Sales

If you are looking for a way to boost your profit margin in a hurry, there is no better way to do so than joint venture marketing. This approach offers exponential returns by opening the door to a plethora of marketing options. When you pool your time, talent and resources with another company, you build on one another’s reputation, customer lists and Internet savvy for bigger, faster sales.

We will show you five ways joint ventures can speed up your sales and explode your profits.

Reputation

Building an online reputation with potential customers can be much more challenging than promoting confidence in a face-to-face transaction. JVs allow you to build a reputation quickly and efficiently by riding the coattails of a larger, more established business.

If you want to increase sales in a hurry, there is no more effective way to establish an immediate reputation with your target base than through a JV relationship with another business in your industry.

Endorsements

By the same token, endorsements help online customers make faster decisions about whether to throw their business your way. If they already work with an online company they like, they will be more likely to buy from other businesses that company recommends. A simple recommendation from your JV partner provides you with immediate sales from their customer list, while you are offering similar benefits to your partner from your own lists.

Shared Customer List

Business owners know all too well the time and energy that goes into building customer lists. Wouldn’t it be great if you could just wave a magic wand and make the names on that list multiply by themselves? With a joint venture, that is very nearly what happens.

Once you and your partner have established a relationship of trust, sharing customer lists allows you to increase your target base nearly automatically.

Better Internet Marketing

There are many avenues of Internet marketing today – so many, in fact, they can effectively muddle the intentions of even the savviest business owner. When you join forces with another business, you also combine time, talent and resources to exponentially broaden your Internet marketing opportunities. You can take advantage of many more advertising avenues without waiting weeks or months to research your marketing approach and create a strategy that incorporates new marketing methods.

More Traffic

If one business owner can generate a certain amount of website traffic in a single marketing effort, it stands to reason that combining efforts with a JV partner will drive even more traffic to your website in a relatively short period of time. In addition, the strategic alliance you form with a partner within your industry ensures that the traffic you do drive to your site is more likely to buy from you the first time they find you. Targeted traffic in a relatively short period of time is one of the greatest advantages of joint ventures today.

JVs are an excellent resource for boosting sales in a relatively short period of time. When you combine resources, talent and customer lists with another business in your industry, you can see higher sales and bigger profits quickly and effectively.

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.

Joint Ventures and Targeted Traffic

When you want to build a customer base, the obvious solution would be to reach as many potential customers as possible, right?  However, what if your business is scrapbooking supplies and your advertising is reaching middle-aged males who have no interest in the hobby? What if you are selling gardening tools to people who primarily live in high-rises in the middle of the city?

It is clear that not all traffic is created equal. If you marketing approach is not geared to targeted traffic, you may end up spending a lot of marketing dollars for very little return. The best way to get a good value from your advertising dollar is to gear your ads to the people who are most interested in your products or services. One of the most effective ways to achieve this goal is through JV marketing. This article will explain why.

Finding Related Businesses

Let’s go back to the owner of the scrapbooking business. If this business owner decides to form a JV partnership, her best prospects will be those in a field related to, but not exactly like, her own. For example, she might partner with a company that sells cameras and offers photography classes. Since moms are often the scrap bookers of the family, she might look for businesses that cater to products for young children or pregnancy-related supplies. By looking for businesses related to her own, she is more likely to find potential customers that would be interested in the products she is selling.

Time and Money Savings

The business owner in our example has automatically put her efforts into marketing to a targeted audience, without the need for market research or other costly methods to find the people who would be more likely to purchase her scrapbooking supplies. Instead, she simply hunted out the businesses related to her own that would already have a targeted customer base. By adding her business name to this established company, she directly reaches targeted traffic for a fraction of the time and money it would cost for her to fish out potential customers on her own.

Many business owners fail to see the value of joint venture partnerships in locating targeted traffic. Instead, they put their money into companies that provide mailing lists of potential, targeted customers for a fee. While there is nothing wrong with purchasing mailing lists per se, the cost of these lists can be rather exorbitant for the new business owner with a limited marketing budget. Instead, a JV partnership can provide the same benefits, with little or no cost up front.

The hardest part of an effective joint venture partnership is often finding businesses in related industries to your own. The secret is finding a company that is closely related to your business in order to narrow your targeted traffic to potential customers most likely to buy from you. However, if your businesses are too similar, you may find your companies in competition with one another and the JV partnership will not flourish for either one of you. Choose your prospective partners carefully, with targeted traffic in mind, and your JV marketing campaign will provide the best value for the cost.

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.

Capitalizing on Social Networking for Joint Venture Marketing

Nearly everyone has a Facebook or MySpace page today, and unless you have been living in the Dark Ages of late, you have probably “tweeted” someone through Twitter. Social networking is all the rage, and now businesses are beginning to understand the value of effectively using social networking tools that literally reach millions of potential customers every day.

This article will discuss how to use social networking in your JV marketing strategy to link up with an even broader potential customer base.

Options in Social Networking

One of the biggest draws to social networking in JV marketing is the number of options in social networking today. Some of the choices include:

• FaceBook

• MySpace

• Twitter

• YouTube

One of the most popular options for professionals today is LinkedIn, which is primarily used to market one’s abilities for the job market. However, businesses are also tuning into the advantages of marketing their business through this social networking site as well.

Another option is to find a niche market website that specifically works with businesses or business owners like you. For example, the Toilet Paper Entrepreneur attracts small business owners with the opportunity to read blogs and post comments regarding running a business today. There are also blogs like Networking Effectively, which is designed to help business owners utilize the latest technology in social networking to the benefit of their bottom line.

Tips for Effective Marketing

Perhaps you have thought about posting your business on Facebook or Twitter, but you are unsure how to use the sites effectively to market your company. We have a few tips to help you navigate the world of social networking with professional savvy:

• Think about your audience as you are designing your social networking accounts. Are they young and hip, motivated by trendy purchases?  Are they professional yet cutting edge, looking for the best technology?   Make sure your social networking account is in line with your target audience, as well as your current branding strategy.

• Get the ball rolling with a topical discussion about your product or brand, and listen to what others have to say. You may gain a wealth of information regarding what prospective customers are looking for and how you can effectively reach them through your JV partnership and your advertising campaign.

• Provide real time information about your business, including current promotions and specials going on in your store. Social networks are the perfect way to cross promote your joint venture.  You might be amazed at the level of traffic you receive when shoppers begin to sniff out a deal.  Think about creating JV combo packages exclusively for patrons of the social networks.  When you build relationships online, you build them for your business as well.

Using social networking to build a business is a free marketing strategy that is already proving successful for many business owners today. While a JV partnership is a good beginning to finding a broader customer base, the use of social networking by you and your JV partner may increase business exponentially. Social network websites appear to be the wave of both the present and the future for profitable business owners.

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 Joint Venture Marketing Wealth Report.

The Psychology Behind Consumer Decision Making

When you begin the JV marketing process, you want to know that your efforts will be successful. To ensure you get the biggest bang from your marketing buck, it is important to understand the decision making process that goes into nearly every purchase made.

Many psychologists and marketing gurus have spent countless hours researching and studying the reasons that consumers move from thinking about a purchase to actually taking out their wallets and putting money down. This article will give you a brief view of the decision making process to help you find the most effective methods for inspiring your potential customers to buy.

Recognizing a Need

Before customers spend their hard earned dollars, they have to see a need. This need can be known to the individual, or one that you can make known to them by showing them how a particular aspect of their lives can be easier or more convenient because of your product or service.

To make the need known, you need to think of your commodity from the customer’s point of view. Demonstrate both the problem and the solution you offer to make your product as compelling as possible.

Information and Alternatives

Many customers, once they recognize the need, will next undertake an extensive information gathering process to weigh their alternatives and choose the best solution for their needs. The amount of time that goes into the information gathering is often directly related to the value of the product. More expensive or complex products and services will usually merit a more involved research time. In the case of smaller products or a more urgent need, the customer may bypass this step in the decision-making process completely in favor of obtaining a solution to their need as quickly as possible.

The Purchase

Once the information has been perused and the alternatives thoroughly weighed, the purchase process will ensue. This step may or may not be in the accompaniment of a negotiation strategy, depending on the value of the item and whether it is customary to bargain for a better deal.

You can call a customer to action by carefully working through the previous steps with them and motivating them to make a purchase decision. Make the buying process as easy as possible, so your customer can get the item he wants without additional hassle or frustration.

The Post-Evaluation

If your customer has thoroughly gone through all of the steps above and has successfully met his need with your product, the post-evaluation process should go very smoothly. It is important to reiterate to your customer the benefits of your commodity at the time of purchase to lessen his feelings of doubt after the fact. This will continue to encourage your customer that he made a good purchase decision and make him more likely to buy from you again when another need arises.

JV marketing successfully brings customers to your business, but without the knowledge of how the purchase process works, your efforts may fall flat. By understanding how consumers make their decisions, you are more likely to close the initial sale and enjoy additional business from that customer in the future.

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 Joint Venture Marketing Wealth Report.

The Anatomy of an Effective Backlink

A backlink is a common tool used in JV marketing, which allows you to link your website with another to boost your Internet traffic. There are a number of benefits to backlinks, but the advantages are directly impacted by just how effective your backlink use becomes.

This article will provide the basics of backlinks to help you use this tool in your JV marketing strategy as successfully as possible.

Benefits of Backlinks

There are many good reasons to use effective backlink strategies in your JV marketing approach, including:

• Building traffic to your website

• Improving your search engine ranking

• Improving your standing on PageRank

• Establishing yourself as an “expert” in your industry

• The risk and cost of backlinking is minimal, especially in JV partnerships

There is no doubt that backlinks are an inexpensive, effective way to bring more traffic to your website. However, the amount of the benefit you enjoy from your backlinks will be directly affected by your ability to use them wisely. We have a few tips for you to consider when posting backlinks on your JV partners’ websites.

Relationship

It’s all about the relationship in backlinking, and the closer you and your JV partner are related, the more value you will get from your backlink. Choose a JV partner that is in a very similar industry, but not so similar that you are competing for customers. For example, a wedding planner might backlink to websites of florists or bakers, or a mechanic might backlink to car dealerships or auto supply shops.

Information

Backlinks are noticed more when there is content to peruse. This is why posting articles to article directories is such an effective way to use the backlinking tool. However, you can also use this concept with JV marketing by providing content along with a link to your website on other business sites.

For example, the wedding planner might write a post about coordinating the wedding flowers for the service and reception at the florist’s blog, along with a backlink to her own business.

Quality, not Quantity

Certainly, quantity is important when it comes to backlinks, but quality is even more likely to get noticed. Posts and articles used to backlink to your website should be well-written and interesting. They should also contain good keywords that make them easy to find on the search engines. The better your content, the more people will take time to read it and maybe click on your website at the end.

Comments

Commenting on other blogs is an excellent way to increase your backlink power, especially if you are working with your JV partner to this purpose. However, the best traffic is received when you are listed as one of the top commentators on a particular blog. You can enjoy increased traffic, as well as better rankings in this top spot.

The biggest advantage to incorporating backlinks into your JV partnerships is that you can enjoy the benefits of backlinking without paying for any of the links you get directly. Instead, you and your JV partners agree to provide backlinks for one another through your company websites, blogs and social networking websites. When the cost of backlinking is minimal to no cost, all the profits you receive through increased traffic and customers is icing on the cake.

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 Joint Venture Marketing Wealth Report.

How to Use Joint Venture Marketing to Increase Website Traffic

Joint venture marketing is a beneficial way to get your business noticed when you are just starting out in your sector. The ability to link with a more established business is an excellent way to build credibility and a customer base quickly and effectively.

One of the biggest advantages to JV marketing is that you can increase traffic to your website much more efficiently than by simply using search engine optimization techniques. We will show you a few ways to use your JV partnership to your fullest advantage when it comes to building website traffic for your business.

Backlinks

Backlinks are used to link traffic from one website (your endorser) to yours. Backlinks provide two purposes; they raise your search engine ranking and they help customers find you on the Internet.

To ensure you get the most from your backlink, you should not simply purchase it from another website (which is not only a black-hat strategy, but costly as well). Instead, you need to get your link by mutual agreement, such as a JV partnership. The way to build this type of business relationship is to find a website for a related industry, so the traffic at the original website will be more likely to be interested in what you are selling as well.

It is also important to analyze the website you will put your link on, since sites that get little traffic themselves, or link to illegal websites, may not build your traffic and may even lower your standings in the search engines.

Blogs

Blogging is the way to inform and interact in the 21st century. Many business owners develop their own blogs because people are often more likely to read content than pay attention to an advertisement. If your JV partner also has a blog, you can direct customers to each other through your blogs. This is mutually beneficial, since traffic increases to both websites, which means higher revenues on all sides.

Recommendations

If you find a JV partner who is larger and more established, you can rely on that business for recommendations for your goods and services. Your JV partner may put a link on his website, recommending your business for a related or highly specialized type of product or service. Your traffic immediately increases exponentially because your JV partner already sees a significant amount of traffic each day. More traffic means more sales, especially if the customers directed to you are already interested in what you have to offer.

Content is King

Once your customers find your website, the key is to keep them coming back for more. To encourage customers to sign up for your regular email correspondence, provide content on your website that is informative and entertaining. Your articles will draw your customers to your business and make them want to find out what you have to say next. When you have a good customer list for your opt-in marketing program, you build sales by maintaining regular contact that allows you to alert them to new products and special promotions you are offering.

JV marketing is an excellent method for building high-quality traffic to your website. When your customers come to you, your sales will effectively increase.

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 Joint Venture Marketing Wealth Report.