12 Best Online Marketing Strategies For 2012

by Amber Irwin on January 16, 2012

At this time of each year we think about what we accomplished over the last year – and what we want to improve on for the upcoming new year.

From a marketing perspective, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with all new ideas and bright shiny objects out there to pull our attention away from the marketing strategies that matter most – those that will actually improve your business and expand your marketing reach.

So, in honor of the new year – I present to you the 12 best online marketing strategies to focus on for 2012. There could be more – but these are in my opinion the best strategies to bring you quicker to your business goals using online marketing strategies that work.

Don’t choose them all! Focus on the 2 or 3 that you feel could impact your marketing effort the most – and carve out the time and plan for implementing them next year!

1. Improve your irresistible free offer. Perhaps it’s time to replace that outdated “free report” or “eBook” with an even higher value freebie to offer site visitors. As I referred to in my post about the best freebie out there – my favorite is still the Audio CD – which has huge intrinsic value because it’s a physical “thing” and you can capture mailing addresses in addition to just email address.

2. Launch a new product or program. There is always something you can “launch” whether it’s a new product or program. You can also “re-launch” something you did this year that performed really well. My post shares some great methods for launching a new product or program. Think about what you can do differently this time around to make it even more engaging and worthwhile for your audience. Add more bonuses and juicier incentives to help increase sales.

3. Do a new webinar or teleseminar. Each new year is a great time to host a new topic using either a webinar or teleseminar. It can also be a perfect time to switch up the format and see what works best. Been doing a bunch of teleseminars lately? Try a webinar? Doing just webinars? Try a teleseminar. And, choose a topic that is new to your audience and see what kind of response you receive.

4. Connect with a new joint venture partner. Have this year be the year you establish a great partnership with a new strategic alliance or joint venture partner. I explained how to do this in my post about joint venture as a great list building strategy. Someone that you feel can really pull you and help you in a big way – while you can do the same for them. I always like to think outside the box about who to connect with – and expect something great as a result.

5. Create an affiliate program. Perhaps this is the year you launch an affiliate program. Affiliates are a great way to spread your message and build your list – while also supporting your sales of products or programs. Pretty much most shopping cart programs support affiliate programs and are easy to establish.

6. Update your website / blog. Website looking a bit outdated? Perhaps it’s time to hire a graphic designer for that new logo you’ve been craving or hire a website developer to update your entire site. I shared how important design is when it comes to marketing online in an earlier post so don’t skimp on the important details when updating your website. First impressions matter most when designing your website.

7. Be more active on social media. Are you one of the folks who has a Twitter account but hardly ever uses it? Perhaps you’re wondering exactly what to post on that new Facebook fanpage you created? Have this year be the year you be more “social” on social media. Remember, you can’t be active on these social media sites unless you show up and do the work.

8. Start a pay-per-click advertising campaign. I’m a huge fan of pay-per-click advertising. One of my earlier posts about PPC explains that it’s one of the best and most effective ways to quickly and authentically build your list with highly qualified leads. Whether it’s Google AdWords or Facebook ads – they convert brand new prospects onto your list and you can target very specific groups of people searching what you have to offer. Yes, you gotta pay for the traffic – but – it’s definitely worth it on the long run.

9. Add video to your marketing. It’s 2012 and you’re still not using video in your online marketing? It’s time to jump onboard with the most powerful and effective way to connect and build trust online with visitors to your site. With the advances of technology and video equipment costs plummeting – you really have no excuse to do more video and start reaping the benefits immediately.

10. Generate more content. Only posting to your blog once every other week or once a month? This is the year you need to generate a ton more content – way more than you’re even doing now (unless you blog every single day.) Putting out high-content and high-value articles and blog posts is how you get new traffic as well as nurture the existing audience you have on your list. Content is king.

11. Be smart about SEO. Still don’t have a clue about search engine optimization or how it relates to your blog or website? SEO is critical for having massive success online – and can’t be ignored or overlooked anymore. Develop a comprehensive SEO strategy about how to improve your search engine rankings for your best keywords and let’s get to work.

12. Email your list more often. Only sending the email newsletter out when you have the time for it? This is the year we get you on a consistent and frequent schedule of emailing your list all this great content you’re now generating. If you’re doing monthly now – consider bi-weekly. Sending the newsletter every other week? Let’s make it happen by sending it weekly. The more you email your list – the higher your open rates and consumption of your content – which is all good.

There you have it! The official 12 best marketing strategies to grow your business with online marketing for 2012.

Until next time… Learn It, Love It, Live It!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6785650

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Internet Marketing Strategies That Can Boost Your Products Sales

by Amber Irwin on December 28, 2011

There are various ways of advertising or marketing your business. Internet marketing is one of the most effective ways of marketing and making your business visible all over the globe. Effective marketing strategies can help you gain more visibility and increase product sales. In this article we are going to look at internet marketing strategies that can boost your business sales and promote its growth worldwide. Some of the well known marketing strategies that are proven to have good results are:

• Through the use of Search engine optimization {SEO} – This is one of the best of driving traffic to your site or business and thus increasing web recognition or visibility. In general the use of SEO in your website helps in improving website ranking. There are various form of SEO that can help you increase traffic in your site, let’s look at some form of SEO. There is the use of selected keywords phrases or words and placing them in search engines such as Google, yahoo, Bing among others. The choice of the keywords should be chosen diligently and in case you already know your targeted audience you can target them by using keywords that mostly use when browsing. In this way you will achieve your goals of drive traffic to your website. Keywords mainly helps web users to find website that have related content that they maybe looking for. Another way of improving ranking through the use of SEO is placing ads on search engines. Ads help in making your site or business visible in the search engines and this is a sure way of driving traffic to your site. Although placing ads on search engine site have a cost it is a perfect and proven way of increasing traffic.

• Article marketing – Writing original content related to your site and submitting to article sites is another proven way of increase traffic to your site. All you need to do is to write quality and informative content and when submitting put anchor text that will help reader to click back to your site. You can also place part of the article as adverts on newspaper or daily magazines. Article marketing is an effective and long term marketing strategies as it brings steady stream of targeted traffic over time and will also continue to produce results even years down the road provided you do not remove the article from the sites that you had submitted it.

• The use of social networking sites – Networking sites such as Digg, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook among others can be used and most people use them to market their product and their website. The use of social networking sites helps you keep your clients update. For instance you can use LinkedIn to build your credibility simply by participating in its Answers forum. One advantage of using social networking sites for marketing your business is that you can reach a large number of targeted customers and you can be able to keep them updated on any special offers or even on arrival of new products.

In conclusion internet marketing helps you to draw potential customers who are already looking for the products and services that you offer. In this way you can make more sales and grow you business.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6702694

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Social Media Marketing Strategies

December 9, 2011

With the influx of different social media tools there are now so many different ways to target your chosen audience compared with 10 years ago.

When using social media one strategy is to remember that you can do so much more than provide just text based information, you can post videos, photos as well as links to other interesting resources that might add value to your followers.

There are many different ways that you can make use of videos, with this and general internet marketing activities such as, visual case studies, how to videos or client testimonials.

Pictures of you, your staff and perhaps even pictures from company social events, can also be very positive as users like to see who they are dealing with, it’s easier to build relationships with the people in the company if they can see who they are and interact with them.

Also when producing videos use the staff that your clients would see if they came into your store or office, this helps to maintain familiarity with clients and can help to build better relationships.

Social media strategies only work if your target audience access the outlet. To make sure you clients and potential clients know that you’re on Facebook or Twitter make sure that you tell them. Send out a newsletter to your clients and contacts to tell them they can follow you on Twitter etc. and ensure that any printed marketing materials feature the URL’s for your various social media accounts. Social media needs the social part to work; therefore you need to have people join for it to be an effective tool for your company.

Once you have people following you on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Google+ you have to keep them interested. One strategy is to have promotions, small things like posting sales through you tweets or putting coupons up for friends on your Facebook page keeps people interested and attracts more to join.

Social media strategies are slightly different from print or person to person strategies. You have to remember that you need to update your information and promotions so that more people want to follow you. It only works if there are members in your online community so you have to promote yourself to your audience to make them want to be part of your community.

The great thing about Social Media Marketing is that not only is the opportunity vast, but it is also one of the lowest cost marketing activities available to businesses today.

Clearly the way companies use Social Media Marketing will vary depending on the type of business or target market, but businesses that are serious about competing in today’s markets need to ensure they are making use of these tools. Simply having a website is no longer good enough, you must promote your business in the online world and engage with your target audience.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6697852

 
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3 Simple Facebook Marketing Tips to Keep in Mind

November 2, 2011

This is a great article:

With over 750 million users globally on Facebook, Facebook marketing is a popular way to reach a wider target audience. Since Facebook marketing is totally different from any other type of marketing previously done on the Internet, it is important to learn how to use Facebook properly for business. Otherwise, it will cost you money, time and effort.

Tip #1: Keep it Social Before Selling

With the thought of millions of customers in short reach through Facebook, many businesses make the common mistake of pitching their product or service directly to the users.

The most crucial factor to remember is that people on Facebook are there primarily to socialize with other users. They are not primarily there to shop and purchase products. If you attempt to sell directly or hard sell to members of Facebook, you will not be successful.

However, if your business is serious about using Facebook as a tool to market your product or service, the first step is to create a Business/Fan page on Facebook and invite people to like the page. Use this page to create buzz around what your business has to offer. Your product or service should offer solutions to your target audience.

The next step is to post value driven content to the people on your page. You can post pictures, videos and other commentary that provides some kind of benefit to your target audience and fans. Urge your fans to take action by posting comments and queries pertaining to your post. The key here is to get them to engage with your page, and develop relationships with them. Since Facebook is an online platform where people go to socialize, ensure that it is an exciting experience for them to go to your page.

Tip #2: Increase Your LIKES or Fans

Why is it desirable for your business for people to click LIKE on your page? Every time you put fresh information on your page, each person who LIKED your page will see the post on their newsfeed.

Therefore, if two thousand people LIKED your Facebook page, there is a potential of up to two thousand people to see your post, and potentially create a viral effect.

Tip #3: Use Facebook Advertisements

You can spread the word of your page and increase the number of Likes to your page by using Facebook Advertisement (Ads). Facebook Ads are quite different from Google AdWords. With Facebook, it is easier to target a specific demographic audience. A crucial feature of a Facebook ad is the graphic or picture used in the advertisement. It is essential to select an image that will draw the attention of people, which encourages them to see your advertisement and click on it.

To achieve success with your ad, you should target your possible viewers, and you can use the services of a website like Quantcast.com to access the demographics of the types of people who may be interested in your particular product.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6656830

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Social Media Marketing’s Growing Popularity

October 11, 2011

Why use social media marketing?

Many of today’s successful businesses have been around for years, long before the internet was a viable option in marketing a product. Although billboards, TV commercials, and radio and print advertisements have been successful in the past, they will not have the impact they once did in today’s market. Many people no longer check the newspaper for movie times, they reference online venues. Many people no longer hand-write letters, they electronically draft emails. Many shy away from garage sells when they can utilize Craigslist. While some may resist the facts, this country and the rest of the world relies on technology more and more every day. This is not something to dread or dwell upon; it is something to take advantage of!

For anyone born after 1980, it is easy to notice the growing popularity of social networks and it does not take a genius to identify the direction in which our world’s social media market’s popularity will continue to move. People from the age of 20 to 29 use social media more than any other age group, with 41% spending 11+ hours a week on social media sites. Age 30 to 39 is the next most frequent user base of social media, with 37% of them spending 11+ hours a week on social media sites as well. While the younger age groups on these networking sites will be more interested in social status, the older groups will focus on marketing and advertising. Understandably, most people have heard of Facebook, which has become the largest social networking website to date. Facebook has over 500 million users, half of which log-on at least once per day. Among the US internet populace, 72% are members of Facebook, with ages 18-24 seeing the most rapid growth. That is 36% of this country’s internet users visit a single website each day! It would be exceptionally hard to find another channel with that kind of impact. Twitter, LinkedIn, and blogs are just a few of the other popular social networks available today, all providing remarkable accessibility to a large group of people.

Social media is the fastest growing marketing tool, and any business not capitalizing on its numerous capabilities could be at a disadvantage to its competitors. Waiting around and not taking advantage of this vastly growing marketing tool is an opportunity that companies are missing. Business is ever evolving and so must marketing campaigns in order to keep pace with the competition. So then why wouldn’t someone immediately get involved with social marketing? It cannot be money, as most of these networks are free. It cannot be experience, because anyone can outsource their social marketing for dirt cheap. Most people just do not know. They do not know what it is, nor understand its capabilities. But most importantly, they are unaware of the positive economic growth it will potentially have on their company.

Social media marketing is the attempt to broadcast various forms of media over social networking technologies, plain and simple. A few perks of social media include increased exposure, increased lead generation, gaining of new partnerships, increased traffic, and marketing cost reductions. On average, 88% of marketers using social media have reported increased exposure for their business. Almost half of these individuals who employed marketing tactics through social media for 12 months or less reported new partnerships gained. Users who spent 6 hours or less per week saw their lead generation increase, and 58% of small business owners using social media marketing were more likely to see marketing cost reductions.

The internet is providing this world with new products, capabilities, and tools that have never before been possible. Social media marketing provides the ability to potentially influence hundreds, thousands, or even millions of people for a fraction of the cost of outdated marketing methods. It is the responsibility of today’s businessmen to focus on the future of every market and the direction it is heading. Social media is a wise investment for almost any company and will be more beneficial the earlier it becomes integrated within a company’s strategic initiative. Social media networking is only going to grow, and my best advice at this point is to establish your brand as soon as possible through these means.

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/social-media-marketing-industry-report-2011/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6602049

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