Small Business Guide to Choosing an Online Marketing Service

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If your business has a website, then it is important to understand the value of online marketing. With effective online marketing, you will be able to increase the visibility of your website, business or brand, improve your customer relations, and improve your business’ revenue directly though ecommerce, or indirectly though lead generation. If you don’t feel that your website is getting enough traffic, online marketing firms will be able to provide quick results through the implementation of pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns. In addition, they can offer keyword analysis, search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing.

Keyword analysis is an important aspect of online marketing because it ensured that the right keywords are being used for your website in order for it to be found in online searches. Interactive marketing consultants have a variety of tools they can use to test keywords and determine their effectiveness.

Search engine optimization (SEO) involves assessing a website content and layout, and modifying its elements in order for it to be ‘search engine friendly.’ By hiring a professional in search engine optimization, your website will be able to get more views because, when its topic is searched, it will appear at or near the top of search engine results pages.

Pay per click marketing is a popular tool because it gives website owners the ability to place an advertisement in front of a targeted audience and quickly see results. Instead of paying a flat fee, costs for this type of campaign are accrued on a cost per click (CPC) basis.

The popularity of social media has greatly increased over the last five years. Social networking websites now allow users to connect in a unique and easy way, enabling them to share comments, images, and videos. Such social marketing strategies can be a major source of revenue because socially minded mediums act as gathering places for likeminded individuals, which means the potential for profitability through marketing using these venues is greatly increased. Social media marketing campaigns essentially revolve around giving users content that they can share with others, which is a great way to gain attention for your business or product.

Social Media Are Not Just For Giddy Teenagers!

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You may have heard about Myspace, the News Corp.-owned social networking powerhouse. Or Facebook, the rapidly growing network which is presently independent but might one day be owned by Google, Yahoo!, NBC, Tribune Co., or any other media company which recognizes the site’s massive potential for consumer leverage.

In a sense, marketing on the internet uses high technology to advance a very low-tech agenda. Like any offline marketing campaign from years ago, generating business demand online still boils down to an objective understanding of your product or service’s utility. You still need an informed and unbiased view of your target market. Effective and efficient use of the marketing mix (price, product, placement, promotion) is as important today as it was decades ago. None of this has changed.

But the dawn of the internet introduced a new variable: a breadth of consumer touch points previously unfathomable to most marketers. Social media are among the most promising channels; according to Nielsen/NetRatings, the top ten social networking sites grew 47% in 2006.

Now a company has a variety of ways to appear in front of its audience. Take Jalima Coffee as an example. This manufacturer of organic Mexican coffee differentiates itself from competitors with a strong prosocial mission, and hired Clicksharp Marketing to inject this brand image into new channels. One of the co-owners used LinkedIn to introduce the business community to her background in non-profit and international development. The company posted a video on YouTube documenting the manufacturing process and sharing a unique slice of culture with its viewers. Jalima’s Myspace profile is linked to over 500 friends: mainly coffee lovers and advocates of sustainable agriculture. Whenever the company’s marketing department chooses, they have an immediate channel with which to communicate news and events, product introductions, or just to say hello.

Moral of the story – forget what you may have heard about the typical user of any of these sites. Their convergence is taking place rapidly and ubiquitously. The sooner you join the network, the sooner you can forge meaningful connections with the stakeholders that are key to your business!

For more, I highly recommend reading Michelle MacPhearson’s Social Media Marketing Guide.