Tuesday 27 March 2012

Businesses Of All Sizes: Internet Marketing Consultants Can Help You Maximise Your Potential

Does your report for this term’s sales and marketing results say “could do better”?


If so, you’re far from alone.

Even taking social media out of the equation, many business owners are overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the Internet and the constant time demands marketing their business online entails.

As a business owner, it could lead you to believe that the options for marketing your business used to be a lot simpler before the Internet came along and complicated everything. But looking on the bright side, cyberspace has given us a lot more marketing opportunities too.

Providing we know what we’re about.

Little doubt that there is potential for companies of all sizes to benefit from the extensive marketing power of the Internet, although there is by no means a ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution for all businesses.



This is where capabilities of your chosen Internet marketing consultants can have a significant bearing over how successful your business ultimately becomes. So it’s vital to select your advisors wisely.

You see, anyone can call themselves a ‘consultant’, whether they’ve had fifty years experience in business, or five minutes. Or more worryingly, none at all. Perhaps you’ve been put off using marketing agencies or consultancies by a bad experience in the past. Maybe you were charged too much for the consultancy seemingly doing too little. And at the end of the contract you didn’t get the results you were promised.

It’s hardly uncommon, unfortunately.

By contrast, a professional marketing consultant – one who knows his stuff inside out – will have built up a solid reputation over many years. He will have worked alongside many different businesses and will have marketing experience across a variety of industries.

Above all, he will have the credentials to prove his worth: through results generated from previous marketing campaigns and glowing testimonials from many satisfied clients.

Quite simply, the right Internet marketing consultants for your business will be able to combine the right marketing elements so that you get the right marketing mix – with guaranteed results. They will add value to your organisation and become a trusted ally to your sales team.

If you know your business could be performing better with professional help, then don’t delay – talk to your friendly Internet marketing specialists today. Normally you’ll qualify for a free marketing consultation with no-obligation to take things further. And you could come away with lots of great ideas to make your business thrive.

Company Directors: Internet Marketing Consultants Can Help With More Than Just Digital Marketing

When you think about Internet marketing consultants what comes to mind?


Oh they do stuff like building websites, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and create Pay Per Click ads on Google. Oh and they sort out your Social Media needs for you: like Facebook and Twitter.

Well, yes, they do all that.

And they can also do a whole lot more besides . . .

An Internet marketing consultant can help with things like:

Finance and Funding

A recent survey by accountancy software company Sage, revealed that out of 1000 ‘small firms’ interviewed, only 42 per cent had a business plan in place, and that ‘poor business planning’ was to blame for the majority of loan rejections within the same surveyed group.



If you are looking for finance from your bank, or seeking investment from a business angel or venture capital firm, or perhaps looking to secure grant funding for your company, Internet marketing consultants have the experience to give your finance or funding application the best chance of succeeding.

Market Research

Winners in business know what the competition is up to. They have their fingers firmly on the pulse of their particular markets and know everything they need to know about their competitors and their customers that will give them a winning edge.

Your marketing advisors can implement a range of research initiatives to ensure your company stays ahead of the pack.

Creative Marketing Ideas and Concepts

When you’re that close to a business, it’s sometimes difficult to see how you could do things differently. How you could be more effective with your marketing perhaps. Your trusted marketing partners, however, will have experience across all types of trades and industries and will be able to come up with some fresh marketing ideas that will help you win more business.

Direct Mail

Even when the latest technology dictates we spend more of our time doing digital marketing, direct mail can be a really effective route to winning new business. Your marketing consultants can create mailers and brochures designed to grab attention and get your target audience focused on you.

PR

Many companies are reporting that it’s much more difficult to get ‘free’ PR these days. But not if you know the rules of the game. Journalists are constantly on the lookout for publishable stories – as opposed to the thinly-veiled sales pitches they receive in their inboxes every day. Regular write-ups in the press and trade journals can be a wonderful way to gain more custom, because it is viewed as unbiased reporting.

Again, your trusted marketing consultancy can help your business get the publicity it deserves.

So if you’re thinking your business could be performing better with a little expert help, give your friendly online Internet marketing consultants a call and find out what they can do for your company.

Internet Marketing Companies Can Help Your Business Soar To New Heights

Internet marketing companies – they’re all pretty much alike aren’t they? They all offer the same services: Search Engine Optimisation . . . Pay Per Click . . . Social Media Marketing . . . Website design . . .


While it’s true that many Internet marketing companies do provide similar options in terms of the range of services offered, the results of their marketing efforts can vary dramatically according to the competencies of the ‘experts’ concerned. With the upshot being that you may not always feel you are getting value for money.

This can lead you to believe that throwing your budget at Internet consultancy services is a complete waste of money.

We hear it all the time in the media: “PPC doesn’t work, Social Media is too difficult to get to grips with and as for SEO – well it could take me years to get anywhere in the ‘organic’ search listings.”



None of which is true . . . providing you know what you are doing.

When looking to work with Internet marketing companies, it’s vital to weed out the ‘can dos’ from the ‘cannots.’

An expert Internet marketing company will look closely at your marketing plan, (or put one together for you if yours is out of date), and create a plan of action that will help you get where you want to be as quickly and as economically as possible.

Where the ‘can dos’ among Internet marketing companies really earn their corn is in the quality of the leads they generate. In other words, the number of qualified buyers that are sent to your website on a daily basis.

Because it doesn’t matter one jot if 500 people visit your website every single day, if none of them are in a position to buy from you. In fact, you could be wasting your valuable time trying to engage with people who have no inclination of buying from you. Ever. Higher volumes of traffic don’t necessarily indicate a greater ratio of buyer conversions.

So how can you ensure your business has the best chance of succeeding in the Internet jungle?

Your chosen Internet marketing consultant will devise precisely the right strategy to attract the kinds of people your business is aiming at. People you can convert into satisfied and loyal customers, who will stay with you for years. And they’ll tell their friends about the exceptional service they can expect from a great company like yours.

Wednesday 21 March 2012

An Internet Marketing Consultant Can Send Your Business Mobile

Want to know something your competitors don’t?


Want a larger audience for your products and services?

Want to go mobile with your business advertising?

You may be aware of the quiet revolution that is mobile marketing. So why quiet?

Well, although many of us currently use mobile devices to access the Internet every single day, the potential remains relatively untapped in terms of marketing brands, goods and services.

This is great news for someone like you who can recognise the enormous advantages of mobile marketing and is prepared to take action, before the competition wakes up to this exciting phenomenon.

So apart from the relative lack of competition, what are the benefits of mobile advertising?



Huge Audience

Unlike with traditional forms of advertising such as print, TV, or radio ads, which your target audience could easily miss, millions of mobile subscribers could potentially view your marketing content every day.

Pinpoint Targeting

Whereas someone may not open an email for several days (if at all), mobile marketing means that your communication will reach your target audience exactly at the right time and date you want them to.

Multiple Marketing Strategies

Just like with Internet marketing, mobile marketing offers a host of different possibilities for reaching your target audience. You could use text messaging, click-to-call ads, mobile display, paid search advertising, organic search advertising, click-to-map ads – just a few of the many advertising options you could use to target customers.

Niche Segmentation

Mobile marketing allows you to target specific groups of people according to set criteria. This can enable companies who want to channel their products or services to a narrow group of people, to do so, thus ensuring that the advertisements are highly relevant to their audience and thereby increasing the likelihood of a positive response.

Many companies are yet to recognise the incredible reach-power and sales potential of mobile advertising, which is fantastic news for savvy business owners like you. Now is a really good time to get in on the act and steal a march on your competitors, before they know what’s hit them.

Your professional internet marketing consultant will generate a bespoke mobile marketing campaign that will put your company at the forefront of your target audience’s mind and create a buzz around your brand that gets people talking.

Is Your Website Costing You Customers?

You might have a superb business model with bags of money-making potential, but if your website isn’t up to scratch it could be costing you vital custom. Perhaps you could do with some help from an experienced Internet marketing consultant.


Although it’s considered something of a necessity for businesses these days to have a web presence, having an ugly or dysfunctional website can be worse than no website at all.

Just imagine for a moment that your website exists as a bricks and mortar shop. What if your shop front was run down, with paint peeling everywhere? You could have the most tremendous products inside, but it’s all to no avail if nobody comes through your door.



Here are several of the worst offenders:

Bad design

To a degree, design is a subjective thing defined by individual taste. It can also be dictated by the type of industry you are in. Generally speaking, the more conservative your industry, the more sober your website is expected to be, whether we like it or not.

Websites with colours that clash are a no-no, flashing images can be disturbing to some people and as for poor quality images or clip art – let’s not even go there.

Lack of quality content

Too many businesses think it’s enough to fill their website with content from a brochure say, rather than specifically-written, high quality content that will engage and involve their visitors. Is your content enticing enough? And does it contain a ‘call to action’ where you prompt your reader on what to do next?

On average, your visitors will look at four websites before making a purchasing decision. Inviting them to ask for a free quotation or consultation could be the difference between them contacting you, or a competitor.

Aiming At The Wrong Market

Your web designer should have installed an analytics programme which means you can track and monitor the visitors to your website. How often do you check the data produced? Hopefully, at regular intervals, because you could find that the keywords used by visitors who arrive at your website are not the same ones you were expecting when the website was commissioned. This is because sometimes your online market can differ from your offline market.

This valuable information can help you make sure that the keywords you use in your content remain in alignment with your goals. Also, uncovering the keywords used by your visitors can prove a great help when planning future online marketing campaigns.

If you need some help getting your website into shape, or building a new one, then try asking some Internet marketing consultants.

Friday 9 March 2012

Using the Internet for your Small Business Marketing

If you have a small business then creating a successful marketing campaign is vital to your success. This article will give you some of the most popular ways to use the internet to assist you with this.


If you want to make your business successful then having a presence on the internet is absolutely vital. There are a number of ways that you can approach this and you can choose to use as many as you wish to really increase exposure for your business.

It is however still worth remembering that as effective as online marketing can be, you may still need to consider methods of small business marketing offline as well. By using both methods in the right way you will be able to get word of your business out to a huge number of people around the world.

Using Social Networks

You cannot get away from the many social network sites that exist online; with perhaps the biggest and most popular being Twitter and Facebook. These days they are becoming used more and more as a way of marketing businesses. With so many people using these sites you are guaranteed a huge audience to help you promote your services and/or the products that you sell. Once people are aware of who you are they can search for you and then receive your updates and news of deals or events on their feed as you post them. This is a great way to keep your business fresh in people’s minds. By following your business your page will appear on their profile which means that you may also attract their friends.



Remember that you need to create updates on a regular basis and communicate with those following to keep them interested. Many choose to offer special promotions or discounts just to those who follow them as an added incentive! Just be sure not to be seen as ‘spamming’ as this can really put people off if they are constantly receiving updates from you; they may even choose to leave your Facebook page.

Using Blogs

Another great platform for you to concentrate your small business marketing is creating a blog. This gives you a way to explain to others what it is you do and let them see how your business works and what products or services you are working on. Blogs are proving really popular these days and many people have one of their own which allows them to then follow others. By doing so they will be able to see when you have created a new post which means that you do not have to constantly contact people directly. Be sure to include pictures and perhaps even videos to keep your content interesting and appealing.

Hiring an Internet Marketing Consultant

To get the most out of your advertising you will need to ensure that you have a presence in the online world! This short article will give you an idea of the role of an internet marketing consultant and how they can help you.


It is incredibly important for every business to make sure that they try to stay one step ahead of their competition if they want to be successful. In order to do this they need to ensure that they are competitively priced and have a huge marketing presence both online and offline to constantly remind people of who they are and what they do. However some of the more traditional methods of marketing can be quite expensive; especially if you do not really know what you are doing. For this reason it can make good business sense to hire an internet marketing consultant to assist with your online presence and the design and development of your website.

Why hire an internet marketing consultant?

If you have a website and wish to make sure that it is as effective at advertising your business as it can be then you will no doubt benefit from hiring a specialist consultant who can assist you. They will be trained in all of the most up to date marketing methods and techniques and will have built up a number of years of knowledge and experience regarding how best to promote your site. Often they will be able to offer you advice and guidance on a variety of different aspects such as the design of your website and its development. Creating such an effective presence on the internet will help keep you in the minds of potential customers and can really help to boost custom for your business in the long run.



However, you should bear in mind that although having a successful website is incredibly important, you also need to consider marketing your website to as many people as you possibly can. In order to achieve this you will need to direct as much traffic as you can in the direction of your site and find ways of maintaining this traffic. Again, this is where a knowledgeable consultant can be worth their weight in gold.

What to look for

When you begin your search for a consultant you will find that there are many around, but as with all things, some will be better than others. You should look for someone who has had success in the past and has knowledge and experience in your business area. It may be worth asking for references and links to sites that they have previously worked on so that you can get an idea of their style. Choose someone that you have a rapport with as it is essential that you think in a similar fashion so that you can get the most out of your business relationship.

How To Generate 4 Times More Business Leads Though Your Blog

A study carried out by the software company HubSpot, found that companies who post fresh relevant content to their business blog on a regular basis, receive many more leads than those who post sporadically.


No big surprise there.

As an added incentive, those businesses that post to their blog daily, on average, generate 5 times more traffic than those who post weekly or less. And for the vast majority of businesses, more traffic generally results in more leads – 4 times as many leads no less, for those companies who post daily, according to HubSpot’s research.

Now isn’t that worth considering?

‘Daily!’ you’re protesting. ‘How can I possibly be expected to produce ‘hot content’ for my blog every single day, when there are barely enough hours in the working day as it is?’

There are several ways round this. You could:

Book out blocks of time in your diary where you sit down and produce a week’s blog posts in one hit.

Hire a freelance writer or marketing specialist to produce your blog posts for you (or at least some of them.)

Invite guest writers to share their views and knowledge with your audience.

Ask work colleagues or business associates to chip in with their ideas and contributions.




So what should your blog posts be about?

It’s important that the prime focus of your blog posts is your target audience, rather than your company. That’s more ‘you’ and less ‘we’ or ‘us.’ So think about:

The main problems your customers (and potential customers) want solved.

Your customers’ aspirations and goals.

What you can offer that your competitors cannot (this could relate to your USP, though not necessarily).


Remember though, that blogging every day is not the ‘be all and end all’ if it’s likely to prove too much of a struggle for you. Actually, that can be detrimental. It’s more important to have a workable schedule you can stick to month upon month, rather than to put yourself in a position where you end up demoralised and uninspired and the rest of your work suffers as a result.

If you’re a one or two-person business, then blogging every day may not be practicable, so make it your aim to blog at least once a week. You can always increase the frequency later on as time/ funds permit.

You might think it’s a better option to have one person write all your blog posts for consistency of style. To a degree this can be a good thing. But having the input of others can also be useful too, because they might come up with topics or angles you’d never have thought of by yourself, and this can be very beneficial indeed for your business.

The vital thing about having a business blog, is that you offer up content-rich material to your hungry audience on a regular basis.

If you can achieve this, you should see a gradual improvement across your site and page rankings and you could find yourself doubling, tripling, or quadrupling your leads in no time.

Saturday 3 March 2012

How To Boost Your Credibility With Powerful Testimonials

Powerful testimonials are a proven way to add credibility to your business. I place an emphasis on the ‘powerful’ bit, because judging from some company websites, it seems all too many businesses are happy to print any old testimonial and be done with it.



Let’s be frank, some ‘recommendations’ don’t look terribly authentic do they? And poorly written (or dubious) testimonials on a website or in a brochure can have a worse impact on your reputation than none at all.

Which of the following do you think looks more credible?

“Wow! XYZ company is a pleasure to do business with. I can’t recommend them highly enough.”
Mrs JH , London.

or

“I’ve been working with Michael from XYZ for the past six months and during that time I’ve seen our website rise from virtual obscurity to Page 1 of Google. Not only that, but the number of ‘qualified’ enquiries has doubled over the same period. Here at JS Accountancy, we consider Michael a valuable asset to our sales team.”
Jack Smith, CEO, J S Accountancy, Norwich.

The second one sounds like it’s from a real person doesn’t it? In fact, it’s really easy to check that this testimonial is genuine.
So if you can, always include your endorser’s full name (rather than initials), their position within the company, the company name and location. A photograph of the person giving the testimonial makes a nice addition to the piece, but it’s not a ‘must have’.

You might think contacting customers to ask for a testimonial is tantamount to hassling them, but the reality is, satisfied buyers of your product or service will be pleased to help you out.

Having your customers do your talking for you within your marketing materials is a sound business strategy. Getting the right testimonials from the right people will do wonders for your professionalism and prospects.

Having one or two testimonials to back up your business is great. Having a whole range of endorsements is even better. Ideally your testimonials need to come from slightly different angles, so they are not all reinforcing the same point.

For example you could have individual testimonials which highlight:

Your great service
The quality of your materials
How easy you are to work with
That your business represents excellent value for money
That your product or service consistently exceeds expectations
That customers have recommended your business to friends, family, or colleagues

By including lots of testimonials, which focus on differing facets of your products or services, you give your potential customers the complete picture – an overview of what it’s like to do business with you.

I’m sure you will be able to come up with lots of exciting ideas for testimonials that you could use to boost your reputation in business – resulting in more enquiries – and more sales.