The new contours of digital marketing are quickly replacing traditional marketing. And the most important element of digital marketing is content marketing.

As an entrepreneur, you are well aware that the right marketing strategy is the key to a successful business. But with traditional marketing in the backdrop, are you ready to embrace content marketing?

Here’s what you need to know about integrating content marketing into your strategy and its advantages.

The Pros of Content Marketing:

Content marketing can help you transform leads to returning customers and tap into your business’s undiscovered customer bases. Read on to find out about the benefits of content marketing. 

Higher ROI

Content marketing will always have a higher return on investment, regardless of whether you produce your own content or outsource it. 

Content marketing leads to higher ROI because it is a cost-friendly strategy. Your budget for content marketing will be less than half of that of traditional marketing, but you will end up generating three to four times more leads! 

Develop Trust and Confidence

Content marketing helps you connect with your customer base and present a more personalized and humanized face of your business. This is very helpful for gaining customers’ trust and confidence.  

Moreover, your customer base keeps on increasing as your readers share your content with their friends.

So, content marketing enables businesses to gain way more than they spend on their marketing strategy – both in material and non-material terms.

Better SEO Results

You have already carried out your keyword research for your website. It is now time to put that research to another use: Convert your SEO keywords into baselines for your blogs! 

This will help your page in acquiring organic traffic resulting in higher search engine rankings.

Designing an Effective Content Marketing Strategy: 

It is crucial to have a clear strategy in place. Even if you put out great content without a clear plan, it won’t be able to fetch you the kind of results you are hoping for. 

Designing a content marketing strategy is not as daunting as it sounds. Here’s how you can devise an effective content marketing strategy:

What are your goals? Write them down!

Identify your goals: What results do you want your content marketing to yield? Whether you want your content marketing to generate better brand recognition, higher sales or a more extensive customer base, just write it down. 

This will help you get a realistic picture of your content marketing strategy and set clear goals. 

Understand Your Audience

What kind of people do you want to reach out to? Who makes the majority of your customers? It is important that you recognize and identify your target audience and devise your content writing strategy keeping their interests in mind. 

Work on a Schedule

Put a schedule in place. You might want to consider how often you want to push out the content and then, design your plan. Remember, consistency is the key. In the world of digital content marketing, people will only remember you if you are around! 

This consistency will help you gain a loyal and returning readership, which results in loyal customers! It is always a good idea to see what kind of schedule your competitors follow before you design your own. This way, you’ll know what you are up against. 

Brainstorm

Having brainstorming sessions can help you plan ahead. Some useful pointers for your brainstorming sessions: 

• What does your audience want and like? 
• What questions does your audience usually ask or might ask? 
• What content are your competitors pushing out? 
• What are your SEO keywords? You can use them as baselines. 

Don’t limit yourself to blogs

Content Marketing is not just about writing blog posts. Although it’s true that blogs are the most prominent feature of content marketing, there’s more to it. Explore content marketing avenues on Social Media, Email Newsletters, Podcasts, Interviews and FAQs, Webinars and Videos. 

You can recycle your content on all these platforms. Write a blog about a certain topic, create videos about it after a few months and then, maybe conduct webinars or have podcasts.

Having an effective content marketing strategy will increase your brand recognition and you will be able to connect on a more personal level with your audience. 

The best thing about content marketing is that it doesn’t require an elaborate budget and so it is equally efficient and doable for small businesses as it is for large-scale companies. The key to a successful content marketing strategy is to be clear about your goals and consistent in your actions. 

Scott Hall has twenty plus years in search and ten in enterprise software and has helped drive digital growth for many small businesses. Learn more about Scott and his powerful and effective marketing techniques at ScottHall.co.

The post Content Marketing for Small Business and Entrepreneurs appeared first on Marketing Digest.

The new normal is constantly evolving and it is essential to keep up with its swift pace. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed a lot of things in 2020 and businesses are still struggling to adjust to the changes on many levels.

It is very important to have a solid marketing plan in place to get you through this pandemic.

What kind of plan, you ask? Local SEO and Reputation Scores.

Why is Local SEO crucial for your business?

Local SEO not only helps your business by improving user experiences but also generates more data for your future marketing campaigns. It generates more leads and helps with increasing your brand recognition.

Local and small scale businesses thrive on the trust and loyalty of their customer base. SEO helps businesses to connect to their audiences and foster long-lasting relationships.

On top of all this, local SEO is a cost-effective marketing strategy, making it an ideal marketing tactic for small businesses. Local SEO has made it possible for small businesses to have far-reaching effects within a budget.

The Importance of Reputation Management

Like many other businesses, you might also consider skipping this part. But, ignoring your business’ reputation management scores or not checking them at all just means that you are moving forward blindly!

More than 50% of people will stay on the website or visit it only after they read a positive view. Online customers take reviews very seriously. It’s time that you start taking them seriously, too.

Stay ahead of your game by uncovering the facts. Reputation management helps you get clarity as to where your business is excelling and what points need improvement. The time you invest in reputation management will yield leads and loyal customers.

How To Improve Your Local Web Score

Now that you’re aware of the perks of local SEO and reputation management, you certainly won’t be thinking whether or not to optimize your business. You should be thinking about how soon you can do it. Here are a few tips:

Perform a Website Audit

If you don’t know where to begin, it would be a good idea to go for a website audit without wasting any time. This will help you understand where you stand and what improvements are needed on your website.

The website audit will provide a report which will ultimately help you improve the performance and efficiency of your website. It will most certainly present you with an exceptional opportunity for your online growth.

Research The Competition

If you really want your website to be optimized, you need to know what people are looking for. Keep a close eye on your competitors because knowing the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors can make a major difference. Check their reviews and see what the audience wants and then, use that valuable information to give the users exactly what they want.

Answer All Reviews, Good or Bad

Responding to reviews is the most crucial part of all steps. Keep in mind that it doesn’t matter whether there are a few negative reviews because as long as the customers are talking about you, you’ll be in the spotlight.

You need to take out time for responding to reviews because it shows the users that you care. And believe it or not, most users check the reviews before making a purchase.

Responding to negative reviews will portray you as understanding and willing to be helpful. Take time to acknowledge your customers.

Business Listings

Your business listing will make it simple for local customers to find your business. It is not enough to just put the details about your business on your website. Make it easy for your customers and new users to find you. Make sure the information about your website is available across other social networks. And make sure the information is consistent and current.

Constantly Optimize Your Website

Keep your website updated. Your research and website audit will provide you with enough data to know what needs to be optimized. Make sure that the following points are being taken care of:

• Make it easy for users to contact you
• Add address and details.
• Add a map to your website
• Describe your services clearly

Final Thoughts

Reputation management is very important for all kinds of businesses, but it’s especially important for small businesses that aim to not only solidify but to also broaden their customer base.

Not only does it help businesses to improve their SEO rankings, it also establishes them as a trustworthy enterprise. Your small business arsenal should provide an appropriate amount of attention to Reputation Management and Local SEO rather than sweeping it under the rug.

Scott Hall has twenty plus years in search and ten in enterprise software and has helped drive digital growth for many small businesses. Learn more about Scott and his powerful and effective marketing techniques at ScottHall.co.

The post Small Business Reputation Management Scores Will Get You Through the Pandemic appeared first on Marketing Digest.

Haha, ironically, this article about a tale of three has a double meaning. I just realized that, because the initial meaning I wanted to convey was a comparison between three different types of selling something online; using an Internet Marketing model (IM) which includes a low price point to start but then offers complementary products as upsells (or sometimes one-time-offers); also an Appsumo type transaction which involves a piece of software that is usually charged per month but is offered for a special one-time fee with no monthly; and finally an award-winning suite of software by Adobe that is offered at a monthly rate, but used to cost a large one-time fee.

But when I say it also has a double meaning I mean that in the IM transaction I was involved in myself, I ended up buying three items. So that also was three transactions, although when I look back on it I guess you could say it was four. No matter. The sad part about those 3 or 4 transactions is that since I seemed unhappy about it based on some complaints I made, the product creator refunded my money and let me keep the products anyway! It turns out I really like the product.

Originally, the issue I had was being surprised by the appearance of a second sales page just as I was completing the first sale. In the IM world product creators often put up what’s called an OTO (one time offer). An OTO gets it’s name from being a scarcity device. You just made a purchase but wait! Maybe you’d also like to get this other OTO item for an additional $27 or $37. And it’s only available for a brief period of time (clock above ticking down from 6 hours – 6:00…5:59…5:58 etc.).

But so what? If you’ve been around IM long enough, you know it’s coming and can always say no. Still, upsells work, marketers know it, and it’s hard to say no to a method that increases one’s revenue by 30 to 50 percent. Honestly it can be frustrating to a buyer looking for a way to earn money online, to be just finishing one transaction and then presented with an OTO that makes it seem like the first product they just bought won’t really be good enough after all.

But the upsell I was presented with this day wasn’t an OTO. It wasn’t a requirement in order get the full impact of the original core product either. It was presented as a complementary product (not to be confused with complimentary haha), and the product creator Barb Ling pointed that out to me, and after reflecting on that whole transaction experience I admit that I carry with me a prejudice against OTOs due to being burned by them in the past. But Barb is aware of that phenomenon and tries extra hard to present upsells in a way that is friendly and not “counting down” to anything. I applaud her for that, plus she puts out some of the most unique products in the IM world, and if you know of her, you probably know that she has a rare ability to build a following around her quirkiness in chatting with her followers on her web pages, social media, and email lists. She is charming and funny, and fearless. I remember her videos featuring her bird perched atop her shoulder (a parakeet?), and that is unusual and memorable. She now has at least three birds that might appear while she shoots her videos, and one of them she knows will not stay put for long. And sure enough it flies off!

But that’s just good marketing and personal branding. What about the product? Well that depends on where you are in your marketing journey. As Kimanzi Constable said in an Entrepreneur.com article, “a lot of the advice only works if you have a huge audience.”* That’s what I thought at first about Barb’s product, since it was about increasing your affiliate income profit by crafting certain approaches for your audience.

But again, everybody knows that you’re going to need an audience. And if yours isn’t big enough, Barb provides great links to information and courses that can help a marketer grow their email list. That’s above and beyond. But not everyone in IM is like Barb Ling; in fact almost no one is, she’s that unique. Thus you should know when entering into a transaction in the IM world to stay alert, do your homework, and avoid being pushed around. Over time you’ll find certain IMers that you trust and are open to answering questions.

What About that Second Transaction Type?

Well, I’ve made quite a few of those transactions too, buying software at Appsumo because it’s usually only $49 one time for life-time access, for a product that normally has a monthly cost. Everybody knows that $20 or $30 a month is going to add up over time, and fast. Here you get to see the product in action while people buying it are reviewing it, and you can ask questions before you buy too, to be answered by the software creators. So that is a powerful incentive.

At Appsumo, software is presented in a different way: a public forum which lays it all out on the table up front, pros and cons, with product creators often asking for feedback in person, even tweaking the offer midstream while the offer’s running, based on forum feedback. What I like in this scenario is the transparency. These vendors often have a piece of software that is still young in its life cycle and needs some buzz and some maturity, and an influx of cash and real time feedback and ideas help make it happen. Recent examples include Lemlist (using Gmail to send personalized emails to prospects), Keyword Hero (which reveals the keywords used to search for your website, like Google used to do), Rocketium (an Animoto-like video creator with included music and effects), and Meet Leonard, a way to truly get the most out of LinkedIn, except for when LinkedIn clamps down and forbids its use saying it violates their TOS; so that’s a point to consider.

These are all products that are on the market already, and have been for various lengths of time. Consumers have a little time to consider the offer, at least one or two weeks, to look it over, research, and ask questions. There is still a scarcity factor, since the offer will expire at an unspecified time, but customers are there on the forum giving their opinions.

But again, buyer beware. Although it may seem too good to be true to avoid the monthly fee and get lifetime access, you need to ask yourself: will I really use this? Or am I just buying it because it’s a good deal? And to be honest, there are only so many hours in a day, and once you have 10 software products you use consistently already, the chances are you won’t use your newly purchased software as much as you think.

Speaking of $49, we are also customers of Adobe and use the Adobe Creative Suite in our business of making great graphic design, and websites. That comes to slightly over $50 per month, so there’s no lifetime offer here, but we are talking about access to the most award-winning graphic design tools ever created, such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat Pro, and InDesign. And since it’s a suite of tools there’s Dreamweaver, Premier, AfterEffects, and more. Millions of lines of code, beloved by the creative world, available for about $50. The truth is we don’t use even half of those great tools. We use a few regularly though, and we love these top flight, best-in-class products. Plus, as a professional agency, it’s good to be using the industry standard tools. When it comes time to hand off our designs to a printer, they’ll know exactly what to expect when they receive Illustrator “ai” files, or the psd’s from Photoshop. Plus there’s a lot more to Acrobat Pro than printing out a pdf.

So when it comes to spending money on software, it’s very important to factor in these items:

• Is the upsell or complementary item necessary or worth it? For that matter, is the low priced core product worth it if you don’t end up using it?
• Will I benefit by getting lifetime access to a software I will barely use?
• If I’m paying a monthly fee for access to some professional software, will I really profit by having that access? Is there a cheaper way to go? A workaround?

You may think these questions are easy, but in my long experience making my living online, I will tell you that many, many IMers, marketers and entrepreneurs confess to having spent too much at some point. It’s often used as an intro to their latest offer: “When I got started I spent hundreds, even thousands on programs, coaching, and whatever bright shiny object I saw, before I figured it out.” And then they might proceed to sell you on something you also will regret later. I’m just saying it’s possible. Be wise out there. On the one hand, buying courses and products is a good way to learn, but… BUT it’s also not a solution. Only taking action by using the products you buy will get you any closer to your goals.

*https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/237325

The post A Tale of Three Transactions appeared first on Marketing Digest.

This void places small to medium business owners at the mercy of digital marketing companies (both legitimate and unscrupulous) who call on them daily and promise ROI results without the data to back it up.

We’ve also found that many business owners do not have an online marketing plan nor do they track or measure results from the online campaigns or strategies they deploy.

There is help available for small to medium business owners who regularly promote their business using digital marketing strategies but have not succeeded with their past online marketing efforts.

We help business owners who promote their business using online marketing campaigns but simply don’t know what they need or how to manage their online marketing campaigns.

We’re Digital Marketing Consultants who can help solve your online marketing problems.

We’ll help you organize, plan, and deploy a solid digital marketing strategy that gives you a clear picture of what’s working and what’s not.  Then we make adjustments accordingly that keep your online marketing goals inline.

As your digital marketing consultant, we’ll:

• Perform a Marketing Audit to establish the baseline by evaluating past and existing marketing efforts.
• Build a Marketing blueprint with a defined digital strategy based on real data (because you can’t improve what you can’t measure.)
• Establish Marketing Strategies and Goals
• Source Marketing Providers
• Train a Company appointed Project Manager
• Setup your Online Marketing Campaign
• Provide On-going Campaign Support
• Monitor and Analyze Campaign Quality and Performance
• Ensure Company goals are met or make necessary adjustments

Contact us.  Let’s see how you can improve your digital marketing campaigns, generate more high-quality leads, and grow your ROI.

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Ask any business owner or online marketer what they’d like most in the world, and they’ll more than likely say “more customers”. What’s next on their wish list? To generate traffic to their website or landing page. Traffic is the lifeblood of all businesses today and you need to implement multiple strategies to bring new visitors to your website and keep current ones engaged with your content. Following are 5 top traffic generation tips that will do just that and you can use them today.

Facebook

80% of marketers are actively using Facebook to generate traffic. The easiest way to generate loyalty and engagement (you need both for traffic generation) on Facebook to share compelling (shareable) content via relevant news, tips, high-quality photos of your products or services, video demonstrations, etc., on your Facebook Business page. This needs to happen several times a week. It’s also important to include links to a post specific landing page, a page on your website, a blog post, etc. You should also have a clear call to action on the page that makes it easy for visitors to click-through to your website.

When promoting a URL in your Facebook post or ads, be sure you use relevant web pages that have been designed for conversion. For instance, if you’re promoting a new product, link visitors directly to the product’s page and make it easy for visitors to buy. Don’t send them to a generic homepage which will just end up frustrating them.

Facebook Ads are another highly effective way to generate traffic, appearing as large, clickable images in Facebook’s News Feeds on mobile devices and desktop computers. These ads are optimized to drive more users to your site with special offers, exclusive content, etc.

Twitter

Building relationships on Twitter is essential if you want to build traffic, however, this will only happen if you’ve established a good, engaging Twitter community. Several strategies come into play, including creating a balance between your own unique, quality tweets and explicitly mentioning other users and tweets that don’t. You can take it a step further by adding your own comments to the tweet to stimulate a rewarding conversation with your followers regarding the subject covered in the tweet or article link that you’ve included.

When it comes to Twitter, follow the 80/20 rule – have 80% of your tweets highlight the content of other users, and 20% promote your own content. Once your target audience and fellow Twitter users in your network become accustomed to you sharing worthwhile content sourced from your online community, they’ll be more likely to interact with your own content when you tweet it.

Use hashtags in your tweets as well because tweets with hashtags get two times more engagement than tweets without hashtags. And the more engagement you tweets generate, the more visibility they’ll get and the more clicks throughs your links will receive.

YouTube

Video is a necessity these days and YouTube is something marketers need to focus on. YouTube is an untapped traffic generation source that you should definitely take advantage of. The average person watches approximately 200 online videos a month. By including video content as an online marketing strategy, you’ll be able to attract a substantial amount of website traffic.

The average person’s attention span is less than 8 seconds online. What’s troublesome is that a high bounce rate can hurt your website’s SERP ranking. Worse, visitors who leave the platform after just a second or two are lost sales. So, what’s the best way you can keep visitors engaged? Present them with relevant, interesting video. Just like content, the videos you use on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc., Need to be good enough to be liked, commented on, shared, favorited to gain an SEO advantage. The more this takes place, the better the chances they’ll rank high in both Google and YouTube.

Here are a few tips for generating traffic on YouTube.

• Use the text overlays or the annotations feature with your URL.
• Come up with a contest and direct visitors back to your website to enter.
• Place your website URL in the first few characters of the description.
• Create a teaser themed video, mentioning an intriguing article and direct them to your description for the link.

Blog

Companies that blog generate 55% more traffic so if you’re not blogging already, it’s time to start. Begin by generating regularly created, free, downloadable content. The key to getting the right kind of leads with free content is to create content that will attract your target audience base. It’s a waste of time to capture just any old subscriber.  Focus on capturing relevant visitors who will want to learn more about your services or products.

There are a number of areas on a blog that can introduce targeted traffic to a call to action.  Examples include a free consultation, free trial, or a simple opt-in form for your mailing list. These sections include the header area, sidebar, on your about page, in the footer or the end of your blog posts,

Posting as a guest on a reputable site can increase traffic as well and help build your brand at the same time. It’s important to note however that standards for guest blogging today aren’t as laid back as they used to be, so using spammy tactics could lead to stiff penalties.

Networking

Social networking is must for businesses because it helps increase visibility and presents the opportunity to attract more visitors to your website, blog or landing pages. Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and yes YouTube are an offshoot of sorts of your website and have become just as important.

Besides marketing to a region or worldwide, connecting with consumers locally has its advantages. People are frequently more prone to connect with a business if they’re local and you’ll have a chance to have a “face to face” meeting if that appeals to you. Also, building a reliable network locally can help establish quality connections that you can build on later.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is also a “must have” marketing strategy for businesses. Besides SEO increasing website traffic, it helps you establish a network for your business.

People are what make online marketing efforts successful. Achieving a specific goal, like traffic generation, takes consistent, proactive action with your target audience.  It’s not enough to produce great content and wait for people to find it. The 5 tips listed here will help you get generate traffic and you can start using them right away.

If you do not want to do this all yourself, Reputation Media TV – a division of Circle Consulting Agency – has a traffic building service customized specifically for any business.

Check out the video below to see an example case study for traffic generation.

The post 5 Top Traffic Generation Tips You Can Use Today appeared first on Marketing Digest.

Improving Conversion Rates with Insights from Ecommerce Marketing News

Conversion. Now that’s a word of great significance to any business. That’s the target in marketing efforts after all – to convert someone who learned of the business into a customer. Of course, online businesses are no exception and they can use information from e-commerce marketing news to improve their conversion rates.

An article from Marketing Profs (@MarketingProfs)and another one from KissMetrics (@Kissmetrics) discuss a particular aspect of e-commerce sites: pricing pages. Many owners of online shops pay great attention to the landing page, which is important but should not be too much, that other parts of the site are forgotten. The structure of pricing pages influences how many visitors become customers, i.e. conversion. With the information from these articles, the optimization of pricing pages can be broken down as follows:

The Headline

For every web page, the headline is the one that draws the visitor’s eye. The pricing page has a clear purpose and the headline should match that along with its specific call to action. Some site owners or webmasters may be tempted to go for simple headlines, such as “Prices” and “Our Plans”. In such cases, the headlines serve only as a reminder where the visitor is. Headers should be more than that. They should be more engaging in order to reflect the visitors’ expectations and grab their attention right from the start.

The Number of Plans

The recommended number of pricing plans to present is 2-4. The minimum is not one because a single price option can lower conversion rates. In order to decide, people compare several options, and giving people only one makes it difficult for them to see why it’s a good choice. The maximum is four because people can easily scan and remember 3-4 items.

Highlighting One Option

Different pricing plans have different profitability. It’s important to highlight the most profitable option as this improves the click-through rates by serving as a guide for visitors to make a choice. Ideally, the highlighted option should be neither too cheap nor too expensive, with a statement that shows why it has the best value for money.

Included Information

To help the visitor compare plans, plans should be arranged in a comparison matrix that details the differences between each. It’s also good to support the page with testimonials and FAQs.

Of course, constant testing must be done to see what works best. The above are just guidelines, not solid rules. Get more e-commerce marketing insights from information resources, like Marketing Digest.

The post Improving Conversion Rates with Insights from Ecommerce Marketing News appeared first on Marketing Digest.

Online Marketing News: Why Email Marketing is not Dead and How-To Tips

Much like rumors of SEO being dead, email marketing also gets the death scare from time to time, but hard facts and statistics from reputable online marketing sources thankfully refute these notions. According to survey from the Radicatti Group, there are currently over 4.1 billion email accounts today. That figure is expected to reach 5.2 billion by 2018, which only proves that email is still alive and kicking. MarketingSherpa also found that 72 percent of consumers consider email as their main conduit of communication with companies. Marketers need to stop underestimating email and learn to use it to their advantage instead. Here are some useful tips:

Update Your Strategy

Perhaps the biggest reason people keep saying that email is dead is that it has changed drastically through the years. It’s no longer the same because like any other technology, it evolves. For instance, the rising numbers of mobile device users call for a mobile-optimized email campaign. An article from ExactTarget.com (@marketingcloud) titled “10 Tips to a Powerful Email Marketing Strategy” noted that users immediately delete emails if they can’t properly view it on their devices. Email marketing may change every year, which is why you should always remain in the know of the latest online marketing insights from sources like Marketing Digest.

Ask for Permission

Users will only treat your efforts as spam or junk mail if you don’t ask for their permission first. Seek approval before you send them marketing messages by letting interested users sign up. This will also give you the opportunity to gather more information about particular consumers so you can improve your products or services accordingly.

Personalize Campaigns

People appreciate brands that show interest in what they like. In that case, personalized emails for people who subscribe to can really improve the results of your email marketing. One good idea from a Forbes (@Forbes) article titled “Email Marketing Strategies You Can Borrow From Billion-Dollar E-Commerce Giants” is to personalize your offerings whenever you can by taking into account recommendations based on your visitor’s first purchase or lead source.

Promote Deals on Email

Nothing brings customers to your door faster than mentions of discounts, sales, and bargains. If you are only promoting your deals on social media, you’re missing out on a lot of opportunities. Moreover, most people would actually prefer getting information about deals through email rather than scrolling through thousands of posts on their News Feed for your offers.

The post Online Marketing News: Why Email Marketing is not Dead and How-To Tips appeared first on Marketing Digest.

Local Marketing News: Grow Your Local Business with Local Marketing

Local businesses definitely do not have it easy. They have to compete with large, multi-national corporations and every other small company in their industry. Success cannot be achieved overnight, but how you start out plays a big role in the long run. Fortunately, businesses don’t need to travel far and wide to build a loyal customer base; they just need to attract the potential customers in their area. In a local marketing news article titled “Why Service-Based Companies Need Local Marketing” from Business2Community (@B2Community), marketing expert Laura Lake said that companies should have a targeted marketing strategy in order to make their mark.

Start with Local SEO

Nowadays, consumers can do plenty of things online from paying their bills to shopping for products. You can use this to your advantage; in fact, many businesses today focus most of their marketing on Local SEO in order to attract new customers online. Basically, what local SEO can do for you is make sure that you appear on the map through local keyword research. Your targeted keywords, complete with your geographical information, can help potential customers find you faster. An article titled “Understand the Importance of Local Marketing” from About.com (@aboutdotcom) says local SEO should also be combined with old school marketing techniques like distributing flyers, handing out business cards, putting ads on billboards, and others.

Build a Consistent Brand

Before your brand becomes a household name, it has to be built and maintained properly. Brand consistency is something that customers look for, and it’s not as simple as slapping on your company logo on every product. Local marketing is one way to control your brand’s image while you are still growing the company. This will include making sure that all marketing efforts are consistent at a local level across all channels.

Increase Reach and Revenue

Once you have established your business locally, you can build upon that and try to expand your reach both online and offline. With more access to different marketing materials, you can reach more of your target customers all at once. It would also make introducing new products or services to your target market a lot easier. With increased range, you will be able to improve your revenue as well, especially if you start to break into the national market.

Local marketing is not only beneficial but also essential to small startups. Get more useful local marketing tips from online resources like Marketing Digest to help you achieve success.

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Create a Positive Online Presence with these Reputation Marketing Tips

Some entrepreneurs mistakenly regard a lack of online reputation as a good thing, and a number of entrepreneurs who do monitor their reputations online fail to do so on a personal level. Marketers will need to step up their game and start taking action on protecting their brands’ online reputation with the following steps.

Vital Elements of a Reputation Marketing Strategy

To prevent negative reviews or mentions from destroying a brand’s reputation, marketers will need to help the company or business define an online identity early on, according to Martin Zwilling. In his article for Entrepreneur (@Entrepreneur) titled “6 Keys to a Positive Online Presence and Reputation“, Zwilling listed down the keys in creating a positive online presence and reputation for brands. For one, marketers will have to help brands claim their identity on social media before someone else does and use it against them, since identity theft is as devastating to a business as it is for an individual.

Fresh and relevant blog posts should always be added on their websites on a regular basis. As Zwilling explains, blogging is the best way of helping brands establish themselves as an influencer. Marketers will also need to constantly monitor the web for any negative comments directed to a brand, and do what’s best to address them proactively and directly.

Ways on Building a Positive Reputation

Now that the vital elements have been introduced, what marketers need to do next is to follow these actionable reputation marketing tips from Peter Gasca. In his article for Entrepreneur titled “Take Control of Your Personal Reputation Online With These 6 Tips“, getting control of a brand’s reputation has now become a necessity, and is something that can be done with a few simple steps.

First, marketers will need to ensure that brands have a unique yet consistent username and a personal URL across the web. This username should be secured on as many platforms as possible, be it on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, to ensure better SEO. Once the basics have been covered, marketers will then need to help brands set up a basic profile on each of their sites, including their name, location, and a consistent description of their business.

Gasca explains that, after all these have been accomplished, the next thing marketers will need to do is to create new profiles as new services and platforms come up, along with monitoring the brand’s name and reputation online. More importantly, marketers will need to keep up with the latest reputation marketing news from sources like Marketing Digest.

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Mobile Marketing Insights and More: Basic Tips for Startup Businesses

Small business owners have a lot of challenges to overcome. Trying to make a profit in a crowded market can be difficult, but one of the ways to make a business more competitive is to raise its visibility. This is where marketing campaigns enter the picture. The trouble with this is that it can be difficult to do your marketing properly on your own; there are many mistakes that you might make along the way. Thankfully, with the rise of the Internet and marketing companies, the task of promoting your business has become a lot easier.

Small Business Marketing Basics

Mobile marketing news sites like Marketing Digest have articles that can be helpful to you. For example, an article on Business2Community (@B2Community) describes exactly what any budding business owner needs when they are planning to start marketing their business online. Here are a few of the suggestions stated in the article.

First, you should claim your online profiles. Major business directories like Google and Yelp can raise your visibility with local search engines. Second, business owners should encourage reviews. One of the best ways to get the attention of the public is via word-of-mouth. This is mostly because it is more trustworthy and gives people an idea of what to expect from you. The next step to establish your online presence is to create a social media profile and your own website. These provide a point of contact for your customers and give you a venue for spreading information about your company. Finally, an e-mail campaign can help you directly connect with your customer base. Offer special coupons or distribute information via e-mail to ensure that people know about your company.

Further Tips

Additional mobile marketing insights can be gleaned from other articles. An article on Mashable (@mashable) gives some tips on how to develop the base that you built up. For example, the article advises that you focus on your target customer. Businesses usually have a particular demographic that they aim for. This is a much better approach than hoping to attract any potential customer; this gives you a chance to focus your resources and have a better idea on how your marketing campaign should go. Another tip that the article gives is to leverage your social media connections. Constant updates with interesting content ensures that potential customers would be able to relate and engage with you.

Raise Your Brand’s Visibility

Small businesses thrive when people know about them. Ensure your marketing campaign is a success by knowing what to do and being aware of any emerging marketing trends.

The post Mobile Marketing Insights and More: Basic Tips for Startup Businesses appeared first on Marketing Digest.