Online Marketing Services
Looking for some help with online marketing? That is a great pursuit as a website alone is not enough! To clarify, you need to be interacting frequently and consistently using your website, social media sites and on any other external platforms related to your business. The more you engage online, the more you increase your visibility. Increasing visibility generates more traffic and interaction. The more visible you are online, the better chance you will attract the attention of new customers, and strengthen relationships with your current clients.
If you are consistently and frequently adding relevant content across social media, you are on the right track. Because these marketing efforts are crucial for success, at One Stop Tech Shop, Inc. we offer you services to help you create a strong and persist online presence.
Online Marketing Helps Improve Your Reputation
Online marketing efforts include any type of marketing you do online, or offline. In actuality, everything you post on the Internet can help or hurt your online presence. Even if something appears to be deleted, in reality, the Internet has no delete key. Just think to yourself each time you post on the Internet, “Should I have posted that?” and, “How does that post help market my business, and my professional reputation?” Be careful to think before you post. Always carefully consider how that post may affect others impression of you and your business.
You may wonder why we are pointing out to carefully consider what you post. This is because we don’t want you to assume that you should just post anything. Ranting on Facebook about your ex or posting about your political views could be a bad move. Always consider your goal and intent before you post. Ask yourself, will this post help me reach my goal? Will this post help advertise my services, boost my credibility, or entice new or existing clients? If not, maybe you should reconsider.
Do not let all the hard work you did to build up your online reputation be negatively affected by something you posted and did not think through. Online damage control is not fun, typically is very time consuming and is not always effective. The right marketing efforts can leverage the search engines and impress your audience. A solid online strategy is something that every business owner needs to have and should continually pursue and improve. This is why is it so important for business owners to learn a little bit about how online marketing works and, just as importantly, what to post, what not to post, and why.
Internet Marketing & Increasing Your Online Presence
In regards to your online presence, internet marketing is how you communicate the value of your products or services to your potential customers. You communicate the value of your products or services through your website and other forums like social media and email. For some, online marketing may entail marketing a person such as a motivational speaker, or a celebrity. For others it may be about marketing a product or service like pest control or legal services. A complete and effective online internet marketing strategy must factor in, and consider, your website, your products and services, what others say about you, your portfolio, your business reputation and your character.
Internet marketing is actually a broad term that entails a customized selection of combined efforts. To maximize results, it is best to pursue an overlapped and interlinking strategy. Online there is no natural vacuum that separates the results of each component effort. Everything you can market should be thought of and strategized as one overall packaged effort.
Also, be sure that your personal Internet posts do not overlap into your business presence, unless it’s intentional decision that makes sense. Being too personal can dilute your professionalism yet, depending on the business field not being personal enough could also be detrimental. Focus on finding ways to use personal presence to increase your corporate online relevance.
Want to find out more about how internet marketing can help you achieve online success? Contact us with the details for a free consultation.
Is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) A Type of Marketing?
Is SEO a type of internet marketing? Yes! To clarify, actually SEO is a type of Search Engine Marketing (SEM). However, there is much more to internet marketing than SEM and SEO. Learn more about search engine optimization and why it is important on our SEO Services page.
Internet Marketing Has Changed
Internet marketing trends are not static. They do change, and sometimes quite dramatically. It used to be that all new businesses would place an advertisement in the paper version of the local yellow pages. Back then, if businesses did any advertising at all, the local yellow pages effort would be considered a standard business move and normally would pay off nicely. In today’s world, notice how the paper business directories have gotten thinner and thinner each year? How many paper “yellow pages” or similar have you used to find services in the last year? For most people, that number would be very small. Times have definitely changed and business owners must change with them if they want to keep up with the competition.
It is a just a fact that businesses need to advertise online to realistically compete. Today, if a business does not have an online presence, it can be seen as not viable, or even unprofessional. One of the best ways to advertise online is to start with a website. Building a website is one of the most cost effective internet marketing efforts you can achieve for your business. A website is the perfect forum to advertise your products and services, and interact with existing and potential clients. The return on investment is quick and, and unlike flyers and mailing advertisements, once done, your website is out there forever.
There are a lot of ways you can incorporate and overlap your marketing efforts with your website. Not only is a website an affordable return on investment, it creates a structure and forum to strengthen future advertising and helps to build strong credibility.
Search Engines Are Our New Directories
Today, instead of using old paper directory indexes, consumers are searching for things using online search engines like Google and Bing. The way we search online is much more complicated and intricate than even just a few years ago. We are not just searching with phrases and keywords, we are also clicking on products and services we see in the sidebar advertisements of Google, Amazon, Facebook, and other websites and online platforms. Consumers and businesses are sending and receiving tweets of information, including updates on events, specials and even offering coupons and contest entries. Today, the way we market to consumers is with instant information access at their fingertips.
Even the billboards on the sides of our roads and highways advertising all sorts of services and products have changed. Now we have digital billboards, and many times they highlight our websites and social media forums. Expand our “side of the road billboards” to online digital directories and it is obvious that this is the way of the future. Just in the last few years, the mobile trend has exceeded the use of most desktop computers. With these new technologies comes change, and we must constantly adjust in order to stay relevant. The more relevant, the higher the rank in the search engines. Since most people do not browse past page one or two of the search engines results, it makes it even more crucial to rank high.
Except in unique and rare cases, internet advertising is necessary for all businesses to flourish and it is definitely here to stay. If done correctly, online marketing efforts can be quite profitable. If done incorrectly, your competitors will pull ahead. So, it’s important to get on board now and work on raising your rank in the search engines to keep a large gap between you and the competition.
Need help with some online marketing efforts? Contact us and let us know how we can help!
Social Media Participation Is Crucial To Online Success
For most business owners and anyone that wants to create a strong online presence, we advise you to set up your social networking sites. The popular social media sites you want to be on are Google+, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn and Pinterest, at a minimum. At One Stop Tech Shop, we offer social media services and social media training, as social media interaction is key to creating high online relevancy. We can help with your social media posts and interactions and cover the gaps when you do not have the time to post.
Also, we highly suggest that business owners participate in their own social media sites to some extent since this is the best way to understand the advantages of your social media interactions. Inter-meshing business owners in these efforts gives them a better understanding of the effects of social media and how to leverage it to their advantage.
Many clients say they do not have time to participate on social media. The bottom line is that you have to make time. It is simple – this is how you raise your relevance. You have no other choice. Find the time and work it into your normal schedule. Less than one hour per week is a good start and realistic goal. Once you make you social media participation part of your routine, it will be much easier and will not seem so much like a chore.
Achieving business success entails structuring your work week effectively, and spending minimal time on the efforts that will bring you maximum return on investment. Your online success works the same way. You must dedicate the time to do the necessary things, best done by prioritizing in some logical order, even if that logic is simply what gives you the most bang for your buck. So, it is what it is – just find a way to do it! Once clients realize the power of social media we usually see an increase in their use of social media.
If you are in need of some social media training, contact One Stop Tech Shop for a Free initial consultation.