Category Archives: Health

Small Business Marketing Combines Experts With Personal Execution

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One of the toughest challenges of marketing is connecting the creative process to techniques that maximize the promotional results. Most smart, passionate small business owners know their businesses better than anyone, but they lack the specific knowledge to channel that energy into marketing success.

The Internet and Web 2.0 are bringing these savvy entrepreneurs all of the tools to execute a world-class marketing plan. Unfortunately, there is still that missing piece–knowledge.

Old school marketing firms and ad agencies are trapped in business models sustained by big retainers, long-term contracts, and little accountability. This is a recipe for good money chasing bad execution, in an economy that can’t afford it.

In contrast there are some emerging options, provided by more innovative marketing firms. Leveraging Internet tools, social marketing, and new mobile techniques these new marketing firms are specializing in strategy and expertise, leaving execution to their clients.

Here are a few hints to save you money and squeeze the most out of your marketing spend:

1. Find Experience

Look for firms with talent and proven experience. Survey their impact on the Internet. Ask associates for referrals and references. An effective Internet marketing firm should be easy to find.

2. Pay for Expertise, Not Execution

Chance are you are heavy on smart people, while light on marketing expertise and budget. So, find a marketing partner that will work with you to balance that mix. Look for specific how-to advice and guided strategy. Then do the heavy lifting yourself.

3. Look for A La Carte Services

Don’t pay for the whole marketing department when you just need a few targeted services. Look for coaching and expertise in copywriting, press releases, and campaign management, not managing your message or “communications.” You probably have better knowledge of your target market any way–and how to get their attention. Ask (and pay) for only what you need to get it done, and nothing more.

4. Discard Retainers for Pay-As-You-Go

Retainers are for multi-national, Fortune 50 companies. Pay only on performance, as you go. This more closely aligns a marketing partner with your goals and objectives, while minimizing your long-term risks.

5. Results are the Final Measure

Bottom-line sales and revenue producing results are the most important objectives of any business, but particularly a small or medium-sized business. This is why you may find great marketing firms willing to let you employee their expertise, while giving you the responsibility and savings for implementation and measurement. This assures that their services are credible and drives immediate value.

Find do-it-yourself marketing options for your next ad or marketing campaign. Hire expertise and retain execution and measurement. You get to lead the marketing charge, giving you more for you marketing dollar.

Importance Of Search Engine Marketing For Your Online Business

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If you think search engine marketing is unimportant, then you’ll be so much better off closing shop now. This way, you will at least save the cost of trying to operate your online business while no traffic, no customers and no profits are coming in.

Search engine marketing is very important because it brings in the web traffic that you need for your online business. Without internet marketing, there simply will be no people to impress with your brilliant copy, no people to convince to make a purchase from your online store or company, no sale to be made and, thus, no revenues to enjoy.

The Importance of Web Traffic

Just think of it this way; if you have a store – a brick and mortar store, that is – and only few people come to visit it, then you’ll have few people to whom you can pitch your sales spiel and whom you can convince to buy your products. Even if you’re an impressive sales person who can turn every encounter into a purchase, this will still mean only a handful of sales and, thus, a pitifully small profit for you.

Similarly online, if your web site only has few visitors, you’d have only a few people to impress with your brilliant sales copy. Again, even if you are so brilliant a copy writer (or have one of the best copy writers working for you) that every site visitor is converted into a customer, you’ll still only have few sales and a small amount of profit from these sales.

Search Engine Marketing: Crucial to Internet Marketing Strategy

Search engine marketing brings in the traffic that you need to survive online. Without web traffic, your web site might as well not exist; after all, no one’s visiting it. You should use search engine marketing secret strategies to put your web site on top of search engine results. This way, you can be assured of having traffic to sell to. Most people use search engines to do their searches online. Therefore, if your internet marketing secret techniques work, then you can be assured of traffic to your site.

An Internet Marketing Guide

How exactly do you do search engine marketing? There are many ways. One of the most effective is internal optimization of your web pages. Another is link building.

Now there’s one link building secret you should know before you do anything else: link building should not cost you a lot of money. A good link building guide should be able to teach you the specific link building steps you should follow. For now, however, suffice it to say that you’ll need to do the following: search engine submission, directory submission (which may cost a little money for paid listings), article directory submission, press release write up and, finally, social bookmarking like that of StumbleUpon.