Ask just about any website owner what two things they would like to improve about their website and you’ll usually hear “traffic and sales” in response. However, what many of these website owners are unaware of is that they can see huge increases in both of these areas just by learning how to effectively research and use keywords. Once you understand how it all works, you can use your keyword research to improve your search engine optimization, increase your overall traffic and, as a result, see a boost in sales.

The Basics

Keyword research is a very simple yet important technique that will help you to advance your website and online business in a number of areas. It is essential that you understand the importance and value of the keywords that you choose to use on your website and in your off-site advertising and promotions.

You are probably already aware that there are many different keyword and key phrase combinations that can be used to describe your website, business, products and services. These words are the “key” to helping your target customer base find your website through the use of SEO techniques that will benefit you in the search engines. The more relevant those keywords are to your business and what you are selling, the better your traffic quality.

Your goal is to attract a balance of quality traffic in a large enough quantity that you can increase your business. It is easy to get a massive amount of traffic to your website through keyword “cramming” and other tricks used to spam the search engines rather than adhering to proper search engine optimization etiquette. Unfortunately, this type of traffic is usually a waste your time, money and bandwidth. You want a lot of traffic, but it is important that the traffic be properly targeted to your business.

Proper Usage

You also need to know how to properly use your keywords on your website once you complete your research. Make sure that the keywords you use are relevant to the other content, products or services offered on each page. Use them in your meta tags, title tags, heading and subheading text, alt tags and throughout the text content on your page. Write articles, make blog posts, provide a FAQ section, add tutorials or anything else that will be beneficial to your visitors. Your efforts in creating this original content will also be very beneficial to the SEO and value of your site as a whole.

When you effectively use your keywords and key phrases on your website, you will attract visitors who are looking for the things that you are selling. You also will improve your relevance at Google, Yahoo and other top search sites, which will in turn boost your ranking, listings and reputation. All of these elements are essential to getting a front page listing on these major websites.

Keyword Research Techniques

Due to an increase in information available to marketers and developers these days, as well as many useful web-based tools, research is easier to conduct now than it was in the past. It is still always best to start with a simple list of keywords and phrases that you think up yourself that will appropriately apply to your business. You should have at least a dozen words and phrases to get you started.

To expand on your core list, you can use tools and software applications that are designed to help you find other relevant keywords and expand on them to create long-tail keywords consisting of three to four or more keywords each. Targeting longer key phrases can help you to get top listings in the engines by reducing the volume of competitors you will be going up against for ranking and can help you to better qualify your traffic in advance.

One of the best tools you can use is the Google Keyword Tool, which can be found at https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal. This tool is just one of the many tools available through the free AdWords marketing and development program. All you need to do is add in the keywords from your core list, type in your website URL and choose an applicable category. The Keyword Tool does the rest, giving you a list of relevant keywords and phrases along with information about monthly average searches and competition rating for each term.

Call New Bedford Internet at 508-415-8648 for a free consultation and evaluation of your current online search engine marketing efforts.

The traditional marketing model was successful for many years. This model included the yellow pages, radio advertising, TV commercials, direct mail, ads in magazines and newspapers, and much more. Now, the method in which businesses both large and small relay a message to the public is much different. Now, the model consists of search engine marketing in order to achieve top results on search engines such as Google. In addition, social media is becoming a primary method to reach a large audience because it’s faster and free. This has practically made the traditional model nonexistent. It has now reached a point in which only 14% of individuals trust the ads that they see and 76% are looking toward customer recommendations, which comes mainly from online.

Using social media to market products and services is what is called a Web 2.0 strategy. Search engine optimization is very effective, and some of the other traditional online methods are also still effective, social networking is proving to be an invaluable tool. Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, Yelp, and a variety of others allow local businesses to touch base with their existing customers and tell potential customers who they are and what they are all about. The main feature of these Web 2.0 platforms is the ability to engage in two-way communication, which is something that was not before possible with traditional methods.

Basically, social networks have provided businesses with the ability to get out their messages in completely different ways. It’s in real-time rather than having to wait for that ad to come out or the commercial to air.

Here are some of the benefits of SMM:

• Increases customer base: The networking possibilities are endless and this is very important when working to make an impression on the masses. Existing customers can remain connected and new customers can be acquired.

• Word of mouth: When using social networking, fans can promote products and services by sharing what the business posts on their own pages. This makes it very important for all interaction to be valuable.

• Raising brand awareness: Customers won’t know about the business unless they see something about it. Social networking allows for a lot of exposure.

• Retain current customers: Being able to communicate with customers makes it possible to keep them. Networks such as Facebook allow plenty of interaction with customers, including existing ones. Such platforms also make for ideal places to hear what customers have to say and turn their wants into reality.

• Fast results: There is no waiting around for ad publishing or commercial airings. Everything posted is real-time, making it seen by the business’s fan base immediately.

So why are more businesses not using social networks to market themselves?

More businesses aren’t utilizing this amazing way to market because they simply don’t know where to start. There are several options available and they include:

Hire someone- If the business has the funds and the space to hire an employee, that works fine. There is a lot of time involved in social networking. Pages have to be monitored often with frequent status updates occurring.

Do it yourself- Again, there is a lot of time involved. If you have the time, then you can take on the task yourself.

Outsource- There are companies (like New Bedford Internet) that specialize in helping businesses with their social networking. The reason is because of the time and the effort that is involved. Companies that specialize in these practices have streamlined methods that enable them to manage the many companies that they work for without neglecting a single promotional activity.

Utilizing social networking to market products and services is becoming the primary way in which businesses reach a large audience. However, there is a lot of time and effort that goes into such practices and hiring someone can be expensive. To utilize an affordable way to market through social networks, let New Bedford Internet help by calling 508-415-8648 for a free consultation and evaluation of current search engine marketing efforts or to get you started toward reaching a larger audience.

Email marketing is an effective sales approach. Online companies, and brick-and-mortar businesses alike, are using this valuable technique to increase their sales. Email marketing allows businesses to maintain contact with their readership and create new customers. There are numerous ways to improve the quality of your emails in order to increase your sales.

Create Sincere and Accurate Subject Lines

One of the first aspects of an email that people come in contact with is the subject line. The information in the subject line will lead a person to either open the email or delete it. Make sure your readership and customers open your emails by creating subject lines that are direct, striking, honest, and relevant to the email content.

Personalize the Emails

Tailor your emails to your readers’ interests and demographics so that they will feel the content is made for them. If you do this successfully, your readers will be able to relate to the content, because it will be familiar to them and coming from their level. They will then be more apt to click on the links in the email and buy from you.

Build a Rapport with Your Readership and Customers

Trust and familiarity in a business is important to people when they buy a product or service. Creating and maintaining a relationship with your readers and customers will make them more apt to go to you for your products and services. A rapport with your readers can be developed by putting positive customer comments and reviews in your emails to show how great of a company you are and the good deeds you did in the past. This will give your business credibility, build a client-base, and increase your sales.

Use a Unique Marketing Strategy in Your Emails

When it comes to selling, it is important for a business to stand out from the crowd. In order to do so, use a distinct and creative marketing strategy in your emails. Use your imagination to avoid being typical and repetitive of what has already been done with marketing in the past. To do this, create emails that will leave an impression in your readers’ minds and cause them to look favorably on you. Impressing your readership will make them want to buy from your company.

Offer Free Items and Services

Free trials, services, and items, and newsletters, coupons, and discounts, will cause people to be interested in your business and more likely to purchase from you. A free trial will allow them to try your service or product without the obligation to buy, and those who are happy with it will often pay to continue it or to keep it. A first-time free service or item is similar to a free trial, except the customer gets to keep it for free no matter what. Newsletters will give you the opportunity to advertise your products and services. Everyone loves coupons and discounts, because they automatically make people want to purchase the item, because they think they are getting a good deal. The main strategy with giving things away for free is that everyone loves free stuff, and it gives customers more desire to buy from you.

Make Your Contact Information Easy to Find

Make sure your website, email address, and phone number is visible and accessible to your readers. Provide links for your company’s contact information at the top of every email so that your readership doesn’t have to read to the bottom to find it. Create the ability for your readers to effortlessly learn more about your company and get in touch with you.

Provide Your Readers the Option to Opt-Out of Your Emails

People appreciate the freedom to make decisions for themselves, so it is important to provide a way for your readers to opt-out of your emails. Allowing for this increases the number of your readers, because people will be more likely to subscribe to your emails if they have the option to unsubscribe at any time. And, an increased readership leads to more sales.

You need a readership for your emails in order to sell your products and services. The way to do this is to satisfy your readers’ personal interests and purchasing needs. Doing so – as well as incorporating all of the email tips above – will increase your sales. In order to make sure your email marketing strategy is effective and impressive, call New Bedford Internet at 508-415-8648 for a free consultation and an evaluation.

There is no question that Facebook, Linked In, Twitter, and the many other social media platforms are important to the small business. When used correctly, social media marketing (SMM) is an important tool to be used in order to acquire a strong customer base and enhance the bottom line.

Nevertheless, there is a great deal of etiquette involved in SMM and it is important to avoid the “no nos” of marketing through social networking. Here are some of the aspects that should be avoided when marketing through social networks:

1. Don’t forget about the competition: It is very important to keep track of what the competition is doing in order to respond to the tactics they are using. The goal is to take what they are doing and do it better.

2. Don’t ignore feedback: It is customer feedback that is going to make a difference in how business is done. Knowing what the customer thinks of a product or service means improving where improvement is needed and continuing where customers are satisfied. Knowing what customers are saying also means being attuned to any negative press, which requires an immediate response so that it doesn’t affect business.

3. Arguing is counterproductive: Responding is good, but responding in a bad way is not. It is a must to remain professional no matter what. Arguing in public is especially damaging. If a mistake is made, don’t be afraid to admit it and do what is necessary to remedy it.

4. Don’t break promises: If a promise is made, it needs to be honored. It can be easy to post a promise on Facebook or another network, but it must be fulfilled or comments could be made where everyone can see that the promise was not fulfilled. This can be devastating to business.

5. Don’t get too comfortable and become inefficient: It is important to be consistently efficient. Any breakdown in efficiency can be detrimental to business. Don’t be afraid to be experimental and do what is necessary to ensure momentum continues throughout all business practices. For instance, don’t post a Tweet on Twitter just to Tweet, but make every word mean something. Post anything that will help the business.

6. Don’t lose touch with manners: The words “please” and “thank you” can go a long way within a business. Customers appreciate these words very much. Even when it is difficult to be polite, it is important to do so anyway in order to retain respect and not cause negative press or cause gossip.

It is important to avoid the “no nos” of social media. It is a must to engage in positive maneuvers in order to ensure a positive impression on the public. The last thing a business wants to do is find reviews through a Google search that sheds a negative light. Reaching customers through social networking has its place within a search engine such as Google and not just within the social network. In the end, it is important to utilize all of the tools that social networking provides and to have fun with them, while also being professional in all interaction. There will be negative comments, but knowing how to deal with them and other negativities is what will strengthen the business in the eyes of the public.

Social media marketing will make a difference in your business and New Bedford Internet can help by using the latest techniques that are known to get results. Simply call 508-415-8648 for a free consultation and evaluation of your current search engine marketing efforts.

With the increase in popularity of social networking, some people may wonder if they should continue to use email marketing. Does it still work? The answer is yes. Not everyone uses social networking websites, and those who do, don’t read all the posts. However, nearly everyone has an email account that is active and that they use, and often it is daily.

Email marketing serves many purposes. It makes your business well-known; it advertises your products and services; it gives your business credibility; it creates and maintains positive relationships with readers and customers; and it helps you acquire more customers, and therefore, more sales.

Email marketing is most effective when it is done correctly. By using the following email tips, you will certainly be successful with promoting your business.

Create an Objective, a Plan, and Goals for Yourself

Any business decision needs an objective or a purpose, such as to introduce your company to the public, create a larger client-base, improve your status or reputation, or increase your yearly profits. It is then important to formulate a plan, or ways to meet your objective, like obtaining leads for emails, sending out “X” number of email offers each week, or designing a newsletter and putting a signup option on your website. Finally, create definite short and long-term goals as well as desired completion dates.

Invest in Proper Email-Campaign Software or Services

It is worth the costs of obtaining quality, email-campaign software or services. The emails will be more pleasing to look at, so they will be more favored by your readers and more thoroughly read. The appearance of an email affects your readers’ view of your company. Special software or services will make emails less likely to end up in junk email folders and instead be opened, read, and enjoyed. Email software ranges in price, and services go from free to pricy. Purchase a program or service that will meet your company’s needs. It will benefit your business much more than if you undertook the endeavor on your own.

Use Less Graphics and More Simplicity

Most people find email graphics bothersome. And many people have their email programs set to block them. Graphics that do not upload entirely look terrible on the screen. Limit your use of graphics or do not use them at all, because they may decrease your business’ credibility. People want to look at pleasing and pleasant emails – ones that are simple and attractive.

Provide Content that is Clear, Concise, and Correctly Written

People do not have much time to sort through and read emails. They want to obtain the message and purpose of an email immediately, or else they will lose interest and move on to the next email. Therefore, it is important to begin creating efficient emails by using direct and compelling subject lines, which will encourage your leads to open them. Then, put the calls to action in the beginning of the emails so they won’t be overlooked. Use short sentences and clear words in the email content to get your point across quickly and effectively. Make lists and use bullets and formatting, to help your leads read through the information easier. Lastly, use correct spelling, grammar, and sentence structure to communicate precisely and intelligently.

Present Quality Information in a Skillful Way

Only send emails that provide important information and a valuable message for your readers. Do not waste their time with frequent sales pitches or “fluff” content. Instead, give them information that will benefit them and that they will find useful and interesting. Create quality content that will leave a positive impression on your readers and will make them view your company favorably. Examples would be: newsletters with informative articles, weekly sales, and free services. Make the types of emails vary and make them well-rounded, by both educating your readers and offering them deals and discounts. They will feel appreciated and will welcome your products and services.

You may want to hire professional writers and editors to make your emails come across in the best possible way. Your readers are investing their time into reading your emails, so make sure you give back to them for their efforts. Also show you appreciate your customers for their loyalty. Customers make a business exist and effect its success, so make sure your customers are happy. But before you send out any emails, check to make sure your marketing strategy is effective, by calling New Bedford Internet at 508-415-8648 for a free consultation and an evaluation.

Writing a great email can be a challenge for businesses. For one, many people delete an email – before they even open it – if it is from someone they don’t know or looks like spam, because they want to avoid possible computer viruses.

Then how does a business effectively market their brand through email? It takes several techniques: a familiar name or business in the “from” line, a striking and compelling subject line, content that keeps the reader’s interest, less sales pitches, and only a few calls to action. By adhering to those email tips, you will surely be connecting with customers in no time.

A Familiar “From” Line

When people check their email, they first look to see who it is from. Therefore, it is best to use a person’s name, a business name, or an email address that people can recognize. The “from” line is the name of the sender, which can be adjusted in any email program. Make sure spelling and grammar is correct and the name sounds genuine. If you are emailing people in the US, it is best to use a name that Americans are familiar with. Likewise, if you are emailing people in China, using a Chinese name would be best. People like familiarity; so give them what they want and they will be more apt to open the email.

An Enthusiastic Subject Line

Next, they will look at the subject line. Does it strike their interest? Make sure it is not overpowering with too many capital letters in a row, which is the same as “shouting” on the web. Also avoid excess punctuation, which can seem phony or desperate and may discourage the reader from opening the email. Instead, create a short subject line that is simple, to-the-point, and compelling.

Email Content that is Engaging, Interesting, and Easy to Read

By now the reader wants to learn more about what you have to say. Make the message easy to read by using simple words and short sentences that quickly get the point across. Make the content interesting by providing intriguing facts. Lastly, engage the reader by asking them questions and by speaking to them on a personal level. In order to do this, be aware of the demographics of your readership, so that you can mention information that matters to them. If the readers can relate to you, they will feel more at your level, and will be more willing to accept your offers.

Less sales pitches

People do not want to be bombarded by pushy sales tactics or overpowering demands. They want to make up their own mind. So let them. But it doesn’t mean you can’t help them with their decision. You can help them by giving them the facts, and making them want to learn more about your products. You can convince them by being sincere and straightforward, and by making your product sound right for them. Just make sure to give them some space to make a decision.

The purpose of newsletters is to sell your services, and people are aware of this. When people sign up for a newsletter they are interested in the company and are open to what they have to offer. This is the right time to advertise your products. However, don’t be overly demanding. Just express the importance of your products and the readers will be receptive.

Only a Few Calls to Action

Calls to action are various offers and opportunities within an email. You need at least one call to action for effective email marketing. Be direct about your call to action so that the potential customer doesn’t walk away because you were too passive. Three calls to action is the maximum to include. Any more than that and the reader will feel overwhelmed and confused, and will likely freeze up or back down before selecting any opportunities. Sometimes just one call to action in an email is most effective. It gets the business’ marketing purpose out in a simple way and the reader will be more receptive.

An effective perspective to keep in mind – while applying all of the above techniques – is to form the emails according to the type of readership. It would be additionally effective to compose several emails for different types of readers. Overall, remember to be sincere, easy to relate to, and compelling, and make the emails easy to read and inviting. To ensure your email marketing strategy is effective, call New Bedford Internet at 508-415-8648 for a free consultation and evaluation.

If you run an online business in any capacity, it is important to have at least a basic understanding of search engine optimization or SEO. Once you understand how it all works, you will know what is required in the development phase of your website. This knowledge will help you not only to better optimize your pages for the engines, but will also help you to design and build a better website.

How Do Search Engines Work?

Today’s popular engines, such as Google, Yahoo and Bing, work by finding, categorizing and then listing web pages based upon the keywords that are used on each page. If the text on your pages is relevant to whatever you are selling or promoting, your target keywords should naturally occur without having to add them artificially. Other elements, such as relevance and popularity, are also used to help determine the weight and rank of each page within Google’s index, however keywords are the most important element of SEO.

Building A Strong Foundation

The first thing you need to do is build a basic list of keywords that are relevant to the content on your page. Keywords can help you to build your company brand, promote the products or services you sell and get visitors to your pages. Create a list of at least 10-12 keywords to get you started. If you are having trouble with your keyword research, try looking at competitors’ websites, use a thesaurus or try an online tool.

Then expand on your basic list through the use of long-tail keywords. Long-tails are comprised of 3-4 keywords or more, and are based upon the words real people would use to find your website. One way to create long-tail keywords is to use the Google AdWords Keyword Tool. Just go to https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal and add a keyword, your website address and the category that describes your page. This tool will give you a list of results, as well as some details on monthly search numbers and competition.

Check Your List

Once you have a created a good list of keywords it is important to filter through the list to ensure that your choices are focused and relevant. Unfortunately, many website owners overlook this important phase of keyword research and end up wasting time and money using keywords that don’t work. Re-run your list through the keyword tool, removing options based upon competition rate and average monthly searches.

Some keywords will be used to purchase advertising in programs like AdWords or Facebook Ads. Others will be used on your website to help advance your search engine optimization. You can further refine your list by separating the words that you will use in each area. This can help you to more easily implement the words and phrases you have chosen as you continue to develop your marketing campaign.

Keywords Are Key!

Once you have a well-rounded and relevant list of keywords its time to put them to use. Keywords should be used in every aspect of your website. Unless your domain name is your company name, you should choose a domain based upon the most relevant keywords in your list. Keywords should be used in your meta tags, alt tags, headings, subheadings, product or service descriptions, about us and contact us pages, home page and of course any articles, blogs, tutorials or FAQ pages you offer to your visitors.

When adding articles or other informational text to your website, use your keyword list to help you think of relevant titles or subjects. They can also help you to create marketing campaigns, develop e-books or other helpful consumer downloads. Keywords keep you focused on the primary theme of your website, which in turn will help you to create a more useful and focused website for your visitors.

While keyword density is not a major focus of optimization for today’s developers, you should still take care not to “over-stuff” or add too many keywords on one page. Include keywords in the first sentence, first paragraph and last paragraph of your page, creating between 400-750 words per page. The quality of your writing should always be more important than the number of keywords you add to a page. In fact, writing that is of high quality should be naturally relevant and keyword rich without the need to add keywords as an afterthought.

If you would like a free consultation and evaluation of your current search engine marketing efforts, call New Bedford Internet at 508-415-8648.

If you are going to have any kind of web presence for your business, it is important to dedicate some time to developing an Internet marketing strategy. The key to online success, whether you actually conduct business via a web page or if you are just using the Internet to communicate with your customers on Facebook, Twitter or other social media networking sites, is to have a solid marketing goal and plan. You will get more out of all your efforts on the Internet if you establish early on what you want to get out of it, how you want to do it and what you will need to know to get the job done right.

There are three main strategies that are essential to the success of any Internet marketing campaign, regardless of your market or industry. If you can focus on these primary areas, the “biggies” as as I call them, you will see improvements in the quality and quantity of traffic that you attract to your pages, as well as gains in customer interaction and conversions.

Biggie #1 – Keywords

Today’s Internet marketers need to be aware of the importance that keywords play in all areas of web development. Keywords are necessary to increase the relevance of your pages within the search engines, helping to boost your rank in Google, Yahoo and other top search sites.

Unfortunately, many marketers don’t appreciate the value of keywords as a means of increasing traffic through improved relevance, rank and reach. As a result, many web pages are unable to work at their full potential due to a lack of keywords, and other web pages get banned from the search engines due to overuse in an attempt to manipulate the system. Balance is required in order to achieve success in this area, as well as an understanding of keywords, key phrases and how they should be used in a web page.

Move beyond the use of a handful of single word keywords and focus instead on developing what are known as “long-tail keywords” which use a string of 3-4 keywords in a phrase that will help search engine users find your web page. It is nearly impossible to get a front page listing for a single keyword, however when done properly, you can achieve a front page listing for a well-crafted long-tail keyword that is relevant to your topic or niche.

Biggie #2 – Social Media

Social media marketing will not only help to improve your ability to connect with consumers, but it can also be a huge boost to the SEO of your web pages. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare – whatever social media network applies best to your particular business – should become a priority to your marketing efforts.

Optimize your social media pages, profiles, bio areas and anything else that will help to drive content to your website or encourage visitors to contact you at your place of business. Create a user-friendly experience that will allow you to build your brand, prove your knowledge and experience within the industry and establish a means of communicating with your target demographic.

Use your social media account to announce special events, sales or new offerings. Take advantage of each network’s unique offerings to build a solid rapport with your fans, followers and customers. The most important rule of social media marketing is to be consistent. Social media marketing is a hands-on project that requires you to make daily posts, reply to comments or questions and visit the page daily to ensure that no opportunity is missed.

Biggie #3 – Quality

Above all, quality should be the main focus in everything that you do. Your content should be well-written, your design elements and navigation should be designed with the user in mind and your multimedia objects, such as photos, videos, audio files and more, should all be held to high standard.

Many marketers make the mistake of just throwing a few primary keywords into a basic article, blog post or product description, when writing original, relevant content specifically for that page would yield much better results. Don’t waste your time focusing on how many keywords you can get into a single page. Instead, focus your energy on creating quality offerings that your readers and customers will enjoy.

If you would like to receive a free consultation and professional evaluation of your current SEO and marketing efforts, contact New Bedford Internet at 508-415-8646.

Social media has taken the world by storm with its ability to connect individuals from all around the world. Because of this incredible degree of inter-connectivity, small businesses are turning to social media marketing, or SMM, to appeal to individuals within their locality and create a solid customer base.

With websites such as Facebook and Twitter enhancing communication, it is easy for a business to reach a large audience in a short period of time and with less effort than normal marketing activities. However, some small businesses do wonder if they have what it takes to succeed on these social networking websites. There is a high degree of competition and this can be discouraging, but this is something that can easily be rectified with the right techniques.

SMM is Becoming Irreplaceable

Creating a page on a social networking site may seem more difficult than what it is. The truth is that small businesses are benefiting the most from having an avenue in which they can market to a certain geographic area. This is because customers like to know when a local business has something that they need. As a matter of fact, they enjoy the more personal interaction that the business has with its fans, unlike large corporations with pages so busy they do not have the capacity to keep up with customer questions and comments.

In a survey conducted amongst small business owners, approximately 90% of them agreed that social networking is a very important part of their business. However, approximately 66% of small business owners strongly agreed to this fact. The marketplace is a very noisy place, so it is important for the small business owner to plow through that noise in some way.

Benefits of Social Media

Websites such as Facebook and Twitter increase exposure with 72% of small businesses reporting that they have seen increased traffic as a result of creating and managing accounts on these platforms. Here is a breakdown of what small business owners have reported:

• 88% has been able to generate additional exposure
• 72% have reported increased traffic and more subscribers
• 62% has seen improved Google search results
• 56% has created new business partnerships
• 51% gained qualified leads they never had before
• 49% reduced their marketing expenses because social network marketing is free
• 43% noticed an increase in sales

With over 89% of businesses reporting benefits, small businesses were those to see more benefits.

How to Get Started

The way to get started is to utilize social network marketing in addition to marketing techniques that already exist, such as using search engine optimization (SEO) techniques to draw traffic. Using SEO can help draw those customers that do not use social networking. The two can work together to drive traffic to the site that converts into sales.

But first, simply create social network accounts and create pages. Pages include information about the business, such as contact information. Promotions can be conducted through the page, contests, product information, and so much more can be done. Regularly updating pages and publishing updates at least once per day can keep a business fresh in the minds of the people who have become fans of it.

In the end, many individuals that “like” or “follow” a business on Facebook or Twitter do so without ever previously being a customer, so marketing through social networking is a great way to gain new customers and to promote repeat business. Most of all, individuals become personally invested in the business simply from seeing consistent updates, contests, and promotions. In the end, and as statistics have shown, the bottom line of the business is positively influenced.

To be able to truly take advantage of the benefits of SMM, call New Bedford Internet (Massachusetts based web technologies firm) at 508-415-8648 for a free consultation and evaluation of your current media marketing efforts. If you don’t know where to begin or you feel you don’t have time? Simply give us a call and we will help you determine the best SMM strategies for your business and put them to work for you.

Crafting a great email may feel like rocket science, but it’s not. Follow these ten email marketing tips and you will soon be creating emails that impress your customers, make your business look professional and increase your bottom line.

• Proofread your writing. Even though it’s an email, it still needs to be checked for spelling, proper grammar, punctuation and any other errors. Your writing represents your business. You want people to remember your amazing message, not your embarrassing spelling mistake.
• Make your subject line unique. You want your email’s title to be simple and interesting. It should also get your reader to open your email. So make sure you don’t repeat the same words from your email’s title over and over in your email. Your reader may be disappointed at the lack of unique content or think you don’t really have anything to say and stop reading.
• Give your email offers a time frame. People act when they know a deadline is looming and there is something they don’t want to miss out on. Make sure that you give an expiration date for your email offer to create a sense of urgency in your customer to act. However, don’t overemphasize the deadline. You don’t want your reader to associate anxiety with your company’s emails.
• Don’t yell at your reader. Think carefully about capitalizing entire words in your email. “All caps” is also associated with “yelling” and you don’t want your reader to feel like he or she is being yelled at. Make sure you use proper capitalization and lower case in your email’s subject line and body.
• Don’t spam your reader – and don’t say spam either. If your email headline announces “This email is not spam,” your audience may wonder why you felt the need to say that. Their email program might dump your email in the spam folder, too. You want to convey your message and get your customers to respond. Telling them your email isn’t spam won’t accomplish that goal and just wastes valuable space.
• Don’t feel the need to exaggerate. Your customer thinks you’re great, otherwise they wouldn’t sign up for your emails. Don’t overdo it by over-promising or telling them how great you are in your email. If you are offering a great product or service, a great deal or helpful information, the value is already there.
• If you don’t provide a “call to action,” you may lose out. You need to tell your customer what you want them to do, and give them an easy way to accomplish this. Whether you need them to click on a link or call a phone number, make sure you tell them clearly that this is the next step and provide the information they need to take that step.
• Keep numbers and excessive punctuation out of the subject line. You want your email’s headline to convey a message. If you need to share facts and figures, do it in the email’s body. If you want to include a contact number, don’t put it in the headline. Instead, place your phone number in the body of the email, preferably with an irresistible call to action.
• Be careful with images. Including images or logos in your emails can be a great visual. However, keep in mind that your customer’s email program may block or refuse to download the image. It’s a good idea to write a short caption explaining the picture. This way, your customer will be able to know what the image was meant to convey even if they can’t see it. This is especially helpful for an email newsletter that may contain several images.
• Write good copy. You want your message to grab your reader’s attention. Write short, active sentences. Include bullet lists of important information, since many people skim emails. If writing is not your strong suit, you can still craft good email marketing messages. And if you need help creating your effective email marketing campaign, call New Bedford Internet at 508-415-8648 for a free consultation and evaluation of your email marketing strategy.

New Bedford Internet has been helping businesses achieve their email marketing goals with everything from occasional advice on design, to full “white gloves” service. In our white gloves service, we handle the entire mailing (design, graphics, content writing etc.) and we handle the management aspects of your email marketing (maintaining of your email list(s), adding subscribers, removing subscribers, reporting statistics on mailings such as open rates, click through rates and much more). If you want to know more about our services, call us at 508-415-8648. Read more about our email marketing services here.