While Google+ already has over 90 million users since its June 2011 launch, it can hardly be compared to Facebook’s mammoth 800 million-plus global users. Similar to Facebook, Google+ is a social media network that is free for use by individuals to use for sharing photos, discussions, comments and much more. In addition to the usual fare, Google+ users can also share video conference calls with other users in Google+ Hangout, create a network of targeted users within Google+ Circle and take advantage of a whole host of other Google-infused tools within the Google+ social media network.

While it wasn’t initially designed for business users, Google+ has made some changes to its initial offering and launched a new Google+ Business Pages option in November 2011. Now marketers and business owners have the ability to create pages for their companies and link all of their Google-based efforts together, including Google Analytics, GoogleAds and much more. Immediately on the day it was launched, Google+ was flooded with business-based users anxious to play with the service to see how it could be used to their advantage.

The Advantages
The biggest advantage to using Google+ Business Pages as a part of your social media marketing campaign is that it’s powered by Google. Everyone knows that Google makes good stuff. Beyond that, Google intertwines everything that it makes in with everything else that it makes, giving a big advantage to companies that utilize everything that Google has to offer. It’s easy to see that with just over a year under its belt that Google will be layering in even more tools and opportunities to its social media network.

Plus One?
There are some distinct differences between Google+ and other social networks. Keeping with Google’s policy of linking everything together, Google+ will also play an influential role in Google search results. This can be a huge boost to any marketing strategy. You may have seen the little “+1″ clickable button on news pages and other information websites. Individuals can endorse or support a company brand or Business Page by using the +1 option. Company brands can be tagged in photos and then shared and comments can be posted on Business Pages to help companies engage with customers.

Video Interaction
By far the biggest unique feature of this new social network is the Google+ Hangouts video conferencing option. This is unique to any other social media network, giving businesses the ability to interact directly with their customers in real time from their Google+ Business Page. Company reps can now receive personal feedback from site visitors that can be used to improve their products, customer service and order fulfillment, but even more, it allows them to establish real face-to-face relationships with the people who buy their products or use their services. This type of real time, face-to-face feedback is something that was previously only available to main street brick-and-mortar store owners.

Marketing Opportunities
Another great feature is the Google+ Circles feature. Business owners can’t add people to their Circles and can’t join Circles until the company has been mentioned or invited by the individuals first. What this means is that companies aren’t able to just “show up” in a Google+ Circles discussion and spam their products or services – they have to be invited. When a company is invited to discuss their brand with customers and potential customers, it makes for a truly targeted marketing opportunity that is unique to any other program or platform.

So take some time to register and try out Google+ for yourself. You might just find that it has the tools and opportunities that you need to spread the word about your business, increase consumer brand awareness and interact with your customers in a whole new way. If you don’t have a lot of experience working with social media marketing, consider hiring a professional to at least get you started and point you in the right direction. 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.

There are both advantages and disadvantages to moving your current business model online. However, with a little insight and a few tips to point you in the right direction, you can learn how to maximize the advantages, minimize the disadvantages and create a successful web-based business.

The Pros

Cost
Launching an e-business has a much lower overhead than opening a brick-and-mortar storefront. The world of e-commerce makes it easy to develop a professional-looking website, optimize it to target your consumer demographic and effectively market your products or services. Hiring a professional web development company may be much more affordable than you think, and the services provided by experienced developers and marketers will yield a very high return on your investment. Compared to main street business models, which require a lot of up-front costs for leased space, product displays, hired staff and other essentials, an e-business will save you money from day one.

Flexible Hours
Don’t want to work on Sundays? Like to take the afternoons off? Moving your business to the web can give you the freedom to set your own hours and make more time to spend with friends and family. Product-based businesses have the ability to set up shop online where customers can make purchases 24/7. As long as you schedule yourself time to fulfill orders and be available for customer service requests, you can decide when and where you’ll work. Many e-commerce business owners do a lot of their customer service via mobile devices, inviting customers to contact them direct via email, contact forms, instant messaging or other web-based communications services. Service oriented businesses can also set their preferred schedules according to the type of services they provide.

The Cons

Building Traffic
If you don’t know what you’re doing, it can be utterly impossible to build up traffic to your new web-based business, unless you already have a large customer base coming from your brick-and-mortar business. Buying traffic via pay-per-click (PPC) advertising or search engine marketing can help boost your traffic and increase sales, but there are fundamental techniques and methods that must be employed to make the most out of this type of traffic. If you don’t have time to learn the ropes, hiring a professional web development company can really be an asset to building traffic and increasing sales. Hiring an expert in search engine optimization (SEO) and business web design can help you build organic search and referral traffic without having to invest a lot into purchasing it from outside sources.

Time
While you are free to set your own hours and conduct product sales automatically through your online business, it can also take time to establish a solid customer base and a create a website that will meet their demands. Quality, relevant content must be added to your site on a regular basis in order to keep customers coming back for more information or to make future purchases. Original content will also help boost your rankings and listings in the search engines. It is not uncommon to spend 10-15 hours a day to set up a web-based business website. Hiring a professional will reduce the amount of time you’ll need to invest in setting up your business, but be prepared to put in at least some effort in the beginning phases as you develop your e-business site and network.

While there are other advantages and disadvantages to moving your business online, these are the most common issues affecting new e-business owners today. Learning how to use them to your advantage and overcome any issues that might negatively impact your business, is very important. Creating a solid business plan and then following through with hard work will yield the best results.

With so many competing sites working within the same market today, it is more important than ever before to design an e-commerce website that is optimized for both your visitors and the search engines.

If you would like to learn more about how you can start doing business online, contact New Bedford Internet for a free consultation at 508-415-8648.

Some websites are small, consisting of just a couple of pages and not much more. However, depending on the type of business you are running, you might need a whole lot more. The problem with some websites is that they can grow and grow until they are difficult to manage and navigate. The more content you add, the deeper and wider your site structure becomes. New products, new reviews, new articles, new tips, new news – it all quickly adds up. Pretty soon visitors will come to your site and have a hard time finding what they need and website managers have a hard time sorting it all out. Fortunately there is a solution that can help sort it all out and make all of your pages and information easy to find.

A Content Management System (CMS) is one of the best tools available that can help you to effectively organize and structure your website content and help your pages stay current and valuable to your visitors. There are a couple of low-cost and free CMS solutions available, but if you are running a business your best bet is to hire a professional web development company to set up a custom CMS solution on your domain. Developers that are experienced in working with CMS can identify your unique needs, requirements and create a solution that will specifically identify the areas of web design and management that you need most. A well-planned and structured CMS can help keep your website looking fresh and updated, while offering easy access to archived materials and information.

Easier Management Through CMS
Once you have your very own unique CMS solution created and implemented for you by a professional web development company, you will be very surprised to find out just how easy it is to add content, update and manage all on your own – even if you don’t have a lot of website management experience. A simple web-based administrative system allows you to make new posts, add new products or services to your menu and even make edits to older posts in a method that is as easy as writing, editing and sending an email. Depending on your level of skill, you may also enjoy other options that allow you to upgrade various design elements such as logos, site colors, banners and sidebars as well as adding in plug-ins, apps and widgets to make your site even more interactive and useful to your visitors.

The Benefits of CMS
Some of the advantages of using CMS have already been mentioned, but it’s worth seeing them all included in this list of benefits:

Improved Accessibility – CMS is, by design, written in verified standards-compliant markup to create websites that are accessible by all users across all platforms, devices and disabilities.

SEO-Friendly – The structure, organization and code-level design of CMS makes it extremely search engine friendly, giving your site an instant SEO boost.
Interactivity – Built-in components make it easy to invite your users to post comments, ask questions, participate in surveys and write reviews.

Custom Design – CMS is the framework, but it allows for a complete customization of the layout and design through the use of various tools and add-ons.

Time Saver – Once you have your own unique CMS designed and installed, it is extremely user-friendly allowing businesses to make updates without having to wait for programmers to make adjustments.

Cost Cutter – When it’s time to make changes to your site design you won’t need to do a complete overhaul, just use the admin tools to change colors, logos, headers, layout and more.

Security – The structure of CMS is built around easy data storage and retrieval, allowing you to store and export data easily when needed.

Call New Bedford Internet today at 508-415-8648 and ask about our guided interactive CMS tour. We’ll get together with you on the same computer screen and explain over the phone exactly how it all works and show you what CMS can do for you!

The primary goal of Internet marketing is to get targeted traffic to a website. Social media has really changed the way that many marketers see the Internet, and blogs are a huge part of the early foundation of social media marketing. A lot of people don’t realize that blogs were really the first widely-used tool in the social media movement. Blogs are an excellent way to provide regularly-updated content to your visitors and give them a way to interact and share your content with others. This article will focus on the traffic strategies that can be used in conjunction with blogging that will help you to increase your traffic and your sales.

The Pros of Blogging
Usually when you see a list of “pros” you also see a list of “cons,” but in this case there really isn’t a downside to blogging other than having to come up with unique content on a regular basis. Adding fresh content is something you should be doing anyway.

Blogging is extremely easy – writing a post and adding it to your blog is as easy as sending an email.

Adding interactive features to your site is extremely easy with a blog due to built-in comments and add-ons via plug-ins and widgets.
Blogging is very affordable – most blogging platforms are open source, which means “free to use,” so the only out-of-pocket costs would be a custom design and installation.

Blog posts are added to categories and utilize keyword tags, making them extremely SEO-friendly.
Blogs streamline and deliver fresh content via RSS feeds, which can be used to share content on other websites or provide readers with email updates when new posts are added.

Types of Blogs
There are a lot of different types of blogs. The type of blog you choose to use will depend largely on the type of business you do and on the type of content you want to post.

Traditional blogs are text-based and can feature the occasional photo or graphic image. Most of the blogs created today are text-based. They can contain tips, articles, news and other types of information. Most traditional text blogs consist of 300-600 words per post, with larger articles broken down into smaller Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, etc. type posts.

Photo blogs are used by businesses that focus on images more than text. They can include a line of two of descriptive text included in with each photo, but they are primarily photo-based. Photo blogs are a great idea for someone that works with photography or sells products that they want to showcase.  Photo blogs are also great to use in place of a photo album for special events, conventions or other workplace gatherings.

Video blogs are sometimes known as Vlogs and are used to post and categorize video-based content. Again, like with the photo blogs, video blogs can contain a line or two of text as a description, but will usually consist primarily of videos. Similar to the photo blogs, video blogs are a great way to showcase company videos, commercials, instruction sessions, seminars or anything else you want to make available.

Blog Traffic
The traffic that you get from your blog can help to boost your site’s popularity, rank and conversion ratio. Blogs are a great platform for showcasing specific products or services in a way that your visitors are familiar with seeing on other websites. Posts should be made at least once daily in order to catch the attention of the search engines. Once you get picked up by Google, your posts will also appear on Google Blog Search, which will really help boost your site’s relevance and visibility.

There are a number of ways that you can increase traffic to your blog, but the best tip is to get into a habit of posting regularly. Even if you only post once each day, pre-program your blog admin to post your daily blog at the same time every day. Consistency with blogging is key. Link to your blog from your main website and vice versa. Submit your blog to various blog directories and exchange blog links with relevant blogs. Explore all of the widgets, plug-ins and other cool add-ons that can help you make the most out of your blogging experience.

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

It happens all the time: customers leave online shopping carts filled with carefully selected products and don’t buy a thing. Why does it happen? Is there anything a business can do to prevent this from happening? What can you do when it does happen? This article will focus on changes you can make that will reduce abandoned shopping carts and increase your overall conversion ratio.

Engaging the Customer
The first thing you need to do as the owner of an e-commerce website, is learn how to engage your customers. Your job is to convince them that the products you sell, and the prices you are offering, are better than what your competitors have to offer. If you are unable to do this first step, you’ll never be successful in any type of sales.

Take a tour of your website and look at your product offerings and shopping methods to see if you are doing all you can to properly promote your products and show them in the best light possible. Is your site well designed? Does it flow easily or is it difficult to navigate? Do you offer full-color photos with multiple angles and thorough descriptions of your products? Do you allow customers to post reviews of your products? These are things that you should consider adding to your website that will immediately make a big difference in your conversion ratio.

Overcoming Objections
The first rule in sales is to overcome the objections of your customers – even before they make them. Your job is to anticipate what the customer will want, how he will want it done and what it will take to create a positive shopping experience. One of the most common reasons why customers will abandon a shopping cart is due to shipping costs. Many websites don’t mention the costs of added sales tax and shipping until the very end. Today’s shoppers usually have a budget in mind, and if all the shipping costs, taxes and fees hike the price up too far, they will usually just leave and look for a better deal at another website.

Successful businesses make all shipping costs and fees very clear from the beginning, and will even offer options for customers to qualify for either discounted or free shipping based on performance. Including the shipping in an item’s description next to the price, can help prevent shipping sticker shock, thereby reducing abandoned carts. The more information you give to a customer, the more they will know what to expect and the more comfortable they will feel in making a purchase.

Creating A Secure Environment
Believe it or not, the design of your website has a lot to do with the comfort of your customers. A website that is professionally designed with the consumer in mind will yield much better results than a site that offers poor navigation, layout and function. If you aren’t getting a lot of sales, it’s time to look at your website and consider hiring a professional.

The goal is to keep moving the consumer forward. Your home page should initiate interest; carry the customer on to your products; move them to add items to a shopping cart; and then conclude with the purchase. If a customer becomes frustrated with the navigation or has concerns about security at any point – you will lose the sale. The process needs to be simple, seamless and easy. Shopping should be a fun process and when your customers aren’t delighted with your website or your offerings, you can bet they’ll look to one of your competitors instead.

Simple Login
When visitors come to your site, you need to make the final purchasing process as easy as possible. It is tempting to require registration, as email collection and the ability to contact customers about future purchases is a huge part of Internet marketing. Another way to overcome this hurdle is to allow customers to make purchases as guests. When they make their purchase – giving their email address, mailing address and personal information – you can collect the information at that time and still contact them at a later date to more fully register with your site.

The overall message to e-commerce businesses is to keep it simple. The more straight-forward and up-front you are with your customers, the more confidence they will have in your business. Confidence breeds sales and, after all, making the sale should be your primary objective.

Need help improving the customer experience on your e-commerce website? Call New Bedford Internet at 508-415-8648 for a free consultation and an evaluation.

It is important to have a business website that is current, fresh and interesting. Unfortunately, a lot of business owners don’t want to invest the time or money into hiring a professional web design company to create a new website – even if their current site is 10 years old and full of out-dated information. If you are having a hard time convincing your boss that it’s time to update the old website, here are 5 signs that you can share that will make your case crystal clear and prove once-and-for-all that it’s time to get a new website.

#1 – You Haven’t Change Your Site in a Few Years
The overall design of your site should be changed and updated on a regular basis in order to keep up with industry web design standards and trends. If your website looks the same as it did 2 years ago – it’s time to at least make some small structural or color changes. If your website looks the same as it did 4-5 years ago – it’s time for a complete overhaul. If you really want to prove your point to the powers that be, look up your website on the Way Back Machine at Internet Archive (http://web.archive.org) and show them just how little has been changed over the years.

#2 – Your Site is Built on Outdated Technology
Let’s put it this way, if no updates exist for the programs or techniques used on your website, it’s time to get a new website. Some of the elements that were extremely popular and trendy just a few years ago are now obsolete. Flash-based websites were all the rage, but in the past year or so most browsers and devices stopped supporting Flash. iFrames used to be a great way to structure a page, but there are better, less buggy methods available now. Intro pages, tables, huge graphic elements and outdated content formatting are just some of the other outdated things that need to be replaced or removed.

#3 – Your Traffic Has Decreased Dramatically
Outdated web design methods don’t just look bad, they can also negatively affect your website’s rankings in the popular search engines. Gone are the cumbersome HTML designs of the past, today’s websites load quickly and easily without a lot of weighed-down elements. CSS can help to streamline a page and standards-compliant markup language can go a long way toward increasing your site’s accessibility. Other programs, including content management systems, create SEO-friendly pages and structures that can boost your ranking.

#4 – You Aren’t Using CMS
A content management system (CMS) is the best way to organize and structure your website. This is particularly beneficial to e-commerce websites that offer a variety of products or services for sale, as well as organizations that produce a lot of text, image or video content for their visitors. CMS makes it easy to always have fresh content on your website, giving your staff secure, password-protected web-based admin tools that allow content to be added, updated, removed or moved within the site structure. Every professional website should have some sort of CMS structure in place.

#5 – Your Top Competitor Got a New Design
It is important to pay attention to what competing websites and businesses are doing. This is particularly true when it comes to their web presence. Whenever one of your competitors changes or redesigns their website, you should seriously consider making a change too. Your competition will get a boost of traffic from the new design, as well as fresh interaction from your target customer base with any new tools or options available. You should never copy a competitors’ web design, but you should see what they are doing and make sure you are offering comparable experiences to your visitors too.

If you would like to learn more about how you can improve your website design today, contact New Bedford Internet for a free consultation at 508-415-8648.

In the world of business the phrase, “the customer is number one” wasn’t just something people said, it was something people did. The true key to running a successful business is to figure out new ways to increase and improve customer service as a means of making your customers happy. Happy customers buy things. Happy customers come back and buy more things. Really happy customers tell all their friends about your business and the things you do to make them so happy.

E-commerce isn’t any different from any other business model in this regard. In fact, due to the nature of the Internet and the way people use it to constantly communicate and share experiences with others, it is even more important to create an excellent customer experience and provide top-notch customer service. This article will focus on some of the methods and ideas behind providing gold standard services and support to your customers as a means of keeping them happy and creating a positive reputation for your business within the online community.

Social Media
Literally 5 seconds after having a fantastic experience your customers can be out tweeting and posting comments to their friends about your business. Having confidence in your customer service, products and support helps you to implement ways to give your customers quick access to their social media accounts through icons, buttons and invitations to “tweet this” right on your web page. Business owners who aren’t confident in their customer relationships should probably not include links to social media.

Social media is beneficial in many ways. It helps you to communicate with your customers and build a relationship with them. It also gives you an opportunity to promote specials, discounts and new product offerings, while giving your customers a way to provide feedback to you about their experiences. The more communication you can encourage – the better. Create accounts for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and any other media site that will help you to reach your customers and establish a solid presence on each social media network, checking for messages daily, replying when needed and posting fresh information at least once a day.

Discounts and Coupons
One way to increase customer loyalty and return purchase visits is to offer discounts and coupons to your customers. The discounts don’t have to be huge, in fact they can be as small as offering “free shipping” on purchases of $50 or a straight-up 10% discount off all purchases within a limited amount of time. You can send invitations to participate in these deals direct to your customers via email marketing programs or as ads within the admin or shopping cart areas of their accounts. Experiment with different methods until you find what works best for your customer base.

Discounts and coupons can be the deciding factor for a customer that is weighing the decision of making a purchase. Some companies will even send out “abandoned shopping cart” emails that offer a discount on the items the customer selected by never actually purchased. Chances are the customer is still thinking about the items they put in their cart, so a quick reminder that they left the items there coupled with a special offer of some sort will usually get them back to your site to complete the purchase.

Overcoming Problems
No matter how well your site is run or how great your customer service is, there will always be problems. How you handle a problem is what will separate your business from your competitors. There are some business owners who see customer-based mistakes or errors as “their problem” and offer no support or solutions to make it right with the customer. That’s a huge mistake and will not only cost them future sales with the customer in question, but that customer will then tell on average another five to ten potential customers not to use your business.

If you need to provide a refund or make a change in an order, make sure to do it as quickly as possible. Don’t make your customers go through a bunch of red tape just to get their refund. The idea here is to build trust through solid business practices, open communication and excellent customer service. The way you handle this transaction will mean the difference between future sales by happy customers and a bad reputation from disgruntled consumers.

It is more important than ever before to stay on top of your website and keep it optimized for both your visitors and the search engines. Contact New Bedford Internet for a free consultation at 508-415-8648.

Sometimes the best way for today’s online marketers to learn how to effectively optimize and promote their business on the Internet is to observe and learn from the mistakes made by others. This article will focus on the four most egregious errors seen in the world of marketing and what you can do to use these lessons to boost your own search engine optimization and marketing efforts. It is important to have a solid online marketing strategy in place as a means of effectively targeting your primary demographic, particularly when there are so many more businesses doing business online today.

Mistake #1 – Not Using Analytics
There’s no excuse not to take advantage of all the amazing analytical tools that are now available to web-based business owners and marketers. Ask your professional developer about tools that can be integrated into your website to measure traffic, track leads and compare the results of all your marketing campaigns and traffic sources.

If you aren’t using one of these tools you are effectively working in the dark. Tracking your traffic and leads helps you to get more out of each marketing campaign and discover more effective ways to reach your target demographic. When you know which leads yield the best results, you can know which marketing sources to focus on the most.

Mistake #2 – Not Researching Keywords
One of the biggest mistakes made by website owners is to choose a couple of one-word keywords that best describe their business and not taking the time to research other options that could help them refine and target their traffic. Long-tail keywords and phrases that contain three or more keywords can help to boost conversions by pre-qualifying your traffic.

Keyword research should be thoroughly conducted before launching any campaign or completing any search engine optimization project. Once a series of base words are selected, it is important to assess the subject matter of each page to ensure relevance and popularity of the words to refine your selections. Think about how you search for things online, the words you use and the phrases you type in to narrow down the results, then apply those methods to your research.

Mistake #3 – Not Knowing the Type of Website You Need
Different businesses need different types of websites. Some businesses will do well with just a single introductory page and a contact or request form page. Others need a much larger website that encompasses product information, educational offerings or opportunities for visitors to interact. Hiring a professional web design company that understands the needs of your business is extremely important to the success of your websites.

Other mistakes within this same category include building a social media site and thinking that it can take the place of a full website. A Facebook Page is not a website and in most cases a simple blog won’t be sufficient either. When you meet with you developer for the first time, you should be sure to express your needs, desires and goals for the website to ensure that you and the design team are on the same page.

Mistake #4 – Not Creating an Effective Call to Action
A call to action or CTA, is any element that compels your site visitors to complete a desired activity. That activity could be anything from registering for a weekly newsletter to purchasing a product. Once the visitor completes the desired activity, it is considered a conversion. Many website owners will only relate the idea of a conversion as a purchase, but there are many other ways to get your visitors to convert that don’t involve making a sale.

A CTA can be quite simple, such as linked text that says “click here now,” “buy it now” or any other related phrase or it can be more complex. However you decide to do it, your CTA should be placed in a visible spot on your web page, be supported effectively by providing the promised content or offers, and should be included in some form on each and every page within your site.

For more information and assistance in improving your website’s design and SEO, contact New Bedford Internet (508-415-8648) and get a free estimate. New Bedford Internet has built a solid reputation for attentive service and products and systems, serving clients in the New Bedford, Dartmouth, Fairhaven and Southcoast, Massachusetts area since 1999.

A lot of marketers are forced to choose between direct and email marketing due to budget or time constraints. While there are distinct advantages to both, it is important to thoroughly evaluate each method to see which one works best for your business. While many marketers will tell you that cost is the primary reason why they choose to use one method over another, there are lots more things to consider.

Email Marketing
While email marketing costs a lot less than direct marketing, those considering it should also evaluate the amount of time required to properly use this marketing tool. Your time is money and it can take a lot of dedication to create, evaluate, tweak and promote an email marketing campaign.

However, email marketing will yield much faster results, giving marketers almost instant access to statistics that can be used to re-shape or adjust their campaign before sending it out to the next group. In fact, one of the biggest advantages is the ability to use A/B testing. Marketers can send our two or more versions of the mailer to see which one performs better. The differences can be as subtle as using different headlines or as dramatically unique as to feature different promotional offerings or deals.

The more data that can be collected by marketers, the better. It helps not only to learn more about your target demographic, but also helps to build ongoing information that can help in the development of future campaigns or offerings. Track all user actions, such as how many recipients opened or viewed the email, how many clicked on links or images within the mailer and how many converted those actions into an actual sale or completion of a required task. Proponents of email marketing will argue that this degree of instant feedback could never be achieved with more traditional direct marketing methods.

Direct Marketing
The cost to develop an effective direct marketing campaign will be much higher than any digital-based marketing campaign simply because it will utilize print materials and will involve mailing those materials directly to a targeted or opt-in mailing list. However, it is important to note that because of the methods used to deliver these marketing materials into the hands of customers or potential customers, marketers have access to a huge advantage over email marketing.

Geo-coding is an extremely valuable marketing tool that can be used via a set of web-based tools to track recipients based upon their latitude and longitude data. The people who receive these direct mailings can then be sorted or targeted with specific offerings and deals based upon their location. In a way, this is direct marketing’s way of A/B testing or comparing various campaign results to improve the future response of a target demographic.

Additionally, print materials can be used beyond post mail campaigns, allowing the marketer to bring them along to industry trade shows, promotional events or other in-person opportunities. Print materials are a great way to put your web-based business into a tangible format that can then be carried home for evaluation by the people you meet.

Making a Choice
So which type of marketing is better for you and your business? That still depends upon a number of unique factors within your own business structure. Will you be attending industry gatherings or other events to have the opportunity to share your printed materials with others? Or will you do better to take advantage of the A/B testing options found within email marketing methods? How much money do you have in your marketing budget? How much time do you and your staff have to promote such a campaign online?

Whichever method you think is best for your business, you need to stay in touch and on top of all the changes and technologies that arise in this industry. Use as many tools, links and consultants as you can find to help yu stay on top of the latest marketing methods and results to ensure that you are doing all you can to establish a solid campaign.

Need advice on your next email or direct marketing campaign? Call New Bedford Internet at 508-415-8648 for a free consultation and an evaluation.

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.