Monthly Archives: September 2011
Marketing in Atlanta Tip #1 Market your business online
If you haven’t noticed, the internet is starting to surpass many of the conventional marketing methods used a few years ago. In Atlanta, you have tons of yellow page companies, billboards, TV marketing and newspapers competing for your business. Newspaper companies are hurting the most, with hundreds of layoffs due to low readership and newer technology such as Ipads and Smart Phones that provide news when you want it. With the internet at the tip of your fingers, it’s no wonder that a lot of the print companies are going under. Which leads me to question number one, where are you spending your marketing dollars? If the majority of you marketing dollars are going into print media, then you are severely hurting your business.
Marketing in Atlanta Tip #2 Upgrade that tired old website
In the past having a website was a luxury. Many business owners designed there websites to please themselves but overlooked consumer needs. Great, you have a website but it doesn’t mean that it converts online shoppers. When a shopper comes to your website is it easy to navigate, are there conversion elements such as coupons or discounts and lastly is it easy to find contact info such as your phone number, email address, etc…
Flash websites are also a big no-no when it comes to converting a client quickly. Flash in many cases uploads very slowly or not at all. Search engines don’t like flash websites because they are image based, which means your website will be very hard to optimize or market online. So if you can avoid it, DON’T USE FLASH!
Content management system also known as CMS sites are taking over the internet. CMS makes it easier for the search engines to find your website. If you are looking to upload photos, videos and optimize your website, WordPress, Cake and Joomla are a few great content management systems. You can also tap into Twitter, FaceBook and LinkedIn, giving you the ability to be social. If you are looking to market in Atlanta or any other city, I highly suggest using a CMS.
Marketing in Atlanta Tip #3 Know the strengths and weaknesses of your competitions online program.
When it comes to competing, strategy and planning is one of the reasons many businesses fail with there marketing campaign. You wouldn’t step into the ring with a pro fighter expecting to win the fight with a lucky punch, would you? You need to watch film and take notes to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your opponent. Then train to avoid or counter your opponent’s strengths and completely take advantage of their weaknesses. The same thing applies to marketing your company online. Getting to the top of the search engine is a huge fight and only the ones that plan will make it. Do your research FIRST before spending a dime on marketing!
You may be asking, how in the world do I see what the competition is doing. I know nothing about internet marketing. Henry Ford once said that when you hire people who are smarter than you are, it proves you are smarter than they are. The trick is to find the right person (in your case the right internet marketing company). This is a guy that dropped out of high school to become on of the most successful entrepreneurs in the history of the United States.
Experienced internet marketing companies can do a structured detailed analysis not only on your competition but on your company as well. You need to know things like, how may useful backlinks they have, do they have blog, the keyword density of their website, are they using PPC marketing, etc… Once you identify their strengths and weaknesses the next step is to develop a plan for your business. Your internet marketing company should be able to handle all of this for you.
If you want to be successful with marketing your company in Atlanta or any other city, follow the 3 marketing tips above. If you have more question about this topic or any other form of internet marketing, please give US Image Design a call at 678-481-9416. It cost you nothing to call!
