Tag Archives: marketing in atlanta
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!
How to get traffic to my web site is a question that most web site owners have been asking since the creation of the internet. Many times people think that there is a magic solution or trick to getting more traffic to their website, but the real answer is hard work and preparation.
First of all you need to find the methods that work for your industry or niche. What works for a plumber might not work for an attorney, and what works for an auto body shop won’t work for an internet marketing company. To succeed with your online campaign, you need to know what products are available and how they work for your industry. Below are some great internet marketing tools that can increase traffic to your website. Your job is to find which one or combination of these products will work for your web site.
Google maps
Google Maps is a great tool to use to increase traffic to your website. If you provide products or services in a 10-20 mile radius of your business location (must have an address to use Google Maps) having a Map listing is a must. This form of marketing is free but you still need to make sure that your map listing is optimized and is completely filled out. If not done correctly your Google Map listing won’t show in the results of a local search.
Social Media
Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin are some really great social media tools that if don’t correctly can really increase the traffic to your website. The problem with social media is, it really takes a tremendous amount of time to get the traffic to flow, but once does start to flow it’s quite rewarding. This is also a free source of advertising and can be used in conjunction with your Google maps. This is not only a great local marketing tool but national and globally as well.
Directory Submission
Depending on your industry, Directory submission is another great tool. All directories aren’t created equal. Some directories can be used for link building and others are used for generating traffic to your website. Directories like Superpages.com, Yellowpages.com and Yellowbook.com are great to generate traffic. If you are a plumber, carpet cleaner, roofer, etc… advertising in these directories will do your business good. These directories aren’t free, but depending on your business location it is well worth the cost to be listed with them. This is a great form of local marketing.
PPC, Pay-Per-Click or SEM
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) or Search engine marketing (SEM) is a paid form of marketing. Many people think that throwing money at a PPC program will make them money. WRONG! Once again you must take time with the tools that Google, Yahoo and Bing provide and read up on PPC marketing before spending a dime. Many companies have gone broke because they didn’t have solid plan of action and ended up spend thousands of dollars on an ineffective PPC campaign. Here is another great tip that will get you qualified traffic with a PPC campaign, Negative Keywords. Just learning about negative keywords will give you a leg up over the competition and will save you a lot of money on useless clicks. PPC is a great method of marketing locally, nationally or globally but it can get expensive very fast.
Search Engine Optimization- SEO
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an awesome form of marketing your website online. SEO is not an instant solution but if done correctly can generate traffic to your website that is out of this world. It takes a little time to develop so don’t expect super fast results. This form of marketing is Free if you do it yourself but is not recommended because it takes so much time to learn. Hire a internet marketing company that has a proven track record with generating leads using SEO. There are many companies that provide tools that can help you in the quest of learning SEO. SEOBook.com, SEOMoz.org and SEO.com are some great resources that have been around for many years. To register for these sites doesn’t cost you a dime and the information is always up to date. This method of marketing can be used locally, nationally or globally and is very rewarding when it comes to generating traffic.
I hope this article is helpful in your quest to finding the best methods to drive traffic to your website. You will find so many more internet advertising solutions on the web, so take your time to find the method that works best for your industry. If you have any questions please fill free to contact:
