Internet Marketing
When developing your online marketing plan, you have to take into account all your goals for it. You need to understand who your audience is, how to make them aware of you, and what their buying process is, so that you can create the best online marketing plan for them.
Here’s what an online marketing plan will consist of:
Website Management and Updates
From the start, create a website that takes into consideration all the rules of SEO. Do this from the first page created, to every page that links in, and every article, blog post or image that you include. Everything should be something that you know will advance your marketing goals.
SEO: On- and Off-Page
Learn everything you can about SEO, because getting organic traffic that you don’t directly pay for via pay per click or other types of advertisements is worth even more than paid traffic. Why? Audience members who seek you out, rather than the other way around, will be more likely to convert to paying customers. They’re going to be much more likely to buy than someone who reads and responds to an advertisement.
Link Building On and Off Your Website
Link building helps search engines, but it also helps your audience find your information in a more organized fashion. Consider your link-building strategy and create a plan of action going forward that will provide links from outside your website to your content, plus links within your website to more of your content.
Locally Optimize
One way to ensure that people find you, especially if you have a locally focused business, is to ensure that you use keywords that help local people find and discover you. For example, if you’re a local dentist you want to use the name of your location as well as the name of your business within meta descriptions, headers, titles and tags.
Press Releases
Many people dismiss press releases as offline marketing, but today with PRWeb.com you can send out press releases online, too. This will provide information for your audience in numerous ways. You can put the press release on your website, as well as send it out to those who might want to pick up the story.
Email Marketing
No online marketing plan is complete without email marketing. Email marketing is the lifeblood of your online marketing plan, and will infuse your online marketing program. With email marketing you have a way to capture leads, turn them into customers, and more.
Blogging
Everything starts with your website or blog. All the content you create, all the products you promote, and all the services you provide, live on your blog or website. Even if you have a store front, the website or blog is the central hub of your online existence.
Social Media
Using social media to promote your content and information to your audience is a fabulous way to get the word out. Plus, it’s a great way to engage and build trust with your targeted audience. You can have conversations, share interesting things you read, share the information that others share with you, and more.
Pay Per Click
Using Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Twitter Ads and more, you can conduct pay-per-click campaigns that get great results and are a good addition to the other types of market that you do online.
Reputation Management
Use articles, eReports, white papers, posts, messages and more to boost and manage your online reputation. This is a useful aspect of online marketing that should not be ignored.
You can make an online marketing plan in a page or two, or you can create a page for each aspect with a step-by-step to-do list of what you will do to ensure that each part of your plan is realized. The worst thing you can do is proceed without a plan.
Internet Marketing
A career in online marketing is perfect for seniors who may have developed disabilities along the way such as vision and hearing loss or limited mobility. Working from your computer at home lets you move and progress without hindrance from outside forces.
You can virtually set up an office space at home with a computer and Internet connection and be up and running in minutes. Internet marketing businesses grow with experience, so it may take awhile to grow your business to the level you desire, but it can be done.
Learn about social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook to get communications experience. You might even try your own blog and experiment with ways to drive traffic to your site.
Years of experience in a job may have given you unique skills that will be valuable knowledge for others. All you have to do is build a list of interested people and you’ll be on your way to developing an online business plan you can be proud of.
If you don’t understand computers or know the intricacies of the ‘net, there are plenty of online eBooks and courses you can draw from. There are also classes at local colleges that target teaching seniors what they need to know to begin business on the Internet.
Gain insight before you start your new online business by noting how websites are laid out and how sites such as Amazon attract and promote their merchandise. Email and social media strategies will be the backbone of your Internet business, so make sure you research and form opinions about what you like or don’t like.
Earning extra income or much needed income to supplement your retirement dollars is a necessity rather than a luxury for most senior citizens. They want to enjoy their retirement years without the need for pinching pennies or even going without food or medications every month.
Until the advent of the Internet, seniors (especially disabled ones) had a difficult time finding part time jobs that weren’t taxing and almost impossible to perform. Internet marketing can be done in the privacy of your own home or office and with a little effort, can make a huge difference in the retirement years.
One of the best things about starting a business online is the low startup costs. An Internet connection can usually be added for a small charge from your existing television provider.
The other costs are nominal for domain names and hosting – or courses to teach you the ins and outs of Internet marketing. There are no hidden costs or contracts to worry about and you’re free to make your business as successful as you can.
Internet Marketing
Seniors who are bored and tired of retirement often turn to starting a new business as a way to keep happy and busy. Unfortunately, startup costs of offline businesses can be astronomical and most seniors are afraid to sink their retirement income into a business that might fail.
That’s why more seniors are turning to online businesses to fill their time, make extra income, learn new things and make friends. Seniors have years of experience they can put into use in online marketing for very little startup costs.
The only thing you need to begin an online business is a computer and Internet connection. There may also be some added costs for a domain and hosting, but they’re nominal and easily affordable.
It also helps to have a basic knowledge of computers and the ‘net, but if you have the determination to learn, it won’t take long to maneuver your way along the web. Starting an online business can be stimulating and enjoyable, keeping your brain active and sharp.
Studies show that those seniors who engage in activities on the Internet are more likely to experience improved mental health, better nutritional and exercise habits and feelings of well-being.
Many seniors feel confined to their surroundings. Perhaps they no longer drive a car or socialize at the same level they once did. And those who have lost a spouse or are alone are much more apt to feel trapped.
The Internet can literally bring the world into your home and even relationships into your life. Seniors may resist changes, such as learning to use the Internet, but when they discover the benefits it can bring into their lives they’re much more open to learn.
Learning Internet marketing may help socially and financially to bring an entirely new lifestyle into their world. Choosing Internet marketing to build a successful business and fill your time means that you’ll learn various social networking methods such as Facebook and how to communicate with emails.
The world of sharing photos and information with others can open widely for seniors willing to commit to learn how to use the Internet and all that it has to offer. Being able to communicate with friends and family members they may no longer see as often can have an enormously positive influence on seniors’ lives and well-being. If you’re a senior and looking for a positive way to fill your time, check out Internet marketing as a second career and way to supplement your income.
Internet Marketing
Search engine optimization is an important component in online marketing. It uses techniques to ensure that your website or blog receives as much traffic as possible from all the search engines. But, you don’t really want all the traffic; you just want the traffic that is right for your website. You want targeted traffic that wants what you have to offer. This is the way you make the most of search engine traffic.
To get started making the most of search engine traffic, do the easiest things first.
Check Your Site for Broken Links
Do you have broken links on your page that you haven’t fixed? This can happen easily for many reasons. However, the reasons don’t matter as much as making sure that you fix the broken links. You can use a broken link checker to check for links regularly on your website. When you find links that don’t work, fix them right away.
Link – http://www.brokenlinkcheck.com/
Optimize Your 404 Error Pages
You can personalize a 404 error page to take advantage of your audience members accidentally going to the wrong page or a link you didn’t catch that’s broken. There are many ways you can personalize and optimize a 404 error page; how you do it will depend on the voice you want to project on your website or blog.
Update Keywords
Over time keywords change due to the audience changing or society changing. Words today may mean something else later. Taking time to study keywords and making a long list of all variations of keywords can also help you think of new content to create for your audience.
Use Keywords in Headlines and Titles
When you have studied the right keywords, you can use them as titles, headlines and sub-headlines on your website and blog posts. Don’t try to be tricky in your titles at all; instead use all words correctly and accurately.
Remember Benefits over Features
Your audience cares more about what’s in it for them than about what’s in it for you if you answer the CTAs. Find ways to get through to your audience about all the benefits of your offerings and what you can do for them.
Get Links from Authority Sites
The days of getting any links into your site are over, but getting links from authority sites is always important and will always be in. If you can get links from .edu sites, that’s even better. A way to accomplish this is to create your own courses that are high value enough that an education site may take notice.
Link to Authority Sites
A great way to get noticed by others, including search engines, is to link out to other sites that have authority. Content curation is a great way to create valid links out from your website to authority websites. Include a blurb of your own for each item you link to so that your opinion and thoughts are added to the information you share.
Keep Content Updated
Content of all forms is important to put on your website and blog. Use text content in the form of blog posts, audio, video, long form, short form, white papers and more on your blog and website to get the most from search engine traffic.
Finally, use the right meta information such as “alt” tags on images, tags on posts, and so forth. Try using a plugin like SEO by Yoast if you use WordPress to build your site, to help you get the most from search engine traffic.
Internet Marketing
Facebook ads are a great way to get the word out about your products and/or services. Facebook offers PPC and CPM ads. A PPC campaign is a pay-per-click campaign that you only pay when people click, while a CPM ad means that you pay a set amount for views. Both are good ways to run ads, but you’ll see that using CPM is a little better and easier.
Set Your Goals
Knowing why you’re running a Facebook advertisement is important. You need to know what you hope the results are. Do you want to build your email list, sell an actual product or service, or something else?
Learn Facebook’s Power Editor
Facebook has a wonderful editor so you don’t need to use any outside sources to create your ads. Use Power Editor. It allows you to manage many different variations of the same advertisement and is very useful. You do need to use Chrome to use the Power Editor, but it’s simple to use.
Link to Power Editor – https://www.facebook.com/help/194355723944655/
Target Your Audience Carefully
When running any type of advertisement, it’s important to understand who your audience is and what they want. On Facebook ads you can target your audience down to the exact person you want to see the advertisement; this is a huge leap forward in marketing for any business. Even though you’re a home business, you can compete with bigger businesses due to these features.
Segment Your Audience for Different Ads
The power editor allows you to duplicate ads, and then edit them to change the demographics. Doing this serves a couple of purposes. It allows you to conduct an A/B test to see who responds better to your ad, but you can also change the images, headlines, etc. to fit each segment of your audience better.
Use Custom Audiences
A custom audience allows you to reach people who have already been to your website but are now surfing on Facebook. This is called remarketing or retargeting, and it is a very powerful way to market to targeted people and get a high rate of return.
Use Facebook’s Optimized CPM
This is an amazing thing because it makes it easy for you to get views for your advertisement. CPM stands for cost per thousand impressions. Facebook’s algorithm knows what’s best in terms of this set-up, so let Facebook choose for you. It will really work better and save you money too.
Build a Responsive Website
As of April 21, 2015 Google is ranking responsive websites higher than those that are not responsive. A responsive website is one that works on all mobile devices as well as PCs. It’s best that your websites are responsive. You don’t need one for mobile and one for PCs – you need one site that works regardless of the platform your audience uses.
Get Professionally Made Graphics
Don’t skimp on graphics, but you don’t have to spend that much. You can do it yourself too and have them look professional if you use Canva. Try using Fiverr to save a little money on finding someone to help make your ads. You can get stock photography that is good to use on Stockfresh or iStockphoto.
Links:
Canva – https://www.canva.com/
Fiverr – https://www.fiverr.com/
Stockfresh – http://stockfresh.com/
iStockphoto – http://www.istockphoto.com/
Hire a Copywriter
Writing content is different from writing copy. Copywriting is a specialized skill. Let a copywriter take what you’ve done and improve it. If they start with something you’ve written and then fix it to work better, you’ll save a little money on the copywriter. And overall you’ll save a lot of money on running the advertisement because you’ll get better results from professional copy.
Using Facebook to run ads is a great way to get involved in online advertising. Pay-per-click and CPM campaigns can be overwhelming, but Facebook has it set up so that you can do it without even being a professional. It’s a great way to put your toe into online advertising for your business.
Internet Marketing
Over 90 percent of consumers now search online before buying something. Approximately 40 percent of searches result in offline purchases locally. These are important facts to realize if you’re a business owner. It doesn’t matter what kind of business you have – you can benefit from online marketing.
With online marketing you can:
Control the Buzz
Whether you like it or not, people are talking about you. If you’re not online monitoring the buzz about your business, you won’t be able to know how to control it. You can control the buzz by providing a continuous stream of positive information about your business via your website, blog, social media and other methods.
Expand Your Market
When you engage in online marketing, as long as you can ship it or deliver your product digitally, you can expand your market across the country and even across borders. Your market is now international.
Get the Word Out about Your Business
No one will know about your business if you don’t tell them about it. Since so many people first search online rather than look in the phone book for a business, you can get the word out about your business easier with an online presence.
Market Inexpensively
Once you have a good online infrastructure, you can start marketing your business. All you need to get started is a Facebook page for your business and you can now market at least to people who are on Facebook. If you want to go further, just create an easy Website with a blog and you’ll soon be known near and far.
Do Business 24/7 Online
Unlike a bricks and mortar store, your online location is open 24/7. You can collect orders and make money while you’re sleeping, at your child’s soccer game, or while you’re on vacation. Being online is suddenly like having a 24-hour store open and ready for business.
Get Started Fast
It’s not hard to get started; you simply need to make a presence on social media, create an easy website with a blog, and start promoting your online presence. You may need a shopping cart if you want to make sales while you’re sleeping.
Target Locally
By using the right geographical keywords and tools, you can target your local area. Sign up on local review sites; ensure that your location is mentioned on social media and on websites so that when someone searches for your business on their smartphone they will find it.
Stop Your Competitors from Winning
If you’re not marketing online, you can be sure that your competitors are doing it. If they are and you’re not, it won’t be long before you notice a huge difference in your own traffic and sales. Start marketing online to stop your competitors from beating you with innovative marketing techniques.
You can market online without having a lot of knowledge, but you can also hire a professional to help you. Before hiring any service, ensure that they really do understand the online market before you choose them. Most marketing companies that place their focus on online marketing usually use online exclusively because it works so well.
