[CaRP] XML error: junk after document element at line 1
|
|
State specific strategies for Maryland
|
|
Who's earning cash on the net?
You're doing business in Maryland or perhaps Maryland is the place you live. You're marketing a product or service and you desire to market it to customers who reside in Maryland and various other locations as well. You've read that consumers are spending money head over heels each day shopping online and you're commited to learning how you can tap this online market.
Fact #1
People do make good money on the web, but it's likely not you.
Fact #2
Those that do make the money, are not necessarily brighter than you.
Fact #3
The difference in the 'haves' and 'have-nots' is not measured by any number of college degrees, but rather by the application of a few common sense strategies. The difference in the 'haves' and 'have-nots' is not measured by any number of college degrees, but rather by the application of a few common sense strategies.
Are you a person like any of the following?
-
A person involved with Binney & Smith At Home
-
A distributor, or network marketer representing products or services?
-
An average "joe" with a garage packed with 'junk' you want sell?
-
A small business owner, with your own merchandise?
-
A reseller of products or services provided by another source?
-
Someone pursuing associate or affiliate programs online?
-
A business owner living in Maryland
-
Or a person thinking about doing one of the items listed
|
|
If any of the above activities sound like you, this article is for you. You are about to learn step-by-step what to do this year to help ensure that next year your business, website or blog is more profitable.
Internet marketing tips and methods for Binney & Smith At Home...
If you wanted to clarify 'what' the Internet is, you could make a strong case for the following:
The web is a place to dig up information, products and services
Listen closely to what many people say when they're talking about the web:
-
"Look what I found online yesterday..."
-
"I'll check MapQuest to find directions..."
-
"Do a Google, and get back to me with on what comes up..."
-
"Yes, I compared 4 like items and found the best buy online at..."
Everybody's looking, finding, or searching for something. Everybody. So, it's your task to help customers find you. It's a little tedious, but it's not nearly as hard as you would likely expect. Give yourself about one hour to explore in detail each strategy listed below. After you understand the basics, you might wish to pace your efforts so that every week you tackle one approach until you have each one working.
STRATEGY #1
Everyone is talking about blogging, but do you have a blog yourself? A blog (or weblog) is nothing more than a platform for you to blab about what you're involved in... maybe subjects related to your website and company, your industry, or the benefits and endorsements surrounding your various products.
Market statewide by focusing on how this all relates to Maryland or the benefits people from Maryland might enjoy.
The reason a blog or weblog is a must for your internet campaign strategy is because it gives you an instant presence on the internet to provide news and information about the stuff you are doing. Your blog or weblog should link to your various web pages and sites. Blogs are "search engine" friendly and much more likely to get listed in Google, MSN search, Yahoo etc than your website.
Invest a little quality time setting up a 'profile page' on your blog (or connected to your blog) that tells visitors a little about you. Also consider linking to this profile page from your various other web site pages.
Post short but frequent messages every week (more often if possible). Keep it lively, interesting, and topical but above all don't hype and don't publish sales pitches.
Need advice? Here are links to a few premier blogs that offer quality services. Some are hosted others you can host yourself.
STRATEGY #2
Invest a little time learning about "folksonomy" or "tags" and how they can benefit your online marketing campaign. A good place to start is Technorati http://www.technorati.com/help/tags.html
Once you understand the basics of how tags work, start using them on your blog and in comments you post to other blogs. Open a complimentary photo sharing account at Flickr http://flickr.com/ to upload photos with descriptive titles and stories related to your business, Binney & Smith At Home, or your products and services. Don't forget your tags!
Open a FURL http://furl.net/ account to save and share bookmarks or favorites linked to all your important web pages. Again, add well worded descriptions and associate proper tags to every bookmarked page.
Never stop linking... return to your other site pages, your blog, and your profile page and add links to your Flickr and FURL pages.
STRATEGY #3
Start an opt-in e-mail list and/or give visitors the invitation to subscribe to your RSS or XML feed.
Most online business owners have unfortunately found out few people purchase anything on that first visit. How often has anyone ordered or even contacted you from your site? It takes a bit more "schmoozing" to get past first base, so to speak.
Here's what researchers have learned about who's most likely to buy stuff on the Internet:
-
People don't tend to buy on those first dates when they first visit the site. It's those newsletters that people sign up for - on the sites - that do it.
-
People tend buy from non-brand names AFTER they subscribe to newsletters put out by those same web site owners.
-
91% of opt-in subscribers are more likely to buy... (Source: eMarketer Inc)
-
94% of US adults who have subscribed to a permission based (opt-in) email have made a purchase from the retailer... (Source: eMarketer Inc)
What's the bottom line here? No matter how much traffic you manage to get to your web pages or blog, if you do not provide visitors a compelling reason to sign-up for a newsletter, you will likely diminish your opportunity to make sales by over 90%. Add a subscription box to every page that you plan to direct visitors to. Do not list any web page on a search engine, business card, or other promotion if that page does not have a way for visitors to subscribe to your list.
Internet marketing tips Bonus Idea: Many site owners now offer XML or RSS feeds as an alternative to newsletter subscriptions (not necessarily a replacement). Explore options to offer XML or RSS feeds to your website visitors. Email as a marketing vehicle has lost some of its effectiveness and profitability in recent years. Users are confused about what is quality content in their inbox and what is SPAM and unwanted advertisements. XML or RSS feeds are not nearly as complex as they sound and are worth investigating.
STRATEGY #4
A search engine marketing campaign will generate more website traffic at a lower cost than any other form of website marketing. Period. Yet the biggest majority of website owners ignore this path to a continuous flow of highly targeted visitors.
Consider these statistics.
Research by Jupiter-MetaMetrix shows that search engine usage is expanding at double-digit rates. A Marketing Sherpa report showed that web site owners who used search engine promotional campaigns realize 25% - 490% revenue growth.
eMarketer research showed that over the past year, search engine marketing (SEM) has skyrocketed. Growing nearly 125% in last year -- in the US alone. Paid search advertising accounts for over 35% of total online ad spending.
All these millions are being spent by small businesses, large businesses and people just like you. It's called PAY-PER-CLICK ( PPC or COST-PER-CLICK ) and it allows you maximum control over your search engine listings. No more optimizing, waiting and praying only to end up as listing number 5701 on page 756 under the keyword phrase "find me if you can" because that's where some search engine employee (or worse yet, some robot) thought your site belonged.
Pay Per Click puts you behind the mix-master where you can whip-up perfectly worded ads (referred to as listings) with lively headlines (referred to as titles), compelling descriptions (10 to 20 words or so) and stir up perfect matches between keywords and keyword phrases. YOU control everything and the destination or landing pages you want to link search prospects to.
With pay-per-click, web site owners decide how high in the rankings (or search results page) they want to appear by bidding against your competition for the best spots. Keywords popular among site owners cost more while other more diligent web site owners find less expensive keyword niches that may bring equally good results for much lower per-click bid rates.
The great advantage in PPC marketing is that you can bid on dozens or hundreds of keywords associated to your products, services, business or affiliate offer while never spending a penny until someone CLICKS your listing. Add to this the fact that some keyword listings in some PPCs can start as low as 1 penny or a few pennies a click.
There are many expert websites and eBooks with recommendations about setting up a PPC marketing campaign. Many charge you way more money than it's worth (be careful), but the best we've found is free and is available to you by joining this internet marketing newsletter.
Recommended Newsletter: Musings of an Internet Guru
Follow link below to join (search engine eBook complimentary)
Join: Musings of an Internet Guru
Here are a few very useful search engine techniques and keyword exploratory ideas to get you going:
- If your product or service is something that can be related to a locale, like a city, state or region you may be able to find some ripe tomatoes in phrases like: 'retirement homes in Florida', 'Mississippi flat rate phone service', 'herbal sunscreen for southwestern sun', 'indoor air filters for Los Angeles'.
- Discover more keywords by narrowing down to extreme specifics. People can be VERY specific when they search. Use names of months and years like '2004 tax savings', 'May flowers', 'Christmas of 2005' or 'September back to school supplies'.
Let's say you are marketing a broad line of herbal products... why not get a list of all herbs (there may be thousands) and use that list as a keyword list. Maybe your product doesn't contain every herb on the list, but people searching for any ONE herb specifically may be interested in others. Try specific model numbers, makes and designs if your products are sometimes referred to this way: 'Epson stylus CX6400', 'Apple G5', etc.
- Add adjectives to your keywords like: big, purple, new, cheap, affordable, soft, aromatic, healthy, etc.
|
The Maryland Marketing Secret
Go local. Yes, business owners from Maryland search for products and services using "Maryland" as their keyword. That means you must include search ads targeting Maryland and bid on keyword phrases which have your state: Maryland.
The path to results with any pay-per-click marketing campaign is preparation and consistency. Do your homework in the beginning to find less expensive keywords to bid on, write a quality title and description for your search listing and stick with it for at least 9 months as you learn the methods. Set a reasonable budget that you are comfortable with (perhaps $50 a month) and consider that your investment in the search engine school of hard knocks. After you graduate, you'll begin to see results. It's an education worth the time, money and energy.
STRATEGY #5
Don't start any other techniques until you have the techniques outlined in this article implemented. However, you should invest in yourself by reading articles and eBooks on internet marketing.
|
ArticleArticle911.com source:
Article researched by ArticleArticle911.com staff and contributors.
|
© Copyright 2005 by
ArticleArticle911.com
or article author
Top of Page
|
|
|
|
The initial Forum webcast, co-sponsored by ClearSaleing and Search Marketing Now, began the process of defining attribution management practices and methodologies. (PRWeb Nov 19, 2008)
Read th...
In the next installment of Tim Sales' monthly MLM training calls he will train on how to deliver presentations to one or one hundred with ease and how to keep your prospect's attention focus...
Want increased sales conversion and leads from your company Web site? BKV has the solution: Interactive Marketing Action Plan (iMap), a new tool designed by BKV to do just that by optimizing a Web sit...
New RSS feed generator creates instant theme-based content for your website. Improve your site ranking in all search engines. Built-In keyword tracking tells you exactly how many site visitors each of your pages are generating...
|
|
