How to sell marketing automation

In this blog post I’m going to outline the exact process you should follow, if you want to sell marketing automation to your customers. I’ve got the pitch, the pricing, who you should target and how to generate your first lead.

Marketing automation sounds expensive, because it is.

Going straight out the block and positioning yourself as a marketing automation expert is a great place to start. But customers are wary because it sounds like a big investment. And it is.

Arguing about ROI is useless when the customer still doesn’t really understand what marketing automation is. It doesn’t matter how smart or clever the system is, if the customer can’t imagine their life getting better with it.

Customers are hesitant to buy marketing automation and that’s because people who try to sell it, try to be too clever.

Facts don’t sell

It’s a categorical fact that the climate is changing faster than we can repair it. It’s literal fact. However, there are still billions of people who don’t believe it.

Remember 2012 when people predicted the world was going to end? The Mayans or whoever said the world would dissolve into fire. Despite being absolute nonsense, it was such a popular idea that there was a MOVIE made about it.

Facts and evidence do not sell. People don’t make choices based on fact. They make them based on story and how strong the story is to them. Imagination is 99% of the sales process and marketing automation is no different.

If you want to sell marketing automation to your customers, stop talking about marketing automation and start asking them about their fears, goals and problems. Chances are there are tons of things you can help with, you’re just trying to approach it from the wrong angle.

Easier automation than ever

There are more funnel builders entering the market than ever before. Marketing automation like all services will become easier and easier to implement. Unless you stop selling “marketing automation” and start selling desirable futures, you’re going to have a harder time competing.

How to sell marketing automation to customers

So with that, let’s talk about how to sell marketing automation to your customers.

List of people who benefit from marketing automation

In order to sell marketing automation, you need to identify people who will benefit the most from using it.

While it might seem that all businesses would benefit from marketing automation (and they would), certain types of businesses would benefit more and therefor be easier to target and sell to.

Below is a list of characteristics that I believe would benefit the most from marketing automation in their business.

• Businesses with an email list of over 5000 people.
  If you have a large list of email subscribers or customers, marketing automation can rapidly scale the outreach to that audience. Implementing segmentation, triggers and follow up could turn a list of people into regular repeat buyers.
• Businesses who get lots of inbound requests.
  Inbound requests can range from ready to buy, hot leads, or down to tyre kickers and time wasters. One business we worked with had at least 20 emails a day come in to their team. 50% would be freelancers asking if they were hiring. 45% would be low value but easy to deliver, 2 day projects and 5% would be high ticket ready to buy customers. It ate up a lot of time for the team to reply and manage them all, marketing automation managed to remove all that from the team so they could focus on the 5% high quality leads.
• Businesses with one product that sells well and lots of other products that don’t sell well.
  Marketing automation can identify customers who have bought products and then continue to sell additional services and products to them, without further sales input. If you have a customer who sells lots and lots of electrical tape, a low cost but high volume product, marketing automation can introduce and sell much higher ticket products over weeks, months or even years. Massively increasing the value per customer on auto-pilot.

The pitch

Rule #1 of selling marketing funnels: Don’t talk about marketing funnels.

Rule #1 of selling marketing funnels. Or anything for that matter.

If you want to sell marketing automation to your customers, you must make it about them and not the automation.

Yes, funnels and pathways and automation is very cool and clever. But I don’t buy a car because someone tells me how it works.

Instead, we need to identify the key benefits that a customer can walk away with, when they implement marketing automation in their business. Try something like the below:

If you’ve ever felt that your business isn’t growing at the rate you want, it’s probably because you’re not selling everything you have to offer. You’re already working every hour you can, the idea of adding another 2 hours to your working day just to sell your current products sounds exhausting.

Instead, what if you were able to work fewer hours and get more of your products in front of your customers? What would you do with that time? You could spend it working on strategic partnerships. Or you could go home and pick the kids up. Maybe finally get to the gym.

Running a business is supposed to be about freedom. But if you feel like you’re just going from day to day, fighting fires and never really growing, you should talk to us about our ARC process.

ARC stands for Audit, Review, Campaign. Audit who your top customers are. Review what you’re offering and what they’ve bought. Then create a campaign to bridge the gap between their first purchase and their next.

Your customers want to hear from you and you’re doing them a disservice by not telling them about your other products that can help them and make their life easier.

Talk to us about ARC for your business and start growing, with less work, today.

With a pitch like that, notice how I helped them with the ARC process. Giving them insight into what’s wrong with their business. I also never mentioned marketing automation. I focused on what they want and made the future sound desirable.

Sell Futures, Not Features

Rule #3 of selling.

Pricing

So what should you charge for marketing automation? Well assuming that you want to deliver actual automation into their business, it needs to be at least 5 figures.

$25,000 is a good starting point to automate sales, marketing, payments, delivery, follow up and reviews with a business. You could include sales pages and a funnel within that, as well as a checkout process.

Don’t worry about traffic and start with businesses that already have a list and traffic (like we identified above). Your marketing automation is designed to look at the customers “stop list” and see where they spend the most time.

You’ll know if you can automate something to fix that, and 99% of the time, you can. Even if you can’t take the entire process over with automation, a big part of it could be done on auto-pilot.

For example, we had a customer who had two sales reps and the first half of their day was finding leads and drawing up a run sheet for their calls. They had a database of around 2000 customers and they would create reports on who to call that day.

There was no rhyme or reason to who they decided to call. Could be frequent buyers. People who have just bought. People who haven’t bought in a while. It was basically up to the sales person, and as a rule, they’d choose the easiest account they could.

My customer and I identified that the top spending customers are where the sales team should be spending their time. If they’d spoken to them within the week (sometimes 2 weeks) they should move on to customers who hadn’t bought anything in 90 days.

We built a marketing automation piece inside ActiveCampaign that would identify those segments and build a report for the sales team which would be ready to go, with contact information, sitting in their inbox.

An automation campaign would also send sales emails to previous customers who hadn’t bought in 90 days and try to sell to them. Either resulting in a call to the sales team or adding them to a list.

Best of all, the director, my customer, had a report every day of what his sales team had been working on as AC tracked it all.

Coming back to pricing, a $2000 a month package could also work, offering maintenance, updates and a new campaign every few months. Remember, it’s not about the price, it’s the future that you’re delivering to the customer and how much they want it.

Outreach

Finally, if you want to start finding these customers, get your pitch REAL tight (like the one above) and start asking your network if they know anyone who sounds like your ideal customer.

“Hey Mark, we’ve been working on a process to help directors spend less time at work and increase the average customer value. Some of our customers have even been leaving 2 hours earlier each day. We’ve found it works best with businesses that have at least 5000 email subscribers. Do you know anyone who fits that profile?”

Notice again we haven’t mentioned marketing automation. I cannot stress this enough. If you want to sell a metric fuck-ton of marketing automation – DO NOT TALK ABOUT MARKETING AUTOMATION.

The outreach email above has 3 key components.

1. It tells them WHO you work with (rule #2) which makes it easier for them to make a connection.
2. It focuses on a benefit and a problem. Showing that businesses owners could spend less time at work and they currently spend too much time at work.
3. It has a little intrigue, meaning we have a new process and we’d love to show you, but doesn’t explain what it is.

Use messages like this to ask for referrals rather than telling people what you do. You’ll get leads easier than ever.

Selling marketing automation

Rule #1 – don’t talk about marketing funnels
Rule #2 – who you work with is more important than what you do
Rule #3 – sell futures not features

Identify who you want to work with and who would benefit the most from your marketing automation. Focus your pitch (and therefor your entire business copy and messaging) on the benefits that the customer will experience.

Set a price that allows you to work one on one with the customer. Set it high enough to allow margin, profit and to turn it into a valuable desirable product.

Reach out to your network, telling them who they work with, not what you do.

Business owners are constantly looking to find ways to market their businesses online amid tough competition from online and offline businesses. With the advent of Social Media this is becoming more and more complicated.

Finding the best alternatives to keep ahead of the competition is an ongoing process. Local search engine promotion has become more and more popular where business owners are looking to make themselves visible online to their local markets.

Local search engine marketing involves processes aimed at improving a website’s visibility in Google, Yahoo and Bing and brings up your business in local neighborhood searches. This focuses on Internet business promotion, campaign management, Google page rank, keyword ranking, and link popularity.

Like any internet marketing strategy, local search engine promotion looks at what the customer is looking for and how and what keywords are used to find the product. This Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tactic targets a local niche audience. It aims at getting a targeted audience. More and more businesses are using this marketing technique to promote and advertise their services and products online.

This form of marketing is also more likely to accumulate quality rankings in the search engines.

The internet has an unlimited source of information. Prospective buyers can search for anything they want on search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing by entering keywords or key phrases to locate an assortment of websites that offer the product or service they are looking for.

There are thousands, sometimes millions of pages that will be generated by a single keyword. It is important that your website is one that comes up in the top few pages. Narrow your niche market, and be very specific with your keywords or key phrases so that your website comes up in the top pages. It is much better to have a narrow niche where you come up in the top few pages every time than it is to have a generic keyword that brings up thousands or millions of pages.

i.e “Golf clubs” versus “Brand name” golf clubs for sale

There are many internet promotion services being offered to help online businesses rank high with the search engines. The service normally begins by providing clients with the most appropriate keywords for your product or service. They will optimize the chosen keywords into HTML codes throughout your website so that your website is picked up by the SEOs.

It is essential that the content of your website matches the keywords and any promotional sentences you use otherwise you could be blacklisted by the SEOs. Don’t use tricks to get people to your website you will lose credibility and search engine rankings.

To produce an effective campaign the Internet Promotion companies will use different formulas, techniques, technical tricks, and shortcuts that they know will bring results on the Search Engines. In addition to optimizing the keywords they will also optimize your articles or text for link building purposes. This optimization will help to rank your business high in the Search Engines.

The entire local search engine promotion process can be time consuming and difficult to understand as the rules change constantly. This is were the SEO specialists can assist with the process and can save the average business owners the worry and headache of advertising their services or products online. The key is to search for quality SEO providers. Don’t be pushed into using a search engine promotion company by overly aggressive techniques of marketing. Check the service out thoroughly before signing up with them. Make sure they don’t use techniques such as spamdexing, keyword stuffing, or other techniques that may get your website blacklisted.

Make sure you see results and monitor it for yourself online. Don’t hand it over and leave it to look after itself. Look at the statistics to see what leads or business the marketing has generated, and go with what works, and change to another company if it isn’t bringing you business.

Today I am going to give you a comparison between billboard outdoor advertising and pay per click search engine marketing (PPC advertising). When we are through you will have a better understanding of both and will be able to make an educated decision about how to best spend your advertising dollars.

Lets Compare the Pros and Cons

• Cost Per Month Comparison

Outdoor Advertising – Average cost is approximately $750 a month. Packages typically range in price from $400- $4000 per month. Average investment for 3 months of billboard advertising is $2250.00 / Yearly Cost – $9000 / Monthly Cost – $750

Pay Per Click Advertising – Average one time set up cost, $975 and includes first month optimization and management. Set up packages range in price from $600-$1400. Estimated monthly management cost is $285 per month there after. Average monthly ad spent to pay for “cost per click” $250. Total investment for 3 months of PPC advertising equals $2295.00 / Yearly Cost – $7110 / Monthly Cost $595

The figures above were pulled from advertiser’s websites. Prices will vary per city and per campaign. Depending on who you know, you may get a discount for each. Bottom line, the cost of advertising with PPC will save you on average almost $2000 a year or $155 a month.

• Effective Reach of Advertising

Outdoor Advertising – Billboards will share your message with literally thousands of people per day. You ad is always showing, it runs 24/7. Billboards do not target specific customers but instead push your message out to the masses. Outdoor Advertising is limited to customers that travel through a certain part of town or pass you on the Interstate.

Pay Per Click Advertising – With PPC you are in control of where and when customers see your ad. Customers viewing your pay per click ad are looking for precisely what you sell and they are “Ready” to buy your goods and services. You only pay for clicks bringing targeted visitors and search engine marketing gets less expensive to operate the longer it runs. With PPC you target customers where they life and on what they use the most for information; their cell phone and computer.

• Pros

Outdoor Advertising – Always on, thousands of impressions everyday and targets specific road or interstate you do business on. With new digital boards you have the capability of changing ads on a daily basis for specific promotions or a wide variety of products or services. Outdoor advertising is also an excellent choice for branding your business name in the community. You can commit your advertising efforts short term or long term.

Pay Per Click Advertising – You control the time, days and locations your Ads appear. Notice I said Ads, plural! Leave it on all the time or run it only on the weekend. Run it only in Nashville or in every household and on every smart phone in Tennessee. Write as many ads as you want to promote any product or service. Advertise to customers at the precise time they are looking to buy what you have to offer. Although you can run PPC for a short time it is best suited for businesses that have long term goals and commitment. Search engine marketing is less expensive and saves you money. Last but certainly not least, you can accurately track conversions and return on investment with PPC Advertising.

• Cons

Outdoor Advertising – Small area of focus and no way to accurately track results or ROI.

Pay Per Click Advertising – Takes proper management for best results and requires an optimized website.

As you can see, both of these advertising methods are effective for promoting your small business. Now that you know how each one works and how much it will cost you, make an informed decision as to which direction is best suited for your business.

Internet marketing is a very competitive business. If you are to succeed is it important to try at all times to stay at the front of the field. We are perpetually striving to get there “firstest-with-the-mostest” as the rather ungrammatical saying goes. Owners of business websites are doing all they can to stay ahead of the crowd. With all marketers applying every technique they can come up with to improve their ranking, how do we ensure that we don’t get lost in the crush.

‘Search engine optimization strategies’ is a phrase which all internet marketers will hear at a very early stage of their business without, perhaps, really understanding just what it is all about. Since my initial incursions into the business about 9 years ago, the way that search engines assess webpages has changed. When I first began it was all about keywords and very little else. Now the search engines look at other issues too such as backlinks, content, and, above all, activity.

The aim of all serious marketers is to get their websites and articles listed on the first page of Google and the other search engines, as many internet users don’t look beyond the first page they are shown in response to their search query. The higher your ranking, the more people will see your listing. The more people who see your listing the more visitors your site will receive. The more visitors who reach your website the more sales you will make. To put it bluntly it is all about the numbers game!

So, what search engine optimization strategies can you use to achieve that high-ranking? First of all, you want to have the very best website you can create. Always be looking to improve its appearance, its loading speed and the quality of the content. Having an opt-in form and other links can also help with your ranking. Search engines are the main source of traffic driven to our websites so we need to use an effective SEO strategy if we are going to get the flow of traffic we need.

Keywords are still an important part of SEO. Every bit of copy you write should be keyword rich. Never overdo this, however, or the search engines are likely to take offence. Primarily we are writing to inform our readers and nothing should ever compromise that, but, at the same time, we must consider the needs of the search engines too. Keyword research is crucial for high-ranking websites. I always try to get a small number of high quality keywords rather than going for quantity. These will score more highly and make writing an article much easier. The ideal, when incorporating keywords into any piece of copywriting, is that the reader should be totally unaware of them. They should just become part of the flow of the words. We have all seen website content and sales letters where keywords have been shoe-horned into sentences spoiling the flow and making them seem ‘clunky’.

The importance of SEO cannot be overstated, especially as it has become much more complex than it used to be and, I suspect, will be become even more so in the future. Keep researching the subject to keep up-to-date with the latest developments. The application of search engine optimization marketing strategy can be outsourced to professionals. The cost is not great so it is something well worth considering in order to get the very best possible search engine ranking for your websites.

Source by Rob J Hinchliffe

Digital marketing or online marketing as it is popularly known is a tool to carry on marketing for our product online.

Direct email marketing, search engine optimization and search engine marketing are few of the tools which come under this category. They are becoming more and more common in the online world. It is a very popular form of advertising,

Media is important now because we have access to a large number of data and more and more people are having access to this large data. They often view and review the data pertaining to customers tastes, ever changing choices, etc.

Other forms of marketing include text messaging, mobile apps, electronic billboards, digital television and radio messages. All are powerful tools to enhance our visibility to the customers.

Digital marketing is an umbrella term for all of your online marketing efforts. Businesses leverage digital channels such as Google search, social media, email, and their websites to connect with their current and prospective customers.

From your website itself to your online branding assets — digital advertising, email marketing, online brochures, and beyond — there’s a huge spectrum of tactics and assets that fall under the umbrella of digital marketing. And the best digital marketers have a clear picture of how each asset or tactic supports their overarching goals.

So What Exactly is Digital Marketing?

It is an umbrella term for all of your online marketing efforts. Businesses leverage digital channels such as Google search, social media, email, and their websites to connect with their current and prospective customers.

From your website itself to your online branding assets — digital advertising, email marketing, online brochures, and beyond — there’s a huge spectrum of tactics and assets that fall under the umbrella of digital marketing. And the best digital marketers have a clear picture of how each asset or tactic supports their overarching goals.

Here’s a quick rundown of some of the most common assets and tactics:

Assets

Your website

Blog posts

eBooks and whitepapers

Infographics

Interactive tools

Social media channels (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, etc.)

Earned online coverage (PR, social media, and reviews)

Online brochures and lookbooks

Branding assets (logos, fonts, etc.)

Tactics

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

The process of optimizing your website to ‘rank’ higher in search engine results pages, therefore increasing the amount of organic (or free) traffic that your website receives. (Read this post to teach yourself SEO in 30 days.)

Content Marketing

The creation and promotion of content assets for the purpose of generating brand awareness, traffic growth, lead generation, or customers. (Learn what goes into a modern content marketing strategy here.)

Inbound Marketing

Inbound marketing refers to the ‘full-funnel’ approach to attracting, converting, closing, and delighting customers using online content.

Social Media Marketing

The practice of promoting your brand and your content on social media channels to increase brand awareness, drive traffic, and generate leads for your business. (Discover 41 resources for learning how to leverage social media marketing here.)

Pay-Per-Click (PPC)

A method of driving traffic to your website by paying a publisher every time your ad is clicked. One of the most common types of PPC is Google AdWords.

Affiliate Marketing

A type of performance-based advertising where you receive commission for promoting someone else’s products or services on your website.

Native Advertising

Native advertising refers to advertisements that are primarily content-led and featured on a platform alongside other, non-paid content. BuzzFeed sponsored posts are a good example, but many people also consider social media advertising to be ‘native’ — for example, Facebook and Instagram advertising.

Marketing Automation

Marketing automation refers to the software that exists with the goal of automating marketing actions. Many marketing departments have to automate repetitive tasks such as emails, social media, and other website actions.

Email Marketing

Companies use email marketing as a way of communicating with their audiences. Email is often used to promote content, discounts and events, as well as to direct people towards the business’ website. (Check out these 15 successful email marketing campaigns for inspiration.)

Online PR

Online PR is the practice of securing earned online coverage with digital publications, blogs, and other content-based websites. It’s much like traditional PR, but in the online space.

What’s the Difference Between Digital Marketing and Inbound Marketing?

On the surface, the two seem similar: Both occur primarily online, and both focus on creating digital content for people to consume. So what’s the difference?

The term ‘digital marketing’ doesn’t differentiate between push and pull marketing tactics (or what we might now refer to as ‘inbound’ and ‘outbound’ methods). Both can still fall under the umbrella of digital marketing.

Digital outbound tactics aim to put a marketing message directly in front of as many people as possible in the online space — regardless of whether it’s relevant or welcomed. For example, the garish banner ads you see at the top of many websites try to push a product or promotion onto people who aren’t necessarily ready to receive it.

On the other hand, marketers who employ digital inbound tactics use online content to attract their target customers onto their websites by providing assets that are helpful to them. One of the simplest yet most powerful inbound digital marketing assets is a blog, which allows your website to capitalize on the terms which your ideal customers are searching for.

Ultimately, inbound marketing is a methodology that uses digital marketing assets to attract, convert, close, and delight customers online. Digital marketing, on the other hand, is simply an umbrella term to describe online marketing tactics of any kind, regardless of whether they’re considered inbound or outbound.

Does Digital Marketing Work for All Businesses? B2B and B2C?

Digital marketing can work for any business in any industry. Regardless of what your company sells, digital marketing still involves building out buyer personas to identify your audience’s needs, and creating valuable online content. However, that’s not to say that all businesses should implement a digital marketing strategy in the same way.

Source by Santhosh Kumar

Why is Search Engine Optimisation Service used?

Search Engine Optimisation services are used to boost the rankings in search engines and to gain better visibility. It’s basically market tools employed to arrange a website in order to enhance the rankings in the page results and directories.

On page optimisation and Off page optimisation:

On page optimisation is a strategy used to get high ranking in search engines such as yahoo, Google, MSN. It concentrates on the web content, its structure, its meta tags, meta description and other things done on the site itself. ON page optimisation service includes keyword analysis, building key word rich content, optimizing website coding – html, title rich in keywords, meta tag and meta description. Each link to your web site from another web site (i.e., backlink) is considered a “vote” to your site’s popularity. These votes can increase the importance of your web site from the search engine’s prospective. These pages are keyword targeted, so that it appears prominently, when a particular keyphrase is typed in Google. Google, overture tools and others are used to track the popular and related keywords.

Anchor text is the text that is hyperlinked to send people to your website. Anchor text should contain a few of your main keywords because Google uses it to determine your websites relevance to a particular topic. If your anchor text has the keyword you want your web page to target, then Google will find some relevancy in that.

The page rank of the site linking to you is influenced by the inbound and outbound links. The linking site will pass you more of its rank as it decreases the number of outbound links. Reciprocal linking offers a two way linking. Helps gain back links from the client’s site, from whom you are requesting to exchange links.

Off page search engine optimisation comprises of link building, article submission, blog submission. Get quality links by requesting for link exchanges with the top search engines, this will improve your site ranking. Back links also work the same way. Apart from this, anchor text, relevancy, directories, social book marking also helps. One way and two way links or reciprocal links are also prevalent. It is imperative to keep the search engine optimization and search engine marketing campaigns aggressive and upgraded to the latest trends.

Consider certain search engine factors like:

o Website optimisation

o SEO rich and unique content

o Website design

o Linking out to high ranking websites

o Maximize your keywords and descriptions

Source by Kirthy Shetty

Most of the people around the world are using the advent technology of internet every day in present life to get some essential services like shopping and interacting with people. And also for every business, the web site is the foremost thing to survive in this competitive online business. To purchase your product or services, most of the visitors are trying to visit your web page. For this instance, most of the people will shop after reaches your web site. This means, if you are not having sufficient web traffic to your web site that will show a negative impact on your business.

So getting essential web traffic to your web site is must for every online business. However, in these internet technology days, most of the people are searching the internet for their requirement rather than taking a trip to the local market. For this, most of them are using search engines to get some essential services from the web site. If your web page is getting good rankings on search engine, then there is a chance of getting of excellent business. The search engine optimization is one of the greatest creations to get popularity in search engines. When it comes to the process of the SEO, it is a long lasting, comprehensive process. Only SEO experts will perform in the best manner possible. The SEO expert must be trained and skillful at the needs and requirements of the client.

When it comes to Search Engine Marketing, it is a type of internet marketing, which will help to web sites by increasing their page rankings in Searching Engine Results Page. The process in this internet marketing is paid placement, contextual advertising, and paid inclusion. However, most of the people are turning to branded search engines like Google and Yahoo and many more. And also some of the experts are using these methods like digital asset optimization and many more methods in this SEM. If anyone is performing this SEM, they are used to describe as individual and stands for Search engine marketer. The SEM is the process of promoting your website on the web. And some of the SEM methods are including SEO and PPC (Pay per Click). And some of the SEM Services are including some other functions to get sufficient traffic to your web page. Most of the people are having some different views on this SEO and SEM.

When it comes to your web site, it must be well equipped and informative and having all the hottest features and display all the information about your product and services. If you are not having sufficient web traffic, then there is a chance to lose your business. For you all business issues, the SEO and Search Engine Marketing will provide essential answers. Finally, there are some well established and experienced organizations are providing some excellent and experienced SEO and SEM services to their loyal customers. For information and details, please visit their valuable web site.

Source by Wrena Michael

In general, Search Engine Optimization or SEO entails various kinds of strategies so that a permanent impression is created in the minds of the probable prospects residing in different parts of the world. However, before reaching the international and national targets, a business needs to reach out to the local prospects. The problem that one encounters in doing so is the sheer size of the World Wide Web, which buries a business site looking for local clients deep in search engine results. This issue is best dealt with local SEO. It is an ideal technique to target clients and customers existing in a particular geographical area. Usually, localized search marketing calls for a different approach that only a professional can plan and employ. Therefore, businesses looking for a local popularity online tend to hire a local SEO company that offers experienced and skilled expertise for employing different techniques to know and improve the business position in the local region instead of in the international market. Here are a few reasons why you will appreciate hiring a local SEO firm in your area.

Helps in Successfully Targeting Local Online Customers

Nowadays, Internet users are more looking for local Web sites. Almost more than 75% users search for local sites for gaining information or buying products or services. Therefore, your business certainly requires a local SEO strategy that can pull these local searchers to your site, who are looking for specific local offers. Probably, this is an ideal market segment that your site should attract. However, targeting them needs thorough comprehension of their online behaviors so that you can structure your online popularity in a way that they can spot easily. It is only a reputable and knowledgeable local SEO company that can offer you this expertise.

Prevents Ordinary Barriers for Local SEO

Have you designed your site on your own or have purchased it from a firm to gain more exposure on the Web? Irrespective of how you have gone ahead to design your site, it has become common to expect the new site to fetch hundreds of visitors and leads automatically. However, it takes no time for this expectation to convert into disappointment. The main reason for this disappointment is that the search engines hardly know about your site and even if they know, they know it very little. This is because such local sites are designed for looking good, not for pleasing the search engines and the visitors. As a fact, a majority of Web design companies totally focus on design and are least bothered to ensure proper search optimization.

Moreover, local business owners with sites tend to focus more on running the daily physical operations instead of running their sites. Further, taking care and promoting a site need different skill set that many do not comprehend or have enough time to explore and learn. That is why the business owners don’t know from where to start for getting visitors to their site. In order to keep these barriers at bay, the help of a local SEO company is inevitable.

Source by Barbara Rollins

Search Engine marketing is really important if you want to increase the popularity of your website and increase its ranking on popular search engines like Google and Yahoo. A person needs to have the necessary SEO and marketing knowledge if he wants to earn sufficient income from his website. SEO is a very important online marketing strategy. It is necessary to use all the strategies in the right way if you want to achieve success. There is a tough competition in the internet industry with millions of websites trying to get to the top position of the search engines. Therefore one needs to have a lot of knowledge if he wants to beat this competition level.

If you feel that you do not have the required knowledge or do not have the time to look after the marketing area of the website then you can always hire professional services. There are many websites that offer SEO and SEM services at reasonable rates. You can conduct a small online research to know more about these services. SEM Austin services are well known for their service quality and efficient SEM strategies. The most important SEO technique is the effective use of keywords in the content. Keywords are basically the demand made by the users. They type these words in the textbox of the search engines. You can easily get these keywords with the help of tools like Google keyword tool or Word Tracker. Here you can get a list of keywords according to their demand or popularity.

The next important step is to publish creative and quality content on your website. You need to publish relevant content with the keywords on your website so that your website gets recognized and ranks well on the search engines. There are many people who have the basic knowledge of SEO techniques but fail due to the implementation process. You definitely have to work hard if you want your website to be accepted by the major search engines. Link building is another important SEO technique. In this strategy you can exchange links with the other webmasters. You can also create a hypertext for your keywords and direct it to a particular website. Avoid some mistakes like Black Hat SEO and link spamming because your website can get rejected due to these reasons. Thus, this was some essential information about search engine marketing techniques.

Source by Linda M. Villanueva

Search engine marketing (SEM) has evolved to become the most reliable strategy for reaching your target audience and driving conversions. It boosts your company exposure within your space; it compels your market to visit your website; It positions your product as the solution to their problems. As a result, your sales increase. Your revenue and profit swell. Your ROI rises. And your business enjoys stronger branding and customer loyalty in the process.

Many of your competitors are already using SEM in an attempt to capture a larger portion of your market. There has never been a better time to protect and expand your territory. This article will explain why search engine marketing should be a critical piece of your online marketing strategy. You'll discover the value of hiring an SEM expert versus forging a path on your own. We'll also describe how SEM PR and SEM social media tactics converge with SEO and PPC to produce a groundswell of momentum.

Why Search Engine Marketing Is Critical

SEM blends SEO, pay-per-click advertising, and social media strategies to give your company a higher level of visibility within the search engines' listings. But, visibility without sales is useless. And therein lies the true value of SEM.

Your online marketing efforts must generate conversions in order to justify the investment. Conversions might include a prospect buying your product, signing up for your newsletter, or becoming your affiliate. It might include subscribing to a continuity program that generates monthly revenue. Search engine marketing not only allows your company to approach your audience, but it engages the conversation that is already occurring in their mind. It compels action, which lifts your conversion rate.

Is Hiring A Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Expert Necessary?

Every tactic that is leveraged within a comprehensive search engine marketing deployment can be learned. The problem is, doing so is incredibly time-consuming. The algorithms that govern the search engine's organic rankings change constantly. The major PPC platforms endure a seemingly endless string of upheavals. Social media sites are still in their infancy; as they mature, so too, will the tactics required to leverage them. Developing proficiency in each area of ??search engine marketing takes an enormous amount of time.

An SEM expert will design a search engine optimization campaign that pushes your website to the top rankings for your chosen keywords. They can also launch a pay-per-click advertising campaign that further improves your exposure. Social media marketing tactics can be integrated to dovetail with the rest of your search engine marketing deployment. Even though you could launch these strategies on your own, do you have the time to learn and apply them?

SEM PR: Melding Search Engine Marketing With Public Relations

SEM PR has its roots in search engine optimization. Years ago, online public relations was managed largely through the creation and distribution of online press releases. This is still effective today. These press releases gain traction in the search engines' organic listings. That builds your company brand while helping to push negative publicity off the first page of results.

Today, online PR has been incorporated within a broader SEM context that includes SEO, PPC, and online reputation management (ORM). For example, a press release can be distributed online in order to gain traction within the natural listings. Then, a PPC campaign can be launched to direct your audience to the press release on your website. Links can be placed throughout the page to other positive coverage. The more points of exposure, the less likely negative press will penetrate the top rankings in the search engines. This is a core element of ORM and by extension, search engine marketing.

Leveraging SEM Social Media Optimization For A Competitive Edge

Social media sites began to enjoy ranking authority in the major search engines a few years ago. That authority has only increased over time, making social media an important cog in search engine marketing. This is the reason SEM social media optimization has become critical for companies that need to reach niche markets.

By establishing a presence on the top social media sites, an SEM SEO agency can develop multiple entry points in the organic listings. That increases your exposure to your audience. It also prevents bad press from infiltrating the top listings for your keywords. These advantages converge to deliver a competitive edge for your company.

The Value Of Hiring A Professional SEO Marketing Consultant

Time is the most valuable commodity of all. Once it expires, it cannot be retrieved. This is why a growing number of companies – including your competitors – are opting to hire a professional SEO marketing consultant. They realize that search engine marketing strategies are complex. The learning curve is steep. What's more, deploying SEO, PPC, and SMO tactics poorly can do far more harm than good. Precision in execution is critical.

If you have already mastered each of the strategies that make up SEM and have a refined system through which to deploy them, you may not need an SEM expert. Otherwise, you might be fighting an uphill struggle. Consider contacting a search engine marketing specialist today.

Source by Julie Ross