Consumers have learned to easily filter through unwanted marketing messages even from a business or service that they have requested information from. With savvy consumers content marketing has become a new successful way to get your message out to your target audience and thus increase sales and profitability. Here are a few of the key benefits and strategies of content marketing:

    •   Promote your content through several social media outlets. This will encourage conversation about your content and increase "word of mouth" marketing efforts.

    •   Sharing quality information encourages people to link their site to yours. This will increase your reputation as a valuable resource.

    •   Referral links from someone's site to yours will improve your Google rankings as well as increasing website visitation and brand recognition.

    •   Solid and informative content will replace some of the need for paid advertising. You won't have to pay to continue to increase website traffic.

    •   Using social media marketing to promote your content will include your business with a younger generation which is becoming very important in the business world.

Any business owner could easily feel a little overwhelmed at the idea of taking on a social media marketing initiative. Who has the time? Surprisingly if you lay out your plan a social media marketing strategy can be implemented in as little as 1-2 hours each week.

1. Do Your Homework
How are your customers and competitors using social media? What are the common trends within your industry? The more you know about what's going on around you the stronger your campaign will be.

2. Create a Business Plan
Use online market research to create a detailed social media strategy. Then align your strategy to make sure it lines up with your specific business goals and objectives while keeping your target demographics in mind.

3. Blog, Blog, Blog
This strategy is a must! Blogging will benefit you by increasing your SEO results and put valuable content and information on your website. It will position you as an industry expert and according to a HubSpot study released in January 2009, blogging is considered the most effective method of lead generation by companies who have tried it.

4. Educate Yourself
Commit the time to receive training/demonstrations on how to use various social media sites. The better you understand social media outlets the more they will work for you.

5. Let Social Media Act as a Search Engine
Content found within social media sites will show up in search engine results all the time. Fill your profile with your business information and it could help customers find you. If someone is thinking of finding legal services your video on YouTube may pop up on their search results page and then drive them to your website which may result in a new client.

6. Go Viral
A creative and unique contest idea or gorilla marketing strategy can really flourish in the social media world. Get people talking and interacting with you and your brand.

7. Maintain Good PR
Online PR is all about managing your relationships. What do 'web influencers' in your market want and need and what is the best way to approach these targets?

8. Measure Your Results
Once you launch your social media marketing strategy it is important to measure your success. Watch your website traffic, search engine rankings and social media engagement levels.

Implementing all of these practices is known as Social Media Optimization (SMO) and similar to SEO the end result is being found easily by people who are searching for information, products, photos etc. online.

In the United States a small business is defined by the SBA (US Small Business Association) as a business that has 500 or less employees and $7 million or less in annual receipts. There are 29.6 million small businesses in the United States.

This is great news if you're one of them because over 60% of us prefer to do business with a local business in our own neighborhood. This includes all kinds of businesses from auto repair shops, hair salons, restaurants, electricians, attorneys etc.

The bad news is that there is competition out there even on the local level and when doing an internet search there is a chance that your business is not standing out as you would like it to.

Every major search engine has a business mapping application that allows you to claim and set up your own business listing. It will show up with your physical address as well as any other information that may be valuable to the consumer. When a local customer searches for "attorney" in Google there would be millions of listings however Google makes the assumption that you are looking for a local attorney. They can tell this from the IP address from which your search comes. They will then return a maximum of 7 local matches to your search.

It is possible that your business has been automatically listed within this map application however there is a very good chance that the listings may not be current and probably have very limited information.

Search for your own business and see how it shows up. When you see your listing click "Place Page" to go to your listing.

If you see the listing hasn't been validated, because it has a link to "Business Owner?" above your name then you need to claim your listing.

You will need to create a free account for yourself  and fill out the listing with as much information as possible. Upload your logo, video, photos etc. The more complete this listing is the more likely you are to rank at the top of the search engine results. Once you've filled everything out there will be a short process to become verified and then you're done!

Look into all of the top search engine sites for your listing:

Google Places (Maps): http://www.google.com/local/add/businessCenter

Yahoo! Business Listing: http://listings.local.yahoo.com/

Bing Maps: http://www.bing.com/maps

Yelp: http://www.yelp.com

During a recession all business owners need to be more careful about where they are spending their money. Marketing campaigns should be measured to ensure that they are performing but also that they are generating quality leads. Keep in mind that your more traditional TV, radio and print campaigns are harder to measure than your internet marketing campaign.

If one component of your marketing campaign is bringing in a decent number of leads but if all of the leads are 'junk' leads then that portion of the campaign is not working. By analyzing your campaign you can stop this 'junk' lead producing initiative and redirect those funds into something more effective thus increasing ROI.

Online marketing is the most measurable tactic available today however you still need to choose quality keywords and properly identify your target audience to have a successful search engine optimization or pay-per-click campaign.

This sounds simple enough but measuring campaign success can be challenging if you do not have the proper tools. Here are a few steps you can take to get started:

    •   Enlist the help of your staff. Educate them on why it's so important to track and measure marketing campaign success (i.e. cost savings & increased revenue, etc.)
    •   Request data, reports and numbers on all marketing initiatives in your budget.
    •   Keep current on new trends in your industry. What is your competition doing?
    •   Familiarize yourself with online marketing areas such as SEO, PPC, keywords and conversion rates. Online marketing is much more measurable than traditional marketing efforts.
    •   Ask for help. Enlisting a qualified internet marketing consultant is well worth the investment and will increase your ROI.

A branded social media presence is inexpensive and very valuable to any company. Marketing and new business may be the first things to come to mind when you think of social media marketing however you can make a social media page like Facebook do a lot more for your company:

1. Find Quality Employees and Keep them Longer:

Actively using social media will ultimately build your brand online. Which will aide human resources by attracting more job candidates. Encouraging current employees to use social media by corporate blogging or running a company Facebook page will make staff happy and encourage them to stay longer.

Ultimately this will decrease employee turnover thus lowering hiring and training costs and lower costs for job advertising.

2. Communicate with Customers:

A social media presence makes you more available to your customer. Allow your social media sites to become a line of communication between you and current or potential customers. Use social media to address timely customer problems and needs in an open and public setting. This type of accountability will go a long way with customers and build their trust.

This method of customer service will cause less customer churn and lower customer acquisition costs and increase customer conversion rates.

3. Share News and Build Media Relations:

Social media is being used more and more by traditional journalists as well as bloggers etc. It is a great way to spread news and information as well as sharing photos, links and videos. Get the word out and educate consumers and journalists alike.

When press about your company is reposted to another site it increases attention to your brand and business and can increase traffic to your website and ultimately grow your customer base.

It is no big secret that content is a huge contributor to your search engine ranking. Unfortunately it is possible to have terrific content within your site but still not rank on Google's first page. 

Having quality content is a great first step but it needs to be done with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in mind from the start.

Google uses two things to prioritize its search rankings.

1. Inside Content - The most obvious determination of rank is within your content. Google will search your content for related keywords. Keywords should be used in headings, sub headings, bullets and internal link text. 

2. Outside Content - The second factor in determining your rank is slightly more complicated to master. Google looks at your website and then looks at all the external links that point to your website. Google sees these links as recommendations for your site and the content that you have within your site. Basically it builds your credibility and Google ranks your website based on the number of related links. 

Adjusting the keywords you use and the frequency with which you use them is a fairly simple task. Getting these external links to your site is not as simple. Blogging and writing articles to appear on content marketing websites, such as HubPages and Squidoo, can increase links back to your site and hopefully ignite conversation about your topics and point to your site within the conversation. 

In addition to these methods you can also ask a related website to trade links with you. Offer to post a link to their site in return for a link from their site to yours. 

Finally use conversation as a tool to accrue links back to your site. Social Media Marketing is a great way to reach a large target audience and get them talking and clicking back to your site. Social media sites vary greatly but whether you're sharing a video, promoting a blog or plugging a webinar these sites spark interest and encourage conversation. Combining content with conversation is key to SEO success.

Your ultimate success in driving new leads online involves so many potential components that it can be overwhelming. You need a product or service to promote, customers to want what you have, and consistent/targeted web traffic to generate new leads and sales. Losing control of one of these elements will greatly affect them all. The best way to tackle your online marketing is to focus on each area independently and equally.

Web traffic is something you want to increase, but you want the people who visit your site to be extremely targeted. A plumber obviously does not need a general remodeling lead, and either does an Orthodontist need a general dental lead. Both businesses need a very specific lead to generate a potential sale (the plumber needs someone from a search like “broken water pipe repair, Chicago, IL” – and the Orthodontist needs someone from a search like “invisible braces, Portland, ME.” Not only do they need a very specific lead, but they need the prospect to be local. Both can be accomplished with internet marketing.

There are a number of effective and cost efficient methods for obtaining online marketing leads. A well structured PPC campaign, search engine optimization, social media marketing, and article marketing can bring in consistent traffic if targeted correctly. You can also use email marketing to re-market to prospects who have opted in – create a great offer, something of value you can give away to get the person’s name and email address (your list can become a huge asset for your business). The prospect might not be ready to do something today, but as you cultivate that lead over time via email marketing and building trust, you can greatly increase your prospect/sales ratio.

The key is to keep your focus on the word "targeted". If you sell baby jogging strollers you don't want visitors arriving to your site if they have no children and are looking to purchase a mountain bike. Tailor all of your online ads and emails to speak directly to your audience. Appearing in the search results and grabbing the prospects attention, and getting them to click-through to your site, is only half the battle. Make sure you have planned out exactly how you are going to get them to take action once they are on the site and capture that quality lead or sale.

Any email marketer wants to grow their email opt-in list. It's necessary as 10% - 30% annual churn can be expected for every list. Growth is required to keep reaching your audience effectively.

When economic times challenge marketing budgets many businesses have turned to email marketing because it is inexpensive and easy to measure ROI. This increase in email marketing has led to cluttered in-boxes and makes it harder to obtain quality opt-ins.

There are three groups to target when trying to grow your opt-in list.
    
    1. Current Opt-in List
An important rule to growing your list is to work to keep the names you already have. You can strengthen your list by requesting double opt-in from the beginning. This will ensure that opt-in's are serious about receiving your emails. Then stay consistent with what you've promised your subscriber. If you guaranteed emails containing coupons you need to hold to that promise.  And finally test the messages you send out and experiment with the way you present your content. Does one style garner a higher open rate? How can you get those that haven't opened your emails in several months to begin opening again? Keeping your current list engaged and interested will grow your list by reducing churn.

    2. Easily Added Targets
These potential opt-in's are already familiar with you and your product and they should be given the opportunity to opt-in to your list whenever they cross paths with your brand. On your website your most visited pages should include a link to opt-in to your e newsletter. Make the opt-in prominent on these pages and consistent. To reach this audience offline consider an in-store handout or discount incentive for signing up for the email list. Use materials you are already distributing such as sales receipts and packaging to share your message. Lastly, include opt-in options within your social media pages. These are effective and inexpensive methods to grow your list.

    3. Bought & Bartered
The third and final group that you can target involves an audience that is a good potential fit for the service you offer but they have yet to have any direct contact with your brand. The downside of this method is that it can be costly. You can reach them by renting a list and creating a message that the owner of the list will send on your behalf. Another option would be to use a pay-per-click campaign with the goal to grow your list. Your PPC ad should click through to an opt-in page. If money is an issue consider bartering with a logical partner. If you build houses, partner with a plumber or window manufacturer. Once you've found a partner send out promotional emails on each others behalf.

Initiating these three tools or a combination of them can help ensure that you keep the contacts you have and grow your list over time.

These days website traffic can be increased through numerous methods. Whether you're initiating a PPC campaign, sending targeted emails or adding valuable content to your site you need to keep one constant in place. Your goals!

The ultimate (macro) goal may be to sell a product or gain a customer. Other macro goals may be:
    •    Downloading a whitepaper
    •    Signing up for an e-newsletter
    •    Requesting a quote
    •    Submitting information in return for something of value
    •    Viewing a product, service page or consuming some form of content (article, video, blog, etc.)

These macro goals can take time to achieve. Equally important to success are smaller (micro) goals that help build to your ultimate goals. Micro goals are the steps it takes to complete the macro goal. These may include:
    •    Opening an email
    •    Clicking on a PPC ad
    •    Browsing your website and viewing multiple pages
    •    Putting products into a cart and providing billing information
    
Initiating an analytics package can easily help you track the actions of consumers during a visit to your website. Where did they spend the most time, what actions did they take and what was the bounce rate upon the initial arrival? Understanding the steps taken prior to completing a macro goal can help you better understand your consumer and how to direct them where you want them to end up.

Sending out an email message to your opt-in list? Just because they asked to receive information from your business does not mean they'll automatically open every email you send. Emails are initially judged by the subject line. It's important to make that subject line compelling enough to entice the recipient to open your email.

The first step in creating an email marketing campaign that gets opened is to create a successful headline and keep it to 50 characters or less. And those 50 characters need to catch the readers' attention. Consider highlighting a discount, offer or news item in your subject line. These items can drive open rates. Personalization is another tool that can drive consumers to open your email.

The formula for a subject line should include exactly what your readers can expect, what's in it for them and what exactly do you want them to do. Take it a step further and personalize the subject line with the reader's first name. This will secure their interest and action. Another tip to drive action is to instill a sense of urgency such as: "Sale Ends Today."

Subject lines can also flag spam filters. To help ensure your email stays out of spam folders avoid putting words like 'Free' in full capitalization and avoid using extra punctuation such as FREE!!!! It's perfectly acceptable to use the word 'free' in your subject line but keep it simple and understated.

Make sure you continuously test how these tips work for you and how your audience responds to them. Consider spitting up your email list and try a personalized message on the first group and an email with no personalization on the other group. Try this method with mentioning price savings vs. no mention. Analyze what your audience responds to and alter your subject lines accordingly. Always testing the success of your messages and evolving with your results will keep your subject lines fresh and your open rates high.