Internet Marketing Tips, Tools and Strategies

Display advertisements can be found on most web pages, especially free email providers. These ads pull double duty as pay-per-click ads, but they also raise consumer awareness of the brand being advertised. You get the benefit of the consumer seeing your brand message even if they don't click through.

In internet marketing a lot of emphasis is put on pay-per-click campaigns. These campaigns allow you to target keywords relating to your product or service and bid on those keywords and be found on the search results pages. The higher the bid the better your placement will be on the search engine results page and the more likely your ad will be clicked on by a potential consumer.
 
This type of campaign can be a great source of targeted traffic, but it doesn't do a lot for your long term brand recognition, nor does it tend to drive inexpensive traffic. PPC costs are rising each month and a good way to get more traffic is through the Content Networks. All those banner ads and text ads you see on major sites like ESPN, Facebook, HGTV, Blogs, and most of your major sites online now allow display advertising Brand marketing and brand awareness come from repeated exposure to your brand that doesn't necessarily result in a sale. You're continually reminding your audience what you have to offer so that when they are ready to buy they think of you.

The major difference between traditional pay per click advertising and display advertising is how you target your audience. PPC allows you to really narrow down who sees your ad and you can feel fairly confident that a visitor who clicks on your ad is looking to make a purchase. Display advertising is an ad that appears in a paid space on someone else’s site. Impression costs vary depending on the site, size of the ad, quality of the landing page, and a few other factors.

These ads have traditionally been less targeted than search engine ads but that has recently begun to change. Through the use of “cookies” in your browser display ads are now starting to appear with direct correlation to searches you've been conducting. Also, sites are using “Re-Marketing” cookies to display targeted ads to prospects after they have been to a specific site. Re-Marketing allows business to brand their company really effectively and keep in front of the target.

This new technology has totally changed the value of display ads as well as their success. You can now improve brand recognition and improve your reach to targeted leads all with display advertising.

The introduction of social media has changed the way businesses communicate with their consumers. It has also changed they way consumers talk about the businesses they use. In many cases this opens up a great relationship between company and consumer. But with the good comes the bad and there are cases where social media becomes an outlet for consumers to voice their frustrations and share negative experiences.

Online brand management is key for all businesses. Just because your business doesn't have any social media profiles and isn't implementing a social media marketing plan does not mean your consumers are talking about you in those outlets.

1. The first step to managing your online reputation is to incorporate a monitoring system. The internet is larger and more complex than is even imaginable. This makes the idea of monitoring your online brand manually nearly impossible. Thankfully there have been several products introduced that will monitor your brand for you.

There are a lot of monitoring systems to choose from. Some such as Google and Yahoo Alerts! will email you when someone mentions your brand online. They also allow you to set up searches for keywords surrounding your brand. Another option such as Hootsuite lets you manage your own social media profiles by pushing out messages on multiple profiles at once and scheduling messages in advance. Hootsuite also shows you the mentions being made about your brand online. WSI offers a program called ReachCast that manages your social media, blog posts and content copy as well as monitoring all mentions of your brand.

These platforms offer different benefits so do your research and find the one that best meets your needs. Once you choose a monitoring system it's important to allot ample time to monitoring what the platform finds for you.

2. The second step is to analyze what the monitoring system prepares for you.

How do you anticipate the feedback (negative or positive) will be received by your audience? Does it necessitate a response?

If you use your monitoring system to seek out negative feedback and then simply delete the negative comments you aren't actually using the information to benefit your brand or your business. Someone who has posted their negative comments is giving you the opportunity to make things right. Responding to the comment and letting the person know that you heard what they had to say and are working to fix the issue will go a long way. Even if you can retain the business of the person who commented you may satisfy the concerns of others who read the comment.

3. The last step in this process is to influence your audience.

Choose the right social media outlets for your business. Facebook and Twitter are the most popular but that does not guarantee they will be the right fit for your business.

When you receive a negative comment in your social media page, spin it into a positive one by responding with a solution. Even if you can't fix it right away let them know you're working on it. This will go a long way with your followers.

Keeping current on industry trends and participating in online discussions surrounding your service or product will help to influence your social community. Start an industry blog to share your knowledge and opinions. This will also reinforce your credibility as an industry expert.

Use your monitoring system to do good things and improve your position with your clients and your industry peers. If you are ready to implement a monitoring system consider learning more about WSI's ReachCast and contact a WSI consultant today.

Facebook boasts over 400 million users and 50% of those active users will log into Facebook on any day. While logged in they are updating their status daily and uploading over 3 billion photos every month. Users are sharing links, blog posts, articles and more, over 5 billion weekly. Each month 3.5 million events are created and 1.5 million local businesses have active Facebook pages.

Despite statistics like these many business owners are nervous about what an active Facebook page will do for the brand reputation of their company. People will be able to come to their Facebook page and share an experience of terrible service or a negative review. This negative feedback can be very unnerving for a business owner.

It's true that not all businesses are a good fit for Facebook. You will want to determine that it's an effective way of reaching your target audience. If you do decide Facebook is a good fit for you then potential negativity is no reason to stay away. As a matter of fact there is nothing stopping a disgruntled consumer to start a page on Facebook simply to talk about how lousy your customer service is. Or to post negative comments on their own page. There really is no stopping a disgruntled customer from sharing their opinion. What Facebook will give you is a clear line of communication between yourself and your audience as well as a platform to defend yourself where appropriate. You can upload customer photos, share customer feedback and use your page to improve your customer service.

Don't think of how Facebook can hurt your company, think of how it can help your business grow. You'll soon see that the benefits far out weigh the negatives.

Before you can market your website with tools such as social media marketing and PPC ads you need to make sure your site is doing the best job it can do. Here are 6 tips to ensure that your website is ready to be promoted.

1. Research Keywords
People are searching for your services and you need to find out what words they use. They may not use the proper words to describe your product but their words are the words you need. Put these keywords on your site thus making it easier for the consumer to find you because you'll show up on the search engine results page (SERP).

2. Be an Expert in Your Field
In order to trust you and your services a customer needs to view you as a resource in your field. Include content on your website that can help educate your consumer thus building their trust in a partnership with you.

3. Communicate With Your Target Audience
If you have a blog on your website open it up for public comments. Let your community converse with you and each other about products, services, trends and more. Communication builds a relationship on a more personal level.

4. Make Your Website Available
A website does not keep office hours. It needs to be open 24 hours a day. If you are an online retailer you need to be able to process orders at any hour, any day of the week.

5. Network
If you are an expert in your industry your consumer should see you around. Join professional organizations and participate in your professional community. Get your name and brand on other sites and social media networks.

6. Update, Update, Update
Keep your website new and fresh. Add new content frequently and keep up with current market trends.

Social media sites have changed the way consumers interact with businesses. In the past, marketers could maintain a positive spin on issues that would arise with their products or services, by using a combination of media advertising and news coverage. Only extreme, newsworthy stories got any visibility beyond a small number of people, and big companies had entire departments devoted to dealing with issues that would arise that could affect their brand. With the growth of social media sites, so has the opportunity for consumers to easily comment (positively & negatively) about a companies products and service. These comments and posts are available to view by millions online in seconds.

Are you monitoring the chatter about your company? How are you dealing with negative reviews?

FREE Social Media Apps
Try Google Alerts or Yahoo Alerts. Two free tools that will allow you to monitor keywords relating to your business, brand, products, and people. 
Technorati - the leading blog search engine, will help you keep your finger on the pule of what's being talked about online. Lexicon
Monitter - find out what people are talking about on Twitter. Monitter provides real time monitoring of the Twittersphere.
Tweetburner or Budurl - lets you shorten and track your URL posts so you can determine where your social capital is getting the best results.

The introduction of social networking and social media has leveled the playing field (to some extent) for all businesses. I mention "to some extent" because implementing a solid social media strategy takes a lot of time and skill, those who invest the most social capital tend to get the best results. Most small business owners simply don't have the time or resources to create enough social capital to make an impact vs. the mid sized to large companies who hire full time marketers or outsource to agencies to manage their social media campaigns.

Savy companies, who are open to communicate directly with consumers, can leverage social media in their favor. Responding quickly to negative posts or complaints, in a positive way, can strengthen your relationship with your existing clients and generate new business. Consumers who post negative comments should be met with offers to resolve their issues in a polite soft tone. Avoid re-acting negatively or giving away the farm each time someone files a complaint. Need to strike a balance that works for your company that will help you resolve issues without costing you a fortune in both the bank account and brand degradation.