While the country is currently faced with heat waves from coast to coast, in a few short weeks leaves will be changing colors, evenings will bring a pleasant cool, crisp breeze, and fall will be in full effect. In some parts of the country, people will be raking leaves into piles that they burn. Those leaves are a lot like the dollars business owners have spent on their websites- in a seemingly endless cycle, small businesses spend money on web design, copy, hosting, and with no return, they are burning their money just like those leaves.
Some persons, however, will take those falling leaves and turn them into mulch. They can use them to provide nutrients to the soil, and be able to have a great garden come spring. That’s exactly what a small business can do with the dollars they spend on the Internet- rather than just throw away their money on costs that bring no return, they can use that Internet budget to actually bring in new business in the future.
How do you go from burning your dollars to investing them in future sales? An effective Internet Marketing Plan is essential to getting the most from your efforts online.
To set up an effective Internet marketing plan, you need to take into account the following major areas:
- Keyword Selection/website copy
- Inbound links
- Landing Pages
- Blogging
- E-mail marketing
Keyword selection/website copy
It is critical that you understand the terms used by persons searching for your solution to their problem. To do this, you need to do some research through tools made available by search engines such as Google. This will help you identify the best keywords to target with your online efforts. What makes a good keyword? A large number of searches with low competition is ideal. A search professional can help you with this process, and should be able to identify the best chances you have at achieving success online.
Once you have identified these keywords, you need to use them on your website. Rewrite the copy on your pages to include your targeted keywords. This will make it so that your website is more relevant for those terms.
Inbound Links
One of the major factors Google and other search engines use to determine the importance of a website is the number of other websites that have links pointing to it. A search professional can help you find other sites that will link to your website. This may involve linking back to those websites, as well as finding directories for companies in your industry that will link to you.
Next week we’ll send information on landing pages and blogging, and the following week will be a message on effective e-mail marketing. For more details on any of these topics, reply to this message to say that you want to stop burning your money like dead leaves and we’ll send you our whitepapers on Internet Marketing Plans and E-mail Marketing. Have a great weekend!
Mark Deo
mark@markdeo.com
Hi Mark, Great Article! It's fantastic to see that Marketers around the world are starting to really help their clients attract customers, rather than just sell an expensive website. It's what happens after the website is built that counts, was it built to attract traffic? And what activities are in place to continue to generate traffic? With the rapid changes in technology it's also important to gives sites a frequent facelift and look at rebuilding every 3 years or so. keywords change as the way we use the internet changes. Many Thanks for helping to get this message out!!! Debra 🙂