5 Ways to Increase Your Brand's Online Visibility

Increasing online marketing efforts is criticalfor businesses trying to reach more customers. Credit: Online Marketing image viaShutterstock View full size image

An easy way to increase your company's visibility is to boost your online marketing efforts.

Online marketing opens up a business's doors to customersthey wouldn't be able to reach otherwise, said Joe Palko, chief marketing officer for eCommerce platform provider3dcart.

"Implementing a strong, multifaceted online marketing plan can help your business stand out," Palko told Business News Daily.

Businesses that aren't promoting themselves online are missing out on a simple way to gain new customers,  Palko said.

"You want to build a strong customer base, who ultimately become ambassadors for your brand," he said. "Having an online marketing plan and publishing compelling online content allows customers and fans of your product to find your business as well as spread the word through their social networks."

To help small businesses increase their online visibility, Palko offers these five tips.

• Get busy blogging. Setting up a blog on your website can be a great way to drive more traffic to your site from potential and current customers. For blogs to be a successful tool, though, you need post frequently and use custom-written content that shows you're an expert in your field.
• Make it hot. Do your research, and find out which keywords for your market are "hot" and frequently used on search engines. Websites like Wordtracker.com allow you to see the amount of times a keyword has been searched in the last 24 hours. Once you've figured out what those "hot" keywords are, incorporate them into your posts.
• Go off-topic. Your articles and contributions to social medianeed to be interesting, and not sales- oriented.  You want the posts to be something that people share with their friends, such as tips or photos. For example, the 3dcart blog features everything from Valentine's Day ideas to tips on how to improve your online store.

[For a side-by-side comparison of the best online marketing services visit our sister site Top Ten Reviews.]

• Get authorized. Google Authorship is a free and easy way to claim all the content you've written and cultivate an online presence. To set it up, you'll need to go to your Google+ profile and fill out details about your background, experiences, and the websites where you are a contributor. Once you become a verified author, people will believe that your website is legit and in turn, view you as more of an authority figure.
• Spread the message. Use social media platforms likeFacebook, Twitter and Pinterest to share the content you've written. All you have to do is write a brief description about the post and then include a link to it. I highly recommend taking advantage of promoted posts on Twitter and Facebook because they can work for anyone no matter your budget. It's also a great tool to really reach out to and hit your target audience since you can be very specific in the reach for who should see the post.

Palko said businesses that aren't using online marketing to grow are losing ground to their competitors, who most likely are, each and every day.

"You want to grow your online following and improve your search engine rankings," Palko said. "The sooner you begin to effectively market your business online, the more dominance you will establish."

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10 Ways to Increase Your Business Blog Traffic by 227 Percent

The goal of any professional blog is to get people to click, read, engage and share -- in that order. Enticing them to do so can vastly increase your business visibility and drive exponential future sales. While there is no substitute for writing quality, human, dynamic content, knowing how to maximize blog traffic can make all the difference between attracting a big crowd online... or just hearing crickets.

I've worked with multiple companies as content marketer, measuring the traffic to their company's blog posts before and after I took over, and here's what I came up with: these 10 tips increased their blog traffic by at least 227 percent. Of course a specific percentage of growth can't be guaranteed, I assure you that instituting these practices into your blogging will help your business, too.

Drop me a line if you need help!

1. It's all in the title. 

The title of your blog is THE most important factor in getting your blog opened. Since it's the first thing a potential reader sees, a good title catches the viewers attention, creates some controversy, plays off a common saying, mentions newsworthy keywords or names, hints at conflict, delineates action, and maybe proposes a question that the reader now wants answered. Oh, and it has to be short! Remember that it should fit well within 140 characters (for Twitter, with room for it to be retweeted and the link.)

Be clear, concise, and direct, but also propose a new angle or creative take on a topic in order for your title to get clicked. Remember that people are bombarded with choices, so choose a title that jumps out at them!

2013-09-04-7WaveValue.jpg2. Add value. 

A blog should have a purpose, a main directive. It could be just to entertain (I love "fluff" pieces every once and a while), provide education, tell a story, or to solve a problem. But the information should always add some sort of value to the greater Internet conversation, never just recycling exactly what's been covered before. Keep the reader in mind when writing your blog, addressing an issue, challenge, or universal experience they have. Remember to keep it super simple - blogs that try to do too much or are hard to follow don't get read or shared.

3. Shorten your website URL. 

Make sure you have a short URL that's easy to spell and remember! I've made that mistake before with my website URL, NormSchriever.com. The problem was that no one on earth could spell 'Schriever' properly (including me before I've had coffee in the morning.) I suspect I lost a lot of people to Maria Shriver and Justin Beiber's websites when they were really looking for my last name. So I added the domain URL NormWrites.com, which is easy to remembered when I'm reciting it on a radio show, via social media, or yelling it at someone before I've had my coffee.

You can also shorten your long blog link to a shorter URL through TinyUrl.com, Hootsuite, etc. which makes it easier to share and retweet.

4. Photos.

Let's do a little test. Are you more likely to read this version...

2013-09-04-photos.gif4. Photos.

...Or this one? Use photos with every blog you write, without fail. They catch our eye, anchor our attention as we process what's in the photo (see mind mapping below) and blog links are far more likely to be clicked if they have an engaging photo. The same concept applies for sharing your work on Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook to attract an audience. Remember what they say, a picture is worth 1,000 words!

5. Stamp your photos. 

Subtly stamp your name, company name, website, etc. in the bottom corner of your photos. No matter where that photo appears it will serve as a mini billboard for you and your company, and help sites like Instagram and Pinterest market for you. There are plenty of cheap or free photo stamping apps that work from your laptop or phone.

6. Give something away.

Offer the readers something for free in your blog, but don't be afraid to surrender control of your content without asking for an email or any other strings attached. People are savvy. If you give people quality content that provides value, they'll reach out to you, spread the word, or come back to order more in the future. If they don't like what you have to offer, then having their email address doesn't do you any good. Give 'em the good stuff and leave 'em wanting more - the first rule of show biz.

2013-09-04-7waveevergreen.jpg7. Write evergreen information.

Sometimes you want to be on the cutting edge of breaking news but don't neglect writing blogs with "evergreen information" that isn't based on current events so it won't become irrelevant quickly. Blogs with evergreen information never become outdated so they can be read, shared, and grow an audience over time without limitation.

8. Post around notable dates. 

Timing is everything when writing your business blogs, so keep informed of notable dates, events, and holidays. There are also plenty of whacky days (National Peanut Butter Day) and months to raise support for a cause (Breast Cancer Awareness Month.) Planning a blog around an upcoming holiday or season change (like back to school, spring cleaning, etc.) gives you plenty of time to get it posted and gain exposure with readers as the date approaches. The media also starts looking for these stories on short notice and may pick up your blog.

9. Write content rich in links and key words.

Incorporate plenty of key words into your blog, the same ones a reader might type into a search engine like Google. Mix it up with some quotes from notable people, clickable links to other articles (or blogs you've written) and mentions of famous people, organizations, companies, etc. But don't go overboard until your blog is no longer organic and easily readable -- "Do it, but don't over do it," is the general consensus of social media and SEO experts.

10. Utilize mind mapping.

Mind mapping is a concept that tracks how our eyes and then our brain views, perceives, and processes information, and assigns it context. In the field of blogging, mind mapping will help you incorporates physical cues to keep your audience engaged, like photos, headers, sub headers, bullet points, indents, and even changes in color or font. Remember that a blog of just text is less likely to be read and shared than a blog anchored by a photo and broken into clear, logical sections of information, easy for the brain to follow and process.

***

I hope that helps! For more good business blogging tips, check out 7 Wave Media!

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5 Reasons You Are Not Getting Website Traffic

It has become critical for all businesses to have a thriving online presence, and, for businesses who conduct themselves exclusively online, driving traffic to your website is the lifeblood on which your livelihood depends for survival. Many business owners struggle with figuring out which strategies for marketing and driving traffic to your website are the most dependable and will yield long-term results that will sustain their business for the future. In my many years of experience in building successful online companies and helping other business owners build their own online presence, I have tested and perfected the most dependable and sustainable marketing strategies for creating a successful online presence. Below, I am about to share with you how to implement the strategies that have brought me the greatest success.

1. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Compliance -- Due to the radically changing nature of the search engine algorithms, it is likely that your website has either fallen out of current standards or never was in compliance. Most website designers and programmers "think" they understand search engines, but most of them design websites for display and often miss the vital components to achieve search engine recognition and placement. While it is critical to develop a website for usability and high visitor retention, it's also important to structure and engineer your website with search engines in mind. Elements like the internal navigation, content organization, content quality and image uniqueness and originality are major factors the search engines consider when measuring a website's trust and relevance for a given search query. Furthermore, they are also checking for elements that indicate a website can be trusted. For example, business contact information, privacy policies, terms and conditions and overall visitor safety are factors they consider -- because, after all, they have a challenging task of serving not only the highest quality, but "trusted" resources on the web for a given search.

2. Social Media Optimization -- Social platforms are a widely used and embraced medium for sharing information and resources. While most people don't actively seek business resources and services through social media, many businesses are successfully capitalizing on these mediums for gaining website visitors. Establishing social media presence for a brand is a very important initiative for many businesses largely because their competitors have a presence, but also because most consumers now review a company's social media presence before deciding to contact or do business with them. Because social media platforms contain every type of demographic imaginable, it is critical to determine the exact demographic of your ideal customer, visitor or fan and formulate a social media marketing strategy that specifically targets that user community. There are many resources available for paid social media advertising and promotion, and most social media sites (at least the major ones) support paid placement of ads that can drive a huge amount of qualified visitors to a website or offer.

3. Paid Search Marketing (PPC, Pay-Per-Click, CPM) -- Search engines offer paid placement for businesses who need to capture an audience quickly. Google and the Adwords platform is one of many that allow you to created targeted advertisements to be displayed for specific searches performed on the search engine portal. Bing provides the Bing Ad Center which is basically a clone of the Adwords platform and serves ads to both Bing and Yahoo search engine users. These platforms allow anyone to create advertising campaigns and can be extremely powerful, but they can also be a waste of valuable advertising dollars if the campaigns are not budgeted, optimized and targeted correctly. Most businesses do not correctly choose keywords that will grow their business and craft advertisements ad copy that doesn't convert. Match that with poor targeting, and you have a failing advertising campaign that drains the marketing budget, and it results in zero or very few qualified visitors to a website.

4. Lack of Clarity/Focus/Precision in Digital Marketing Priorities -- Most companies make the incorrect assumption that they should be using all mediums for driving traffic. More often than not, only a couple of mediums for online marketing makes sense for a business. For example, social media might be a great platform for a musician looking to promote new music, but an accountant might not get great results. Establishing very clear goals and doing so with a professional that has a history of running successful digital marketing campaigns for a variety of businesses would be a good place to start. Without precision in your online marketing efforts and isolated, tightly controlled, monitored and measured campaigns, you're likely to waste money on advertising that doesn't work, or you just plain never get any results.

5. Maybe You Have Traffic, But No Sales -- Sometimes a website will have great visitor traffic, but nobody seems to be calling, buying or signing up for anything. Savvy internet users (and that's most people nowadays) expect a lot from a website or business. People are conditioned by reflex to avoid giving you their time, attention and, especially, their email address or money. Your website needs a swath of essential ingredients in order to persuade people to do business with you let alone stay on your website. Without knowing what these web design and aesthetic elements are, it's rather difficult to understand what the critical factors are that keep people on a website vs. cause them to leave.

Most websites are plagued with problems (unseen by the average web designer or marketer) that result in people not trusting the site or business behind it. Sometimes, it's a matter of the website "missing" critical elements that increase trust, build rapport and persuade people to take the next step. Working with an experienced professional in website conversion optimization is highly recommended so that they can bring their experience in testing various site conversion elements to the equation while you worry about running your business. After all, your website should be powering your success, increasing sales and customers, not limiting or holding you back from your goals.

By keeping these five ideas in mind and implementing one or more of them, you are significantly putting yourself ahead of much of your online competition and greatly increasing your chances of success.

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