Effective business to business online marketing uses the same approaches as business to customer marketing. While the platforms may be the same, the target audience and how they will behave is vastly different. Therefore, in order for a B2B online campaign to be effective, you need to take this into consideration. Understanding the way a business customer purchases goods and services can help you to tailor your marketing and see better results. (Continue reading…)

Direct digital marketing is about getting a desired response from your customers. While traditional direct marketing isn’t really suited to the internet, applying its principles can still be effective online. Here’s an outline of how the principles of direct marketing are being used in the digital space.

Test and learn

Some of the foundations of traditional direct marketing work well online. For instance, the test and learn principle. If you’re not sure what kind of marketing message, price offer or creative route is best for your business, a limited trial of different messages or designs may be the best way to determine how to get the most bang for your buck. (Continue reading…)

Creating web marketing campaigns first time around can be a little overwhelming. Perhaps the reason behind this is that there is too much information out there. Sometimes, it helps to go back to basics. If you are putting your first web marketing campaign together, here are 7 elements that you should consider.

1. Set your objectives

The first step in creating web marketing campaigns is to decide exactly what it is you are trying to achieve. While this seems a simple concept, it’s surprising how many companies jump into web marketing without a clear objective in mind. This can lead to you not achieving an optimum return on your investment. By keeping your campaign focused, you will get the best results for the lowest investment. (Continue reading…)

Social media tools are integral in measuring the success of your online marketing. The problem is though, they are still in their early days. At times, it can be difficulty to see the full scope of your marketing with the limited tools that are currently available.

Measuring the results of an online campaign is really important. Firstly, it helps you to determine your return on investment. It also helps you understand which strategies are working and which are not, as well as helping you to plan the next campaign.

If social media is a part of your ongoing campaign then you may find that you need to manage multiple social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Not to mention that within these separate networks you may have more than one account. (Continue reading…)

Do you use intelligent web marketing? Good marketing doesn’t have to be extravagant and expensive, but should be highly effective. To make the most of the internet, you need to be smart with your marketing, and with your money.

By planning your campaign to make the most of the internet and related mediums you can see your business achieving even better results, but how to do start out and what makes up an intelligent web marketing campaign?

A well-planned campaign

Many businesses make the mistake of jumping in the deep end when it comes to web marketing. They spend thousands on pay-per-click ads, start blogs, get on Twitter, then wonder why they are seeing no results twelve months down the track. For a campaign to be effective, it needs to be well thought out and planned. Before you start promoting, you need to make a plan of what your campaign will consist of. To do this, you need to consider your goals, your audience, the mediums you intend to utilise and the messages you intend to put out there. (Continue reading…)

Utilising small business online marketing can return excellent results for a small investment. For many small businesses, budgets are tight and all marketing needs to be as effective as possible. One of the best ways to do this is to reach your potential clients online.

Why online marketing works for small business

One of the greatest benefits of online marketing is that it is cost effective. For a fraction of what you might spend using printed media such as advertisements, leaflets or direct mail, you can reach thousands more potential customers online. There is much you can do to promote your business that doesn’t cost a penny, and many campaigns that you only need to pay for on performance which means you can make your marketing budget go even further. (Continue reading…)

Marketing an online business is different to marketing a bricks and mortar business. Of course there are similarities, but there are huge differences too. Many small business owners that I speak to often think that putting up an e-shop, creating a few flyers and perhaps even adding a blog to their website, will bring in the customers, much like the opening of a high street shop. It’s simply not the case. Marketing an online business is different.

With a high street shop, you have a constant footfall right outside your door and your shop window is there to entice the shoppers in. As long as the high street continues to pull in the shoppers, you’re half way there. Online it’s different. There are billions of shops on your high street and people can’t see you. Instead, they have to look specifically for your goods or services, or you have to find them and entice them in. (Continue reading…)

The Google keyword search tool is a free way to find keywords for your business. This is a simple and easy way to understand what your customers are searching for, rather than you simply selecting what you think your customers are searching for. It will help you ensure your keyword choice is more accurate for your customers and be better for search engine optimisation.

This particular tool allows you find keywords related to your business. So, if you owned a jewellery business, it would give you different jewellery related keywords. The data provided shows you the number of searches in a given month for each of the different generated keywords.

From the results Google gives you from the Google keyword search tool, you can select keywords that are relevant to your business offering, services or products. Your goal when choosing keywords is to pick those that are searched for frequently but that aren’t too competitive. For example, using a keyword such as “jewellery” for the content of a page is unlikely to get you to the top of the search engines. It’s so broad that there is bound to be limitless competition. (Continue reading…)