Some of the biggest challenges that face marketers today are Time, Knowledge and Resources. “Even if we do start, what should my company write about? Who handles what? Should we hire an intern? What if people don’t share?”

Our strategies are based on research, traffic and competition to find opportunities online to increase visitors, leads and sales.

1. Increase SEO and Page Authority
2. Acquire Vanity URLs
3. Develop Thought Leadership
4. Build branding and awareness of targeted consumers
5. Customer Support/FAQs
6. Product Marketing/Educating Consumers
7. Utilize Mobile Platforms
8. Engage in conversation already happening
9. Customize Promotions
10. Create brand advocates
11. First Mover Advantage

Once opportunity is identified, content on your website will be shaped based on your target keywords.

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING:
Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Flickr and YouTube. Not only are these online platforms all free marketing tools but they are all highly trafficked, making it easy for you to pinpoint and capture your target audience. The sky is the limit with social media. Leads, exposure and keeping in contact with potential clients are only a few of the reasons why investing in social media marketing management will be another way to beat your competition. Setting objectives is the key to success… so you are using the social platforms with a message that aligns with your goals.

VIDEO MARKETING:
Professional “video marketing” is somewhat like unlocking a code when producing and launching a viral video on YouTube. Though your chances of going viral are slim, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take a legitimate stab at making and posting YouTube videos. Short videos are an excellent marketing tactic that adds a new dimension to your internet marketing campaign. Whether you do reviews on products that your online store sells or if you discuss different aspects of a service you offer, it’s just another fresh way to increase your visibility.

EMAIL MARKETING:
Though there is a fine line between effective and irritating email marketing campaigns… it is still a very effective marketing technique. There are so many opportunities for a company when sending out email to their clients/ prospects. Whether it’s a sale alert, coupon offer or just to remind them of upcoming events or introduce them to new products or services,  if you aren’t using email marketing, your missing out on business.

Linkedin company profiles now have the ability to reach your audience in a much wider scope than before. The once-individually focused social site is reaching out to companies with an intelligent and interactive profile almost resembling a mini website, in hopes of adding more to their already 90 million users.

Though there has been some criticisms about the new version, I think the features offered are incredibly smart marketing tools that work well for entrepreneurs and companies alike.

Below is a quick list of the new features offered as well as a photo to more clearly illustrate just what Linkedin has done with their new profile design.

• You will be able to add a logo to the heading of your profile.
• A section for job offerings and listings will be available.
• Add contacts and include contact information for each.
• Below your logo, an option to add a paragraph about your company.
• Under a new “Products and Services ” tab, you are able to post a description and relatively large photo of each item or service offered.
• Probably one of the more exciting features is a rotating slide where you are able to upload a banner which is linked to your site as a sort of landing page and lead generator.
• A section of your profile is built specifically to display a video from YouTube. If your company dabbles with the power of videos or clips, this option has hefty potential.
• An area with administrative access for customers to add testimonials and recommendations.
• Through the ability to offer add campaigns you will be able to generate leads and traffic. Each company is allowed 15 campaigns at a time.
• Analytics are always helpful and Linkedin is now offering charts and graphs of tracked and monitored numbers. What’s even better is they’ve designed it so you can compare your company’s numbers, traffic, visitors etc to a similar company to yours.

This is an exciting and nicely executed option for companies who benefit from social media.

After this launch it wouldn’t be surprising if Linkedin become a better business to business alternative than Facebook.

In order to rank well, the keywords you choose will have to be those that directly describe the items, services or ideas you’re selling. It’s helpful to know the best keywords are 2-4 word phrases and constructed in everyday language. Being too specific or too general is also a mistake. Its best to keep is simple yet descriptive to your niche.

Below is a quick list of some very commonly made mistakes when choosing keywords which we will discuss more in-depth…
• One word “phrases”
• Words that are too specialized, which nobody searches for.
• Words that are too broad, which don’t focus on your niche.
• Words which are so highly-competitive that will be more than difficult to rank with.

Stay Away From Single Word Phrases:

Single word phrases are almost always ineffective when it comes to SEO and optimization because they’re too broad and much too competitive.

Try and think of what someone might type into their search engine when trying to find your site or product. Its unlikely they’ll type a single word. Rather a couple relative keywords. Get into the mind of your audience and create key words based on what they might be looking for.

It’s OK to be specific but not too specific:

The bottom line is, the more specific the search, the less competition for the phrase. Be smart about how specific the terms you chose. Terms that are too specific are useless because they rent searched for.

Below is an example of the more specific the easier it will be to search for you:

Number of Google Matches: Phrase:
178,000,000 dinner
19,200,000 mexican dinner
2,710,000 mexican dinner catering
867,000 mexican dinner catering los angeles

Tighten it Up. Be Careful Not to be too Broad:

Using phrases or words that are too broad will either not rank because they are just too competitive or will attract random browsers who searched the matching phrase.

But views and visitors are good even if they aren’t looking for what you’re offering, right?

Wrong.

There’s no point to attract visitors and accumulate site visits if what you’re offering isn’t what they’re looking for. Tighten up your keywords so those who are looking for you are more easily able to find you.

Choose Less Competitive Words:

You might have chosen a perfect word or phrase but , if too many other sites are ranking using the same combination, stay away from it because its very likely you will not be able to compete. Should you run into this problem a solution might be to choose a less competitive term and add a word or two to it, making it more specialized.

Now go choose your keywords!

If you’re like me, marketing plans can be tedious. Although I am not saying that a marketing plan should be overlooked, forming an effective online marketing plan is a lot easier when you draw out each step a prospect is taken through as they engage with your website.

Let’s start with a typical marketing plan:

• Executive summary
• Industry analysis
• Target market
• Marketing strategy
• Forecasts
• Financial analysis
• Measurements

Most of the elements involve research and soul searching on what you stand for, who you are trying to attract, and how you’ll profit – but if the marketing strategy is weak, the plan will fail.

Drawing each step allows you to visualize how you’ll create an experience online. On the Internet, it’s a cold place. People need to be captivated, motivated and encouraged to act now.

If your plan doesn’t include any elements that will encourage a prospect to act now – give you their information or buy – you’ll see discouraging results.

When drawing your online marketing plan, it should include:

1) Primary offer – is it a free trial, a free report, or a registration for a “club” that provides tangible benefits? This offer should be strong enough to drive allow all your advertising/marketing efforts to. You want to get the maximum momentum – so don’t try to please everyone – just your target market.

2) A communication plan for all those that take you up on your offer – an autoresponder email series, a series of one-time web page offers that you’ll drive them to, and finally un upsell program for every initial purchase. Offline and online selling strategy for the leads you capture.

3) A traffic plan to get the right people to your website’s offer: Social media, affiliate marketing, email marketing,  Search Engine Optimization, Pay-per-click, video marketing, offline marketing programs, etc. You need to drive drive traffic t be successful.

4) Testing plan. It’s relatively easy to test offers, copy and layout of your offer and home page. Use the tools Google provides for free, and get real time results.

Draw your plan on a whiteboard to start – put the ideas in boxes and connect each step. You’ll quickly see the flow evolve and what elements need to be added, or removed.

If you’re serious about applying a solid online marketing plan to your company’s Internet marketing, start with our free plan.

You’ll find it here.

Although you may have your hands full with your website, consider funnel sites as a strategy to attract traffic from specific searches that your main website may not appear under. Although you want to appear under all the search phrases that apply to your business, it’s not always possible to do so. If you target market for your products or services covers a broad range, a funnel site may be the best way to zero in on a specific market. It’s wise to focus on smaller or niche topics where competition is less, and with monthly search queries ranging around 1,000-5,000.

A funnel site is a site is  a website that is focused and set up to answer a specific search query, by provide the information or product/service the person is searching for. The site uses search engine optimization techniques such as a page title that mirrors the search phrase, content and headings that answer the search explicitly, and meta information that is designed to appear as the answer to the search on Google’s results – acting as an ad.

Google has outlined the best practices for running multiple sites here.

In it they say:

At times–particularly when it comes to rather commercial topics like foreign currency exchange or online gambling–we see that some webmasters try to compete for visibility in Google search results with a large number of sites on the same topic. There are a few things to keep in mind when considering a strategy like this for sites that you want to have listed in our search results.

Some less creative webmasters, or those short on time but with substantial resources on their hands, might be tempted to create a multitude of similar sites without necessarily adding unique information to any of these. From a user’s perspective, these sorts of repetitive sites can constitute a poor user experience when visible in search results. Luckily, over time our algorithms have gotten pretty good at recognizing similar content so as to serve users with a diverse range of information. We don’t recommend creating similar sites like that; it’s not a good use of your time and resources.

“If all of your sites offer essentially the same content, additional sites are not contributing much to the Internet.”

The important statement is that the content must be unique and compelling. Think of you funnel site as an online ad…with 4-5 pages. The funnel site should contain an about page, contact page and at least 2-3 pages of content specific to the target search phrase.

Having a domain that aligns with the search term is also an effective way to get your funnel site to rank on Google.

If you build a funnel website that only links to your site, and has no real unique content, it may rank initially, but will fall off over time.

If you’d like to discuss having Increase Visibility help you with creating funnel site, please give us a call or use the opt-in on the sidebar to have is contact you… you’ll also get our free guide on website strategies for better conversion.

When looking for SEO services it can be a confusing quest, given the thousands of Search Engine Optimization Companies that are competing for your business… so the best pace to start is to ask yourself – What is my objective.

We know that everyone wants to get more traffic, and organic SEO services are a good approach to getting this.

But, how do you gauge SEO services?

A SEO services company should provide you with a compete breakdown of what they will do, along with an explanation of why each SEO tactic is appropriate. There are no tricks when it comes to SEO.

Search Engine Optimization follows 2 principles: Onsite SEO and Offsite SEO.

1. Onsite SEO – the work done on your website to optimize for specific search phrases. Look to phrases that have traffic and be aware that the more searches for a specific phrase the more competitive it will be. This fact is the most misunderstood element of SEO. Everyone wants to be #1 for the searches that have hundreds of thousands of searches each month… but remember that because so many people perform the search, Google’s results are critically important to their standing as the best search engine… so they websites that provide the best content for the answer are ranked highest. Which brings us to the importance of #2…

2. Offsite SEO – Links to your site. Almost half of equation of the website ranking for a term is based on links to your site. This tells Google that you are a good answer to the search, as others are linking to you for the term. How they establish what the link to you means is through the anchor text. When a link to your site uses the keywords, such as Seo Services for example, Google sees the words and the underlying link and scores it. The score’s based on the linking sites relevance and the site’s ranking. Getting links naturally can come from having great content others believe is of great value to their readers. Unfortunately for most companies marketing on the Internet, this is a long-term proposition. That’s why a good SEO services company works to get you links through article creation, blog commenting, forum posting and recruitment.

SEO services are an ongoing process – if you’d like to get a website SEO review, along with a custom SEO proposal, please fill out the form on our Free Website Marketing Strategy SEO Plan by clicking here.

We are very proud of these awards. We have been tracking fast-moving companies for our customers for the past 10 years,” said Tom Blue, CEO of Lead411, “and we felt it was important to recognize these growing brands publicly.”

“We are thankful to be once again recognized for our growth and progress.,” said James Lisi, President Increase Visibility, “as we enter 2011 our growth is continuing with an ever-expanding demand from companies wanting to focus their marketing expansion on the Internet. We have recently moved to new offices, and added additional service offerings to our core search engine optimization services. We will continue to add strategic Internet marketing services, as our customer base grows and evolves.”

Increase Visibility, is a technology-based firm. We work with companies to meet their internet marketing needs. In today’s highly competitive internet world, businesses need skilled internet marketing experts to help increase their website’s visibility. From SEO to social media and reputation management, we work to make your company shine. We deliver results.

Lead411 based their decision on data gathered from daily press releases, new office openings, articles and company openings. Originally, they began with a list of over 1000 potential companies. 64 out of the 1000 were chosen. The southern California nominees must have met one or more of these qualifications: 150% increase in revenues over the past 2 years with revenues over $2M or $9M+ in funding in the past 2 years.

We want to thank Lead411 for recognizing our fast growing, HOT company. We are very excited for our future and have many large goals and big dreams to fulfill!

List and Details:
The entire list including more details about the award and winners can be found here

Increase Visibility provides SEO, PPC, Social Media and Internet marketing services to a wide range of companies. Get our free Online Marketing Strategy Guide, as well as a free website review here.

Don’t let visitors on your site have to search for offers and incentives. Design your site with easy, viewable and accessible offers which are clear and enticing…and as always, the word “Free” is fail proof.

2. What you do with those prospects once they identify themselves to you.

Once your target audience is clear and when contact information from potential clients is captured, what you do with the gathered information is vital to your success. For example once an interested visitor leaves their info, the site should automatically take them a to a “Thank You” page where they would be made aware that someone would be in contract with them or that they would be receiving future offers etc.

3. Professional search engine optimization of your site to bring the right people to your finely tuned offer and conversion website.

Because generating quality leads is vital to the success of your business. Finding the right team to optimize your site and ultimately increase your visibility will bring valuable and targeted clients to you.

Curious Where Most Websites Go Wrong?

Though there are a number of ways websites can turn off potential clients’ research shows that these are the mistakes made most often…

Not addressing the visitors need or problem.

Every successful and highly trafficked site is easy to navigate and speaks directly to the client. Many times the site talks about itself, its experienced staff, beautiful facility and other self- serving dialogue, which may build credibility- but doesn’t address the visitor’s problem or need. Those who wish to have a trafficked site should focus on their target audience’s needs. Highlighting your company’s accomplishments is important but should not be the focus of your site.

No opt-in box or way for visitors to leave their contact information before leaving.

Getting visitors to leave their information may be tricky but there are ways to make it more attractive. Free giveaways or downloadable samples in return for their information are effective offerings for a name and email address to be left in an opt- in box.

Roadblocks to “Buying Now”.

There’s nothing worse than deterring customers from purchasing because you’ve frustrated them enough to opt for a competitor’s site. For example, many sites ask you to create an account before purchasing, when buying something creates an account anyway. Why put a road block in front of consumers? Remember, websites should be easy and stress free places to buy from.