Life is coming at us much faster than 10 years ago, and the average individual is getting very good at tuning out traditional advertising methods. They’ve got Tivo for TV commercials, Spam filters for unsolicited e-mail, and an RSS news feed instead of a newspaper. These traditional ‘outbound’ marketing mediums are broadcasting a message that is getting filtered before it reaches your target.
A new wave of marketing, called ‘inbound marketing,’ is taking a different approach. Instead of barraging the target with interruptions, inbound campaigns seek to position the company in front of the target when they’re looking for their services. For example, an inbound campaign would focus around coming up at the top of search engine results for their keywords, social networking, and building authority and being a resource in their field. In this way, when a target begins their search for the type of services the company provides, the company appears among the top in their industry. Read more…
Search Engine Optimization
craigslist, internet marketing, seo, social networking, web design
Gone are the days of having your website be a static brochure for your company. You need to be adding and changing content on a daily (or at least weekly) basis to really start to enhance your website.
By building you website on a content management system (CMS) - like Drupal or Joomla - you’ll find it’s very easy to add/change content, additional features and plug-ins that used to take serious development time are now available in easy-to-install packages, and built-in blogging software (which you should be using to regularly add content to your site for SEO) is easy to use and search engine friendly.
In this Web 2.0 world, a CMS is the ultimate tool for Read more…
Web Site Design
blog, cms, web design, website
I keep coming across web designers who say they provide ‘Search Engine Optimization’ by using heading tags, text links, and non-dynamic links, and decided it was time to make some clarifications.
Search Engine ‘Friendly’ involves building the foundation and features of the site in a way that the search engine spiders can comprehend. Having a ’search engine friendly’ site does not necessarily help you climb the organic rankings, but there’s no reason to intentionally build your website without integrating these concepts.
Search Engine ‘Optimization’ as a service is more related to keywords and organic rankings, and involves both on-site and off-site work to achieve these goals.
Ways to make your website ‘Search Engine Friendly’ (easily read by a Search Engine):
There’s just so much good stuff in this book, I might have to turn this into a multi-part series. Chapter 4, “Direct Response Marketing” (from Guerrilla Marketing on the Internet by Jay Conrad Levinson) really got me thinking about how many sites I’ve come across that don’t do anything for the business. In very few cases, having the simplest of ‘brochure websites’ (strictly informational and usually for credibility purposes) may be appropriate, but there are so many opportunities to get your web site to do more for your business.
The easiest thing any website can do is collect your visitor’s contact information. This can be used as a targeted list for your marketing offers (as long as you have their permission of course). There are many things you can offer your visitors in exchange for their contact info (specifically, e-mail address):
- Free “White-Paper,” E-Book, or How-to-Article (ex: see our web design landing page offer - 9 Tips for Better Web Marketing)
Read more…
E-Commerce, Guerrilla Marketing, Web Marketing
call to action, customers, E-Commerce, Guerrilla Marketing, internet marketing, sales, web design, website
I’ve recently been browsing Jay Conrad Levinson’s latest book: Guerrilla Marketing on the Internet, and have come across quite a few gems that got me thinking. This article is a brain dump for a few of my thoughts while reading the book.
For those unfamiliar with the term ‘Guerrilla Marketing,’ Wikipedia explains, “is an unconventional system of promotions that relies on time, energy and imagination rather than a big marketing budget.” These aren’t just strategies, they’re principles to live by.
1. Embrace Web 2.0 and Social Media
There is the old Internet and the new Internet. The old Internet was a one-way flow of information where a company, entity, or individual would put their content on a website. Visitors would view the content, and go on their merry way. The new Internet takes a collaborative, visitor-centric approach where the community creates the content and everyone benefits. Here are a few examples: Read more…
Guerrilla Marketing, Web Site Design
Guerrilla Marketing, startup, web design, website