Hopefully you’ve already registered for the upcoming webinar on April 7^th, “Display Advertising: The Billboards of the Web.” Along with the webinar, WSI has released a complimentary whitepaper of the same title with extra tips and techniques for your business’ digital marketing strategy.

This whitepaper was prepared with your business’ goals in mind. And online, it’s undeniably important to increase your brand awareness and drive more traffic to your business’ website. Visibility among your online audience is key to your success. This whitepaper helps you discover the ins and outs of leveraging display advertising best practices to boost your online presence.

Some highlights of the whitepaper include:

• Types of display advertising
• Measuring your display ads
• How to improve display ad performance
• Pay-per-click advertising vs. display advertising

Marketing your business on Facebook is just like using any social media site you need to build a presence, then establish credibility and educate your potential customers.

Here are some steps to help you get the most from your Facebook marketing:
It is best to keep your business profile separate from your personal page, so remember everything on your business page should be business related, you can have some fun with it but keep it professional.
Make sure your pages look professional: get some help to reflect the same professional image as on your web site; use the same graphics and colours; maintain your brand image. Consider having a welcome page specifically for new visitors.
Have a plan regarding what you are going to add, and what do you want the visitor to do once they find your page. Why should anyone return to your pages again? How will you react to negative comments?
Create a reason for people to provide their contact details and to pass the page onto their friends, this sort of viral marketing is where Facebook excels.
Remember to interact with others, you need to participate in the dialogue and be visible, keep adding fresh content, and answering questions.
Provide polls or surveys to engage with your audience, ask others to share their ideas and tips.
Keep everyone up to date with your latest offers and initiatives provide a good reason for them to interact with your business.
Consider hiring a professional to create an app and provide it on your page. This can really make your page go viral since fans will share them with their friends, which is all adding to your visibility and credibility.
The main thing is that once you have decided to create a Facebook page for your business you need to be consistent with your efforts and contribute regularly to keep things moving. Why not share some of your ideas in the comments section here to help others utilise Facebook to attract new business.

Get to know what your customers are saying about your brand online and learn what you need to develop an effective social media marketing strategy!

Inbound links or “back links” are considered a vote of confidence for your website. Therefore getting “quality links” is an integral part of ranking higher than your competitors on the search engines.

Quality Links:

* Come from popular websites in a related industry.
* Links from higher ranking pages are worth more than miscellaneous links.
* Links that appear higher up in a page are more valuable than links that appear on the bottom of the page in the footer.
* Pages that have large numbers of links may be diluted and less authoritative.
* “Anchor Text” matters. The actual words that link to your webpage are important. For example, linking the phrase “internet marketing Carleton place” to my website is more effective for me than linking the words “Click Here”.

Where do Quality Links come from?
Sadly there is no silver bullet. A certain amount of links will develop naturally over time, but unless you have a very popular site to begin with, playing the waiting game won’t work. Buying links for a link farm typically doesn’t work well either. Those links are typically low quality and can get you into trouble over the long run due to their dubious source.


The first step (the only step I’m going to cover in this post) is to locate sources of quality links. I want to focus on the low hanging fruit:

* Websites that already link to you
* Websites that link to your competitors

In each case it is safe to assume that websites that link to you or your competitors probably link to sites that are relevant to you. Because those sites are relevant to your market, it is safe to assume that sites that link to THEM are also relevant to you and are probably also good link prospects.


There are a variety of methods for tracking down specific links to your site and to the sites of your competitors. The most efficient method is to use professional software that is designed for that specific task. Two that we user are Wordtracker and Web CEO. Keep in mind that there is a learning curve to use them correctly. There is also the associated expense of purchasing the tools, and the time to follow through with the results. I’ll cover that on an upcoming post.

This particular webinar is specially geared to ensuring that your online brand is ready to effectively leverage the digital marketing realm this year. After all, expert planning and a strategically implemented social media strategy can drastically transform any company’s online presence. It has the capacity to launch a local, small-scale business into an international brand name!

However, on the other hand, a company who chooses to ignore its online presence and what customers are saying about them online can be equally damaging. As many online advantages as there are for your brand, there are just as many disadvantages and risks as well!

So, on February 2nd join us for a webinar, where we’re set to discuss:

* 3 steps to effective ORM
* What “ORM” really means – the ins and outs of online reputation management
* How to protect your brand against trademark / company name violations
* Crisis management strategies

There are 2 free sessions available!

Here are the registration details:

Session One

Date: Wednesday February 2nd, 2011

Time: 1:00PM – 2:00PM EST

REGISTER NOW!

Session Two

Date: Wednesday February 2nd, 2011

Time: 1:00PM – 2:00PM GMT

REGISTER NOW!

Find some benefits of using Twitter below:

• Researching: Research industry specific topics. Great way to get topics for new Blog posts;
• Communication Tool: Follow and be followed. Start a conversation;
• Twitter Feed reader: Yep thats right. You can subscribe to the people you are following’s RSS tweet feeds;
• News: People post news topics as they happen. Real time information;
• Recruitment: I follow some of these (http://twitter.com/NewYorkWebJobs);
• For Fun: What are you doing right now? Post it on Twitter and see other people’s responses;
• Competitive Intelligence: Find out what your competitors are up to. Be the spy;
• Engage with your target audience: Tell your Pizza fan club about the new Pizza you have made;
• Build a reputation: Post regularly about your topic;
• Build credibility: Become an expert in your topic;
• Build trust: Keep on doing the above;
• Promote your “content”: Share what you have posted, new website, pizza you have made, etc;
• Promotion: Promote your pizza;
• SEO Boost: Gain traffic to your website, blog, etc;
• Ask Questions: Most searches on the search engines starts with a question. Ask your question to your followers;
• Receive answers: Real time results are the best!;
• Press releases: Post about any press releases;
• Internal communication tool: Tweet that your secretary should come to work now;
• External communication tool: Tweet to your friends that you have been fired;
• For conferences: You can even have a conference on Twitter if you want to;
• Re-enforce Your Brand: Tell the world about your Pizzeria;
• Marketing Opportunities: Promote your pizza special on Wednesdays;
• Networking Opportunities: Maybe someone wants to buy your Pizzeria;

Found a post with 101 Twitter resources that can help you on your Twitter path. Find a couple below:

• My Tweeple – Manage your following and followers.
• The Twitter Blog – Follow their official blog.
• Explore Twitter – Learn more about Twitter.
• Twitter Search - Search in Twitter.
• TwitterVerse – What is Twitter doing lately?
• Tweetmeme – Twitter meme.
• The Twitter Blacklist – Spammers are everywhere. Protect yourself.
• Twitterholic – Shows popular Twitter feeds.
• YouTwit – Put Twitter status on Google maps.
• Twitterberry – Mobile client for Blackberry.
• Email Twitter – Mobile client.
• Twoble – Mobile client for Windows Mobile Pocket PCs.
• TwitterMail – Tweet via email.
• OutTwit – Use Twitter from Outlook.

When used strategically, Twitter can prove to be a very powerful tool in your company’s digital marketing strategy. Visit our site to read more about how social media can build your credibility and reputation online!

Do you want your website visitors’ first impression about your business to be good? If you answered yes, find some tips below to incorporate into your digital marketing strategy and to help you make your website stand out from the rest.

Business website tips
Customer: Always focus first on your customer. When a new visitor arrives on your website for the first time, they are usually looking for something or answers to help solve a need that they might have. This could be anything from buying specific products or solving a problem. It is vital that you must understand what your best customers are looking for and then make sure you can address them clearly on the specific page that they arrive on.

Image: Design your website around your customer and the services or products that you offer. If you are selling to Generation Y, use a trendier look that integrates social media elements and if you are selling to Baby Boomers, design your website with a high contrast with larger font sizes. Your website design should about be consistent with your industry and branding. If you are selling to corporate customers, then you will need a polished and professional look.

Action: What do you want your websites visitors to do when they arrive on your website? Contact you? Sign-up for a newsletter? Your website pages should always have a clear path to action. Keep it short and simple with clear call to actions (CTA). Too many possible actions and your visitors will leave instantly. Make the decisions that they have to make on your website easy. Make it visible and clear for your arriving visitors. Design a single primary action into your website pages.

Trust: People have always been cautious of buying online. Write the content of your website to address the needs of your visitors in a language that they will understand (no technical jargon). Also, make it easy to contact you with a phone number and an actual street address. You can include a shipping procedure, privacy policy and a refund policy on your website. Include a trust building “About us” page that includes more in-depth information about your company and what you do.

Websites that get good results are focusing on the needs of their visitors. Always remember that it’s not about you but about your visitors!

Visit our site to learn even more digital marketing tips, techniques and best practices that will work to enhance your online brand!

thank you

Bruce Allen
                                                                                                                                   

Social media/networking is about collaboration, connecting, sharing, interacting and expression. With Web 2.0, the online world is being woven in the social fabric of today’s technology driven lifestyle. Web 1.0 was really more about technology trends and Web 2.0 is about the integration of this technology in the basic needs of our daily business and social lives.

Collaboration

Rather than working all alone, tools like Wiki’s and CMS (Content Management Systems) allows for people to work seamlessly together. Other social media tools allows companies to communicate and develop procedures and policies to collaborate with customers and partners.

Sharing

You don’t have to read a blog, news feed or online magazine alone.  The Web 2.0 web allows for interaction and the sharing of information with others. Sites today allows easy sharing of opinions (blogs), videos, images and even your favourite web links (social bookmarking.

Connecting

The technology tools of social media allows people to interact and connect in their common interests.  Social networking sites allows users to connect and collaborate in real-time.  It’s all about connecting people and developing a network approach to business.

Expressing

Blogging has always been a way for human expression.  People can express their opinions on just about anything.  The web 2.0 spaces such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to name but a few allows for easy expression, representation and participation.

Interacting

People always want human interaction.  Social media has brought in conversational marketing.  Companies now holds a two-way dialogue with their customers through real-time chat, instant messaging and blogs.

Here are some things to ask from your client before you get cracking:

High resolution pictures

You may have access to a bunch of generic pictures, but you will often see this pictures used on another site. If you are designing a website for an architecture firm, roof installers, make-up artist or any type of company that can show visual proof of their services, ask for some pictures of past projects. This will not only help you incorporating some great “Case Studies” or “Past Projects” pages, but also help to get your creative juices flowing.

Created by link

Many websites have a “Designed by”, “Created by” or “Maintained by” link at the bottom of the page. A client may be reluctant to give you this credit on their website (especially the larger corporate clients), but you may be able to negotiate if you show them how small and unobtrusive the link is. Your logo or a link to your professional site can help get you business in the future.

More business

Website design can be lucrative, but an ongoing relationship with a smaller amount of hand-picked clients can go a long way too. It’s important not to blindly call up old clients to find out if they “are still happy with their website” or “need work done”. Rather send an e-mail out once or twice a year offering a follow-up service (such as incorporating a blog onto their sites for SEO purposes or a discount on bulk business card design).

Correct copy

Very few website designers want to be stuck with the copywriting part of the website. Give a list of all the information you will need to the client (such as a company profile, full contact details, testimonials, product descriptions) etc. It is good to have a standard template that you can send to each client before you start a design job.

In building your internet marketing plan, you need to think about how this fits into your business objectives and other traditional marketing strategies.  All these strategies should interrelate and work together for the best results.

Find below the key elements that I always include in any internet marketing plan.

Business plan

Describe your company and your company history.  What are you long and short term overall objectives? What products or services do you sell?

Marketing plan

What targeted market do you compete in? List and describe your primary competitors along with their weaknesses and strengths.  Who are your targeted customers and on what overall basis do they make the final buying decision? What are your positioning, branding and pricing strategies?

Internet marketing

Based on your marketing plan, what are your online objectives in terms of lead generation, traffic, selling, warranty service or customer service? Develop your strategies around search engine marketing (SEM), email marketing, affiliate marketing, podcast marketing and blog marketing.

Blog marketing

Based on your targeted customer demographically, what informative and interesting content can you present to them to develop a strong readership? You can always use your blog to support your other online marketing strategies and marketing plans.