WSI Marketing, Surf, Search and Social

Companies that market to small businesses should focus on creating a social media strategy as a way of promoting their services and be open to trying new methods of prospecting. Companies that are marketing to this sector should have a strong presence at the top or on the most relevant social networking sites. Especially since this is an excellent way of getting the word out about your business.

Here are some other ideas that you can add to your digital marketing strategy to try to increase your online visibility:

Product Reviews and Ratings

When someone is deciding whether to buy something online they will nearly always look for reviews or testimonials; they provide great input to the decision making process. Make sure prospects will find great reviews of your products or services.

Podcasts and Webinars

This year has seen a dramatic increase in the use of podcasts and webinars as a way of educating your prospects as more and more managers are looking online for information. Small business owners consider these as great resources for their professional development and research. They are also not time consuming, so you are more likely to get someone to listen to a short webinar than to agree to an in person meeting.

Social Media Company and Brand pages

Creating a great image on the social media sites is now a necessity for most small businesses, but make sure you also include some educational resources. Try to answer the most common questions your company is asked as a part of the profile page. Also consider adding some presentation materials; this is easily done using SlideShare which can be added to your LinkedIn profile, and optimized for search.

Company Blogs

A well written company blog can have a big impact, but this does involve a commitment to keep on creating additional content. So make sure you have a plan for this before you start one. You need both the content strategy and resources necessary to create and maintain a good one.

All of these activities act to engage decision makers in your business or brand and can set your company apart from the local competition.

To keep up-to-speed with the evolving social media technologies and techniques of today, take a look at our Social Media Strategy Kit.

In order to have a successful website, you need your visitors to take action.  You might have exactly what they need. If you have your visitors interested, how can you get them to commit? You also might have a clear and compelling offer, but that is not always enough to let them take the final decision.

It’s a fact that people are wary about buying online. You always have to build trust by eliminating their risk. Your visitors are looking for reassurance.  Adding strong trust-building elements to your website or blog is frequently the difference between a poor performing website and a money maker.

Find below 20 tips you can implement into your digital marketing strategy to build trust, credibility and lower your prospects’ anxiety.

1. Offer a 100% unconditional money back guarantee.
2. Include an option for a free trial or introductory offer.
3. Include a video clip of the product in action to help the customer see what they are buying.
4. Have a simple and hassle free returns policy.
5. Prevent surprises by disclosing shipping costs early in the shopping process.
6. On your home page and ordering pages have ‘trust logos’ prominently posted (Bank logos, VISA, HackerSafe).
7. Give reassurance that you will guard their privacy (no spamming, emails won’t be sold to spammers).
8. Include helpful product education and ‘how-to’ advice. The more time they spend on your site, the more they will trust you.
9. Include user product reviews and ratings.
10. Include real testimonials and reviews by people who have used your products.
11. Get endorsements from industry experts and professional organizations.
12. Include links to press coverage from the mainstream media; include an ‘in the news’ or ‘press’ section on your website.
13. List any industry awards you have won.
14. List any industry associations you are a member of (or use their logos in #5).
15. Include actual case studies you have done.
16. Disclose any ongoing costs to maintain and operate the product.
17. Include your phone number and physical address prominently on your site.
18. Offer offline ordering alternatives such as finalizing the purchase by phone.
19. Offer multiple payment options.
20. Offer multiple shipping options.

The goal with call to actions is to be transparent and to show your prospects why they should trust you. Always provide real value and offer your customer choices.

Visit our site for more digital marketing tips and industry techniques that will help your company’s website convert visitors into customers!

We’ve already scheduled next month’s free Internet marketing expert webinar, and this particular digital marketing topic aims to teach you how to effectively convert your website traffic into paying customers. Facilitated by Chuck Bankoff, it’s set for Wednesday, September 15, 2010, and it’s appropriately entitled “Landing Page Design: Common Mistakes and Techniques.”

Chuck is a Landing Page and Conversion Expert at WSI and a WSI Certified Research, Chuck is an outstanding source for world-class, proven Landing Page Design strategies and Conversion Architecture.

This particular webinar topic, brings one very important aspect to mind: People do NOT read on the Internet! They SCAN! So you’ll generally only have a few seconds to grab your visitors’ attention and convince them to stay and explore further on your website. More often than not, they merely take a peak at your page and move on. Needless to say, it’s a tough audience to deal with and conducting business on the Internet is no easy task.

You may also want to consider the common mistakes that are made in landing page creation. Remember, even the smallest of mistakes can cost you a customer!  So Chuck will cover everything from what you should and shouldn’t do as you develop your company’s landing pages.

This particular topic was actually featured in a webinar last year. But, since then, we’ve had so many requests for a second session from those who either missed it or simply wanted a refresher session. In other words, we’re expecting seats to fill up very quickly! I hope you’ll join us on September 15^th, 2010, so be sure to register before it’s too late.

Chuck will be conducting 2 free webinar sessions. Here are the registration details:

Session One

Date: Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Time: 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM EDT

Register Now!

Session Two

Date: Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Time: 5:00P PM – 6:00 PM BST

Register Now!