Online marketing is a tricky subject that seems deceptively simple. At first, it seems like advertising a business online should be the same game as advertising in print, television, or other media. But there's several key differences:
- Your audience can talk back.
- Your audience can talk to each other.
- Your message is stewing in an ocean of competing media.
- Bad press about your company can travel as quickly as good press - online, your reputation is always volatile.
With these factors in mind, here are some tips for what to do, and what not to do, to maximize your success potential in online media:
- Have a great website for your product, service, or company that is easy to find and navigate. Be sure your site complies with standards for all major browsers and platforms.
- Blog if you can. A blog is an interactive media format where you can talk about news about your company and your related industry. A landscaping company can offer gardening tips, a uniform company can post statistics about the job market, a health care service can publish medical news, and so on.
- Stay present on social media outlets. This includes at least Twitter and Facebook. Other avenues you might consider are YouTube and Tumblr or Flickr, if your business conducts well to promotion through videos or images.
- Develop a friendly rapport with other online businesses related to your industry. Get linked to and link back; you'll share some influence. On the other hand, things to avoid include:
- Spam! Sending unsolicited emails to strangers is the number one way to alienate your customer base and make a bad name for yourself. Email marketing just doesn't work - unless customers sign up voluntarily for your email newsletter, in which case they are then fair game. If you offer a newsletter, make it clear and easy how to unsubscribe. It's just good manners!
- Astroturf! Is when you post to social news websites pretending to be a neutral party while promoting your business. It's obnoxious, transparent, and will get you banned anyway. It's the same thing as spamming. This also applies to sending bulk comment spam to blogs - any comment to a blog should be considerate and thoughtful, written by a person who makes it obvious that they have some other purpose besides just their marketing agenda.
- Use "black hat" SEO. This is the practice of deceptive website layout to try to trick search engines like Google into listing you at the top of search results. Google is a 12-year-old company which has seen millions of clever fools try to tricks their web crawler algorithm, and any trick you can find is one they're already thought of, tested, and circumvented.
Claire Jefferies is writing on behalf of Abacus Marketing, who are a Design agencies London and Design agency London
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Claire_M_Jefferies
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