People are using the Internet in the USA in great numbers and worldwide. In just a little over ten years online usage has grown at an exponential rate. So much so that with social media our social activities are guided by this medium and it dictates how we shop, work, and entertain in today’s society. Due to new innovations and 21st century technology internet businesses are flourishing. With these tremendous transformations, business owners are faced with the choices of adaptation or elimination. This is why internet marketing for local, national, and global businesses are vital.
Here are 9 ways to promote online:
1. Business Directories Online business directories are tailored to internet marketing for local businesses. An evolution from the pre-internet days of the yellow pages there are thousands of online directories. Of course, there is a hierarchy with some directories having more power than others. As it stands today Google Places for Business is the top directory, followed by the Yahoo business directory, then Bing, and Yelp. The significance of business directories cannot be underestimated, their importance in recording votes for your website, and overall search engine rankings, are immense.
2. Press Releases
News people love to find compelling content for their companies. Press releases can make a strategic impact in almost the same way as the previous tactic. Extremely powerful press releases give you an opportunity to rack up those citations for your business and website. You can do this because at the end of your press release you can leave your business information. In industry speak this is called your NAP (name, address, phone). But not only that, press releases offer you a free way to communicate with customers and tell them things about you and your business. Plus there's the added bonus that if you write really compelling and optimized press release content you can be syndicated to online news channels. 3. Social Media Social media is as important to business today as steam was to the industrial revolution in the 18th century. If you want to continue with good internet marketing, having a strong social presence is critical. Your business will not exist online without visible communication channels. However, picking those channels and knowing how best to engage your desired audience is the real test. You may well think that nothing has really changed. For centuries the biggest advertising and marketing tactic has always been word of mouth and to some extent you'd be right. But there are rules to this internet marketing game. You need to post regularly at least once a day, but do not try to sell with every post you put out there. The must have top social media accounts are as follows, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, and Instagram.
4. Article Marketing
Some internet marketers believe that article marketing is dead which is strange because everywhere you look online content seems to be in written text. Well written articles with at least one link to content on your website or blog always have a place in the world. As long as people want to read, article marketing has its place in the internet marketing world and it's foolish to suggest otherwise. 5. Video Marketing Video Marketing is absolutely huge! Right now if you are not using video as part of your overall internet marketing strategy you are making a big mistake. Here are some interesting facts: Visitors who watch video on a website stay for up to 2 minutes longer and are 64% more likely to buy. Of course the granddaddy of all video sharing sites is YouTube. It is also the world's 2nd largest search engine after Google. Every minute on YouTube 100 hours of video is uploaded, every day 3 billion videos are viewed, every week the equivalent of 240,000 feature length movies is uploaded by users and every month 6 billion hours of videos are watched worldwide. However, YouTube is not the only ticket in town. There are other hugely popular video sharing sites like Vimeo, Dailymotion, and Metacafe. Using Video as part of your internet marketing for your local business is cost effective, professional, and extremely powerful. 6. Message Boards/Forums This is a great way to get targeted visitors to your website, build trust and awareness, and gain customers. Using forums to engage prospects offers you a pipeline into the minds of your audience as you answer their questions, offer advice, and generally act as a trusted yet knowledgeable friend. This can boost your online revenues quite substantially. You can also, after adding value to the forum, display a banner advertisement sitewide for your business. 7.Search Engine Optimization Search engine optimization or SEO for short, is a powerful aid for internet marketing. There are two formats for SEO, on page SEO and off page SEO. On page SEO is about building your website in a manner that is compatible with major search engines. This would involve things like keyword research, keyword structure, placement, and optimized content. Internal linking structure plays a part along with image optimization. Off page SEO deals with the external links used by searchers and other websites to reference your website. Off page optimization must appear natural and be constructed in a logically progressive manner over time. 8. Daily Deal Sites Daily deal sites as they have become known, are a very ingenious way to do three things: make more profits, build brand awareness, and create new prospects. Groupon, Wowcher, and Living Social are just a few of the options available for a local business. If you search carefully, you can find different types of daily deal sites. For instance, the well known sites are national or even international in the case of Groupon but you can find smaller regional daily deal sites, as well as sites that best fit your products or services. Daily deal sites are perfect for the service industry sector like restaurants, spa's, hotels, theme parks, etc. 9. Mobile Responsive Sites or Mobile Apps Technology moves at an incredible pace. If you stand still for a second you'll be 2 years behind. Being mobile friendly is an absolute must and here's why: Nearly 3 in 5 internet searches are made from a mobile device, 50% of all mobile searches have local intent, and 63% of all local searches lead to a sale. Having a mobile app opens an additional line of communication while creating a portal to produce more profits. You can use your mobile app to spread your latest online content from your blog or YouTube channel, and at the same time use push notifications to promote offers. These are just a few of the ways of using internet marketing for local business.
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