Monthly Archives: January 2013

Marketing Via Online Communities

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Why Online Communities?

Not too long ago, stores survived by selling products to folks in their small town.  These days it seems like everyone wants to go national and sell their merchandise via online shops in every state in the country. Some businesses even wish to go global.  This can be a great idea, but there are some drawbacks.

When a business tries to compete for high valued and competitive keywords, a website can actually lose traffic.  This happens because when they stop focusing on the local or geo targeted traffic to seek out national exposure they become a very small, small shop in a very large market rather than a big shop in a smaller market.

The way I have found to best seek national exposure while still clinging to the lifeblood of the local market is to create online communities.  These communities take advantage of the local market, but open up the gate to a national level.

To create your own online communities, use tools like Facebook, Google Hangouts, Google + Communities, Pintrest, and others. Create a place where like minded people can talk about common interests.  When you create these types of communities, you can then market your products to the people in the communities and gain national exposure while staying withing a niche market.

If you would like help to create online communities for your business, give us a call.

ONLINE MARKETING 101 (SAVE$! TAKE WITH SERIES)

Are you ready to take your business to the next level?

You can get the most out of your marketing budget by targeting your product audience via online methods including ads, email promotions and social media.

In this class you will learn all of these methods and more to get your business the exposure and attention you want to drive you business.

BATC

Logan West Campus ECOM0051

Feb 4 – Feb 27 M W 1 pm – 2:30 pm $75*
Feb 5 – Feb 28 Tu Th 7 pm – 8:30 pm $75*

Optimizing Google Places

This entry was posted in Internet Marketing Basics Social Media News on by .

Google Places Optimization

If you don’t have your business on Google Places, you should.  These are the listing you see when a person types in a type of business into a Google Search. You can see an example of this below for the search “Logan UT Restaurants”.

These listing help in finding your business when people search for a type of business locally.  For example, the above image is a snapshot of the search results for Logan UT Sporting Goods.  If your business doesn’t appear in these types of results, there are some things you can do to enhance the likelihood that they will.

To get started, go to http://places.google.com and login to your account.  If you don’t have an account, then you will want to create an account.

Next you will see your listing’s dashboard.  It will look like the picture below:

On the right hand side, you will see you listing, and above that you will find an “Edit” link.  To edit your Business click on the “Edit Button”

You will then see a screen that shows all of your business information, at least the information you have added to you Google Places Business information.

The part you will want to pay special attention too, is the part showing your website, description, and category information.

What many business owners don’t realize is how important having these fields filled in correctly can help your business show in the Google Places results.

In the description area you will want to make sure you have good keyword placement.  For example, you see in mine that there are the keywords “internet marketing company”, “SEO”, “Video Marketing” and “Social Media Marketing”.  These keywords are there so that when people search for these types of services in Logan Utah, my Google Places profile has a greater chance of showing up for these keyword specific searches.

It is also a common misconception that you have to choose from the available categories listed in the “Category” fields.  As you can see in the last category, I have listed Search Engine Optimization, and under that you will read “You have chosen a custom category”.  You will need to choose one or two of the categories Google has predetermined in the dropdown menu when you click on the category field.  However, you may want to set your own custom categories if those custom categories are common search terms for your business.

You will also do well to add photos and videos to your listing, and last but not least, list your business’ website to make sure when your business is found in Google places, it will link to your company’s online presence.

For more information and to get help with your internet marketing needs, visit: http://marketingai.com