But in addition to marketing there is the urgent need to keep costs down while promoting at maximum efficiency. Knowing that your Webmaster / Internet marketer is utilizing paid time appropriately will help to speed up the process and keep expense at minimum levels. Continue reading to learn two necessary steps required to successfully promote a website and how monitoring software will give employers a better return on their investment.

Software that delivers

Before delving into “the big two” it is important to address the starting line – the Webmaster or Internet marketer you have hired to build your website and market it successfully. There is a surge of self-proclaimed Webmasters and marketers out there (they are typically one in the same) who may not be as efficient as someone who has actually received formal training in web development and marketing.

More and more businesses are paying Internet marketers to come to their physical location at specified times to work on promoting the website. By doing this business owners have more control over how the employee is spending his time (as most charge by the hour). Some businesses are even investing in keylogger software as a way to monitor the time it actually takes their employee to complete his tasks. These systems allow businesses to monitor what sites their employee is looking at. One can even use the program to see how long it takes someone to write an article or draft a document. Since most business owners don’t have the time or the know-how to market their own website, having a good system in place to make sure a second party isn’t cutting corners is a sound investment.

Blogging

Blogging is a great way to promote a website. By carefully researching sites that permit guest bloggers, businesses can utilize these channels to display their brand or services. Make sure the site you consider utilizing has a big social media buzz. The more the content is being talked about and shared through social media, the better your chances are of drawing more traffic and new clients. You will also want to make sure the site offers dynamic author bios for guest bloggers. This will permit for customized branding with a link to the business website at the end of each published article. Another thing to do is make sure you post blogs to relevant sites. In other words, if you own an Italian restaurant you don’t want to blog for a site that deals with basket weaving.

You will also want to make sure that your marketing expert enriches your content with links that will drive traffic to your website. This will also help with your search marketing endeavors and give you better organic placement in the search engines.

Where is the guarantee?

How do you know your Internet marketer is doing everything he says he is in the time it takes him? Unless you have an employee monitoring system, you don’t. Any good system will capture tasks and time and translate them into readable data that anyone can make sense of. These programs allow employers to see what sites were visited, and what tools were used. If an employee swears to have used an analytics tool for an SEO package, this claim can be verified with the right software. These systems are simple to install, use and are beneficial to any business that outsources paid online. Not only is such a tool necessary for monitoring blogging activities, but it also provides the same service in ensuring that work is being dedicated to social media marketing.

Social media

Be sure your marketing person showcases your business on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Have them create a Facebook page for your business that fans can follow. However, there are certain methods to doing this that prove to have greater success than others. In an article published by ‘Forbes’ on how to promote your business with Facebook, the author says to create content and lots of it before asking people to follow and “like” you. Often businesses are eager to get as many fans as possible, but by first providing quality content you will be giving people a reason to follow and support your business. Furthermore, by linking to feeds via YouTube you will be fueling your website to climb the search engine’s organic placement rankings. And be sure to use Twitter. Instruct your marketing expert to get as many people in your industry as possible to follow you. This will provide you with an audience to tweet links to that direct the multitudes to your articles and website. Twitter also allows businesses to make others aware of special promotions and events that are running.

These tips are very general, but provide a great starting platform for new businesses.  There are more advanced strategies for business promotion within the folds of blogging and social media. Make sure your Internet marketer has a masterful command of these subjects. But also, take control of the reigns. Invest in an employee monitoring software package and before you know it your website should eventually see more traffic and sales.

Image source: http://agileirony.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/face-keyboard-sleep.jpg

The post 2 Tips to Promoting Your Business Website in Spy-Mode appeared first on AddMe Blog.

In order to be completely efficient when it comes to online marketing, there are lots of things that you need to consider. Check out this article to find out if you’re being as efficient as you can be with your business with your Internet marketing, and possibly ways that you can make your business more efficient.

Reconsider Your Agency

Do you get all of your Internet marketing done through an outside agency? If you do and are happy with the results, that’s fine. But if you feel like you aren’t getting the results you want, it may be time to reconsider the agency.

An outside agency can be great if you’ve got the money and don’t want the responsibilities of taking control of your company’s Internet marketing, but it can also lead to less efficient spending on Internet marketing if you don’t feel like you’re getting great results. Before dropping your agency completely, ask for a meeting to determine how the problem can be solved. If no concrete ideas are brought to the table, it might be time to move on.

Hire a Consultant

If you haven’t had great luck with an agency and feel like you’re spending too much and not getting enough in return, you might want to do things yourself. Hire a consultant to sit down with and discuss your Internet marketing strategy. Hiring a consultant won’t be cheap and they will usually charge by the hour, but it’s a great idea because it can be a cost-efficient way to overhaul your Internet marketing strategy.

A lengthy initial session with a consultant might be enough to teach you the ropes of building a basic yet efficient in-house Internet marketing strategy. If you like the consultant you’ve met and are beginning to see good results, it might be worth it to hire this consultant for monthly meetings in order to take your Internet marketing to the next level.

Restructure Internally

Throwing some curve balls to the internal structure of your company might be a good way to become more efficient and in turn be able to assign some Internet marketing responsibilities to people who were previously to busy to work on them. Investing in the best document management software will mean people who previously worked on data entry will have more time to do other things, such as keyword research or content development.

Streamlining your company’s efficiency so you’re able to assign Internet marketing responsibilities to certain employees is a great idea, because you’ll be spending less money on outside sources and instead just be reassigning the resources you already have.  It might take an initial investment (or session with the consultant) to get those employees ready for those responsibilities, but it will be well worth it.

Image credit: http://blogs.earthlink.net/

The post Steps to a More Efficient Internet Marketing Plan appeared first on AddMe Blog.

Time to time, we receive inquiries from law firms that want more information on how they can grow their practice. Here’s one piece of advice for lawyers trying to grow their presence online.

Law firm marketing is a confusing, expensive, and time-consuming activity. For lawyers that run a practice, taking time out of your busy day and dedicating that time to marketing is often times out of the question. That’s why lots of law firms hire outside marketing firms, which can be expensive, but quite effective.

If you’re part of a law practice and concerned with marketing, there’s a cheap (often free) answer to marketing your firm without an outside agency. That answer is social media. Social media is an absolutely vital resource for law firm marketing in today’s world.

It’s simple: if you are part of a practice, you need to be on social media. If implemented and maintained properly, a social media campaign can bring growth to your practice and allow you to get your name in front of potential clients.

Becoming a News Source

You should use social media to become a relevant source for news in the area that you practice in. Share information via your social networks relating to news in your area that you can address and add commentary to. Focus this news on a specific niche, whether that’s local business, technology, or something along those lines.

There’s a pretty big chance that if you develop a following and reputation as a news source, you’ll gain some new clients. It won’t happen immediately, but a few months after keeping your community in the loop, you’ll start to see some results.

Check out what the Yodle Law Twitter account has done to get some ideas, and you’ll see what you need to do to create a successful account.

Fresh Content

In addition to maintaining accounts on heavily used networks like Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest, you should also have a personal blog for your practice. Each lawyer in your practice can contribute to the blog, so it’s always got fresh and engaging content.

What you really want is to create discussion. The original content that you create should be commentary on different industry happenings, or even local events in your area. A successful blog will give voice to your practice, meaning readers of the blog will view your practice as something more than just people in suits behind desks. The key will be to eventually have the blog work for you, so you can gain some new business with some of your readers.

Be Personal

Again, you want to use social media to give your practice a real voice, and appear more as people rather than just faces in suits. Don’t be afraid to get personal on your social media accounts and with your blogs, in fact, getting personal is encouraged.

Tried a good wine? Share the information with your followers. Upset about your local team losing? Chances are some of your followers are too. You should be able to understand the line between personal and too personal, so don’t cross it. People want an attorney that they can connect with, and getting personal on Twitter might make people realize that you’re that attorney.

Image credit: http://www.4socialmediaconsulting.com/

The post Grow Your Practice with the Effective Use of Social Media appeared first on AddMe Blog.

Like Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools, Google Alerts is also a free tool that can provide anyone (not just webmasters) with valuable web related information. All you need is a Google account and you can sign up to receive an email whenever a web page is crawled and indexed that includes any kind of content that is important to you. Google Alerts allows you to select the kind of results you’d like to receive, the frequency of communication (daily, weekly, etc.), and how many results are received (only the best, all, etc.).

Website owners/webmasters should use Google Alerts to monitor the following:

The business/brand name
Since people typically turn to the Internet for information before buying a product or deciding to hire a company for services, it’s very important that your business have a positive online reputation. The difficult thing about managing your reputation online is that in some ways, it can be out of your hands. Others outside of your company have the right to post about your business and that content can rank in the search engines too. Unfortunately, what is said might not always be positive. It’s important to monitor the brand name to be aware of what is being said and to mitigate an issue before it gets out of hand. Monitoring brand mentions can also provide the opportunity to reach out to website owners and get links when the brand name is mentioned. It’s also important to closely monitor the mentions of individuals that are closely related to the company such as the President, CEO, COO, etc.

Competitors
As part of an SEO strategy, and online marketing campaign overall, it’s important to pay attention to what your competitors are up to in the online space. What is their search presence like? Where do they advertise? What kind of inbound links do they have? By monitoring competitors with Google Alerts you will have a better idea of what their online marketing strategy is like and these alerts could potentially turn you on to new link building opportunities to take advantage of.

Keywords
Set up a Google alert for all of the main keywords that you are targeting on the site. Content that appears is obviously relevant to what you do. It may be a discussion in a forum or social media that you could join. Or local keywords may let you know what’s going on in your community so that you can take advantage of local advertising/sponsorship opportunities to gain exposure.

The post Google Alerts is a Great Online Marketing Tool appeared first on AddMe Blog.

Most start with a specific niche, like “playing the guitar”. Then they open up the Google Keyword Tool, paste in their main keyword and look for terms that get traffic without massive competition.

They may even do a couple of “allintitle:” searches while they’re at it…

After that, they write or order a few articles, build some links, wait to start ranking and making money, and then get frustrated when this doesn’t happen. They picked the wrong keywords and now have wasted huge amounts of time on their website.

Keyword research is a big part of a reaching success. In a lot of cases, choosing the wrong keywords can be harmful to a website’s content development and strategy. Keyword research drives content strategy, which drives conversion rates.

Most marketers are doing incomplete keyword research. Proper research takes time and effort, but the following strategy is both effective, and fairly simple once you get into a rhythm. It also helps to use a good keyword research tool.

We Still Need Search Volume

Knowing the estimated monthly search volume of particular keywords does two things. The first is that it gives you an idea of the volume of traffic you can get if rank highly.

Second, is that knowing that a keyword gets a certain amount of interest can help to guide your content development efforts. From determining whether an article is even worth writing, to the headlines you use, search volumes provide valuable insights.

Choose your niche, figure out what sort of competition you are willing to deal with, determine the lowest amount of traffic worth your time, and then pick the right keywords.

Transitioning to Market Research

Niches can be broken down into relevant keywords. Relevant keywords can be broken down into relevant, topic based stories. Telling those stories requires that you know your audience.

There are two great places to get a feel for your market first. Number one is Quantcast, a provider of demographic data on websites and niches. The other is the trusty discussion forum.

Quantcast has long been a secret weapon of the most thorough marketers online. Knowing the demographic makeup of an audience is very powerful. Both content and product development depend heavily on this type of information.

Doing forum research is a pain, but it is still relevant and valuable in 2012, and will probably continue to provide value in 2022. Choose one or two and track the most popular threads, then move along.

We only want and need to track a handful of forum threads because we now have social media and a few easy tools to track the information most relevant to our needs.

Using Social Media Resources

Since so many online marketers seem to be a little squeamish when it comes to SEO, we still need to find a way to drive cheap, targeted traffic to our sites. Just creating useful content isn’t enough. It has to be the right kind.

Everyone knows about social media, but few have any idea how to make it fit their general marketing strategy. When it comes to research, there are three important tools to use.

One is Twilert, which sets up alerts on whatever keywords you provide to show what has been shared on Twitter.

The other is Sulia. Sulia lets you monitor what is going on in a Pinterest type of layout, with a storyboard feel to it.

Both of these are great to see what is happening on Twitter, and with Sulia, Facebook as well.

The last one is Topsy. Topsy is a social search engine that will let you enter either a URL, or a keyword, to see what is getting shared the most.

Keeping Up with the Action

This part is a bit boring, but simple to do:

• Set up a spreadsheet with keywords, traffic volume, and competition.
• Add in values for social media shares. While you’re at it, add the top ten most influential people in your market and track their sharing and interactions as well.
• Look for similarities in headlines and the types of stories that spur activity in your market.
• Start your own profiles, and begin sharing other people’s work, interact with them and get an even clearer overall feel for the “flow” of your market.

Take a couple of weeks to compile this information, then sit down and sort through it. Look for similarities in stories with a lot of social sharing and comments. Which types of discussion topics are active on forums? Pick out the items commonly repeated and figure out what they mean to your strategy.

Pro tip: For the big keywords, plan “clusters” of content around them. Use synonymous terms in your headlines, and make sure your headlines are both interesting, and appropriate for your market.

Conclusion

Keyword research goes beyond simple AdWords values and PageRank analysis. It goes much deeper into a market. Take the time to analyze and plan your strategy now, so you can launch to a flow of traffic, and begin making money much earlier with your next website.

The post Keyword Research: Your Visitors are Not Robots appeared first on AddMe Blog.

When utilizing a free website it is imperative that they offer their clients the following:

• Professional, unique design
• Current, state-of-the-art technology
• No advertisements
• 24 hour customer support
• Affordable, upgradable websites
• Advanced features and tools
• Marketing support

When finding a company that offers these must-haves, give them a shot and test the water. Remember that they need to earn your business, just as you work hard to earn business from your clients. Determine if they are meeting your expectations and representing your brand as you specified. If everything looks in order, then keep active with your website, and start reaching out to a broader sphere of influence.

Some “Dos and Don’ts” in Running your Business Website

Networking and link building is all part of the work involved in running a successful business website, but don’t make this overly complicated. In an article published through The Huffington Post, the author warns business owners not to overwhelm their website with links that will send their potential customers into “surf shock”. Keeping your website clean and free from annoyances will offer better results in keeping people in your website. After all, if you went into a shop and it had signs posted everywhere and clutter in the aisles, would you want to stay?

Using other online resources to promote your website is not only a smart move, but in today’s competitive online market it is essential to your growth. Many website companies offer marketing support with social media platforms such as Facebook. If your company provides this option, USE IT. Recently, Facebook has gained tremendous popularity as an online tool for business marketing. Its mission was, and still is, to make the world a more open place by providing a platform in which people can share thoughts and ideas. Approximately 175 million Americans log into Facebook every day. It has grown to become a huge cultural obsession, and businesses are tapping into this. Be sure to contact your website company’s marketing department, and ask them how you can utilize Facebook to broaden your sphere of influence in the business world.

Your Brand, Your Reputation

Having a business website not only serves the purpose to offer a platform where clients can make transactions with you, but a good website will allow you to control your brand and reputation. Your free website must showcase you as an expert and leader in your industry. You will also want to use it to build credibility, and to ensure you have your client’s trust. Also, running a blog on your website is a great way to give your website good organic ranking in the search engines, attract new customers, engage current clients, and promote yourself as an expert in your field.

Remember, your free business website is not “an online business card” for people to refer to; it is your identity as a professional. Be selective in which company you partner with to build your website. You are, after all, putting your identity, brand, and reputation in their hands.

The post Promoting your Business for Free appeared first on AddMe Blog.

Research Local Business Resources

Many new entrepreneurs are unaware of how many resources are available to help them plan, organize and implement a new business venture. The US Small Business Administration is one of the most recognizable organizations that can assist local businesses, and the SBA has chapters in a large number of communities. Representatives can offer consultations about writing a good business plan, preparing financial budgets for a new venture, understanding legal requirements and recruiting the best employees.

The SBA and similar organizations also offer financial assistance for new business start-ups. Entrepreneurs who meet certain application criteria can secure grants or low-interest loans to help them offset expenses, such as office rental deposits, computers and beginning product inventory. First-time business owners often feel overwhelmed at the large volume of information to organize for a new start-up, so SBA counselors are available to help them with each step of the process. These types of entrepreneurial training sessions often carry little or no cost as well.

Invest in the Local Community

Once a new business is up and running, the next important step is to become an invested part of the community. Some business owners feel this investment needs to be financial in the form of donations, and they are unable to do so before they begin turning bigger profits. Other methods of investing in the local community do not need to be financial at all. They can include mentoring local students who are interested in a business’s niche, offering unpaid internships or speaking at local high schools and colleges about what is involved in being a business owner.

Use Local Listing Directories

Promoting, advertising and marketing a local business are key areas of focus, and they are critical to bringing in steady customer numbers. Establishing an online presence is now an essential component of these efforts, and the first recommended step is to sign up for several local business directories. Some of the most recognizable ones are Yelp, Manta, Yahoo Local, Google Places and Yellow Pages. Business owners can submit their company names, street addresses, phone numbers and website links to a local directory for potential customers to find when searching for specific products or services.

Submitting a business’s basic information to these directories is one of the simplest first steps to building the necessary web presence. Many first-time business owners are unsure if they need to have a complete company website before submitting to local directories. While a complete website is ideal, a new business owner can decide to have just the basic website created before submitting to local directories. The sooner a company’s contact information is online, the better the potential for attracting higher customer numbers. A new business’s website can always be expanded and updated after local directory submission.

Learn about Social Media Campaigns

After signing up with local directories and launching a company website, a local business has higher chances of profitability if the owner interacts with customers through social media. This marketing strategy helps a business owner learn details about his or her customer base, such as preferences and needs that the company can meet with products or services. Essential parts of a successful social media presence include a Facebook business page, a Twitter account and a LinkedIn profile. Some savvy entrepreneurs also spend time talking to their core customers about which other social sites they use on a regular basis. This tactic will help with strategies for expanding a local business’s social media influence.

Local directories and social media profiles are two means of attracting online attention from potential customers. The number of social sites and associated information may seem large to business owners who are new to social networking, so many start-up consultants recommend beginning with smaller and simpler strategies in this case. Combining online marketing with community participation will make a difference in a local business’s long-term profitability.

The post Basic Marketing Tips for Local Businesses appeared first on AddMe Blog.

You may be contemplating creating a YouTube channel of your very own. It’s far too common to see a new channel start only to end abandoned a month later. Having a game plan, figuring out your challenges and setting goals will serve you well. This guide will provide clear and straight-forward advice that will surely lead your new channel to continued success.

What’s the big idea?

You probably have a good idea about what you’d like your channel to be about. The issue is (unless your idea is very unique) there’s likely others who have already thought of it and are far ahead of you in the game. It’s a good idea to stick to the subject you love but introduce a unique element to your videos. Anything that will set your channel apart from the rest will have a large impact later on down the road.

From a practical point-of-view, check out what options you may have for filming and editing. Test any cameras you own and use the one that provides the best picture. If the quality isn’t where you’d like it to be, a new camera might be necessary. Start to think about how many videos you’ll be uploading at any given time. Don’t take on more work than you have time or energy for.

A Catchy Name

Perhaps the most fun (initially) and most agonizing part of creating a YouTube channel, or anything for that matter, is choosing a name. Writing a list of names and then asking friends to pick which ones they like and give their own opinion can help you decide as well as spark additional ideas. Take a look at the front page of YouTube, it’s evident that many successful YouTubers possess short, smart and sometimes humorous account names. Ultimately a name that will stick with people is what you’re aiming for.

It’s impossible to predict the future but it’s naive to not to plan for it. A not so unrealistic scenario may present itself later and you don’t want to be left wondering what to do. If the direction of your videos changes, choosing a name too specific may confuse your subscribers. It could potentially make marketing your channel more difficult as well.

Curb Appeal

Books are judged by their covers, people judge others by how they dress and visitors will judge your channel by the first thing they see. If someone happens upon one of your videos, that video had better be 100%. If someone happens upon your channel, that channel background had better be professional and captivating. Think about the visual style you’d like your videos to embrace. Intro and outro clips are something to consider. A custom and unique YouTube channel background is a good idea and will help your channel stand out.

Time to Sell!

The videos you provide are the most important part of your channel but a close second is marketing it. Having amazing content is great but you’ll quickly realize that a “set and forget” approach will not work. You’ll need to get out there and get your channel known. Some common marketing techniques on YouTube are to befriend and comment on channels that are similar to yours. Not only will you be seen in the comments of videos but you may eventually earn some shout-outs. Doing collaborative videos with other more established YouTubers can be a quick way to expose your channel to a wide audience that will be interested in your content.

Marketing your YouTube channel doesn’t only involve action within the YouTube.com site. As you well know, social networking is a hot topic and more people than ever use sites like Facebook and Twitter. Setup a Facebook page as well as a Twitter page. You’ll want to inform followers of new videos but more importantly, provide them with something a bit more. Users need a reason to follow or like you, only posting that you’ve uploaded a new video isn’t reason enough. Holding giveaways on YouTube and utilizing your Facebook and Twitter pages can help gather interest very quickly. Pick a prize that closely relates to what your videos are about. This will ensure a higher probability that the extra eyes you harvest will actually stick around.

Expectations and Goals

If you love something and have great enthusiasm for it than the work is easy and fun but if that work becomes too much for you to handle than you may grow to hate what you once thought was a blast to do. Be honest with yourself; only devote time that you know you’ll have available. This doesn’t mean squeeze in 30 minutes here or there. All your videos have to be your best work. Remember, first impressions are everything.

Staying consistent is very important. If three videos a week is too much, do two videos a week. If two videos a week is too much than do one video a week. Whatever you decide, stay consistent. Continue to upload videos regularly, keep commenting on videos and interacting within the community. Set goals that challenge you but not so much so that you set yourself up for failure. As your following grows and your channel gets more activity, you’ll find yourself raising the bar and setting higher and more challenging goals to obtain. As you reach those goals, set your sights on the next. Follow this guide and it will lead to a successful YouTube channel.

About the author: Josiah S. has been helping YouTube users reach success for 5 years. He runs BackgroundTube.com – a site that offers professional (free and custom) YouTube channel backgrounds, avatars and more.

The post Guide to a Successful YouTube Channel appeared first on AddMe Blog.

Many want to begin making videos to drive traffic to their main websites, but few know how to do this properly. Learning how to get free traffic from YouTube is easy with the right strategies.

Target Long Tail and Ultra Long-Tail Keywords

Long tail keywords are specific and descriptive phrases, with ultra long tail keywords being even more specific, but also lower in search volume. They often have less competition, but convert visitors into leads and sales at a much greater rate.

YouTube’s domain authority is so high, that videos targeting well chosen keywords may rank highly with little to no promotion. Larger phrases can be targeted as well, but targeting the long tail phrases produces the largest return in the shortest amount of time.

Add Clickable Video Links

YouTube videos are embeddable on other websites. Adding in a link to the video itself lets viewers click to visit your site. People viewing a video on a third party site may also click the links within the video to visit your site.

Put the link in early when the video begins playing. It is also possible to use YouTube’s annotation tool to link to related videos to increase video views and the chance of getting a click through to a website.

Videos Need a Call to Action Too

Many video creators miss this point. It is important to put links in the video and the description, and to ask or tell viewers to click on them for more information. Some calls to action need to be stronger than others, but this can be tested to determine the best way to get viewers to click through.

Create a Great Channel Page

If viewers like a video and choose to subscribe to the channel, they will often visit that channel. YouTube channels can be edited to include custom background colors and images, descriptions, tags, and the option of which videos to show first to new subscribers.

Write an Article Length Description

Many make the mistake of only adding a link to a website and several tags in their video descriptions. This can be okay for established channels, but those trying to drive more users to a website, it is a bad practice to place a bare link with no other content.

Taking the time to include an article to accompany the video serves several important functions. One is that it gives users the incentive to stay on the video for its entirety and that enough interest to earn a click on one of the links in the description itself.

The other and more important point is that more content creates more opportunity for videos to rank highly for a larger quantity of long tail keywords. Content does not need to be any longer than a short blog post, and can be optimized in a similar fashion as blog content when targeting specific and secondary long tail keywords and phrases.

Link to More Than One Property

Getting traffic from YouTube can happen in a roundabout way. Some users are more interested in engaging socially than they are clicking through to a website to read more. Putting links in to social media profiles offers another chance to build trust and develop an audience. When the audience begins trusting the quality and information of videos, they may be more likely to visit a website.

Follow the Trends

YouTube is showing no signs of slowing down. Online video consumption is estimated by some to increase over 30% per year, per person. YouTube’s unique standing as a Google owned property, as well as trends concerning consumer preference make clear the need to establish a presence on YouTube. The trends speak for themselves.

The post How to Get Free Traffic from YouTube appeared first on AddMe Blog.

With more and more business taking place online, internet based businesses will need to do business more like brick and mortar operations. This means identifying peak business times and focusing their sales and marketing efforts accordingly. As such, the holidays are a time of the year that is especially important. The opportunity to produce a final revenue surge to close the year, while also locking in new and loyal customers is too valuable to ignore. Here are five important tips for holiday marketing online.

Plan Your Promotions Accordingly

Online businesses should have a schedule to coincide with the holidays. Having special promotions can help to attract traffic and set one business apart from the others. It should go without saying that most business leading up to Thanksgiving should prepare customers for a special promotion of some sort on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.

This promotion should be the largest one of the season. Necessary measures should also be in place to ensure proper customer support and maximum site up time.

Begin Collecting Emails and Marketing to Them

A promotion cannot be successful if it goes unseen. Running display ads on other websites can help to push promotions and special offers, but the return on investment is lower than most would like.

It is important to collect emails throughout the year. Once emails are captured, it is important to set a schedule for promoting special offers and products to that email list.

It is important to get maximum value from an email list without abusing it. With that said, during the holiday season, promotions may be increased to improve the chances of competing with competitors for email inbox space. Emails should become more frequent before a major promotion is set to launch, such as Black Friday.

Surprise Customers With a Discount in Exchange For a Promotion of Some Sort

Social media can be very powerful in this case. Telling your visitors that they can get a discount or even expedited shipping if they “like” or “tweet” your products, can be a great way to further your marketing reach.

During the holidays, when consumers are looking for trustworthy and reliable retailers to buy from, that social vote can generate a lot of traffic that already has some trust built in from their friend’s endorsement.

Use Remarketing in Your Advertising Campaigns

Creating Google AdWords campaigns can be expensive, especially for buying keywords during the holidays. A better way to run advertisements is to use the Google AdWords remarketing tool. Other networks may also have a similar tool if AdWords is not appropriate for a particular market.

This tool lets a site owner show ads only to those who have already been on their site. The increase in visibility can give smaller businesses an advantage over larger businesses. Remarketing gives small brands the opportunity to appear to be bigger than they actually are. It is also much cheaper than the typical AdWords campaign based on bidding for ad space.

Be Charitable

The holidays are hopefully when most people feel blessed in one way or another. Pledging a portion of each sale to a charity can help to humanize your business, while also staying with the holiday spirit of giving.

This is a good practice that can help to build trust and loyalty, while doing a wonderful deed, throughout the year. Making a donation to a specific charity focused on the holidays can be beneficial for your business, as well as those helped by the charity.

This is likely to be a bit controversial to some, but the positive impact for those in need should not go unnoticed.

Bonus Gift Tip

Update your site design to reflect the holidays. Hire a designer to integrate appropriate holiday themed graphics and images into the site design. Instead of the standard website theme, create a festive mood with seasonal design changes.

Be Prepared For Success

Following tips like these will help any business to be better prepared to market during the holidays on the internet. The holidays are a joyous time and a great time to make more money. Prepare your company for the rush of sales, and enjoy every minute of the season.

The post Five Important Tips for Holiday Marketing Online appeared first on AddMe Blog.