Internet Marketing Tips for Those on a Budget

These days, small businesses need a plan for Internet marketing just as much as giant corporations do. Fortunately, even if you’re on a budget, options abound. In fact, many very effective methods are completely free. So don’t let your small budget keep you from launching an Internet marketing campaign that promises big results.

Whether you’re a small business or so small you simply aspire to be, the Internet is one of the greatest things that could’ve happened to you. In too many ways to mention, the World Wide Web has leveled the playing field between you and your larger competitors. The best example of this may be Internet marketing. You can reach countless people in some pretty incredible ways if you know what you’re doing. Best of all, it doesn’t take deep pockets to do it. If you’re on a budget, don’t let that stop you from succeeding. Instead, consider these Internet marketing tips.

Make Sure Your Website Is Mobile Friendly
Alright, if you don’t have a website for your company, start there. However, whether you’ve had one for years or are just creating it now, it needs to be mobile friendly. If it takes your entire marketing budget to accomplish this, it’s worth it (fortunately, it won’t).
Everyone has a mobile device these days and, each year, more and more people are using theirs to access the Internet. Without responsive design, your website won’t look right to visitors and many will ditch it for one of your competitors. No amount of marketing will save you from this. Responsive design will.

Get Blogging

This is such an old Internet marketing strategy it’s tempting to think it doesn’t hold water anymore. Fortunately, you’re wrong. Blogs are great for a number of reasons:They’re easy to publish and each one helps you rank for keywords.They humanize your company, something a lot of your larger competitors probably don’t do very well, if at all.They’re an excellent way to give your market free information, something that inspires loyalty and will gain you plenty of traffic.While blogging may not be a new idea, it doesn’t mean you can’t look for new ways to differentiate yours. Look at blogs your competitors post and think of ways you can provide something different and better

Use Video
Videos are becoming the new blogs (in fact, some are referred to as vlogs) and for much the same reasons. They can be used to increase your site’s SEO, for one. Nowadays, they’re pretty easy to post too, though you should spend some money on ensuring you have quality equipment. No one wants to buy anything from someone who looks like they made a video with their flip phone.
If you sell a product that could use a demonstration, videos will be your best friend. What could take hundreds of words to describe can be done with a video in about a minute. Your customers will appreciate such an objective tutorial too.

Social MediaWhen it comes to Internet marketing, it would be impossible to leave out social media. Like blogs, this suggestion may seem like old news, but you can’t afford to think that way as a small business. Remember that a lot of your larger competitors come off as stiff, forced, and insincere
when they try to speak like an actual human. This often cripples their social media use.
Being a smaller company means not only can you do this, but you absolutely should. People like knowing there’s an actual person they can talk to if they have a question. Plenty will also appreciate the fact that you’re not putting on a front to communicate with them.

Whether it’s blogs, videos, or social media, make sure you mix up the message every now and then. Use Chicago seo services to introduce yourself, tell a joke or simply make casual conversation with others. So long as it’s professional, this is a good way to garner positive attention.Despite what you may have been told, there really aren’t any well-guarded secrets to Internet marketing known only to a lucky few. The above may not seem like revolutionary methods, but they’re Internet marketing tactics others have used to reach all kinds of success. The “secret”, if there is one, is being patient and persistent. You won’t have a million Twitter followers this month nor is your blog going to get you on camera anytime soon. Expecting those kinds of results won’t get you far in business and won’t serve you in Internet marketing. However, if you can ditch that thinking, your business and marketing will both improve.
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Hiring Chicago Top Marketing Companies to Help you Meet your Sales Goals

If you have sales goals you would like to reach in the New Year, you might want to look into hiring Chicago top marketing companies to help you reach those goals. It is important to keep in mind the cost of marketing, the type of companies who hire a marketing firm, how marketing firms can help with sales and what a consultation will be like. Hitting your sales goals for the year is possible if you leverage your current customers with a marketing plan to bring in new customers. Your marketing company can help you make a plan that will ensure you hit your goals for the year.

The Cost of Marketing

It is important to consider the cost of marketing before you start a campaign. Marketing companies are expensive and not right for every company. You need to ensure your company is in a good financial place before spending money on a marketing firm. Plan out your marketing budget at the beginning of the fiscal year to make sure you save the money you want to spend on marketing. Although marketing is expensive it can be very lucrative to your organization and it is well worth the time to set money aside. Talk with everyone involved in your organization to see what an appropriate budget is before you get started.

Who Hires a Marketing Company

Companies of all sizes hire marketing firms. To hire Chicago top marketing companies you do not need to be a huge organization. Small, independent organizations hire marketing firms and so do individual businesses.  It is important to know what you need from the marketing company to help you with before you hire the firm. Understanding your goal before you hire the marketing firm will make it easier for you to plan your budget and set your sales goals. Any size business can hire a marketing company, so do not be afraid to look into hiring one for your organization.

How they can Help with Sales
A marketing firm can help you target search engines to find people who are looking for exactly the services you offer. Through a Google Adwords campaign you can specifically advertise only to people who are searching for items that match your keywords for your website. Chicago top marketing companies know how to help you find these keywords and how to use the words that are most likely to find you clients who are ready to buy. It is essential that you have the right keywords when you start an ad campaign and your marketing company can help you with this.

Building your sales is an essential part to growing your business and you may need to hire marketing help in order to reach this goal. A Chicago-based marketing company can help you set up online marketing campaigns that will help drive more clients to your website. When more clients come to your website you will be able to get more sales than you ever imagined was possible. Don’t waste anymore time, hire a marketing company today.

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What You Need to Know Before Hiring a Web Marketing Agency

Before your company hires a web marketing agency, it’s essential you know what to look for. Things like your budget, your needs, their resume and the tools they use all need to be taken into consideration. You also need to understand what to expect from these areas. Otherwise, a marketing agency can do some real damage.

Hiring a web marketing agency should be an exciting time for any business. Even if you’ve handled marketing so far, it will make a huge difference to have a professional company take over on your behalf. It allows you to focus on the business end of things and still see improved results. However, that’s the best case scenario. The worst case scenario involves a web marketing agency that proves more trouble than they’re worth and may even set your progress back. So before you hire an agency, here’s what you need to consider.

Your Budget

Whether you’re hiring a web marketing agency or a new receptionist, your budget always needs to be considered first and foremost. When it comes to marketing, see if there’s money you can add to it by giving the agency more jobs to do. For example, if someone has been handling social media for you, updating your blog, sending out email newsletters, etc. these are all things you can have your new agency handle.

Your Needs

At the same time, be sure you’re clear about what you actually need from a web marketing agency. You may not need some of those things I just listed and, therefore, shouldn’t be paying for them. In contrast to the above advice, if you’re confident you’re handling the blog just fine, there’s money to be saved there.
You also don’t want to wind up getting sold on services you don’t need. If your market is a younger one, they may not respond to email newsletters like older clients would. So no matter how well a company claims to do them, they’re not worth wasting a cent on.

Their Own Results

Any web marketing agency out there should count SEO amongst their expertise. So do a Google search for key phrases and see where they land. If they’re not showing up on the first page, and preferably high up on it, what are the chances they’ll know how to do the same for you (it’s possible, of course; marketing agencies are a dense market, but it’s still worth considering).

Their Work

You could perhaps forgive them for not beating out the hundreds of other web marketing agencies competing for Google real estate if they’ve proven they’ve helped others. This is where their resume comes into play. Any web marketing agency worthy of being considered should have a resume that clearly shows what they’ve done for other companies like yours.

However, don’t take their resume at face value. You may have to ask questions like:

•    How long did it take you to achieve these results?

•    What did you charge?

•    Are you still employed by them? If not, why?

They’re a marketing agency, so they know how to sell. That means you’re going to need to use a generous amount of scrutiny to get the answers you need.

The Tools They Use

Marketing online these days means using any of a number of different tools. So any web marketing agencies worthy of your time should be familiar with many and using at least a handful regularly. Not using tools doesn’t mean they’re somehow above the need. Tools like Clickable, Omniture, e-Frontier, and Webtrends all provide huge advantages. Anyone in web marketing who ignores them should raise a huge red flag in your mind.

Performance Guarantees

This component has two factors involved. First, you need to know how an agency plans on measuring their own performance. Put another way, what do they actually plan on providing you—objectively. Their answer needs to be specific as marketing can sometimes needlessly drift into the vague.

The other interesting thing to look out for is how familiar they are with your company and does it come across in their answer? They should be able to explain where they’ll get you in terms of page rank and how that result is affected by your competitors.

Of course, the second part is the guarantee. Their promises don’t mean much if you don’t get any assurances. So be sure they tell you what happens if they miss the mark.

While this may seem like a lot to ask or expect of a Chicago web marketing agency you’re only interviewing, I assure you it’s necessary. Otherwise, you could very easily end up paying for a problem.

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What to Look for in a Marketing Agency

Every company needs a marketing agency, unless they’re big enough to handle all their efforts in-house and effectively. If your company’s not in that boat, you still have plenty of options, so long as you know what to look for. The right marketing agency for you should have everything from talent to acumen to affordable prices.

Does your company need a marketing agency? You won’t have trouble finding one. Nowadays, there are ad agencies, interactive marketing agencies, email marketing agencies, and more. These categories represent countless companies from all over the world and, thanks to the Internet, most of them could serve you from just about anywhere. But that doesn’t mean they should. Before you go putting your eggs in the wrong marketing agency basket, think about the following when considering your options.

Business Acumen

This might seem like a no-brainer, but look for this in any marketing agency you interview and you’ll soon see why this is so important. Nowadays, interactive marketing agencies are a hot choice. What a lot of people don’t know, though, is that many of them started out as web design firms. While that can be a huge advantage, it can also mean that while they understand SEO, SEM, analytics, and web design, they may not know how to use these tools to best serve your purposes.

When interviewing options, expect that they’ll show up with a solid grasp of your company, your market and how they’ll help the two connect.

Design Abilities

Like we just covered, a lot of interactive marketing agencies will already have design chops because that used to be their bread and butter. This is something you should look for from just about any marketing agency. Having an agency that can both handle marketing and knows how to get your web design on the same page is invaluable. Otherwise, you’re stuck with the challenge of syncing the two up on your own.

Proven Success

No matter what kind of company or individual you’re interviewing, you obviously want to make sure they can prove they’ve succeeded in the past. You probably don’t want to be the first client for your marketing agency, after all.

However, one interesting place to check their abilities is their own web presence. If they’re experts at SEO, you should expect that they’ll show up pretty early in terms of page rank. If they’ve boasted about their social media talents, you should expect that their Twitter account is updated and has an enviable amount of followers.

Marketing agencies are in a pretty dense market to be sure, but this is still worth considering. If you’re unimpressed by what they’ve done on their own behalves, feel free to bring it up to them for an explanation.

Testimonials

Even if an agency did well by a client, that doesn’t necessarily mean that company would recommend them. Plus, many agencies will simply show you a portfolio. Just because a web page, billboard, or campaign looks great doesn’t mean that it actually was, in terms of dollars and cents.

Asking for testimonials isn’t a bad idea. However, an even better one is soliciting them on your own. This way you know you’re getting the information you want right from the horse’s mouth and don’t have to worry that their kind words came in exchange for a discount of some sort.

Pricing

Obviously, pricing is always an important factor to consider when hiring a business to help yours. However, things can get a bit tricky when you’re looking for a marketing agency that will handle your online campaigns. When it comes to things like SEM (Search Engine Marketing), agencies can charge by percentage of the total media cost, cost per action or a number of other ways. How they charge you will affect more than your budget; it may also affect how incentivized they are to truly help you.

Find Out Who Will Be Working on Your Account

Agencies these days hire all kinds of people. Everyone from web developers to social media experts are often under the same roof working to help market their clients. It’s a fair question to find out who will be working on your account and what their background is. Just about anyone can be a social media expert these days; it doesn’t mean you want that person responsible for your account. Resumes may not always tell the whole story though, so be open to hearing about their accomplishments. 

Working with the right Chicago marketing agency can make all the difference in your company’s future. However, if you don’t use the above to find the right one, it could also be the worst thing that ever happened to it.

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Know if a Digital Marketing Agency Is Worth Hiring

Like just about every company out there, yours needs a digital marketing agency in order to stay competitive in our Internet age. If you’ve already done some looking, I don’t need to tell you that you won’t lack for options. I probably also don’t need to tell you that this isn’t necessarily a good thing. You could be in for a lot of trial and error before you finally land that one digital marketing agency that will be worth their price. In order to make things easier on you, consider the following characteristics all digital marketing agencies should have.

They Have the Right Attitude

That might not sound like the most important trait for a digital marketing agency to possess, but it really makes a difference. Agencies tend to have a dominant attitude trait. They could be any of the following:

•Artists
•Engineers
•Scientists
•Worker Bees

You want all four. The ideal agency absolutely must be creative like an artist. However, they need to harness that creativity and build something that will perform like an engineer. Like a scientist, they must be able to step back from their creation and think analytically, putting their artistic passion aside for a moment. Lastly, they need to have the work ethic of worker bees—relentlessly putting their talents into getting the job done.

I know this isn’t exactly an interview question, but it’s something you’ll definitely want to feel out. Even having three out of four of these traits could hurt you.

They Bridge the Gap

Every digital marketing agency—or any marketing agency, for that matter—has one huge challenge in common: you. Don’t take it personally; it’s just the way things are. As the customer, you know what you want: more and better exposure. As the marketing agency, their job is to provide it. However, you can both have very different views on how to do this. Even though you’re not the expert, sometimes you’ll be right; chances are that every time, you’ll at least think you are.

So a good marketing agency needs to know how to bridge that gap. They have to both sell you on their idea and educate you on why it’s the right one. Be wary of digital marketing agencies that gloss over the details when you’re interviewing them. This might be a sign that they’re a little too comfortable with the idea that they’re the experts and you’re the meal ticket.

They’re Innovators

Your company needs a digital marketing agency that knows how to innovate. Of course, they need to have mastered the basics and have a good grasp on all the building blocks for a good marketing campaign. But one of the essential blocks some companies miss—in an effort to play it safe—is innovation. If you want to stand out, you can’t use the same formula as everyone else, plain and simple.

They’re a Master of All Mediums
A Chicago digital marketing agency needs to do more than just write keyword-laden copy for you. They need to create copy that flies off the page and convinces people to buy. But that’s far from all. The reason you’re going with a digital marketing agency, as opposed to a traditional one, is because they should also know how to get videos made for you that will also work well. They should know how to get your social media presence to the next level. Their ads should feature beautiful photos/graphics with the right selection of words accompanying them.

Get the point? Any digital marketing agencies you’re considering need to have a portfolio that spans every medium out there. And if you’re not using every medium out there, your SEO is suffering.

They’re Curious

They might be masters at SEO, SEM, and everything else, but no digital marketing agency is going to know your company as well as you do. So it’s essential any agency you consider goes through the discovery process regarding what it is you do, how you do it, what you charge, etc. You should know during the interview process whether or not they have this kind of approach—you’re not the only one who should be asking questions, to put it another way.

Making the right choice out of all the digital marketing agencies you have to consider can be a lot of work. But if you keep the above in mind, it will be worth it.

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Mistakes to Avoid When Hiring an Internet Marketing Agency

Hiring an Internet marketing agency is a necessity these days. Their expertise can land your company right in front of your market. That being said, you need to know what to look for in order to hire the right one. Otherwise, the one you end up with will be far more trouble than they’re worth.

If your company is in the market for an Internet marketing agency, this should be a pretty exciting time. Soon, your bottom line will benefit from the expertise of a company that can bring you more exposure than ever before. However, now is not the time to lose your head. Hiring the right Internet marketing agency is indeed going to be a huge help. Hiring the wrong one, on the other hand, could set your business back considerably. So here are some mistakes you’ll want to avoid making.

Not Being Specific about SEO

SEO is an essential field for getting ranked on search engines and finding your market. Unfortunately, it’s also a very broad subject that leaves itself open to vague service descriptions. So you want any potential Internet marketing agency to be specific about what they’re going to offer.

One mistake is to hire a company because they say they can handle things like backlinks, social media, directory listings and a whole collection of services that all happen away from your website. These things can definitely help; there’s no doubt about that. But what you want is a company that will also handle on-site SEO. That’s absolutely essential to climbing the ranks of Google.

Not Providing SEO Campaigns

Along the same lines, simply providing you with some blog posts or changing your meta descriptions won’t help either. You need a company that can actually give you legitimate SEO campaigns. This means syncing up every component of their SEO services so they all work in tandem to get you up those page ranks.
Don’t just take their word for it either. Ask them specifically about your company and website. What do they plan on doing with it to get results? Can they give you examples of when they’ve done this in the past?

Social Media, Social Media, Social Media

Nothing is as hot in marketing right now as social media. As such, expect that any Chicago Internet marketing agency you talk to is going to bring up this golden calf. The problem is social media—a lot like SEO—is rife with vague services and empty results.

One perfect example is Twitter followers (or Facebook friends, etc.). Each follower isn’t worth the same amount in terms of the resources it takes to secure them. Think of them like actual customers. If you ran a car lot that sold minivans, who’s worth more to you:

•Customer 1: Recent college graduate, single, lives in the city by the subway.

•Customer 2: Married career man in his 30s who’s expecting twins.

That’s how you need to think of Twitter followers and other social media currency. A company with a long history of securing these may actually not be worth your time. You don’t want followers/friends/pins, you want leads. Hire the company that shows you how they’re able to procure actual leads from social media.

Assuming They’re Responsible for Their Resume

You always want to look at the resume of any Internet marketing agency you’re interviewing. But that doesn’t mean you simply assume they’re responsible for the success they’ve had. In today’s day and age, those numbers could come from a variety of things.

This is why you have to contact their prior clients and ask them about the agency in question and how big a role they really played. It could be that a competitor went out of business, they came out with a new product or they simply started using Facebook. While this would be a rare event to happen consistently for an agency, it’s worth taking a second to make that call.

Neglecting Your Own Talents

The right Internet marketing agency will be a godsend and worth every cent that you pay. However, that doesn’t mean you need to overpay or even purchase certain services. You may be able to handle your blog perfectly well, for example. Updating social media may be in your wheelhouse. If those things aren’t jobs you can handle now, consider taking classes or otherwise learning the ropes. You could potentially save a lot of money and maintain some control.

Before you hire an Internet marketing agency, make sure you’re avoiding the above mistakes. Countless companies before you have made them and some didn’t recover.

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How to Pick from All the SEO Companies out There

Here are few best practices that could help you to select potential SEO companies that can benefit your business.

If your business could benefit from some help with their SEO (hint: everyone’s could), it’s time you think about hiring a company for the job.So here are some things to think about that should help you bring that list of potential SEO companies down considerably.

If your business could benefit from some help with their SEO (hint: everyone’s could), it’s time you think about hiring a company for the job. It won’t be long, though, before you realize there are too many Chicago SEO Companies out there to count. While it’s certainly nice having options, this time that blessing can be a real challenge. So here are some things to think about that should help you bring that list of potential SEO companies down considerably.

Experience

In today’s world, it seems like everyone is an SEO expert. This is one of the reasons why SEO companies are a dime a dozen. Unfortunately, because this is such a necessary tool and so many people who need it don’t truly understand it, a lot of these snake oil salesmen get hired.

Even if they have good intentions, becoming a true expert at SEO takes time. So that should be one of the first things you look for in any SEO companies up for the job.

Resume

Of course, they could have a decade of experience and not be the SEO company for you. Improving your search engine rank takes a number of talents, and chief amongst them is understanding your market. That’s why many SEO companies have a specialty when it comes to industries. One may be the best at helping, say, law firms get ranked. However, if a restaurant hired them, their results could lack considerably.

On top of that, you obviously want to make sure they’ve had successful campaigns in the past. Don’t simply take their word for it either. Call up the client they served and get their opinion. You definitely want to know how long it took them to secure that success. But it’s also worth asking what it was like working with them. Given how important SEO services are and how much they can cost, the last thing you want is a company that you’ll constantly be fighting with.

Services

Another good way to get rid of some of the one-hit-wonders out there is to ask potential companies about the services they provide. Specifically, you want to confirm the main three. These are:
• On-Page Optimization, like HTML tags, keywords, meta descriptions, etc.
• Off-Page Optimization, like backlinks, directory listings, etc.
• Technical Optimization, like website design, etc.

You may be surprised to find how many companies only handle one or two of these. Again, this is because a lot of these so-called “companies” just learned one to get in the business. Without having all three working in tandem, your SEO will suffer, plain and simple.

Marketing Chops

Somewhere along the way, SEO became divided from traditional marketing strategies. The two are certainly different, however, they overlap considerably too. This means your chosen company should be able to provide you with content that outlines the benefit of your product or services to readers. If you just get a handful of paragraphs with a few keywords included, this really won’t do much for you. Remember, having a user find your website is great. Turning them into a customer is ideal.

A Good Fit with the Rest of Your Company

If your company consists of just you and your laptop, you still want to make sure that you can get along with any SEO companies that are up for the job. As we mentioned before, getting ranked can sometimes feel like you’re in a foxhole with your SEO team and those are cramped quarters during the best of times.

Finding the right fit is even more important for larger companies though. Chances are your SEO company will be interacting with your IT department, customer service, your sales team and more. If they can’t all play well together, you’re not going to get what you need from your SEO.

Excellent Communication

Lastly, you may assume that a company specializing in marketing tactics would be great at communicating, but this is an assumption that often proves wrong. A lot of times you’ll find that many SEO companies fall short here. This is unacceptable. Try to get a sense for their communication style when you interview them to ensure they will update you regularly and respond to communications in a timely manner.

While an SEO company can take your business to the next level, it can also stop your progress cold in its tracks. Consider the above to ensure the SEO company you pick is more benefit than burden.

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