dbasemedia.com

If you were to mention email marketing to any online advertiser, they will probably think of compiling opt-in email lists and periodically sending opt-in newsletters. But these are just the commonly seen features of email marketing. A solid email marketing campaign should have a strategy that takes into consideration several other components too.

Replying individually to prospects and customers is a must. Although automated canned responses can be faster, a recipient is more likely to respond to the human elements in an email. Like the tone and mention of the recipient’s particular circumstances. You can build relationships better this way.

Newsletters tailored for on-screen consumption will go a long way. Emails should contain portions of the newsletters to serve as teaser content, to entice the recipient to open the newsletter attached, or go to the website link you provide. In this manner the recipient will start expecting your emails and want to find out more information.

Setting up auto-responders save you time and potentially lost sales. To help out in making sure you can deal with requests for more info and opt-outs, auto-responders are useful. You may have to follow up on some clients, or send them personalized emails to woo them over, or woo them back.

Employing Social Networking sites can also help get your message get out. Spreading the word is not limited to direct emails. You can start or maintain interest in your niche through posts and discussions on forums.

Your can write articles for your blog and commenr on other industry related blog articles or sites that fit your niche or target audience. Taking part in social networking sites and social bookmarking also increases your exposure.

Naturally, all these email marketing endeavors should be part of a larger marketing strategy. Print media, such as brochures, could also have small announcements telling the reader that she can get more info and newsletters via email. Twitter and other social networking giants will help keep your audience informed about your latest developments, products and deals.

———————————————————————————————————-
dBaseMedia.com | Search Engine Optimization | Lead Generation | Online Advertising

Any website interested in gaining a share of its target audience, should have original content. So posting articles of interest to your audience, and posting them regularly, not only makes your site more useful, it also helps in increasing your search result ranking. You get to increase exposure and audience responsiveness this way. You get searched, you get read, you get recommended.

Did you know that free content from your site can also be used for the same online marketing goals? You can do this by allowing your ebooks to be downloaded freely (thereby allowing free re-distribution), and submitting your articles to article directories.

eBooks come in two forms. One form is an executable html file that loads when double-clicked, opening a file with bookmarks and is searchable. Another is either the scanned images of a book or an article or book-length piece in pdf form. For the first form, you need to choose a compiler program to make that file. For the second, you can download free pdf readers that can convert your documents into pdf files.

You can include how-to’s, guides, catalogs, instructional manuals, and tips among the free content you can offer for free distribution .

By providing your audience with useful content, you build trust and establish yourself as an authority in your niche. These informative writings will help contribute to your audience’s interest in your product or service, which will increase traffic to your website.

———————————————————————————————————-
dBaseMedia.com | Search Engine Optimization | Lead Generation | Online Advertising

To come up with an effective online marketing strategy, one that gains exposure, rakes in targeted traffic, elicits responses from your target audience, and contributes to sales, you need to implement a plan with the following in mind: a good product, a website attuned to your audience’s needs, and an effective marketing strategy. When you devote too few resources, underdevelop or overlook any of these three, it’s unlikely that you’ll meet your company’s desired sales quotas.

Develop the product. Exclusivity is key. Come up with a product that fills in a need for instant gratification, but which is unique, and high quality. Research what your target demographic wants. You don’t want to copy something from the market and then compete in the same market. Make one that has wide appeal and a massive geographical target. Examples are Internet services, private access sites, information, and software.

Mind that website. Your site must be focused on getting your audience to act, to act and buy your product based only on the media they see, read, hear, and watch on your site. Bank on crisp words that grab your reader from the start and keeps them captivated until they finish reading. The moment you rely on fancy layout designs, multimedia and graphics instead of good content you’ll lose your intended audience. Words lead to a sale. Meet your audience’s need and place your information so that it leads them to the solution. Solve their problems through your copy. Persuade and you will sell.

Spread the word. The best marketing plans cover strategies to meet both long and short term goals. Short term plans include getting a temporary boost in traffic through buying ads, taking part in forums, getting visibility in search engines, and so on. Don’t rely on these alone. The long term plans will generally be more profitable. These include opt-in lists, blogging regularly, using social networking and social bookmarking sites, giving away free stuff, and article marketing. A balance plan with both immediate and long term goals works better at getting exposure and gaining trust from your audience.

———————————————————————————————————-
dBaseMedia.com | Search Engine Optimization | Lead Generation | Online Advertising

Some recent findings in search engine optimization (SEO) might surprise some older site owners that have religiously held onto older SEO beliefs. Here’s an overview of 3 to take note of:

1. Content: A survey among nearly a hundred SEO experts says that external factors like inbound links, blog links and their quality affect the ranking better than onsite page content. Well-written original content is one thing, but having anchor text seems to trump keyword usage. So it ’seems’ Google trusts sites that have more internal links, blog links and external quality sites that link to the content. Keywords mean niche topics, but link popularity is better.

2. Domain Name: Some say that your domain URL does have a some affect on your search rank. So choose your domain name well, and think about it containing a keyword related to your niche because it may influence your search rank. How big of an affect it has is debatable, we don’t recommend you turn in your corporate domain name for a keyword domain, but if you have a new domain to buy for a marketing campaign put some thought into obtaining one with a keyword in the URL.

3. Keyword Placement: Text elements and better search ranking. Make sure your keywords appear at the start of your page, because the title is one of the most crucial elements that affect ranking. The content in the heading? Not so much. Crisply written headings are better appreciated by people, not by search engine spiders but the ALT Tag text content is very important within your site code. Search engines read ALT tags and take note of the description as part of your content. Don’t overstuff your ALT tags though, engines can tell if your keyword stuffing, just keep it clear and precise with one or two keywords.

Overall, it’s recommended that you stay abreast with SEO best practices, from time to time they will change and search engines often change there algorithms to improve on there search results. If you’re unsure of how to update your site pages for optimal SEO benefits, we suggest you contact a professional search engine marketing team to help guide you along the way.

———————————————————————————————————-

dBaseMedia.com | Search Engine Optimization | Lead Generation | Online Advertising

With many companies using Twitter to manage their communications, various tools have sprung up claiming to be the best enterprise management app for Twitter. Here are some Twitter apps businesses can effectively use.

Cotweet allows you to handle multiple accounts, schedule tweets, and post to many accounts. You can even assign a specific tweet to an employee, along with a message –a feature called workflow management.

Hootsuite handles various users, editors, feeds to Twitter automation, scheduled tweets, multiple accounts, a url shortener, and a feature that includes Ad Sense. Still, it’s missing a workflow management feature that allows one to assign tasks and oversee them.

When you manage close to hundreds of tweets over various accounts, you tend to get confused, and errors soon follow. Your reputation is at stake. Reputation management for Twitter comes in the form of Radian 6. It’s a platform with real-time monitoring of every social media source you have, plus great workflow management and automation.

Sometimes using Twitter is not enough, and you need to post short messages over a dozen other networks. Ping.fm is the answer. It can integrate social devices with mobile through SMS, email, and IM. Triggered messaging service is also possible. Ping.fm is presently the most flexible app on this list.

———————————————————————————————————-

dBaseMedia.com | Search Engine Optimization | Lead Generation | Online Advertising

The current economic slump has forced companies to seriously consider online advertising. Although the web is a cheaper medium, any company pursuing online marketing should have a clear plan. Here are some tips.

Know your target audience. Choose an approach that suits your goals; find an agency that can meet them. The agency must be willing to spend time to get to know your company product and vision.

Pay for performance. You should pay for the leads the ads bring in, not for each click or impression that might not convert into sales.

Exclusivity is good. Many ad firms have a policy of not handling competing accounts. You could also try smaller firms, which are often hungrier and provide good attention to your needs.

Aim for niche websites and bloggers. Ask the ad agency if they have access to various sources of traffic—search engines, niche websites, bloggers, a wide social network online.

Avoid incurring extra costs. Avoid ad firms that require you to pay a set up fee. Also, don’t hire an affiliate manager; you can usually appoint the ad agency staff to do that.

Monitor your performance, improve as you go. The ad agency should be able to provide you with accurate reports on leads generated, ads that were run, sites that have been reached, etc.

———————————————————————————————————-

dBaseMedia.com | Search Engine Optimization | Lead Generation | Online Advertising

Getting the exposure you want and the traffic you need have always been worries of the online marketer. Here are tips to get ahead in online advertising.

The medium affects the message. Choose the format/s that fit your goals—banners, contextual ads, E-zine advertising, etc. After that, select the vendor that yields the most results for you. For example, which sites would you like to carry your banners?

Observe your advertising purchases. With some prior research and trial, you will find that some formats and vendors work for you, while others don’t. You need to decide which vehicles for your ads result in better brand response and conversion.

How well do you convert? Your ads might drive people to your site, but if your site is poorly maintained, you’re wasting ad money. Study all related factors in the customer experience spectrum to find out where you can improve conversion.

Advertising copywriting is rewriting. Don’t get stuck with your banners and the current formats you’re using. Experiment and keep rewriting, re-thinking, re-visualizing your copy.

“By the way” sales sell. When your customer goes to your site, while he is reading up on a product, he should be able to see links to, thumbnails of or capsule write ups about other products.

———————————————————————————————————-

dBaseMedia.com | Search Engine Optimization | Lead Generation | Online Advertising

Search engine optimization (SEO) increases your site’s chances of appearing near the top of search page results. The earlier search results list your site, the more people will click on it, resulting in more visitors.

Hiring an irresponsible SEO firm can damage both your company’s site and reputation. Overly aggressive marketing efforts and manipulation of search engine results violate the guidelines of major search engines. These could result in a website’s poor page ranking or its removal from a search engine’s index.

When looking for good SEO firms, ask the firm:

* if they can show you samples of previous work

* if they adhere to search engine guidelines

* if they have online marketing services that go along with their organic search services

* what type of search results are to be expected, how long till that happens, and how they measure their efficiency

* what’s their previous work in your industry / city / country

* how long they’ve been doing SEO

* how they will keep you updated, if they will inform you of every change made to your site, and if they will provide recommendations backed up by clear reasons

Remember that the more background checks you do, the better your chances of finding a reliable SEO firm for your company.

———————————————————————————————————-

dBaseMedia.com | Search Engine Optimization | Lead Generation | Online Advertising

When a prospect visits your website, he should be ready to buy immediately and your online presence can make or break the deal. Here are five tips to ensure your online visitors make the most of what you have to offer.

Tell your visitors what’s in it for them. If you don’t, they just left your site. Avoid vague promise-sounding phrases. Keep your presentation focused on the benefits.

Keep your site’s contents fresh and useful to visitors, so they keep coming back. Routinely upload bits of related news, short tips and how-to articles, and offer a free download of your weekly newsletter.

Testimonials speak worlds. They are more persuasive than case studies. So donate or offer your products or services to select customers. Offer these for free in exchange for their feedback.

Short sentences, crisp headlines, powerful writing. User website behavior borders on attention deficit disorder. Visitors scan instead of reading through. So use short sentences—they can be digested faster. Use headlines—they help pace the reading experience. 

How you spell affects how much you sell. Have a fresh set of eyes go through your site, page per page. You won’t impress a visitor with spelling errors, grammar slips, missing paragraph portions, and poorly chosen images with half-hearted captions.

Your website is your company’s online image. When your visitors feel that you’re keeping your site fresh for their benefit, they will keep coming back.

———————————————————————————————————-

dBaseMedia.com | Search Engine Optimization | Lead Generation | Online Advertising

Search engine marketing is an effective way to promote a company’s products or services to online users. In performing search engine marketing (SEM), companies would benefit by correctly applying useful SEM tips. Some of these tips include the following:

* Synchronize the marketing strategy with the type of service or product to be promoted.

* Remember that the product’s concept, use, and its target audience affect the marketing elements.

* Make sure the product is presented online in an attractive, easy to understand manner; so regular people can relate to the product.

* Generate online content with the intent to be informative, and highly focused.

* Optimize sites around keywords known to be used by target users.

* See to it the websites are placed on all the popular search engines.

Since these search engine marketing tips aim to put your site on the search results of all major search engines, it is wise to allocate time and resources for such marketing efforts.

If one’s efforts at search engine marketing fall short of company expectations, consider hiring a professional search engine marketing crew. The reliable SEM service providers are those often updated about developments in the search engine marketing fields, such as what methods yield high results. But you have to inquire about the SEM firm’s track record and previous clients, to see if they meet your requirements.

———————————————————————————————————-

dBaseMedia.com | Search Engine Optimization | Lead Generation | Online Advertising