Social Bookmarking as an effective tool of online marketing is being utilized by organizations to share the relevant information on social bookmarking sites to get back links leading to traffic generation to their site. It is the simplest technique wherein a website owner registers with a social bookmarking site say, Digg, del.icio.us, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Squidoo, Furl, etc to make use of already popular nature of these sites.
Social Bookmarking sites have numerous followers and if a business features on these sites, and is of interest to the user, there is great likelihood of him/ her visiting the site. A user can also post links to relevant social sites if he finds the website useful. It will not generate increase the visibility and drive traffic to the business site but will also help in website ranking if it gets the quality back links.
An online business can beneficially use Social Bookmarking sites to get traffic provided following points are taken care of:
Interesting headlines and meaningful descriptions
It is common understanding that users will go through any write-up only when they are convinced by its headline which should definitely arouse their interest. Next comes the description of the Article and it should be kept short, concise without any exaggeration as it may repel the user.
Hold the readers with First Paragraph
The first paragraph of an article is crucial as the user after reading it makes his decision to continue or not, so make it as interesting as you can.
Content is the key
The favorability to your website depends a lot on its content as the user seeks to satisfy his information need through the site. If it has relevant, useful and fresh content, then bookmarking will reap great results otherwise if you present dull content, social bookmarking sites may ban you.
Allow users easy way to bookmark your site
Place a bookmarking at the bottom of each of your article so that users can post it easily. It is rewarding if the users bookmark your site.
Select the right time and category
Give proper attention to the time when you submit and the category to which you submit your site or article so that your chances of getting notices are not affected.
Break the language barrier
It is recommended to submit the stuff in English as it is the most commonly used language
Check facts and Spelling
Users today are quite knowledgeable and detect any inaccuracy in facts easily so to avoid getting negative comments or votes from them, keep a check on the facts that you are sharing. Spelling mistakes can degrade a well written content so avoid this mistake and perform a spell check before submitting as you may not get the chance to do later.
Provide Links to related Articles
It is one of the useful ways to retain the interests of the visitors and make them stay longer to your site.
Respond to users’ comments
Responding to the user’s comments is helpful in creating relationships and extending the social circle.
Utilizing the above mentioned points, a website can get success through social bookmarking and as these sites follow the Snowball Effect, if you become popular on any one, it will lead on the top of other sites as well.
Given the great potential of Online Marketing to promote products and services in the web world, more and more organizations are adopting it to achieve the desired level of sales and drive their businesses to new heights of success using the online medium. It is beyond any doubt that online or Internet marketing presents the most cost effective means of reaching out to present and prospective customers but it is equally fruitful in driving them to take the intended action.
To make best use of Online marketing, it is imperative to adopt the right marketing strategy that would yield the desired outcome. An online marketing strategy for an organization should be carefully devised and implemented so that it serves the purposes and objectives sought by the business.
There are a number of online marketing strategies which can be effectively used by organizations doing their business online to obtain maximum results:
A comprehensive Website- Just as a fish requires water for its existence, similar is the relationship shared by website with internet marketing. Without a well-designed and content rich website it is impossible to survive online. The website should clearly inform the users about the products & services; should contain appropriate keywords at suitable places, have Quick buttons to initiate action and most importantly have the relevant domain name.
Search Engine Optimization-This involves optimizing the website to achieve high search engine ranking which will ultimately drive traffic to the site resulting in sales. A number of SEO techniques can be adopted to top search engine results.
Affiliate Marketing- In this, the website forms partnership with other websites say advertisers to promote its products on some profit sharing basis. Pay per Click, Pay per Lead and Pay per Sales are forms of affiliate marketing which are extensively used by organizations to market their products and services.
Use of Social Networking Sites- There is growing trend among companies to utilize social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Orkut, YouTube, Linkedin, etc to propagate their information. These sites present huge potential to come across the target customers globally. It is most effective in building brand image.
Blogging- As an information sharing medium, blogging is used by marketers to provide the relevant & latest information about their products, services as well as to voice their opinions on topics of customers’ interest. This form of marketing has realized its high scope and has become a popular way of attracting people.
Along with these, marketers can adopt other online marketing strategies like viral marketing, E-mail marketing, Article & Press Release submission, Forums, Banner ads, etc to generate the sales leads and achieve their respective business goals.
To successfully conduct the business online, it is essential to target the right audience. Every business organization has its predetermined target group and the concept of targeting one and all is just not worth an effort. More specifically, if the business caters only to a specific audience or a particular location, it needs to localize itsinternet marketing strategies to trap the local audience, who are of real value to the business. This will not only save time but will yield desired results for the online business.
Here are few of these which could be effectively used to drive the local audience:
Keep local searches in mind: With Search engines like Google, Yahoo going local and showing local search results, the website must make optimum use of keywords that highlight the place, city and nearby locations. Title Tags, H1 & H2 tags, Meta descriptions should specify the location as well as the products/services. This increases the chances of your website being picked by the Search engines. As search engines pay due attention to the address, include address in the Footer of your site.
Listing in Directories-Try to list your website in all the prominent online directories as it presents an easy way to attract traffic.
Use the tool of Social Media-With a number of networking sites having large customer base like Orkut, Facebook and Twitter, businesses can track and maintain contact with their potential customers by associating themselves with these online communities. Visit Social Media Optimization
Blogging- Creating Blogs and feeding them with fresh and relevant content that interests your target audience is another novel technique to drive customers to your products and services.
Article Writing- Write and submit articles to inform your local audience about your offerings. It is another effective way to initiate responses from the customers as they always look out for the information. ( Art
Online Reviews- Getting your website, its products and services reviewed by your existing and satisfied customers will lend credibility and will act as a reference for new and potential customers.
With such easy tools, organizations can easily trap their local audience and lead their business towards growth.
It was well known that Social Media Optimization has its potential to attract traffic to a website but the scale of potential will turn out to be huge, one has not thought of. The massive opportunity of successfully promoting a business through SMO has its roots in the popularity of social networking sites of Facebook, Twitter, Orkut, LinkedIn, MySpace, Digg, YouTube, etc.
Business firms are efficiently utilizing the benefits offered by these sites in terms of exposure, link building and creating a favourable online reputation. By staying connected to these networking sites, often referred to as online communities, a business can undertake multiple activities like share images, videos, create forums, blogs and maintain a close connection with its target group. High visibility among the desired target audience is the ultimate advantage offered by SMO.
Facebook, Orkut, Twitter are household names and their extensive use by people no matter what age, occupation, background or area they belong to, have made business organizations think means of utilizing them to serve their business objectives. This has paved way for SMO which in turn has proved to be profitable yet economical.
LinkedIn is a hub of experienced professionals who share their views, ideas at one single platform, and the website is also used to run various campaigns as well. Similarly, there is YouTube which provides the undisputed advantage of video sharing. So each of these online communities has its potential attractions that are put to best use by Social media optimizers.
With these online communities becoming more popular with each passing day, the scope of Social Media Optimization is bound to increase and will yield positive results.
Contrary to the recent assumptions that Search Engines have stopped taking into account Meta descriptions while ranking a website, it has now been made clear that these descriptions do contribute towards ranking and have a considerable effect on search results.
Meta descriptions contain one or two line description about the content of a website’s page. They are utilized by the internet search engines while putting a web page onto their index. Since a Meta description acts as source of information for search engines, it should be carefully prepared to contain the appropriate keywords that define the content of a page giving enough reason to search engines to list or rank your website.
Though sidelined for a brief time, Meta descriptions have again become an important factor in ranking with the emergence of personalized search. These days search engines offer customized search results to its users by using their Web history which may differ from common search engine results. Here comes the role of Meta descriptions, which if made, adaptive to personalized search can significantly increase the number of visits to your website.
A Meta Description should be keywords rich closely defining the content of the page in the manner that must appeal to the search engines to pick your website and give it a high ranking.
There is no direct connection between Meta descriptions and ranking but with the commencement of personalized search, the relationship between the two is there to grow and can be highly beneficial to a website if you optimize your Meta descriptions.
Given the fact that Online Marketing is the latest buzz doing the rounds among all business houses nowadays, it can be easily understood that this form of marketing presents a much wider scope. This can be attributed to the increasing number of Internet users with each passing day. Also the advent of latest innovation in the IT sector has led to the incorporation of advanced tools and techniques to propagate the desired messages across people crossing even the geographical boundaries.
Promoting the business through Online Marketing Campaigns requires on part of the business organization to pick the best Online Marketing Consultant so that it gets the best possible services which meets the purpose of the business to the fullest. The decision of selecting the right Consultant demands that a careful study of its past and present work is undertaken and its performance is measured against the prevailing standards. Following are tips that may help an organization choose the most suitable Online Marketing Consultant:
Undergo analysis of the Projects undertaken by the Consultant in the Past as well as the current ones
Gain knowledge of the success rate of the projects in terms of Results delivered
Carefully go through the Packages offered to see whether it is providing the right combination of SEO, PPC, SMO, RSS Feeds, Link building etc.
See whether it has done assignments related to your business field to know if the Consultant can help you scale down the Competition
The final decision to hire the consultant should be taken after going through the profiles of at least 4-5 consultants and comparing their work to see which one offers the most profitable deal.
Benefits of hiring an Online Marketing Consultant
An Online Marketing Consultant offers an assortment of services to help an organization grow at a faster rate in an online environment. Having a fair idea of what goes right in the online world, a consultant is in the best position to decide the most productive strategy that fulfills the goals of an organization.
It can provide the cost effective proposition by combining various features such as Search Engine Optimization, Pay Per click, Blog writing, Social Media Optimization, etc to gain high ranking in SERPs thereby leading to higher traffic which in turn multiplies the responses or enquiries of a business and drive sales.
The positive aspect of hiring a Consultant can also be attributed to the fact that it helps the organization to check the competition level and adapt the necessary changes to maintain a stable position.
