I Do Web Marketing

This is a guest post by Steve Pronger, a Business Analyst for SEO Works.

Make your marketing dollars stretch further with these seven free small business online marketing strategies.

Small business online marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to promote a burgeoning company, build their brand image and boost sales. For a business that doesn’t have a bricks and mortar site, a website may be their main sales funnel and source of sales supplemented perhaps with telephone or email sales. So without further ado, here are five free ways you can improve your bottom line on a budget.

Search Engine Optimisation

When you run a Pay-Per-Click campaign, you are paying every time someone clicks through to your website but indexing your website on search engines is free. Hiring an SEO company should be seen as an asset to your business not a cost but if you feel you cannot afford to hire an online marketing consultant when you first launch your business, you can read marketing blogs, watch seminars and educate yourself on the SEO process.

Google Places Optimisation

Google Places is a free small business online marketing product ideal for companies that do not have a web presence. With the launch of Place Search late last year, Place Pages started to blend with organic listings in search results. Pages can be optimised by adding business details, hours of operation, a keyword-rich description, and so on. You can also add images and videos to your page, upload seasonal menus and sales brochures.

Social media networking

Social media marketing is another economical way to promote your business without a huge initial outlay. Creating accounts on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, is free and it’s an excellent source of pre-qualified leads for your website. The premise behind social networking is to value and give advice rather than openly promote your business. It’s best to get a dedicated person to monitor and update your accounts daily.

Off – page profile (link building and citations)

An essential component of Search Engine Optimisation is maintaining your off-page profile. When you have back links from quality and relevant websites to your site or you citations on quality and relevant websites, this is seen as a validation or ‘vote’ by Search Engines and can boost your ranking significantly. Put half an hour minimum aside per day to work on your citation or link building activities to reap the rewards of a higher ranking.

Online reputation marketing

Every small to medium business irrespective of what industry you are working in to be aware of what their clients and customers are saying about them in the virtual world. This is critical for companies in the tourism industry such as hotels, restaurants and bars. A small business should put together an ORM strategy together so there is a written company line and policy on how to respond to negative and positive reviews.

Website design

You may not be able to afford a new website design but you can make small changes to your website such as uploading high-quality images of your products and services. The saying that ‘an image says a thousand words’ applies well to small business online marketing. Look at elements such as your copywriting to see if it is current and relevant, test your call to actions and landing pages, add testimonials (see below) and so on.

Testimonials and reviews

People like to buy from businesses they think are credible and trustworthy and one of the ways you can earn trust is by adding testimonials and reviews to your website. It is best to have a dedicated landing page and add this to the navigation with a search-friendly URL. Testimonials are a very effective online marketing tool for small businesses – remember to get authorisation to use them on your site and campaigns.

A small to medium company may not have a lot of money to compete with the big boys and larger competitors in the offline world but the internet makes it a more level playing ground. By setting aside time and resources and thinking outside the box when it comes to small business online marketing campaigns, you can outrank, outperform and outwit your business rivals without making a huge dent in the advertising budget.

Steve Pronger is a Business Analyst for SEO Works, a leading Australian Search Engine Optimisation company.

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Justin McGill is a web marketing professional and runs a successful Small Business SEO Firm. He is the founder and CEO of SEORCHERS (read: [surch-ers]) - a local web marketing firm specializing in organic search engine optimization (SEO) with a focus on converting visitors into clients. He is available for SEO Consulting and now you can connect with him on Google+!.

One consistent challenge that B2B companies face is lead generation. There are numerous ways to generate leads for your business. You can generate new business from direct mail, email, cold calling, SEO, social media, networking, referrals, and a host of other methods. Those are all methods that have  entire book collections dedicated to them. What I want to discuss are some tools that are online for B2B companies to leverage in order to generate more leads and sales.

The following tools will help you generate call lists, email lists, and direct mail lists:

Jigsaw
Jigsaw is a directory of business contacts. These contacts are entered and updated by actual users of the system. By uploading contacts, you receive credits to attain other contact information. You can also choose to purchase these credits outright. The nice thing about this method is that you can actually target which individual companies you want to pursue, then decide which employee level you are wanting to reach. You can gather contact details for their IT department, marketing department, CEO, etc.
Website: www.jigsaw.com

infoUSA
infoUSA works well because you can go after accounts with just emails. You then get to target industries, company size, location, etc. Emails are sent through their system, and you can log in to track open rates, click through rates, etc. The only problem with this data is you do not own it, and you do not actually get to see any of the contact information.
Website: www.infousa.com

SalesFuze
This is now a service that my company, SEORCHERS, offers. This was a solution we used in-house to generate leads for our SEO business. We decided to offer this to other B2B professionals as well as local marketing agencies. You simply sign up, submit your targeted industries and locations, and you’re done. You will receive an email back with a csv file that can be imported into any CRM. You get companies, phone numbers, emails, and more.
Website: www.salesfuze.com

What are some other tools you use to generate leads? Have you tried any of these? What are your thoughts?

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Justin McGill is a web marketing professional and runs a successful Small Business SEO Firm. He is the founder and CEO of SEORCHERS (read: [surch-ers]) - a local web marketing firm specializing in organic search engine optimization (SEO) with a focus on converting visitors into clients. He is available for SEO Consulting and now you can connect with him on Google+!.

This is a guest post from Sachin of Web Profits. If you are interested in providing a guest post, please contact me.

Many people do not realise how big of an industry social media marketing, online marketing and other related professions, such as SEO (search engine optimisation) have become. Getting educated for these industries is tricky enough in itself. The best in any industry are those who study, learn and create well before there is somewhere to study. That being said, private institutions seem to be the best place to learn for these careers. It is difficult to find a degree in Facebook, for example. So what does it take to be a part of these exciting new industries?

• User Experience. Knowing social media, knowing all those sites, and having your own experience is the best way to know anything to do with online marketing. Unlike many other media industries, the options, strategies and methods are varied, many and complex. The best way to understand what is going on is to be a part of it. Your own research and reading will take you further than most studies.

• Studies. Online marketing could be described as the latest version of public relations – just it is on a very big scale. If you are looking for some background or foundation studies to support your career move, a degree in communications is worth a look at. There are those private institutions that are already developing more specialised study programs. As per usual, the USA is leading the way.

• Working Style. Anyone who works in media, or any other creative type industry knows there are long hours. At the same time, there are long hours in anything we want to do well in. We thought computers were going to give us more free time. That is obviously not the case. In other words, it is not the hours that are the issue. Working in a creative environment takes a fresh and open attitude towards working. Those who work best in these industries know a flower only grows when it is given water and sunshine. Encouragement and positivity will allow you and everyone else to get the most out of what they do. It is not always pressure that delivers, especially when we are talking about creativity.

• Getting Experience. There are so many fields we can apply to online marketing, and particularly social media marketing. Making the switch to these new industries might not be as difficult as you think. Spending 3 years to get a new degree might not be a sensible option in a field that is so new and fresh. Facebook marketing did not exist only a few years ago. It might just be your communication skills and your current following that make all the difference. Again, user experience and self-education are still the best ways to go.

Those who specialise in SEO (search engine optimisation) are the true online marketers. This is actually the basis of many of the other fields of online marketing. Social media marketing, Facebook marketing, Twitter marketing and now, Google+ marketing are areas those professionals have included in their portfolios. You might have more knowledge than you think. Careers come and go, but you can be assured, online marketing is here to stay.

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Justin McGill is a web marketing professional and runs a successful Small Business SEO Firm. He is the founder and CEO of SEORCHERS (read: [surch-ers]) - a local web marketing firm specializing in organic search engine optimization (SEO) with a focus on converting visitors into clients. He is available for SEO Consulting and now you can connect with him on Google+!.

This is a guest post from Sachin of Web Profits.

Online marketing is an art form, a science, and is closely related to the basic principles of SEO. The marketing industry has been having a hard time getting a grip on this very tricky market, and the reasons are all too obvious. The basic process of getting sales isn’t well understood. Part of the trouble is that marketing online is marketing to an entirely different buying pattern based on external information sources.

The fact is that most online marketing is still being done using Old Media techniques, trying to transfer TV advertising and marketing methods to the internet. It’s a bit like trying to sell sand to people living in the Sahara. The net is full of advertising and marketing materials which are strenuously avoided. Most people are quite happy to ditch a web page rather than put up with irritating materials.

There’s a good reason for the resistance. Wading through marketing materials can be a colossal waste of time. When people are actually trying to buy something, they don’t go running to the nearest ad. They go looking for information about the products and services they want. They can evaluate any number of choices very easily.

This is the only market in the world where the consumer is more likely to be better informed than the market itself. People learn very quickly how to find the information they need about things they really want to buy. There is such a thing as impulse buying online, but that’s equally selective, and when it’s so easy to do a bit of research while shopping, that’s what happens.

What sells, an overview

Ironically enough in the Information Age, what sells is information. People are quite happy to read through any useful information and get facts. They’re a lot more receptive to meaningful information about products and services than they are to hype of any kind.

For example:

• Tell someone you’ve got a great new app that will cure their acne, improve their love life and make them 20 years younger, and nobody will pay the slightest attention.
• Tell someone you’ve got a new app that can do their business for them, and you’ll be snowed under with orders, the minute people can check it out, see how it works, and evaluate it. That’s information. Anything else is nothing.

What marketers need to install into their craniums is that their materials are a click away from oblivion in this environment. Nobody cares what the advertiser thinks of their own product. The mere fact that someone who may or may not exist and is living in a tree in Wisconsin likes it isn’t overly persuasive, either.

The “Why” factor

Internet marketing has its own rationales. The question marketers should be asking themselves is “Why would anyone want to buy this product?”, because that’s exactly what the consumers will be asking themselves. Online marketing must relate to information values, not hype, to sell.

The “Why” factor is the real issue for marketers. If you expect people to spend money, that endangered species in anyone’s life, they must have a reason. Concentrate on that, and you’ll sell, and sell well.

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Justin McGill is a web marketing professional and runs a successful Small Business SEO Firm. He is the founder and CEO of SEORCHERS (read: [surch-ers]) - a local web marketing firm specializing in organic search engine optimization (SEO) with a focus on converting visitors into clients. He is available for SEO Consulting and now you can connect with him on Google+!.

A web developer should strive to maintain high page load times for his or her websites.  A fast loading website can boost the time a visitor stays on your site and the likeliness that  he or she is willing to engage on your site, whether it’s  a purchase, download,  completed form or advertisment click.  Additionaly, search engines like Google have indicated that a website’s load time is one of many  factors used to rank a site in the result pages.   So it really goes without saying then that you should engage in file management practices and other hosting options in order to cultivate a more streamlined website that satisfies your visitors and keeps your rankings and revenue intact.

File-Based Page Loading

File compression is your first mode of action to remedy those achingly long page loading times. Although Gzip is a popular file compression tool, it was alleged to actually contribute to a slow loading time.  As a result, here are five alternative tools to really compress your files allowing your website to load more quickly:

1. Dojo ShrinkSafe – By caching CSS and JavaScript files, this tool compresses the files to smaller file sizes with the help of variable name crunching.
2. Google Closure Compiler – This tool effectively compresses your data, and in doing so, checks for any errors in the code.  You can be sure of eradicating any syntax errors that may harm your website’s overall loading scheme.
3. Packer – This JavaScript file compression tool is equipped to guide you on effectively compressing and decompressing your website’s files.
4. YUI Compressor – This tool is notable for being one of the most efficient JavaScript file compression tools, complete with safety features and effective compression measures.
5. JSMin – If you want to retain variable file names for consistency (especially for name-sensitive scripts), this safe compression tool lowers file size very safely.

Once you have compressed your files, page loading time will most definitely improve.  This will allow your visitors to navigate through your website without the issue of loading time.  With the impatience present in each web surfer, complying with loading time standards is integral in obtaining high page ranking.

Server-Based Page Loading

You may experience slow loading times not just due to file compression, but also the nature of your hosting plan as a whole.  Shared web hosting plans involve a server with other accounts sharing resouces (bandwidth, CPU, disk space, RAM, etc.) which can cause quite a few loading troubles.  Since your data capacity is shared among other accounts, you may experience downtime and even slow loading processes, especially if they’re running heavy scripts.  With dedicated server hosting and VPS hosting, you can eliminate the hassle and obtain optimal loading speeds whenever you see fit.

• Dedicated Server Hosting – Dedicated server hosting allows you to have control of your very own server and its resouces  However, this can be expensive to maintain because of your server’s isolation from others. But, for page loading purposes, dedicated server hosting can be the most beneficial, especially for online businesses.
• VPS Hosting – or Virtual Private Server hosting, is an intermediate type of hosting between dedicate and shared.  With VPS hosting, you will be granted specific space on a server, where your files are “virtually” separated from others.  The partition allows page loading time not to be compromised, allowing effective data transfer.  Because of a technically shared server experience, VPS is generally cheaper compared to dedicated server hosting.

In analyzing your company’s overall bottom line, the hosting plan you pick should reflect the amount of data you need.  Web developers are looking toward revolutionizing page loading time, because it plays a very important role in determining visitor conversion and page ranking. In that respect, it becomes wise to choose a dedicated server hosting plan or a VPS hosting plan over a shared hosting plan in order to cultivate effective loading time.  After all, keeping your files hot and ready to load when needed is important in the Internet highway.

Brian Flores is a SEO and copywriter for InMotion Hosting, one of the top dedicated server providers in the country. He works with a team of awesome writers to post useful tutorials on WebHostingHelpGuy. You can follow him on Twitter @WHHG_InMotion or @BrianAFlores.

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Justin McGill is a web marketing professional and runs a successful Small Business SEO Firm. He is the founder and CEO of SEORCHERS (read: [surch-ers]) - a local web marketing firm specializing in organic search engine optimization (SEO) with a focus on converting visitors into clients. He is available for SEO Consulting and now you can connect with him on Google+!.

This was a piece I originally wrote for AgencySide, and am reposting here as I felt it would provide additional exposure to the idea of PR agencies being backed by SEO support.

When a company hires a Public Relations agency, the expected outcome is more business and an improved image. One of the most important ways to accomplish this is by utilizing the internet for global public relations. However, no matter how well-written and thorough the website content is, without Search Engine Optimization (SEO), very few will ever read it.

Heighten Online Exposure

Public Relations agencies invariably work with a company’s online presence to create better exposure. They will write web content, interact with interested parties on social media sites, and enhance web design. As the agency seeks to promote their client’s internet presence, they have the ideal opportunity to incorporate SEO terminology, keywords, and backlinks that will elevate search engine status and create greater traffic. This is simple to accomplish for someone who knows even the basics of SEO techniques, and since the agency will be writing the content anyway, it takes very little additional time.

Promote Credibility

When using a search engine, most people seldom look beyond the first few provided links. At the most, they may venture onto the second available page, but rarely beyond that. In fact, 99% of searchers do not go beyond page three. Whether they realize it or not, readers associate credibility with search engine status. If a website appears at the top of the list, it is perceived as credible, regardless of the content of the page. Utilizing SEO thus gives a website an opportunity for instantaneous credibility. It is an easy way for agencies to achieve an otherwise challenging task.

Achieve Traffic Flow

Once a website begins to appear at the top of the Google food chain, traffic flow will rise dramatically. And that traffic can turn into valuable revenue for the company. Statistics clearly indicate that there is an inseparable link between website traffic and increased sales. According to Web SEO Analytics, around 3.5% of this traffic turns into sales. SEO is thus essential to achieving heightened traffic flow, and subsequently greater revenue.

Exceed Client Expectations

These days, clients expect their PR specialists to understand all of the available venues for elevating their business. And since the internet is the fastest growing marketing location, it is absolutely essential that agencies utilize this all-important venue. By employing SEO, agencies can quickly elevate their clients’ web exposure, promote their credibility, and achieve revenue-generating traffic flow. The client will be thrilled and will be more likely to promote their over-achieving agency!

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Justin McGill is a web marketing professional and runs a successful Small Business SEO Firm. He is the founder and CEO of SEORCHERS (read: [surch-ers]) - a local web marketing firm specializing in organic search engine optimization (SEO) with a focus on converting visitors into clients. He is available for SEO Consulting and now you can connect with him on Google+!.

My Company, SEORCHERS, is launching a new web developer product this coming Monday. We are going through great lengths to ensure the launch goes smoothly and effectively. This includes several hours of my own time doing research for product launches. I have taken tons of pages of notes, and compiled a total launch strategy for our Small Business Web Design product and would like to provide an overview for those of you in a similar situation.

Launching an online product can be an intimidating prospect for some. Questions such as how to get the word out, where to advertise and whether people will respond positively or negatively in the blogosphere can create a stressful working atmosphere. On the other hand, some put too little thought into what their online product launch plan will be. Just slap a press release up online and it’ll get picked up eventually, right?
Neither the stressed out approach nor the “slap it up” approach guarantees a successful online product launch for your business. Your goal should be to put information in front of people who will read it, remember it, and promote it. By following the steps below, you’ll accomplish all three of these goals without holing up in your office for the next six months.

• Optimize Your Website for Conversions

This step has to come well before your product launch because all the promotion you do will ultimately lead potential customers back to your website. Put some effort into visual design, usability, and conversion optimization in order to make it as easy as possible for a customer to convert once he’s reached your site.

• Create an Offer They Can’t Refuse

This will be the basis for your promotional campaign. Think through answers to questions like these: Why should a customer buy your product? How will your product make his life better or easier? What problems can your product provide solutions for?

• Plan Your Communication

Once you know what you want to say, determine what venues you’ll use to communicate your message. You can begin with an online press release, but don’t stop there. Use your existing email list to communicate with customers, providing helpful tips and information along with your sales copy. Blog about your product on your website, post a video on Youtube, hold a webinar, and offer a discount for people who respond within the first two weeks. If you have the ability to incorporate a direct mail campaign, I would absolutely NOT avoid using this marketing strategy.

• Incorporate Social Media

Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter can be powerful resources, but don’t place all your eggs in the social media basket. Include Facebook updates and Twitter posts in your overall communication plan and include links to your product page that will get people onto your website where they can find out more. Remember, though, that the businesses using social media successfully are those that maintain a continual presence and that take part in existing conversations in order to offer useful information, not just sales pitches. In other words, make social media a regular part of your online marketing strategy; don’t just use it to promote new products.

• Ask Others to Review Your Product

Instead of being intimidated by the blogosphere, use it to your advantage by asking the most influential bloggers in your field to review your product. You’ll also likely receive additional exposure when lesser known bloggers pick up the topic from popular blogs and highlight it on their own sites.

When you follow these steps throughout your online product launch, you’ll receive maximum exposure for your effort. Keep your new information in front of readers’ eyes and you’ll see the results in conversions on your website. Remember, recent studies have shown that people need to see something seven times before they end up making a purchase. Once you’ve done your initial launch, you need to continue to market your product!

Have any of you recently employed a product launch? What were some obstacles you had to overcome?

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Justin McGill is a web marketing professional and runs a successful Small Business SEO Firm. He is the founder and CEO of SEORCHERS (read: [surch-ers]) - a local web marketing firm specializing in organic search engine optimization (SEO) with a focus on converting visitors into clients. He is available for SEO Consulting and now you can connect with him on Google+!.

A recent comment left by a reader of this blog asked that I put together something more direct about mobile marketing. I figured it would be a good topic to cover because I am a big believer in mobile marketing. In fact, I recently took ownership in a small start up called DrinkersList. It’s a bar marketing platform that has evolved into a fully integrated mobile, email, and social media marketing solution for bars and restaurants.

Here is a screenshot from my iPhone that shows how bars can market to their patrons.

These are not the only types of businesses that can benefit however, and this is not the only means of mobile marketing.

As people rely more and more heavily on mobile devices for web access rather than surfing at their desks, business marketing strategies must evolve in order to continue reaching audiences with their messages. SMS, or text message marketing has begun to fill this niche and now, with the introduction of Google’s new mobile ad campaign and Apple’s iAd, businesses can expect expanded mobile advertising options.

Choose Your Ad Platform
Google’s mobile advertising platform allows you to target specific audiences with keywords and with contextual targeting. As users browse the web, they will see ads relevant to the topic on which they are currently searching. Campaigns can be created for standard mobile phones or for higher end devices. Using a combination of text ads and display ads, you can reach the greatest portion of your target audience as they search the mobile web and visit mobile websites.

Google’s greatest competitor is the Apple iAd platform. iAd places mobile ads inside apps, enabling users to view advertisements without being redirected to a website. Ads can also be contextualized, making them relevant to the content the user is currently viewing.

Encourage Customer Interaction
As customers become more familiar with mobile marketing, they’ll expect greater relevance as well as the ability to interact with marketing messages. As you build your strategy, encourage people to engage with your brand by offering relevant content and giving the user a benefit-rich experience. Once a person has clicked on your ad, keep the conversation going by directing him to a mobile friendly website that offers seamless continuation of the conversation while also providing value in the ad experience. The user should feel engaged in your message as you encourage dialogue in order to build brand loyalty.

Be Willing to Grow
Mobile marketing sees new developments continually. As technology offers more marketing options, your business should be willing to adapt your strategy. This doesn’t mean you should jump on every marketing bandwagon that comes along, but it does mean that you shouldn’t become too dependent on any one idea. Choosing one technique to master can offer greater benefits than trying to merge ten techniques into a single campaign without doing any of them well. When your one idea evolves, however, be willing to evolve with it.

Mobile marketing gives your business the opportunity to reach customers with relevant content no matter where they are. By targeting specific customer niches with mobile specific ad campaigns, you’ll see a greater return on investment that will carry your business into the future of marketing.

How are you investing in mobile marketing? Is there something holding you back? If so, what are your concerns?

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Justin McGill is a web marketing professional and runs a successful Small Business SEO Firm. He is the founder and CEO of SEORCHERS (read: [surch-ers]) - a local web marketing firm specializing in organic search engine optimization (SEO) with a focus on converting visitors into clients. He is available for SEO Consulting and now you can connect with him on Google+!.

Social media has become the new bandwagon for businesses hoping to generate new sales leads. If you don’t have a Facebook page and a Twitter account, you may as well not exist in the minds of a large portion of your intended audience. For many, it’s just not worth the trouble of having to visit individual sites to check out sales promotions and blog posts. Instead, they want to hop on Facebook and see all the latest news collected neatly for them in their inboxes. But social media isn’t just convenient for consumers. It’s also a powerful tool for businesses to incorporate into their overall marketing strategies.

The Positives

Social media provides potential access to an audience of millions at the touch of a button. Want to build your contact list so more people see sales ads and promotional items? Host an ipod giveaway on Facebook and watch your list of contacts balloon. Social media also gives companies an opportunity to find out what customers really think about their products and services. By listening in on forum conversations and post comments, they can get an inside look at how people view the company and can then take steps to address those concerns.

The Negatives

The social media sphere isn’t all roses for businesses, however. The very thing that makes social media appealing to consumers—the ability to hear real life opinions and experiences with a particular company—can quickly destroy a company’s reputation if a negative experience becomes public. The potential for companies to lose control over marketing messages means that they need a strategy for addressing problems and concerns immediately in order to allay fears.

Putting it together

Remember the Domino’s pizza nightmare? It’s an excellent demonstration of how quickly word can spread in the social media environment. With nearly a million views of a disgruntled employee’s damaging video on the first day it was posted, Domino’s immediately had a marketing crisis to deal with. But the good news is that companies can use that same power to build brand loyalty and address concerns as they arise. Companies like Dell Computers have mastered the art of meeting people where they are and tactfully addressing concerns in a way that garners customer loyalty without engendering feelings of distrust or frustration. Stepping into social media conversations allows you to address specific concerns and needs at the customer’s level, especially when done in a way that doesn’t come across as a sales pitch, but rather as a genuine effort to provide benefit.

Social media will find you whether you have a strategy in place or not. People are already talking about you in blogs, on their Facebook pages, over their Twitter accounts, and in forums. By taking the initiative to define parameters of conversation, you can guide those conversations toward a positive interaction with your company and set yourself up to be viewed as a trusted entity rather than scary corporation.

Are you using a social media strategy in your business? Have you seen businesses that excel with their social media strategy? What about businesses that fail miserably? Share in the comments!

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Justin McGill is a web marketing professional and runs a successful Small Business SEO Firm. He is the founder and CEO of SEORCHERS (read: [surch-ers]) - a local web marketing firm specializing in organic search engine optimization (SEO) with a focus on converting visitors into clients. He is available for SEO Consulting and now you can connect with him on Google+!.

Small businesses need to make the most of every advertising dollar. Understanding what marketing trends will be most successful in 2010 can help your business soar above the competition, while ignoring those trends could leave you floundering.

Search engine optimization (SEO) continues to head the list of online marketing strategies. New aspects in 2010 include personalization and greater relevance. As you develop your SEO strategy this year, dedicate some of your resources to developing content that targets niche audiences. You’ll also want to keep your web content up to date since search engines will begin factoring publication dates, geo-locations, and social media content into their relevancy algorithms.

Social network marketing will continue to rise in popularity in 2010, but you’ll need to fine tune your strategy in order to use it to best advantage. It will no longer be sufficient to maintain a Facebook or Twitter page. You’ll need to take the next step and use it as a vibrant forum in which to engage current and potential customers in meaningful conversations.

Mobile marketing has exploded and continues to rise in popularity. More people now have access to cell phones than to cable TV or home computers. Small businesses need to take advantage of this burgeoning market by creating mobile apps and by instituting location-based marketing techniques.

Video blogs are the blogging method of choice in 2010. Millions of web users view online videos each day, and while video blogging may not replace the text version, still, companies can expect an increase in the number of viewers who want more than pages of text about their products. Videos are highly shareable, and are more interactive than text; consequently, they have the potential to attract more loyal groups of followers than the more traditional written blogs.

Building your web presence should be a key leg of your online marketing platform in 2010. It’s no longer sufficient to maintain your website, Facebook page, and Twitter page. You’ll want to make your website visible in as many venues as possible including blogs, Youtube, Yelp profiles, and email newsletters. For instance, videos that appear on your website but nowhere else online will fail to reach a large portion of your target audience due to the web user’s tendency to search one centralized site such as Youtube for any videos on a given topic. If your video doesn’t appear on Youtube, then for that viewer it may as well not exist.

Online marketing trends in 2010 will expand on the succession of new marketing outlets that appeared in 2009. Using your advertising dollars effectively means putting them towards the venues that will produce the most return on your investment rather than continuing to invest in trends that may be dying out.

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Justin McGill is a web marketing professional and runs a successful Small Business SEO Firm. He is the founder and CEO of SEORCHERS (read: [surch-ers]) - a local web marketing firm specializing in organic search engine optimization (SEO) with a focus on converting visitors into clients. He is available for SEO Consulting and now you can connect with him on Google+!.