Using an online marketing campaign in order to build a business is crucial these days. In fact, one would be insane to not utilize online marketing because failure would be imminent if the online space was ignored. There are several components that come together to create a successful online marketing campaign and all of them need to focus around building the brand.
The “brand” can be the actual company name or some businesses will brand the face of the company as well as the company name. Every business has different objectives but it will 99% of the time be the company name or the owner/face (expert) and the company name that the campaign focuses on.
In terms of SEO, it is important that a business is well represented across business directories, social platforms, and local listings, just to name a few. The key is consistency, so make sure that the business name, address, and phone number is consistent and in the same format every time it is spread across the internet. Search engines put more weight on a website that is represented in a consistent format across the internet. This isn’t to suggest that you just plug in the business information into software and blast it into any “business directory” that you can find. That is the kind of low quality and spammy search engine optimization can cause penalties and low rankings. Think quality over quantity when it comes to your SEO efforts.
Consistent branding and using popular social sites such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Google+ also serve to help fill up the first page of the search results with pages that can be developed to help promote the company and engage the end user.
Let’s assume that a company’s website sits in the number one position. When done correctly the entire first page of results will all direct potential customers back to the main page, or at least engage them in some form regardless of what search result they click on. Examples:
Facebook
A business Facebook page is a great way to present special offers, promotions, and interact with the following. When setting up the business Facebook page make sure to fill out ALL of the contact information, including business hours, phone number, etc – because there will be some people that decide to click on this page rather than the actual business website. They allow for complete information to be entered so take full advantage and make the page as complete as possible.
Twitter
Just like with Facebook, a Twitter page can be used to display a message to the visitor and also have a link back to the main company website. Another great thing about Twitter is the marketing space available on the profile page. Creating a custom background with contact details, special offers, or a message for anyone that visits the page is a great way to grab attention. Now, the background seen by mobile users, but it is a great way to interact with the desktop viewers that land on your Twitter page.
YouTube
It is always a great idea to create a YouTube page for the business, simply because they tend to rank high very quickly. Always use the brand name for the URL extension when possible. (That should have mentioned that above – always use the brand name for the URL extension for all social sites) Video marketing works well and YouTube is the second largest search engine behind Google, so people are using it. Make sure your brand is found there as well.
Google+
The business Google+ page is beneficial for the main business website as well. Make sure to fill out the page completely. For example, they allow a maximum number of photos and videos. Make sure to upload the maximum and make it 100% complete. Then link the main business site to the business Google+ page and submit for verification. This plays a huge role in local search and only takes a few minutes to complete.
Now, even once the business and business profiles are all occupying the top search results it doesn’t mean that the branding can stop. This is something that needs to continue month in and month out. Using these social profiles helps to get the brand name and message out to the current people that are attached socially, and it also presents the opportunity to attract new consumers to the brand. To make sure your social media effort is going to be effective make sure to check out these 8 signs your social media strategy needs help.
This is just a very tiny part of an overall online marketing strategy. All of the little pieces, such as the branding campaign all work together in order to achieve the ultimate goal, which is increased conversions (sales, consumer data, leads, etc) and an overall healthy ROI. When done correctly online marketing and advertising produces a much higher ROI than traditional print, radio, and TV do.
Source: Aabacosmallbusiness
