Watch the above video for a funny take on Facebook etiquette

Building a successful business online requires effectively reaching potential clients through strategic and authentic marketing practices. And companies that utilize transparent practices are more successful than companies that shy away from expressing their brand personality and business practices.

Transparent practices are crucial if you want to build trust between potential clients and your brand. If you hide your brand personality, if your message is inflated or muddled in industry jargon, or if the message is too focused on the company, it will be difficult to reach a large range of potential clients and strategic partners.

The key is to get real. Take some time and evaluate your business mission and what your company stands for. Take a look at where you aren’t being as authentic as you could be, then rework your message to reflect the personality and the message you want to communicate.

Here are three result-driven ways to authentically market your business:

• Share your brand story and your company’s personality on your website. Don’t make your potential customers feel out of the loop or intimidated when they visit your website. A website that lacks a clear, authentic message and unique company personality will weaken the connection between the visitor and your brand image. A site with a transparent About Us page is a powerful tool that facilitates a strong connection. Not only do potential clients like to see whom they’re doing business with, they also like to see an authentic brand story and the personality of the company.

• Become transparent on social media sites. Social media sites are the perfect places to reach a high concentration of potential customers and strategic partners and to integrate your company into the online community. They are an informal way to market your business and places where you can truly let your personality and brand image shine through in a fun and interactive way.

Offering behind-the-scenes information, sneak peeks, photos, videos, and recent news about your business on these social media sites provides potential customers with a clear understanding of your brand image and your practices. It also gives prospects a sense of the personalities behind the business.

• Share yourself and your company at networking events. A networking event is the perfect place to meet referral partners, strategic partners, and potential clients. Your goal at a networking event is to be remembered—in a positive way—by a handful of people with whom you speak. Don’t be afraid to let your personality shine through when discussing business. This transparency is the key to showing others that your business practices and brand image are authentic. Allow potential customers and strategic partners to build a strong connection between you as a person and your brand name. When you are remembered, your business will be remembered.

Are you ready to nurture your company into a successful online business? If so, check out our Facebook group,

The Path to Online Business Success.

This group is for businesses eager to grow their company online. If you are struggling with growing your online presence, getting traffic to your website, and converting site visitors into paying customers, then this group is perfect for you. Here’s what you get when you join The Path to Online Business Success:

• Invitations to free teleseminars where you can hear expert advice—from SEO to website design.

• Industry news, case studies, and updates.

• The Weekly Seed – a tip or stat once a week to help you grow your business online.

• Instant access to a network of companies and the opportunity for discussion.

**If you have an event or a teleseminar you would like to promote on The Path to Online Business Success, feel free to contact the administrator. So what are you waiting for? Isn’t it time you grew your company online?

How would you like to be able to keep growing your business no matter what the economy does?

Sign up for expert online copywriter Michelle Salater’s Online Business Marketing Bootcamp for Beginners, and she’ll show you everything you need to know to go where the customers are—online—and grow your business by maximizing your marketing efforts.

And do it in any economy. 

Over the course of 8 weeks, you will work one-on-one with Michelle as she shows you the same tips, tactics, and strategies she used to take her own business from flat broke to so busy she has to turn customers away…and she did this all within one year.

 

Because Michelle really wants to help you grow your business online without struggling so you can skyrocket your sales in 2009, she’s offering a $200 Early Bird Discount to those who sign up before January 4, 2008 (midnight PST). 

 

— https://www.marketingonlinebootcamp.com/

Now is A CRITICAL TIME for businesses to invest in their marketing. And the best way and most cost efficient way to do this is to market online.

A 2001 McGraw-Hill study found that aggressive recession advertisers / marketers increased their market share 2 ½ times the average for all businesses than in post-recession.

How would you like to increase your market share 2 ½ times?

If you’d like to skyrocket your online sales, increase website traffic, and save thousands of dollars by implementing online strategies on your own, NOW IS YOUR TIME to sign up for Michelle’s Online Business Marketing Bootcamp for Beginners. The course begins January 21^st.

She can’t make it any easier for you than the 3-payment option she’s made available and the Early Bird Special (save $200) that ends at midnight January 4, 2009.  

Remember, this special offer won’t be available after January 4…

–https://www.marketingonlinebootcamp.com/

Increasing targeted traffic to your website can cost a small fortune. But it doesn’t have to if you know the right tips, tools, and strategies to get a significant amount of targeted traffic that you need right now. 

·       Post comments on blogs, forums, and discussion boards related to your target market. It would be highly beneficial for you to join a discussion board / forum related to your industry in order to post comments, get consumer feedback, and be introduced to new industry information you may not already know. Posting relevant and helpful comments can increase your credibility and lure more readers to your website link. After every comment, include a link to your blog or website to increase targeted traffic.

·       Social bookmarking is a great way to increase targeted traffic. Bookmarking your online articles and website on a site, such as Digg, under specific categories allows you to reach out to your target market. It permits you to share your web content with others and allows them to vote on its content. If it becomes popular among viewers, it will be voted to the front page of the bookmarking site and be viewed by thousands of potential clients.

·       Utilizing RSS feed and email lists allows you to reach subscribers interested in what your company has to offer. RSS feed and emails are similar since they’re both sent to subscribers, providing them with updated information. RSS feed makes it easy for subscribers to be alerted immediately and allows them to click on the link to your website. Using these combined marketing strategies will increase your client base and will likely ensure an increase in visits to your website.

·       Exchange links with others to increase targeted traffic. If your link can be found on a handful of sites, it can dramatically increase the number of clients visiting your site.

·       Online Article Directories allow you to place niche-oriented articles into specific categories. Your target audience is more likely to be searching for articles in a specific category. For example, if your real estate company writes an article for ezinearticles.com and submits it under the Real Estate category, you’ll receive viewers who are specifically searching for Real Estate articles. This will eliminate viewers who are not in your specific target market.

For more helpful tips on marketing in economic crisis and to learn about our many marketing services, visit Michelle Salater Writing and Editorial, LLC.

 

 

 

According to a May 2008 eMarketer report, social networking and email spending is expected to increase in the next three years. The survey, conducted by Eloqua, reports that:

• 74% of marketers surveyed plan to increase email ad spending.
• 9 out of 10 surveyed will continue to increase their direct online ad budgets.
• Survey respondents projected to increase social network ad spending to $2.4 billion in 2011, a significant increase from the $1.4 billion this year.

Online marketing / advertising is growing. Are you ready to take your marketing digital?

Want more marketing tips? Sign up for Your Business Marketing Solution, a free bimonthly ezine. Sign up today and recieve my free report, 5 Secrets for Creating Web Copy That Will Increase Your Sales and Double Your Profits.

With so much competition, thinking outside the box is crucial to attracting your target market. Nearly everyone, it seems, uses the internet for research, entertainment, purchases and chatting with friends, you must ask yourself, ‘what activities do my potential customers take part in online?’ 

Take for example entertainment and communication sites. One of the biggest online frenzies internationally is social networking. Nearly everyone has an account with LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace or YouTube, and the list goes on. Advertising with any of these social networks will gain you a great deal of attention. Simply being a registered user with one of these networks and you will reach out to potential customers. Facebook is a great way to reach a very large audience because its visitors vary in age, from high school students to 35-year-old college alumni. And advertising with Facebook is an inexpensive and easy way to reach a large audience of potential customers. Facebook provides your business with demographic data about the people visiting your ad and the site works with you to reach an even greater clientele. Facebook offers social ads, Facebook beacon, Facebook platform, insights, pages, and polls to satisfy the needs of your company. Currently, there are 70 million active users on Facebook. That’s 70 million potential customers for your business. It is also the sixth most visited site in the world.

Integrated social networks on the web are so intricate and virtually all connected, that by participating in one, you are bound to get a heavy traffic flow into your business site.  LinkedIn has different circles of personal connections such as “circle one,” with your very personal contacts and “circle two” with the contacts of your contacts.  If you only had one contact, you could virtually have 130 contacts in your second circle just from that one person. With social networking growing, is important for a growing business to associate with social networks and drive large amounts of traffic to your site.