39 Online Marketing Tips and Tricks That Work in 2014 (and Beyond!)
Marketing has changed drastically over the years. It used to be all about sales. The more you marketed yourself, the better. Nowadays the focus is more on building relationships and showing the benefits your product or service can offer. It is more about quality, rather than quantity and zooming in on your target audience. With the tools available today, you can make your money work for you, go a lot farther and have a much larger reach. Now that we have the internet marketplace the possibilities are endless. Let me show you 39 ways you can market your business online successfully in 2014:
Why Online Marketing?
This is one market, where if you are not tapped into it, you are really missing the boat. The doors that open using this type of marketing are limitless. Borders do not exist and the price point for advertising starts at FREE and goes up from there. Who doesn’t like to run a SUCCESSFUL marketing campaign for FREE? I will be sharing with you the tool that I KNOW will work for you in your business, because they have worked for me. If you know what you are doing, online marketing can be simple, cost effective and VERY BENEFICIAL to taking your business to the next level and beyond.
Although I am sharing with you 39 tools to use, there is no need to overwhelm yourself with trying to use ALL of them. My intention is to:
– offer ideas to improve what you are already doing / using
– show you what is available
– give you a starting point, if you are a beginner
– give you both new and proven, time-tested tools that work
My suggestion is to start with one, make it work for you and go from there.
Websites: Although you do not need to have a website to run a successful business, it is one of the BEST ways to get your name / business known quickly (especially if you use the additional tools I will share with you later in conjunction with this). A website is a portal into your business ANYONE can access at the touch of a button. Your client base can become expanded a gazillion times just by putting yourself onto the internet. Anyone who owns a computer or smartphone is more likely to search the internet looking for a product or service than any other tool. Phone books are fast becoming a thing of the past. Here are 3 ways to enhance your website and make it work for you.
1. Mobile friendliness: most people are searching the web on their smartphones. The better your site looks and more user friendly it is in this format, the better your chances are of gaining clients in this way. We have found that when we add the mobile responsive design with a “tap to call” feature onto our website designs, our clients tend to experience more call volume instantly.
2. High Converting Design: Having a website that shows credibility and puts all the info the client needs to contact you in simple, easy to use format can make a HUGE difference in your lead generation.
3. Targeted Landing Pages: When you drive traffic to your website, do your visitors know what you want them to do when they get there? Are you even gaining visitors that are interested in your products or service? Why not use your money smartly and bring in only those who are interested and ready to buy exactly what you offer?
Search Engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc…) : Tapping into these and letting them work for you is the key to gaining more leads and traffic. Here are 3 to consider:
4. Google
5. Bing
6. Yahoo
Pay Per Click: This one of the BEST ways to generate TARGETED leads to your business. It can also be the most costly if you do not know what you are doing. If set up properly, Pay Per Click campaigns set up in the following 5 tools can make your money work for you and bring you instant leads.
7. Google AdWords – This offers unlimited tricks in zooming in and marketing ONLY to those who are interested in your products and services. Having a campaign manager (like me) to run your AdWords campaign is highly recommended. There is a right way and a wrong way to use this system. The wrong way can be very costly and ineffective. The right way can take DOUBLE your sales and leads in a matter of WEEKS.
8. Yahoo
9. Bing
10. Facebook – Did you know you can target a specific locality, age group etc… with a FB post?
11. LinkedIn
SEO: Having the right words and key phrases in your website content, blogs, and articles can put you at the top of search engine rankings. When someone searches for your type or product or service, wouldn’t it be nice if you were the one who shows up in the search above your competition? Ranking on Page One of Google can turn your “unknown” business into “well known” instantly.
12. SEOmoz Pro
13. Google Webmaster
14. Raven Internet Marketing Tools
Social Media: FREE Tools! Social Media is the BEST way to market yourself on a small budget. These tools are the most widely used and don’t cost a dime to set up a personal or business profile, upload pictures, chat, promote yourself and your business and make connections on.
15. Facebook – Can be used for business and personal use. The most widely used social network on the web, it allows you to build personal relationships and create a persona for you and your business.
16. Twitter – A simple, easy to use tool for making fast money. Another tool for building relationships and making instant sales.
17. LinkedIn – Considered the Facebook for business. This is where your business profile really works for you in building a business networking community, finding joint ventures, creating partnerships and finding groups to offer your services / products to.
18. Google Plus – This is gaining more and more attention and activity. If you do not have a profile set on here, you may want to consider it now.
Social Media Management: FREE and paid tools that allow you to do ALL your Social Media posting in one place and AUTOMATE IT, leaving you to tend to other things. Here are 3 of the most popular tools:
19. HooteSuite
20. Social Oomph
21. Shoutlet
Photo Marketing: They say a picture is worth a thousand words… and it is true.
22. Pinterest – Although Pinterest itself frowns against marketing on their platform you can lead others back to your website simply by “pinning” a photo from it to your “Interest Boards”. It is a simple and fun way to increase traffic to your site or landing page.
23. Instagram – It used to be all about pictures, but now you can add video and music to your shared posts.
Video Marketing: This one is HUGE! And in most cases: FREE! Posting a video is one of the fastest ways to drive traffic to you and your business. It is what helps you build credibility, trust and relationships with others. Your clients not only want to connect with you, they want to see for themselves who you are or what you have to offer. Here are 3 of the most popular video marketing tools:
24. YouTube – #1 for website traffic, this platform is being viewed more than any other at this time. There are so many ways to link your videos to your website, blog, social media pages, etc… The possibilities are endless.
25. Vimeo
26. Viddler
Blogging: Used for telling your story, giving tips and tricks or simply offering advice, blogging gets people into your world and also into your sales funnel. This is another way to build a targeted audience that WANTS what you have to offer. Here are 3 blogging tools you can check out:
27. Word Press
28. Weebly
29. Joomla
Email Marketing Systems: Automation, automation, automation! This is how you can make a sale, collect leads or connect with others in your sleep. For pennies on the dollar, you can schedule out newsletters with offers and event promos, weekly tips or entire marketing campaigns and sit back and watch the leads come in. If integrated onto your website, these tools allow you to capture leads into specified lists and automatically send out your FREE offers, welcome letters, etc… to those who are interested in you or your products/ services. Here are 4 of the best I know of:
30. iContact
31. Constant Contact
32. AWeber
33. Mail Chimp
Mobile Marketing: As mentioned before in “High Converting Websites”, mobile use has boomed over the past several years and the more mobile friendly you are the better. Creating a Mobile App for your business or using texting to market has now become common place.
34. ProTexting – text marketing
35. DudaMobile – mobile website maker
36. Tiggzi – App creator for your business: first project is FREE
Analytics: These tools allow you to be in the “Know”. You can keep track of how much traffic is coming to your website, where it is coming from, what products are selling the fastest, which keywords are working for you etc… Using tools like the 3 listed below allows you to see what areas of your marketing campaigns to tweak in order to continue to improve your sales and leads.
37. Google analytics
38. Rank Tracer
39. Analytics SEO