Effective Inbound Marketing Tips

You probably know this already, but there's a lot more to inbound marketing than just keywords and blogging. The paid search experts who are really worth your time and money should understand good marketing itself, and how that should be applied to the Internet.

So, while there's undoubtedly a lot of different opinions on the best ways to go about marketing on the Internet, we wanted to give you our list of the top 5 “Must do's” for any paid search experts worth hiring.

• They must use a branding campaign. Branding is still the best way to help your business stand out from the pack and distinguish yourself from your competitors. This goes beyond just having a logo; you need a coherent personality, focus, and mission that your customers can come to recognize.

• They must be familiar with rich snippets. This is a relatively new feature Google has implemented as an attempt to replace metatags. Have you noticed in search results how sometimes listings have ratings attached to them directly, or even thumbnail pictures? Those are snippets. These snippets let you embed information into your webpage and make it stand out among Google's search listings, letting Google do a lot of the hard work for you. They're an absolute must for inbound marketing going forward.

• They must work slowly and build up. With some marketing firms, if you show them a fistful of bucks, they want to blow the proverbial wad early with an immediate splash of ads. The problem is, what if it doesn't work? You need paid search experts with the patience to start slowly and test the waters, seeing what works and what doesn't. Once you've got a strategy in place, then it becomes time to ramp up the campaign and start trying to push harder.

• They must use multiple ads with small variations. This is, in our opinion, the best way to find an ad campaign that works. Figure out a direction, then put out several ads which are variations on that theme. Once they're out there, your marketeers can watch the response and figure out which ones are resonating. This lets you fine-tune your strategy.

• They must understand proper ad placement. It's all too easy to use a “shotgun” approach to ad buys, or use blind keyword-based contextual targeting without real human oversight. In the worst case scenario, you can get gaffes like these, which while funny, are hardly amusing if it's your ad being mis-placed. The landing pages they're on have to line up with the ad, and with your audience.

Now, how about you...?  What strategies do you think are essential for Internet marketing in 2012? What about Social Media strategies?  We'd love to hear what you think!     

When you're doing inbound marketing and focusing on search engine optimization, it's easy to get a sort of tunnel vision. You can get so wrapped up in keyword strategies, landing page optimization, blogging, and social media that you lose sight of one simple fact: none of this matters at all if those new visitors to your site aren't buying anything. SEO is a means, not an end, but a lot of companies end up forgetting that.

That's why you should consider hiring a set of paid search experts, to help you keep your eye on that prize, and make sure you're making the most of your inbound marketing dollars.

The real key to optimizing your costs per conversion is to make sure your marketing is as targeted as possible. Simply getting a lot of people to your website isn't enough. They need to be the sort of people who are likely to buy your product and will be likely to buy something. That's why paid search experts, with years of experience in inbound marketing, are so useful.

Keywords, for example, need to be considered not just in terms of where they'll put you in your search engine rankings, but also in terms of why people are searching for them. People often discount long-tailed keywords (that is, keywords that are four or more words) but these often bring in some of the highest-quality leads. You're automatically getting visitors who know exactly what they're looking for, and if you can show them you've got it, they'll likely convert.

The same is true for pay-per-click ad buys. Over thirty percent of search users will click on the sponsored results ahead of the free results. However, you have to make sure you're picking the right keywords. Since you're paying for every ad click, you want to make sure that you're getting the most bang for your buck. With advanced keyword analysis, you can be assured that your PPC is giving you the highest possible returns.

Paid experts also know how to track your customers and your leads throughout their interactions with you. Lead nurturing is an important part of this business as well. If someone visits your site, leaves some of their information, and then posts about you on their Facebook, you need to know about it! That's exactly the sort of lead who can be turned into a sale with a bit more hands-on interaction.

With inbound marketing being such a young field, it can sometimes be tough knowing how to proceed while still maximizing returns. But, with a team of paid search experts in your corner, you can be assured that you're getting the most lead generation and conversion with the lowest expenditure.  

If you're looking to hire some paid search experts to help your search engine optimization (SEO), there's a huge variety of options in terms of pricing and price structure. One of the most basic questions to answer is whether you use a one-shot package, or go with a company with a recurring monthly or weekly fee. So, we'd like to discuss these two options for a minute to help you decide which paid search experts to hire.

One Time Fee

There are certain advantages to doing a single purchase from paid search experts. Obviously, it would tend to be cheaper, and it also turns it into a single one-off expense. If your budget is tight, this is a good option for giving your SEO a shot in the arm. Or, if you haven't yet SEO optimized your business at all, it can give you a kick start.

Another advantage to a single buy is that there's no commitment involved. You aren't signing any long-term contracts or setting yourself up for a lengthy process. In effect, this can be like using the services of some paid search experts. It's trial-size SEO. You can pay once and see what sort of effect it has on your business before deciding to go with a larger commitment.

Recurring Fees

There's a big problem with only doing a single SEO buy: the Internet is probably the most fast-paced and dynamic marketing environment we've come up with yet. Once you do your single buy, you're on your own. Either you have to continue to maintain your SEO by yourself, or else you're going to start falling behind the curve within a matter of months.

If you go all the way and hire committed Atlanta SEO Services firm, then you don't have to be worried about your search engine rankings being subverted by your competitors, or your blog becoming unfashionably dated. You'll have a set of search experts who are always working for you and always making sure that you're using the most up-to-date strategies.

The Internet is always changing fees. SEO is something that you have to keep current on to stay competitive. Unless you're willing to invest the time and energy to continue the work that your one-shot search experts started, you risk losing everything you gained in hiring them within a fairly short time.

Keep Up With The Times

In short, most of the time it's better to go with a committed group of paid search experts if you have the option. While single-fee groups can sometimes help you out of a tight spot, you really need an internet marketing specialist that constantly monitors your SEO and ensures you're always ahead of the curve.