Bad luck? Bad search engine optimisation? Maybe… However, what most successful businesses might have in common is the eagerness to succeed and the persistence to learn about whatever can take them to the next level, including reaching more and more clients investing in marketing and targeted website traffic generation.

Like Neo in the Matrix, traffic is ‘The One’ . Without traffic, all your efforts would just go to waste. Every business needs customers and without them they wouldn’t have anyone to sell their products and services to.

Of course, not everyone who visits your website will buy from you. However, the more you know about the needs and goals of your average customer or client, the more effective your advertising will be. This is a clear and known fact, as shown in the diagram below:

What is better? Free Advertising or Paid Advertising?

While there are numerous ways to get free advertising for your business (e.g., search engine optimization, social media, blogging article marketing, etc…), these are usually slow at generating a decent volume of customers and clients which your business badly needs and on a regular basis.

With paid traffic on the other hand, you are guaranteed a consistent flow of targeted traffic to your website. There are many ways to run paid ads and each traffic platform has its own pros and cons.

Paid social media marketing for example is a great way to get people to engage with your ads, ask questions that can be answered in real time and even share your posts if they think their friends might like them.

However, social media marketing is an “interruption marketing” strategy, meaning that people are on social media to socialize with their friends and not in “buying mode”. Your ads then will have to take this into account, integrating with the social context as seamlessly as possible.

Many people argue that keyword targeted pay per click (PPC) is way more effective as they allow to target people who are already looking for a product or service using keywords.

At the end of the day, it’s really up to you, your market niche and the type of ads you are able to craft to decide what works best for your business. So don’t make a decision without trying different platforms first and let the data tell you what works and what doesn’t.

Testing does take a lot of time and money but costs can be minimised if you hire a professional who has years of experience in digital advertising. You might think that paying an advertising agency $1,000-$2000/month is way outside your budget but trying to do everything yourself can be a lot more expensive as you might end up spending that money in a couple of days if you don’t know what you’re doing.

If you are wondering what we can do for you, take a look at these results with Facebook marketing :

This particular client was a psychology service that was trying to bring in more clients to the door simply educating them on multiple topics, using simple videos.

As you can see we spent less than $20 to generate over 1,500 views reaching approximately 4,000 people. These people are now a selected audience we remarket to using direct offers and incentives to book an appointment.

Did we spend time testing different ads before getting these results? Of course…will this type of advertising work for you? You’ll know only after a few tests…

Look at this othe example:

Now, before you worry about how much this client spent on link clicks, I want you to think how much your average client is worth to you. In other words, if you are buying traffic cost doesn’t really matter, as long you can keep a positive return on investment (ROI).

So, to recap…if you want to grow your business you need traffic and digital marketing is a very effective way to attract clients and customers.

There are free and paid traffic generation strategies and paid strategies can generate results a lot more quickly.

This however takes consistent testing and significant investment of financial resources if you have no experience.

Click here to tell us about your business and arrange a live call to discuss an advertising plan completely customised to your needs and goals.

Most importantly, strong brands bestow value far beyond the performance of the products themselves. Brands that do this possess an idea worthy of consumer loyalty.The more inspiring the idea, the more intense and profound the commitment. And the more the consumer believes in the brand, the more value the brand returns to its owner.

Good logo designers are not only able to design you a professional logo, but they will also make sure that your logo is distinct and unique so as to create a long lasting impression.

Therefore the question that now comes to mind is, do we really need logo designers or can just anyone design a corporate logo? The answer to this question is not as simple as it seems.

While the obvious answer may be no, the fact of the matter is that we do need professional logo designers because they are specialists in their field and are able to produce quality work that is distinct and one of a kind.

In recent times the term ‘logo’ has been used to describe signs, emblems, coats of arms, symbols and even flags. In this article several examples of ‘true’ logotypes are displayed, which may generally be contrasted with emblems, or marks which include non-textual graphics of some kind. Emblems with non-textual content are distinct from true logotypes.

Logo designers therefore are of great importance to any business as they can help create logos with a powerful impact and reach. Think about Apple’s logo or the logo of Windows, besides the obvious there is more than just what meets the eye.

These logos are not only powerful because they represent a company, but they are powerful because of what they stand for. Good logo designers know how to capture and depict the essence of a business in a single small image. They realize that a solid logo design communicates a company’s identity simply, clearly, and powerfully all at the same time.

Article Source: http://www.articledashboard.com

If a small business owner had a choice of paying $1000 a month for advertising that brought in a guarantee of at least $2000 a month profit, or paying $500 a month for advertising that brought in $750 worth of profit a month, there would be no hesitation. That savvy small business owner would gladly shell out $1000 each month for the advertising.

Small business advertising has no such guarantees however. It’s not like buying a refrigerator that is guaranteed to keep the milk and eggs cold. $1000 of advertising might bring $8000 of profit, or it might bring in zero. So, what’s a small business owner to do, especially if faced with a limited budget?

The best answer is to use small business advertising that only charges the owner when and if it works. There are several ways of doing this.

The primary method is called pay per click. This Internet option is available with numerous online merchant sites as well as hundreds of newspapers across the country and the globe. Simply put, a small business agrees to pay a specified amount to the publisher, or the merchant site, for each ad that entices a consumer to come to the small business site. The price paid is generally an amount that the small business owner has bid on. More and more newspapers are offering this option as they struggle to maintain competitive online with eBay, Craigslist and other pure play classified and marketplace sites.

Another option for pay per click and inexpensive advertising for a small business that wants to concentrate on local customers is with regional publications or some of the larger metropolitan newspapers and groups that are introducing citizen media sites. These zoned products offer a much less expensive buy because the small business advertiser is buying the local neighborhood instead of the total metropolitan circulation of the metropolitan paper.

Companies such as YourHub, a product of the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News, are licensing these citizen media sites to other newspapers in other areas and those welcome small business advertising and discount the price. They also encourage citizen journalism. The small business owner can contribute articles, photos and local stories, although the paper will undoubtedly edit something too unabashedly self-serving. This is still a great way for a local entrepreneur to introduce himself or herself to the neighbors in a friendly, casual and soft sell way.

Wherever people form communities, word-of-mouth marketing does wonders to a good product or service. People love to share. If your business caters to one of their greatest needs or wants, they will most probably tell the whole world about it. They would be your best and most convincing marketing agents, which you aren’t even paying.

Social media offers the possibility of very narrow segmenting of your target group. This is very useful for your marketing campaigns, because you’ll get a much better ROI when you target your best buyer.

You know her profile from your past sales reports, and now you can talk directly to her, using the language she understands and resonates with, on Facebook, for instance.

Pareto’s law applies here, as well as in many other fields: 20% of your customers make you 80% of your sales. This is why it’s much more effective to direct your marketing efforts towards this segment of the total population, because they want your product and they only need a little boost of their desire to make them click on a link or add something in a virtual shopping cart.

If you bring your business close to your consumers’ heart, you only have to win. If you lead, they will follow. Social media is the perfect environment where good leaders thrive. Be one of them and crowds will follow you.

Becoming a leader is not an easy task, though, so you’ll need to have a very well-thought plan and a careful implementation. This is why many businesses prefer to hire specialists in social media to handle their online presence.

Thanks to their expertise, specialists know better what works and what doesn’t, so they are probably the most appropriate persons to recommend you comprehensive action plans that would bring you social media success and recognition.

Big PR agencies realized this need and developed special social media departments, to provide exclusively social media marketing and PR services to their customers. If you look at TV advertisements, you’ll notice that most big advertisers give their Facebook page for people to stay updated with their news.

Several years ago, this would have seemed totally crazy: not to lead people to your own website. Now it’s not crazy, but it’s something you should do if you want to keep in touch with the young generation. Younger target groups are better because their purchasing power is bigger.

Besides, the older they get, the more money they will make, so the more they will afford to spend. You want to have them close to you even from their teen years. This will bring you long term benefits older people wouldn’t, because as they age, they will rather make less money.

Create a profile on several social networks if you find that your customers are likely to check more than one social network. Communicate with your customers to get a better idea of which social networks they use on a regular basis. New networks appear regularly and you will probably have to join new social networks if you find that your customers are interested in new networks.

Social media is very easy to integrate into your other campaigns. You could for instance share links to your social media profiles on your main website or to your emails. Add some sharing buttons to the bottom of your blog posts to help readers share your content. Your campaign will be more successful if your audience is aware that you are using this platform to promote your brand.

Give people a good reason to sign up for your social media updates. Share examples of the content you will be posting to social networks. You can also make your campaign more valuable by offering a small discount to all your subscribers. This is a great way to launch your campaign and encourage your existing customers to make a new purchase. Keep sharing information about discounts and special offers via social media marketing.

You should use social media to share exclusive content with your audience. You could for instance make some announcements about new products or new special offers you are about to launch. Give your subscribers access to exclusive contests, giveaways and promotions.

More customers will sign up for your social media marketing campaign once they realize they are missing out on something. You should occasionally share this exclusive content on your site or blog to draw attention to your social media updates.

Interact with your subscribers. You will get better results from your social media marketing campaign if you use it to communicate with your audience. Encourage subscribers to comment on your post and even send you questions. Take the time to thank all the subscribers who interact with you and make sure they feel valued.

You could also share surveys and polls on social media so your subscribers can voice their opinion. Making your campaign more interactive is a great way to get your customers to engage with your brand. The people who interact with you on social media will be more likely to purchase a product from your brand afterwards.

Apply these different social media marketing strategies to launch your campaign. Monitor your results by counting sales and using surveys to get feedback from your audience. If you are disappointed by your results, find new strategies you can implement to improve your campaign.

What most young online entrepreneurs don’t seem to understand that those solo ad sellers they have been reading great reviews about sell their service not just to them but to tons and tons of other marketers. So, while you seem to be getting excellent results out of your solo ads, you’ll end up stuffing your email list with the emails of people who are literally bombarded by all kinds of offers every single day and who have eventually become ad blind. This means that, while your new subscribers might be really interested in your product, they also are completely overwhelmed by all the opportunities they come across every single day.

You’ll see that something is funny about your list as soon as you notice that nobody ever opens your emails or clicks on your links. This is what I would plainly and simply call being stuck in a rut. You keep spending money in solo ads but you are making nothing…not a great story to tell your friends and family indeed.

On the other hand, there are other ways to attract customers to your business. These include both free and paid traffic generating strategies. Here there are three main alternatives to solo ads:

• Blogging. Yes, blogging…this takes time and dedication. Plus results come slowly. However, the people who subscribe through your blog do so because they find what you have to say interesting and hence are way more likely to open your emails or buy from you at some stage. They might be newbies (and still not prey of your competitors) or simply decided to receive your emails because they think you have something special to offer them.

• Pay per click (PPC) advertising. This is a much faster traffic generating strategy. Obviously, it’s not free and if you don’t know what you’re doing it could become really heavy on your credit card bill. However, leads generated through PPC advertising are more likely to convert into buyers as when they have found you through an active search. In other words, they joined your newsletter after careful evaluation of the value they think you can add to their life/business.

• Video marketing. Another free traffic generating technique that leverages the power of video publishing sites like Youtube to connect with potential customers. While video marketing is really powerful, it’s not for everybody. Some people find it hard to confidently speak in front of a camera or simply can’t communicate effectively if their native language is not the same of that of their target customers.

So, if you are struggling with solo ads (i.e., not getting the results you were told to expect), I hope that now you have an idea of how to tweak your overall traffic generating strategy, which I also hope will help you save some money.