If you fall into that category, it’s important for you that your clients would be able to find you, but it’ll be a waste of time and money to try and rank high on the internet on the national or internetional level.

So how do you set up a location based marketing?

1. Set some goals : What do you want to achieve from this campaign? More customers? loyalty? More sales? Engagement?

2. Choose the service(s): Look for services like foursquare, Facebook places, G+ ,Yelp etc.- Find out where which service makes sense for your local market

3. Claim your location: It’s as simple as it sounds – go to those websites and claim your businesses location. In most cases you can make an extensive profile for free! (while you are at it make sure that you are also listed in the local online business listings and phone book it’ll help your local SEO-Search Engine Optimization)

4. Bribe them! think of a great offer, something that would make it worth their while coming to your shop and letting everyone know what they just did…. A great example is the Ben & Gerry’s campaign offering 3 balls of icecream for $3 (instead of $5,5) for customers that checked in using foursquare.

5. Let them know about it: let your customers know about your campaign using social media, newsletter, ads and signs in the shop

6. Measure results and improve

Let us know how it went!

p.s. Make sure as always that you can deliver on your promises!

p.p.s If you need help with setting up your campaign give us a shout

What is Search Engine Optimization?

Everyone who ever had a website knows that simply having one is not enough… If no one can find your website on the internet then you would have very few visitors if any.

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the sum of work one has to do in order to get your website found and ranked (preferably on the first page) in Search Engines like Google, Yahoo! and BING.

Having optimized your website, the results should appear on the “generic” or FREE results of those search engines.

Why is it important?

Because most people search for answers, products an services online. Because ranking high on the search engines means that you can reach a target group that is looking for your services FOR FREE at the minute they are searching for your services.

Getting found means more traffic. More traffic means more sales. It’s as simple as that.

How does it work?

A search Engine visits your website periodically and checks it out (this happens automatically through special software)

In order for you find what you want on the internet ,A search engine has to determine which website is the most relevant to the keywords entered by you. When you enter a question to Google for instance, Google looks at the words you entered in the search box and goes to its database (index) and looks for the best results. The job of the search engine is to come up with the most relevant websites and the highest quality to the given keywords

So keywords are very important but it’s not all (otherwise we could have put up a website full with only keywords)

How exactly Google ranks websites is a secret to prevent misuse of that information. But we do know quit a few things on how it works and there is a lot we can do to improve the results of a website ranking.

For instance, How big is the website (how much deep content and pages it has), how popular is it?  how many changes per day, how many incoming links.

What we can do in order to help the search Engines help us is to optimize the technical side of the website to make it easy for the search engines to map our website. We can also build incoming links to our website, Make sure the content is good and relevant (and plentiful), Make sure our website is user friendly and much more.

So how do I make sure the Search Engine can find my website?

Even though SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a profession, there are many things you can do yourself in order to influence your ranking. The best way is to give the visitor to your website lots of information and a pleasant experience. The more value you offer, the better your chances are to rank high on the search engines and stay there.

There are many companies out there that try to “trick” Google into ranking it high and  sometimes those tricks work for a short while. But as soon as Google discovers that, they change their policy and those websites can find themselves black listed and they just disappear. That is why the best way to go about it is by doing the work and offering real value.

Please feel free to contact us for any question about Search Engine Optimization for your site.

People give away a lot of information for free! You can gather information on things like:

Gender, Home town, current location, Personal status, sexual preferences, Hobbies and interests and much more.

Not only you can gather all that information about your clients, most social websites gives you an opportunity to target a specific market segment based on the information people gave while filling out their personal profile. And the big surprise is, that even though you can target a very specific group – the cost could be considerably less than what we where used to before the Social Media age.

Everyone understands that you cannot ignore websites like Facebook and Twitter and Youtube if you really want to reach your clients.

But really understanding Social Media Marketing is more than just targeting your clients with adds and getting them to “Like” you on Facebook.

Social Media allows us to really communicate with our clients and their feedback. It allows us to learn more about what they really want so we can service them better.

It allows us to give them a better customer service and to build our brand in another way: Through recommendations of happy clients.

While pre- Social Media Marketing campaigns would focus on a “one way ” message, A good Social Media campaign  is all about communication WITH your clients. You invite them to react and interact.

Of course it can also work against you: if you don’t have a good service or product, if you customer support sucks or  your clients are not very happy with you – it could do a lot of damage to your brand. This would have happened anyway eventually if that is the case, but now that it’s all over the internet its very hard to repair and you might need to do some damage control and reputation management.

It’s important to remember that your clients will use Social Media whether you participate in the conversation or not. So It is always advisable to monitor what is said about your brand and react on time.

Social Media is neither good nor bad. It’s just is. You cannot ignore it (you can try, but it’d just be playing Ostrich)

And there are a lot of benefits to be had from participating in the conversation.

If you are not sure how to form a Social Media Strategy for your business – we can help please feel free to contact us with any question and we’ll do our best to help.

What is the difference?

Static Web Design

Is usually cheaper because it requires less labor. Basically, you tell the person designing your website what you want the website to look like, and they design a website for you, including all of the content.

The benefits of choosing for a static website is that it’s cheap and it’s quick (and sometimes that is exactly what we need!)

However, there are also downsides for this kind of website.

Whenever you want to change something or to add something to your website you would have to contact your webmaster and usually it cost more time and money to make minor changes in the website.

It’s also a lot more difficult to rank high on the search engines with a static page.

A Content Management System

is a flexible system that allows you to update your website any time, at your convenience. You can add pages to your website and edit your texts and photo’s without needing to call on someones services.

A Content Management website can be designed and customized just like a static page.

The benefits of a Content Management System (CMS) are clear: It offers you flexibility and saves you time and on the long term – money. It’s relatively simple to market and allows you to interact easily with your clients.

The starting cost is not that high in many cases (depends on the demand) en there are many cheap designs you can use and customize for your needs – of course you can make it crazy as you want . There are content management systems that costs tens of thousands of Euro.

Is updating a Content management website difficult?

No. You don’t need any technical background  to be able to work with a Content Management System

It’s really not that complicated. Your web designer would be able to explain how it works within a few minutes.

There is also a lot of free information available on the internet. It is really very straight forward and if you know how to operate a computer and surf the internet you will have no trouble using a Content Management System (CMS)

How do I know which system to choose?

Ask yourself what the goal is of your website? What does it need to do for you? Would you like the possibility to update information yourself? What is your budget?

Most of the times we would recommend Content Management System (CMS) because the benefits outweigh the disadvantages.

Now that you know the difference between a Content Management System and a Static Web Design, all you have to do is decide which one is right for you or your company.

If you are still not sure please feel free to contact us for a free consult

Personal email is the biggest content consumption 

According to a comscore,  personal email was the biggest content consumption category for mobile users in 2010.

It’s important to take into consideration that mobiles also changed the way we consume our information. A study sponsored by Google in 2011 shows that 82% of Smart-phone users check their email on waking or immediately after getting dressed. It is also a known fact that mobile users check their email on-the-go during the day (they read the email as soon as it comes in)
This is an opportunity to communicate with our target group at the right moment of the day. It is also a factor to consider while planning a direct response campaign

Strategy for mobile email  success

By knowing your market and your mailing list and how your clients prefer to receive their email you can target your email to the right audience at the right time of day (and the best day of the week).

Use the segmentation option and statistics of your email marketing service. We recommend using the Aweber service as we have a great experience with it but any professional email marketing and auto responder service would have reports you could use to improve your marketing results.

Also, we recommend giving your clients a few choices for consuming your content. Add an option to read your newsletters on the website and a plain text option for mobile users.

Don’t forget to include social media links in your mobile marketing as most smart-phone users consume both email and social media through their mobile phone.

*At Simple Online Solutions we can help you develop a strategy that suits your business. Please feel free to contact us for a free consult

Choosing a great domain name is very important when you consider setting up a new website.

Even though many people will find you through clicking on a link somewhere on the web, having a memorable domain name is essential for the following reasons:

• When people can remember your domain name they can easily find you again and return to your website
• One of the most powerful methods of marketing is word of mouth. Having a domain name people can easily remember will help them share their experience with others
• While networking, you can tell people your web-adress and they will surely remember

Having said that, it is not easy to find memorable domain name

Here are a few tips that can help you:

1. Use your business name:

If you already own an offline business, use the business name in the domain if available. This will help your customers and business partners find you easily, as well as help protect your brand name.

2. Choose the right TLD (Top level Domain)

The ending or extension of your domain (.com .net .biz etc.) is just as important as the domain name you choose and needs to be considered carefully.

People would generally “fill in the gap” if they don’t remember your extension with a .com for international websites or the extension of the country your are based in.

Having a Top Level Domain will insure that your customers don’t end up with the competition.

If you target a local market, consider buying the local TLD, especially if the domain is spelled in a language other than English

3. Check the other TLD’s for the same domain

Once you decided on a domain name, check all the top TLD’s (extensions) for that domain.

It’s probably not a very good idea to choose the same domain name as your competitors as it can cause a mix-up and even loss of customers to the competition.

Some experts recommend buying all prime TLD’s for your domain to avoid a situation where a competitor buys the other extensions. In reality, most of the times one or more of the TLD’s will already be taken. Sometimes for an entirely other business or target group than yours.

 4. Use Keywords in the domain if possible

Using keywords in the domain name can be very beneficial for search engine optimization, or in other words: it’ll make it easier for people who are searching for your services to find you.

For instance if you own a toy shop, try integrating the word toy or toys in your domain name.

One of the best ways to attract clients to you (instead of chasing them around and paying tons of money for inefficient commercials)  is to gain their trust and admiration. When you become a teacher, and expert, someone they can rely on to guide them through the maze of choices they face – someone they trust.

You will gain not only their respect but their loyalty as clients. They will choose you above your competition because they feel that you are the best address to buy from.

It might sound difficult to achieve, but with a little work and some simple actions you can become the next expert in your niche and save yourself a lot of money and trouble by attracting exactly the kind of clients you always wanted to have.

The key is, to position yourself as an expert in your niche. Doesn’t matter if it’s travel, retail , insurance or any service or goods you might want to offer.

In the old days of offline marketing you would probably go about it by giving a lecture, give away a book you wrote, do one on one consults with clients. While these old methods still work, they are more expensive and time demanding than doing it over the internet.

The goal is to teach your clients why they should buy, how they should buy and how to avoid making mistakes while making a decision to buy.

In the Internet and social media age, it’s becoming easier and easier. Here are some ideas on how you can do it online, simply and for free:

1. Write a helpful article and submit it to multiple “article directories” – websites that collect articles and allow people to use them for their own websites or newsletters (with a link back to you, as the author!)
2. Write an ebook and offer it for free
3. Write a blog (it could be your own blog or as a guest writer in someone els’s blog)
4. Record a helpful video and upload it to your website or to other video websites like youtube
5. Record a podcast: an audio or video recording that people can download to their mp3 player or computer and take it with them wherever they go. You can upload your recorded content to website like iTunes or to your own website.
6. Host an online radio show: no… you don’t have to be a “real” radio host. These days anyone can be a radio or a tv host online. Check out websites like www.blogtalkradio.com , http://www.livestream.com/, www.ustream.com
7. Host a question- answer sessions online through a forum (find a forum where your customers hang out)
8. Host a webinar – it’s the online version of a seminar or lesson. You can do it either with live video or let the participants see your computer screen where you wither explain something or show them a presentation. You can also make it interactive and allow them to ask you questions, answer polls or allow them to chat to one another. check these sites out: www.gotowebinar.com , www.talkfusion.com
9. Join the conversation: through out the internet people are asking questions that you might be able to answer and contribute to the dicussion on your area of expertese. People ask questions in forums, tweeter, facebook, and many other social media sites. Look for the sites that most apeal to you and have the most activity and just join in.

For all of those ideas there is one golden rule: pay it forward. Give your clients something valuable, teach them something, help them out. The more you do it, the better.

Please share with us more ideas you have on information marketing.

Your SEO expert will probably be thank you for that as well, because they can focus on their work and getting results for you instead of explaining to you how it works and why they do what they do…

We all want quick results when it comes to traffic to our website

If you ever had a new website and where waiting for visitors to come, you know how it feels to have to wait for some action. There are many companies out there that would offer you a “quick fix” and great links but after a short time you find out that you have been banned from Google… OOOPS

You’ll be surprised how many brands fell into that trap. That is why you need to be careful with how you promote your website.

A good place to start learning about SEO before you hire a professional is Google itself. For understandable reasons, they don’t tell us exactly how to get our website to the top but they do tell us how to stay out of trouble and can teach you the important basics of how things work.

knowing the basics of SEO will save you a lot of…

Trouble, money and and time. It can help you understand the plan the the SEO expert is going to work with, it can help you because you will discover that some of the things you can do yourself (or have an employee do) and thus save on the higher costs of a SEO expert, and it can help you choose a better SEO professional because you will be able to tell if they know what they are talking about.

If you have any SEO question or need help with your website SEO please contact us . Don’t forget you can always submit a question for our blog