Digital Marketing 101: 5 Ways to Promote Your Business Online for Free

Wednesday, April 9th, 2014

A look at why we are here:

-Background on Syracuse Media Group and our parent company, Advance Digital

-Latest online trends that impact business today

5 ways to promote you business online for free:

1. Establish a web and mobile friendly online presence

2. Use Google, Yahoo!/bing, and other local listing services to be found online

3. Improve organic search results for your website

4. Embrace social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn to engage customers

5. Share relevant content with your customers through blogs and online communities

Open Q&A session to follow

Today’s Agenda

Advance Digital: Our Parent Company

Why we are here

Syracuse Media Group – Leading The Way

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Why we are here

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A BOLD NEW COMPANYA new, digitally-focused news organization bringing the quality of journalism of The Post Standard and the up-to-the-minute information of syracuse.com together, ensuring Central New York has 24/7 access to what’s happening in our community and beyond.

Why we are here

Why we are here

About me

Director of Digital Advertising Solutions for the Syracuse Media Group, syracuse.com and The Post-Standard.

Began career in digital advertising with syracuse.com in 2000, shortly after receiving Bachelors Degree in Marketing from RIT.

Served as President of the Syracuse Ad Club, and currently serves as Vice President of Programs for the CNY Sales & Marketing Executives.

Why we are here

Guess who turned 25 last month…

On March 12th, 1989, Tim Berners-Lee, who has since been knighted for his invention, submitted a proposal for the system at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, which his boss Mike Sendall called “vague, but exciting,” according to a blog written by Berners-Lee on Google’s homepage. To clarify, the Internet is the infrastructure that connects computers while the World Wide Web is the information management system that made it more convenient for millions of everyday users.

Why we are here

Before the Internet, small businesses only had a few ways to market their products cheaply, through methods like printing out fliers or sponsoring little local events.

13% of American Adults do not use the Internet

Internet usage is much higher for:

• People ages 18 to 29 (97 percent)

• Folks with college degrees (also 97 percent)

• Individuals living in households that earn at least $75,000 (99 percent).

•More than two-thirds of adults (68 percent) access the Internet via smartphones or tablets.

Why we are here

(source: Google Address 2013)

(Source: BIA/Kelsey September 2013)

Why we are here

comScore Explicit Core Search Share Report, October 2013 Total U.S. – Home & Work Locations

Source: comScore October 2013http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2307115/Google-Fails-to-Gain-Search-Market-Share-Bing-Steals-From-Yahoo

Why we are here

Why we are here

As of January 2014:

•90% of American adults have a cell phone

•58% of American adults have a smartphone

•42% of American adults own a tablet computer

•44% of cell owners have slept with their phone next to their bed because they wanted to make sure they didn’t miss any calls, text messages, or other updates during the night.Source: http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheets/mobile-technology-fact-sheet/

Why we are here

You just need to know where to look…

There are all kinds of opportunities online to promote your business at little to no cost…

#1: Establish a web and mobile friendly online

presence

Source: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2013/06/changes-in-rankings-of-smartphone_11.html

Establish a web and mobile friendly online presence: Think mobile first.

Google supports three different configurations for creating smartphone-optimized websites:

•Responsive design: serves the same HTML for one URL and uses CSS media queries to determine how the content is rendered on the client side. This removes the possible glitches of user-agent detection and frees users from redirects. This is Google's recommended configuration.

•Dynamic serving (“adaptive design”): serves different HTML for one URL depending on the user-agent. (device controlled)

•Separate mobile site (“mobile friendly” or “mobile optimized”): redirects users to a different URL depending on the user-agent. Source: https://developers.google.com/webmasters/smartphone-sites/

Establish a web and mobile friendly online presence:Different types of Mobile Sites


Separate mobile site (“mobile friendly” or “mobile optimized”)


Adaptive Design(“dynamic serving”)


Responsive Design(Google recommended)

A few things to consider when selecting a domain:

•Is it brand building? Easy to read? Memorable.

• Some business names don’t fair well as URLS or are not available

• http://www.boredpanda.com/worst-domain-names/

• Consider including a business keyword

•A domain should be 15 characters or less.

•Don’t use hyphens – Adding hyphens to your domain can negatively affect your SEO

Establish a web and mobile friendly online presence: Custom domain

Why a Custom Domain Is Important to Your Business

•Improves name recognition

•Increases credibility and online brand

•Helps you get found online more easily

•Gives you a custom email address matching your domain helping to make your business appear more professional

Establish a web and mobile friendly online presence: Google analytics & webmaster tools

Resources for free to low cost websites:

http://wordpress.org/

http://www.godaddy.com/

http://www.dudamobile.com/

http://www.google.com/think/multiscreen/vendors.html

Establish a web and mobile friendly online presence: Additional Resources

#2: Use Google, Yahoo!/bing, and other local listing services

to be found online

“If you build it and it can be found more people will come.”

Source: http://www.chantillypatino.com/5-benefits-of-google-plus-for-bloggers-businesses/

Use Google, Yahoo!/bing, and other local listing services to be found online:

Claiming listings & Google+ business page

Claim Your Business' Listings

Business directories might be displaying your business listing and reviews today without you even knowing it, and often, the information is inaccurate.

Claiming and enhancing your business listings can increase your rankings on search engines - Google favors small businesses that have detailed profiles on Google Local.





The information search engines care most about is your NAP: Name, Address, and Phone number.

Make sure you have a clearly labeled Contact Us page that includes this information. A PO Box won’t cut it – search engines want to see a real, physical location.

You should also choose the phone number you list carefully; we want this information to be as consistent as possible across the web (more on that later), so make sure to use your main office number – the number you want your customers to call!

If you have more than one location, it’s best to have a separate page in your Contact Us section for each location to make the information easier for search engines to find and parse.Sources:http://grasshopper.com/blog/local-business-seo-take-your-nap/http://www.bluecorona.com/faq/what-does-nap-stand-for-and-does-it-help-local-seohttp://plumberseo.net/get-on-the-google-map/googl-places-optimzation-tip-establish-your-nap

Use Google, Yahoo!/bing, and other local listing services to be found

online: Consistent N.A.P.

https://www.ubl.org https://moz.com/local/https://www.neustarlocaleze.biz/directory/

Use Google, Yahoo!/bing, and other local listing services to be found online:Data Distribution Services

http://business.watertownny.com/list

Use Google, Yahoo!/bing, and other local listing services to be found online:Local Resources

Questions? [email protected]

http://businessfinder.syracuse.com/

Use Google, Yahoo!/bing, and other local listing services to be found online:Local Resources

#3: Improve organic search results for your website

First Half of 2013 Online Ad Revs $20 Billion: Search Biggest (43% = $8.7 billion), Mobile Fastest GrowingSource: IAB, http://searchengineland.com/first-half-online-ad-revs-20-billion-search-biggest-mobile-fastest-growing-173927

Improve organic search results for your website:

S.E.R.P. Search Engine Results Page

Search Engine Marketing “SEM” (Paid Search or “PPC” Pay-per-click)Up to 3 paid-positions across the top and up to 8 paid-positions along the right-hand side

Search Engine Optimization “SEO” (Free Search, Organic or Natural Search Results)

Google Places Map and Place Pages/“Google 7 pack”

Keyword SearchGoogle recognizes where you are located by your computer’s IP address (or via GPS on your phone). Geo modifier terms can be added to return results outside of your IP/GPS location


See what Google sees…






Online Visibility Reports

Sample quick tip:

A title tag is the main text that describes an online document and is displayed on top left of the window. It is the most important on-page SEO element. Duplicate page titles confuse users when they are all displayed in search engine results pages. Google recommends that each page of a site should have a unique Title.


Online Visibility Reports

#4: Embrace social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn to engage customers

So many social media outlets, so little time…

How do you choose?

Embrace social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter,

YouTube and LinkedIn to engage customers

* Twitter’s active users number is off – Twitter has more than half a billion registrations, but after half that many active users.(Source: Leverage. Social media image via Shutterstock.)

MORE THAN 1 BILLION UNIQUE

USERS VISIT YOUTUBE EACH MONTH

OVER 6 BILLION HOURS OF VIDEO ARE WATCHED EACH

MONTH ON YOUTUBE—THAT'S ALMOST AN HOUR FOR EVERY PERSON ON

EARTH

100 HOURS OF VIDEO ARE UPLOADED TO

YOUTUBE EVERY MINUTE

80% OF YOUTUBE TRAFFIC COMES FROM

OUTSIDE THE US

ACCORDING TO NIELSEN, YOUTUBE REACHES

MORE US ADULTS AGES 18-34 THAN ANY CABLE

NETWORK

MOBILE MAKES UP ALMOST 40% OF

YOUTUBE'S GLOBAL WATCH TIME

YOUTUBE


YouTube and LinkedIn to engage customers

Resource: http://socialmediadata.com/five-top-social-media-management-dashboards-for-2014-reviewed/

Embrace social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube

and LinkedIn to engage customers:

Social Media Dashboards

“Real-time relevancy is key in social media. You can’t schedule greatness.”


YouTube and LinkedIn to engage customers: Reviews

The Good News:

Study also shows that the average consumer reads 11 reviews before making a decision.

Even better news, consumers understand that not all reviews are created equal. 32% look for reviews that are “fair and reasonable.”

27% are influenced by a well-written review and 25% look for technical data.

Source:http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2013/01/consumers-dont-trust-reviews-but-theyre-swayed-by-them-anyway.html

Consumers Don’t Trust Reviews But They’re Swayed by Them Anyway

*Be mindful of Google’s Conflict of Interest policy on reviews: https://support.google.com/plus/answer/2622994

Source: http://www.rakacreative.com/blog/post/how-to-handle-negative-reviews-online-dos-and-donts-for-businesses


YouTube and LinkedIn to engage customers: Dealing with Negative Reviews

• DON'T PUT YOUR HEAD IN THE SAND

• DON'T GET ANGRY

• DON'T ASTROTURF

• DON'T USE CANNED RESPONSES

• DO SAY THANK YOU

• DO APOLOGIZE

• DO BE REAL

• DO TAKE THE CONVERSATION

ELSEWHERE

Dealing with Negative Reviews: Do's &

Don’ts

#5: Share relevant content with your customers through blogs and online communities

Where do you start?•Start commenting on blog posts. Give your opinion on posts revolving around your industry, and have the URL to your website in the footer of your comment.

•Answer questions on forums. There are thousands of forums that your potential customers read and ask questions on. Putting in the time to answer a few questions is well worth the investment.

•Start your own blog. Once you’ve commented on blogs and forums, you’ll know specifically what customers want and in what areas need more information. Use this to your advantage!

•Add a regularly updated blog to your website, and over time, your traffic can increase immensely.

Share relevant content with your customers through

blogs and online communitiesBe an expert – contribute to a blog in your industry

How do you get people to view you as credible? Become an expert! An easy way to build your businesses brand is to contribute to a blog about your industry.

Resource: http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/blog/2011/08/why-i-blog.html

Content Marketing Resources:

http://blog.bufferapp.com/17-unique-places-to-find-great-content-to-share?utm_campaign=weekly_digest Blog Topic GeneratorStumped for ideas? Give Hubspot’s Blog Topic Generator a few nouns that describe your content areas and it’ll spit out a week’s worth of post ideas.Content Marketing http://blog.bufferapp.com/29-free-marketing-tools


blogs and online communities Content Marketing tips:

•Social networks are built on sharing value, not advertising.

•The difference between helping and selling is two letters. If you teach better, you’ll sell better.

•Take advantage of the video realm to engage your audience. 80% of people consume video and only 20% are making it.

•We are in an age where customers can read reviews and watch videos about us to find out anything. This means we have to be much more authentic, real, and engaging.

•When is an ad not an ad? When it tells a story.

Resource: 5 Social Bookmarking Sites and How to Use Them Effectivelyhttps://www.udemy.com/blog/social-bookmarking-sites-list/


blogs and online communities :

Social Bookmarking Sites

Wrap Up

- Stay for Q & A

- Find out more about PPC & get a custom SEM estimate

- Folders for attendees:

- Online visibility report

- SEO Lunch n Learn event

Wednesday, April 9th, 2014