Search Engine Marketing
Internet Audibles: Search Engine Optimization and Making Adjustments
Oct 11th
If you work for an Internet marketing company or in any facet of search engine optimization, chances are you recognize the enormous value that patience and persistence have in making online marketing services successful for your clients.
There are many angles to search engine optimization and the most popular search engines employ extremely complex algorithms to determine keyword-based page rankings. It’s this nature of the industry that makes SEO services anything but an exact science.
If you’re a business owner paying for search engine optimization services, however, odds are you don’t share quite the same reverence for letting nature take its course! Though many clients understand the general principles behind SEO services, many are hoping for—and oftentimes depend on—quick results that drive traffic and ultimately business to their websites.
In many businesses, however, especially those that are saturated with online companies, it’s not uncommon for thousands—even millions—of websites and SEO service providers to be craftily employing strategies and competing against each other to earn page-one rankings for the same keywords and phrases.
When this is the case, the question becomes: How long is too long to focus your energies on one keyword or phrase?
Though there’s no cut and dry answer to this question, it’s More >
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) & Winemaking
Sep 28th
Online Marketing and California Winemakers One of the pleasantries of living in coastal California includes having access to some of the finest wineries and vineyards in the world. The lush country and landscape has attracted some of the world’s best winemakers—the climate is perfect for growing different grape varietals and the beautiful landscape and greenery pairs perfectly with a relaxing day of wine-tasting.
A good friend of mine is a winemaker at a small vineyard in a town called Lompoc, just outside the city of Santa Barbara. He recently bottled a pinot noir that Wine Spectator awarded a 96 to—something only 12 other pinots have ever scored equal to or better.
As we were chatting about this delicious and magnanimous achievement, it occurred to me that online marketing—particularly web development and SEO—are a lot like making wine.
Notice I didn’t say a “fine wine;” this analogy can work both ways! There are plenty of SEO “tricks” out there—and to a certain extent, even natural circumstances—that can spoil your harvest and ultimately ruin your page ranking and the effectiveness of your online marketing efforts.
But if done properly, with continued attention, a little patience, and the right amount of aging, you could create a web presence that More >
Marketing Concept: Don’t Rent Your Marketing, OWN IT! Search Engine Results (Part 2)
Aug 31st
We’ve already introduced the concept of “rent marketing” vs. “own marketing,” relating online marketing services and traditional advertising methods to the real estate market and the benefits each can have.
This concept can be extrapolated upon in relation to search engine optimization.
If you’ve noticed the results you see after searching for something on Google, there are three parts to each search results page that yield different information: sponsored links, Google Maps listings, and organic results.
Sponsored links and listings are marked as such—displayed with a yellow background on the first three results and also in white along the side bar. The next portion is the Maps portion of Google, you know, the map that pops up on top and showcases local businesses in a Google maps window, kind of like a directory listing. The third are organic listings that yield ten results per page.—in other words, the regular search results that appear based on what keywords you’ve searched.
Of those three divisions of results, one is falls into “rent marketing,” while the other two definitely classify as “own marketing.”
The advertised sponsored listings are exactly that—essentially businesses are paying to be listed on the top of the page based on certain keywords. You can put More >
Marketing Concept: Don’t Rent Your Marketing, OWN IT! (Part 1)
Aug 20th
If you’ve ever bought property or studied the real estate market, you may have concluded that it oftentimes pays more dividends and makes more long-term sense to own property vs. renting it.
Taking that concept and applying it to your marketing and advertising budget can pay off greatly because the same concept holds true: Having ownership of your advertising dollar allows your business to grow over time and you to yield returns throughout your lifetime—even long after you’ve stopped paying for services.
Think of this example: Spending money on temporary ads in media like the yellow pages, billboards or newspapers could easily rack up a several thousand-dollar bill over just a few months of run-time. That money is gone as soon as you spend it and your returns vanish immediately after the ads expire—and who knows if the ads will even yield you any real returns at all?
Consider this kind of advertising “rent marketing.” Just like an apartment’s benefits would cease immediately after you stopped paying rent (because you’d probably get kicked out), so too do your marketing returns end as soon as you stop paying for run time, because your ads essentially get evicted from their media as well.
So what’s an More >
Diversifying Your Marketing Portfolio: An Introduction to Modern Marketing as Compared to the Stock Market
Jul 30th
It’s becoming pretty common knowledge that if you want to have success in the stock market, you have to have a diversified portfolio of stocks, bonds and mutual funds.
While your formula will vary a bit based on age and your overall investment goals, it’s usually a good idea to have some risky quick-gain stocks offset by long-term and steady growth options.
This same principle can be applied to the marketing portfolio of any sized business. For the past 10 years, Trimark has experienced the full gamut of marketing strategies, some borderline insanely risky while others have been chugging along steadily for the past 10 years constantly making small strides for the better.
As uncertainty of times come and go, marketing campaigns are tested. Those with a great diverse portfolio always seem to weather the storm. At Trimark Marketing Group, each client’s marketing goals are evaluated, and a diverse marketing plan is suggested for continual growth and sustainability. All the pieces of this customized package work different avenues of advertising and brand presence, and should combine to meet the goals of the business owner.
Here are a few examples of marketing strategies at each spectrum of risk taking and the reward associated with each:
Email More >
Social interaction in the yellow page industry.
Nov 5th
The internet has brought a new dynamic to social interaction as well as business development, marketing, and advertising. Sites are appearing that are solely for the use of social networking and others solely to sale a product or entertain a user. As the internet grows, we’re seeing more and more collaborations of these different aspects providing more relevant and efficient websites for users.
CityWaboo does something that is very unique in the market, it combines yellow page listings with a very sophisticated social networking platform. This means it’s easier for users to connect and exchange information pertaining to businesses in the local area, which also means multiple useful services are being provided to the user. Users simply create a free profile, and then they may begin to write reviews and give recommendations on their favorite and worst experiences with a particular business. They create their inner circle of friends and go to them for suggestions of where to go for certain services. This is unique because it provides a trusted network of friends, as opposed to asking a complete stranger that may or may not be a reliable resource. With the upcoming 2.0 version, the social networking is greatly expanding providing a More >
6 ways to promote your business for under $100 per month
Oct 17th
Lately I have been speaking with many of our customers, and the general consensus is that times are tough. Coming from a small business entrepreneurial background I can feel their pain. They are seeing money going out in every direction and customers just are not buying as they were a year ago.
So what is a business owner to do? They have to start cutting the fat, and usually the first thing that they look to cut is the advertising budget, not realizing that the customers that are trickling in might just be due to the advertising and that those customers may even disappear if the advertising budget is cut.
What I propose to our clients is to ride out the tough times and instead of canceling or cutting their advertising budget in full, try instead to streamline and optimize their campaign and look for free or low budget campaigns. Here are few suggestions on what and how to get started. Most of these are online, but do not require extensive computer or internet knowledge.
- Free local listings on major search engines and directories. This has been talked about extensively in many blogs and forums. Here are some popular sites you might More >