Following on from last week’s blog about web marketing we have had some great feedback and several questions around the subject. The main feedback was that understanding different types of Internet marketing is all well and good however why do we really need to put a proportion of our marketing budget towards Internet marketing? The consensus of this rise because a lot of Internet marketing can be seen as either a) aimed at the entire Internet is not specific to a local market or b) we can tweet, send emails, start AdWords campaigns our self for free.

Internet marketing in the World Wide Web

It would be easy to believe that the amount of information on the Internet and the increasing competition out there that would appear almost futile to get a new local business to get noticed online by Internet marketing. Well actually as the search engines get smarter and smarter this actually tends to benefit the small local businesses above the larger competition. The search engines (generally Google) always want to make sure they provide the most appropriate results for their users and so they have come up with some incredibly clever algorithms to make sure that the search results are appropriate. Many years ago this was just to do with keywords on the site itself, this then improved to be something along the lines of a number of links pointing back to the site to act as a mark of approval. Now with the dawn of social media and more mobile technology devices that we talk to the search engines are looking at more “conversational” searches.

Conversational searches

So, what are conversational searches why do they affect me? Well as Google continually strives to improve its service realises that sometimes searches are performed by people talking to their mobile devices this changes a search from typed query of “Internet marketing company Croydon” to “find me my local Internet marketing company”. The device will generally know through GPS where you already are so the search results provide you with the most appropriate answer. From its answers you could follow up with a question such as “how far is that?”. And as you have just been provided with the answers for your local Internet marketing company it knows that is what you are referring to.

This means that searches are going to be much more specific to people’s own requirements and locations and interests as opposed to a generic search for multinational companies. This will therefore benefit small to medium-size businesses as well as benefiting local community and the search users.

Internet marketing to free

The second set of queries we had with regards to our web marketing blog was about what is the need to have an Internet marketing company when I can build a website for virtually nothing and only know how to tweet and use Facebook and send emails. To some extent that could be true as we certainly know how to paint a wall, service my car, or make a pizza. That does not stop me from hiring painters, mechanics of dialling out for a Pizza and we know that these guys can do it much quicker and effectively cheaper than we would be able to.

Internet marketing agencies such as Smart Cow Marketing constantly have people looking for the most effective way of marketing businesses online. We obviously only approve of white hat methods (ethical) as in the long term they always provide the best results. However, the search engines notice that there are significant amount of agencies that tried to “cheat” the system and so they are for ever improving the algorithms in how they produce results. This in return changes the rules on how websites are found, and hence a slight migration towards conversational searches. Internet marketing is a very new industry and the rules are changing at a great pace so in order to get the most out of it really needs a specialist who is constantly on the ball finding out what the changes to the rules are so we can focus marketing campaigns effectively.

Digital marketing expert Croydon

Smart Cow Marketing certainly goes above and beyond to make sure that they are up to speed with all the latest changes in the search engine optimisation world as well as other outbound marketing techniques. They do all the hard work you don’t have to and you can focus on my new business we get to grips with understanding what changes to the Panda and Penguin algorithms and how they affect your result online.

If you want find out more do feel free to give us a call at saymoo@smartcowmarketing.com or just give us a call on (020) 3137 1826. We look forward to hearing from you.

If you search the Internet, you will find many various definitions of marketing. Basically it is:

‘Communicating a service to someone else’.

So, if you have a look at it from the web point of view what we are looking at is communicating a service to someone else via the web. The beauty and sometimes the hindrance with regards to the Internet is that there are so many different channels for which to market through. This can be extremely daunting for a new small business to find out which is the most appropriate and to focus their energies and money toward using.

Website development

First and foremost the main marketing tool that the majority of businesses need to look at is their own website. This should be viewed as a spine of their online business with all other channels pointing towards this site. We can have other presence online however the majority of these are owned by third company parties such as Facebook or Google. To be in control of your company you need your own website. You can therefore be in complete charge of the content and the message that you want to send across to clients, without relying on the terms conditions and availability of third-party products.

Not forgetting that the in goal is to draw business regardless of the media channel we are by no means saying that the website is exclusive marketing goal and also that all other marketing should points towards it. Just to make sure that from an online point of view this is your shop window, business card, public face.

Inbound marketing (SEO)

Inbound marketing is also known as search engine optimisation (SEO). This is the process by which sites are optimised so that when people search on the Internet for the relevant product or service that you supply your results will show up first. Inbound marketing is generally split into two areas of on-site and off-site.

On-site SEO is where you make sure that the website has been built effectively around your products and services. So you need to make sure that your products and services are represented in the site through keywords strategically placed. These keywords need to be well thought through and to be reflective of what potential clients may search for them looking for your services. Not all keywords are necessarily visible as you read the site as they are placed in meta tag or image descriptions. The whole goal is really to make sure that you think of the search engines (particularly Google) as a reader of your site and make it easier for them to navigate.

Offsite SEO is where you make your site appealing to the search engines by letting them know that people like your site and respect the contents you haven’t it. One of the main ways this is done is through having links on external sites pointing back to your own one. These links from external sites can be viewed as votes of popularity. And with some sites votes/links having more overweight than others.

Outbound marketing

Outbound marketing is more akin to the traditional forms of marketing that we  all recognise in the “real” world. So as much as you may receive post, see adverts in newspapers, see adverts on TV or the radio, have leaflets posted through your door, etc. Outbound marketing on the Internet is through similar channels.

Pay per click (PPC) advertising

Pay per click advertising is a great way to get your site noticed it is not coming up through the normal organic search results. This is generally done through creating an advert through a third-party provider such as AdWords, find in some keywords that you would like to bid for to display your advert. So, when someone types in your keywords into a search engine and instant auction happens for these keywords and your advert displayed in order accordingly.

PPC adverts not only happen on such pages that they can be found embedded in banner adverts in other websites, social media platforms and applications.

Email campaigns

Email campaigns can be effective way of communicating with clients as long as they are signed up to receive your communications. So where possible try to capture email details of visitors to your site so you can send messages direct to their inbox. Feel free to have a look through our website for any email marketing tips and anything else email marketing related.

Social media marketing

The Internet has progressed so rapidly and is still just a young creation. However, it has significantly changed how businesses can market. Probably the main way it has changed is by having social media marketing, which can be highly effective way of communicating with clients. In the real world this is much more akin to word-of-mouth recommendations that existing clients would have with other people.

Social media marketing is a mixture of both inbound and outbound in that you are trying to create conversational engagement with your clients. This is really effective in that you get high level of engagement however is also highly time intensive in the campaigns are much more specifically targeted.

Smart Cow Marketing is able to assess your business needs and look at the appropriate web marketing tools mentioned above and identify which is the most appropriate for your business to build campaigns that will get you more clients.

We are based in Croydon, within Greater London and like to work closely with our clients in building their campaigns. So, if your business is within

Greater London or Surrey and would like to benefit from online marketing then please do get in touch.