“Hitching Up to the Web” for Greater Marketing Success

 

When it comes to online marketing, people rarely expect anyone but power players and mail order retailers with customer bases scattered across the far reaches of the globe to take to the field. The last type of company you’d expect to find positioning themselves to create an online presence is one like the Hitch House of Atlanta.

After all, how could a locally owned and operated business whose primary service is installing hitches on vehicles possibly benefit in cyberspace? They don’t exactly fit the mold of the legions of tech savvy startups and online shops that you’d expect to come across during an afternoon of web surfing.

But, that’s the beauty of it. The Hitch House is just one of hundreds of locally owned and operated businesses that are taking to the web to expand their existing customer base through the help of Atlanta Social Media Marketing.

How Can Brick and Mortar Companies Leverage an Online Presence?

One of the ways that brick and mortar businesses are using the Internet to grow their customer base is through the simple use of email. Far beyond simply offering an alternative method for your customers to get a hold of you during after-hours and weekends, the use of email newsletters can serve multiple purposes:

·        Promote forthcoming sales and specials. Getting the word out to your customer base through traditional channels like mail and expensive advertisements can be costly and puts you in jeopardy of spending more money than you actually stand to gain. Through the use of well-timed email campaigns, all that’s required is to send a single email message to your entire mailing list, and you’ve already achieved net-zero expenses.

·        Offer your customers an incentive to pay you a visit. Coupons have always encouraged business, but they cost money to print and you can never be certain if they’ll get read or “round filed” with the rest of the junk mail in the mailbox.

·        Remind your customers to shop with you. As long as your email marketing tactics aren’t too heavy handed and don’t border on repetitious, the occasional e-newsletter is a good way of simply saying, “Hi there, we’re still here.” You’d be surprised at how well that works.

All of this begs the question: How do I get my customers’ email addresses? By far the best method of doing this is to let them come to you. Having a website with frequently updated information about your services is the perfect place to insert an unobtrusive, but tastefully, prominent data field where visitors can opt-in to your e-newsletter.

Naturally, building a website and maintaining a mailing list on your own can be time consuming and complicated. If you’re not sure how to start, look for a company that specializes in helping you do just that. If you’re not keen on putting your business in the hands of a marketing company 3000 miles away, there are companies nearby that offer these services as well. Atlanta Social Media Marketing is a locally operated business that can you up and running with a website, an email mailing list, and a social media profile in no time. For more information, check out our other entries about how we work with clients at Flyline Search Marketing.

                 

Some Do's and Don’ts for Social Media Marketing Beginners

 

There are many businesses in the Atlanta area that are eager to hop on the social media marketing bandwagon. 

But, jumping aboard a speeding boxcar has its fair share of hazards, and not everyone who wants to take advantage of the social media revolution to grow their business is adequately equipped to ensure they don’t wind up missing the mark altogether. 

Think about these do's and don'ts as you get started with social media marketing.

Do… start your own blog

This suggestion has a tendency to illicit groans of displeasure, especially from those who look on writing as a chore they’d rather not have to partake in. But, think about it – without a blog that actually offers your social media followers something to sink their proverbial teeth into (as opposed to their actual teeth) all you’re really doing is posting links. That’s not what social media’s really about.

Don’t… rely solely on Twitter posts and Facebook updates

Going hand in hand with the aforementioned need to start your own business blog is the admonition that your message could fall on deaf ears if you limit the extent of your social media presence to a 140-character length Twitter post here or a 420-character length Facebook status update there. A social media strategy thrives on content, and these platforms are too limiting to be your sole channels for your social media strategy.

Do… market yourself to people who don’t like to read

If computer monitors were as easy on the eyes as, say, a newspaper or a magazine, you wouldn’t need to think about offering up alternatives to text-based posts. But they’re not, and you do. The best way to do this is to create a video version of your blog posts using some basic images and narration, and post them to YouTube or Vimeo. It doesn’t hurt to have a professional look about, but it’s not entirely necessary either. These free video posting sites also let you link back to your social media platforms, increasing your exposure.

Don’t… force it

The best social marketing campaigns happen organically and require no forcing on your part. If you try to ram your message down people’s throats, or spend every minute of every spare hour you have posting one update after another, you’ll end up chasing people away. 

Your best bet is to leave the occasional tasty morsel out and let your online followers come to you when they’re hungry. Hey, if it works with squirrels, it’s bound to work with people.

                 

Ecommerce Sales Grow Rapidly

Latest Internet Ecommerce Shopping Results Are In

We hear so much glum and dume sometimes that I thought you should hear some good news for a change. If you are a U.S. ecommerce retailer, you are likely smiling this year. The reason for you smile is stronger than expected Internet retail sales results. Seems like all we hear from the news reports is job losses, company closings and foreclosure data. 

If you are considering starting a new business, we suggest you consider using the Internet as a primary sales platform for your products and services. The growth in Internet sales is phenominal to say the least. Check out the graph provided by comScore below. It shows that overall Internet sales have almost doubled in the past 5 years. You can be a part of that by starting an Internet based business for yourself. No more worrying about your boss. No more worrying about traffic. You set your own schedule and your level of effort determines how successful your business will become. Take a look at the summary info from the lates comScore news release we received. It will renew your faith in the U.S. economy and business in general.  

comScore, Inc. News Release

Final Shopping Weekend before Christmas Sees Growth of 17 Percent to Push U.S. Online Holiday Season Spending Past $28 Billion

Spending Nears 2009 Holiday Season Total of $29.1 Billion with Nearly Two Weeks Remaining in Season

RESTON, VA, December 22, 2010 – comScore (NASDAQ : SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today reported holiday season retail e-commerce spending for the first 49 days of the November – December 2010 holiday season. For the holiday season-to-date, $28.36 billion has been spent online, marking a 12-percent increase versus the corresponding days last year. The most recent week (week ending Dec. 19) reached $5.5 billion in spending, an increase of 14 percent versus the corresponding week last year. The final shopping weekend before Christmas reached $900 million in retail e-commerce spending, representing a strong 17-percent growth rate versus last year.

____________________________________________________________________________



 

 

 

                             

Facebook - How Powerful Is This Social Media Giant?

Facebook

Second Most Visited Website In The World!

We believe that Companies operating in today's ultra competitive marketplace should be actively using Facebook. This Social Media giant has transformed the social media landscape forever. Our marketing team recommends custom Facebook Fan pages to all clients we serve. These Facebook pages offer a wonderful branding platform, provide your firm with a way of connecting with the community and also provide a method of lead generation.

Take a look at the various snap shots of Custom Facebook Fan Pages we have created. These pages are extremely affordable and every company needs to have one. The good news is these Fan pages are extremely affordable. Facebook has provided an application called FBML that allows for Facebook users to create and drop in HTML code for the Fan Pages.

Carithers Flowers - Atlanta's #1 Florist

Facebook Fan page above was created for Carithers Flowers of Atlanta. Carithers Flowers is a second generation family owned floral design and flower delivery firm. Carithers has been named the number one florist in Atlanta by NBC Tv. In addition, the firm has won the prestigious "Consumers Choice Award" 12 consecutive years in a row.

643 DP Athleltics

643 DP Baseball Academy is headquarted out of Marietta, Georgia. The organization was formed in 2007 by Atlanta resident and super star coach, Danny Pralgo. If you have a son that plays youth baseball, you need to drop by the 643 Baseball fields in downtown Marietta.

Pete's Plumbing

Pete's Plumbing is a second generation, family owned and operated plumbing firm. They have been proudly serving the Atlanta area for more than 40 years.

The power of Facebook is growing by the day. We are seeing people of all ages embracing this social media powerhouse. Families are reconnecting and actually using Facebook to communicate with loved ones all over the World. People are finding and reconnecting the friends that they haven't spoken with since High School. Young and old alike are using Facebook as a primary communication tool. We believe that ultimately you will see a significant decrease in overall letter delivery at the U.S. Postal Service, due in large part to the ease of communication that Facebook provides. It's so simple to send a message to anyone you are connected with. In addition, you will soon see a rapid expansion of this Social Media tool on PDA (Hand Held) devices. Companies like At&t, Apple, Microsoft, Verizon, Sprint and others all now carry a full line of mobile phones, blackberry, IPad and touch screen tablet devices, all capable of sending and receiving Facebook messages.

If you want to hear more about Facebook or Custom Fan Pages we can certainly help fill in more of the blanks for you. If need help with your Internet Marketing strategy development, Google Adwords, Press Releases, Blogging or other Internet marketing related elements, we invite you to take a look at our website (www.FlylineSearchMarketing.com) or simply give us a call at 1-866-258-5511. We would be happy to sit down with you and help you better understand the ever evolving landscape. 

                 

Flyline Search Marketing - Named Strategic Partner of Stream4Truth

Stream4Truth
24/7 Streaming video of Christian Ministries

Flyline Search Marketing has been granted the honor of becoming a Strategic Partner of Stream4Truth. The Stream4Truth organization offers streaming video of leading edge Christian Ministries, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We invite you to listen in at (www.Stream4Truth.com/Site) or (www.Stream4Truth.com/Mobile) to hear wonderful sermons and lectures from such noted Christian personalities as: Johnny Hunt, Tony Nolan, Dr. Charles Stanley, Bryant Wright (Right From The Heart), Shelley Hendrix, Eric Helms, Larry Grays and the folks at Campus Church. 

You can also hear some wonderful music from popular Christian artists, Heather Richardson and Johnny Hall. If you've never had the opportunity to hear these two incredibly talented singers, we encourage you to take a moment and listen in. They are really a blessing from our Heavenly Father.

Follow Stream4Truth on Twitter

Follow Flyline Search Marketing on Twitter

Should You Try Google Adwords On Your Own?

Flyline Search Marketing

Atlanta, Georgia

1-866-258-5511

Flyline Search Marketing is a full service Internet Marketing Agency. Our main office is located here in Atlanta, Georgia.

(www.FlylineSearchMarketing.com)

We have recently been contacted by a number of companies who have been attempting to design and manage Google Adwords campaigns on their own. Each time we take one of these calls, the message is almost always the same. First, the client tells us how much time this activity is consuming and that they are finding they simply do not have time to manage these programs. Second, they always seem to mention that they don't truly understand the process very well. What seemed easy at first has turned out to be much more complex than we imagined. Then, they finally get into the real nuts and bolts of why they called our firm. The real reason is, the program worked for them initially. It drove some leads and they liked the result. Now, more competition has moved into their advertising catagory. Their ads aren't producing the leads and new clients they once did and they don't know what to do to fix the problem.  

Folks, you honestly need to hire a Google Adwords Certified Partner, like Flyline Search Marketing. Google Certified Partners have been through extensive training. They generally manage a large portfolio of Google Adwords users and have experience in properly designing programs that produce results. Flyline Search Marketing has a tremendous background with Adwords and has custom designed programs for many firms around the United States. We have handled major ecommerce firms (Do Your Own Pest Control, Carithers Flowers), large training organizations (Center For Leadership Studies) and many small to medium sized businesses seeking to reach local customers in their area. Our program designers focus on generating "Sales Conversions." When we ask most of the do it yourselfers what they focus on, they say, "Clicks." Folks, you do need to generate high quality sales leads and that does required clicks to occur, but, clicks cannot be your central focus. 

In order to acheive higher click through rates, generate more high quality sales leads and create actual sales conversions, you really need to hire a Google Adwords Certified Partner. Flyline Search Marketing makes it a priority not only build superior Google Adwords programs, we also expend a great deal of energy on educating our clients in the fine art of Internet Marketing. One hint we will give to the do it yourselfers. When you design your Google Adwords campaigns, make sure your Google ads are themed appropriately and matched to the correct page of your website that specifically talks to the subject matter of your Google ads. We call that creating "Synergy."

One more tip. If you are currently using pay per click, and  utilizing Google Analytics, Google Conversion code and Phone Call tracking and monitoring, you are not going to be able to maximize the value of your program. Leaving out these critical elements means you will spend more money on your pay per click program than is necessary. Again, we encourage you to hire a Google Adwords Certified Partner. If you are using a certified company, you should expect them to share actual Google reports, analytics and conversion data with you.

One last thing. In order to be successful with Internet Marketing. You must have a solid website. Your website must be search engine optimized to ensure it effectively produces organic traffic. 

Visit Our Main Web Site

Follow Mark Lein On Twitter

Follow Flyline Search Marketing On Twitter


Follow Us On YouTube


Follow Mark Lein on Linkedin

Importance of Social Media, Blogging & Article Marketing

Facebook, Youtube, Linkedin, Myspace, Twitter, Google Blogger, Wordpress Blogging, Ezine Article Marketing

Have you set up accounts on these Social Media, Blogging or Article Marketing sites for your business yet? If so, what kind of results have you seen thus far? We are very open to your comments so please send them to us at Flyline@bellsouth.net. If not, why not? 

Flyline Search Marketing

1-866-258-5511

(www.FlylineSearchMarketing.com)

Before you set up these accounts we suggest that you need to sit down with your business associates and especially your marketing team and determine what your specific business goals are. It is incredibly important to your business to ensure that your marketing efforts and even more importantly your marketing expenditures are targeting to the right advertising mix.

What Are Your Companies Marketing Goals?

1. Driving Traffic To Your Web Site
2. Lead Generation For Your Sales Team
3. Trying To Increase Brand Awareness
4. Increasing Sales To Drive Higher Revenues
5. Securing More Market Share

All of the above are certainly worthy goals. All of the above are absolutely great things to focus your team's energies around. The biggest problem most business owners have is, we want to accomplish them all right now. The second biggest problem we have is, we don't have the available marketing funds to actually pursue these important business elements. 

What does any of this have to do with Social Media Marketing, Blogging or Article Marketing? Well, let me share a couple of thoughts from my point of view. 

Facebook

If every employee you have creates a Facebook account and creates a link to your main web site and to your company blogs your firm will benefit organically on the Search engines. If your firm creates a facebook fan page and actively markets it's presence, your firm will benefit. The search engines give high relevance to Facebook and links from Facebook. Your fan page helps increase brand awareness and also helps to generate much needed links to your web site and blogs. The traffic created by your Facebook efforts virtually costs your firm nothing to produce. 

Youtube

Streaming Video has become incredibly popular with people all over the World. In fact, Youtube is now the third most visited site in the World. Should your firm create a Youtube account? Absolutely! Not only an account, you need to create a Youtube channel. Take a look at the Youtube Channel we created for our firm Flyline Search Marketing (http://www.youtube.com/FlylineSEMvideo). The cost of producing Youtube videos is extremely low. The Youtube account set-up is actually free. The reach of Youtube is amazing. Build Subscribers, Friends and Links for very little expense.

Twitter

If you haven't tried Twitter, you absolutely must. Take a moment and visit my personal Twitter account (http://twitter.com/MarkWLein). This account was created approximately 6 months ago. At this point the site has a very strong Google Page Rank (4). The followers that I have are all interested in seeing my Tweets and communicating directly with me. Twitter is now the 11th most highly visited site in the World. The search engines really like Twitter. Links that are displayed with your tweets often end up being indexed by the search engines. We see Twitter as first and foremost, an incredible communication tool. It introduces you to other business owners with an interest in getting to know you. The other attributes like, new in-bound links, potential increases in brand awareness, possible new business leads, are all just wonderful side effects of a tremendous communications web site. Great job Twitter!

Long story short, your firm must participate in the game. You cannot allow your competitors to build their Social Media programs while your firm sits on the sidelines. Now for the really important piece. You really should seek out the services of a professional SEO and Social Media Marketing firm to help you with this process. One huge mistake made by businesses all over the country is to create Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Linkedin accounts, Google Blogs and Article marketing sites, then not use them consistently. The Search engines do not reward part time bloggers, part time article writers or people who simply set up a Social Media account then ignor it because they are too busy to manage it. In fact, creating all these sites and then doing a poor job of maintaining them may actually be worse organically than never creating them in the first place.

Let me hear your thoughts? Send your emails to flyline@bellsouth.net.

Flyline Search Marketing Social Media Sites

Follow Mark Lein on Twitter, Friend Mark Lein on Facebook, Subscribe to Flyline Search Marketing Youtube Channel, Connect with Mark Lein on Linkedin, Follow Flyline Search Marketing on Twitter, Albuquerque Internet Marketing Blog, Mark Lein's Blog, Fishing Earth Blog