Category Archives: Learn About How Internet Marketing Works

What Should You Pay To Get On Google?

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internet-marketing-resultsThere is such a huge range of costs and methods of billing to get on google that it can be confusing to know what is a good deal, and what is too good to be true. Likewise, it can be hard to understand why some firms charge 10 times more than others for what appears to be the same work.

Here is a breakdown of the different billing types, SEO Package services, and rates that typical SEO Companies will offer you to ensure your company’s website will get on Google:

Billing Type:

  1. Per hour: According to a 2012 survey by SEO MOZ, most SEO professionals charge between $76-$200/hour to help you get on Google.
  2. Flat rate or per project: Many firms will charge a flat rate for a very specific service to be performed ie: keyword analysis, site optimization or backlink creation
  3. Retainer: By far the most popular, a monthly retainer ensures specific services are performed each month. The advantage of this model is flexibility in allocating resources to what service within the offering is needed the most at that time.

Most common types of services needed to help you get on Google:

  • Pay per Click: offering to create and manage your ads for you
  • Google + local: claim your google + page
  • Inbound organic optimization: creating backlinks and directory listings to point back to your site and drive traffic
  • Web optimization: adjusting and tweaking the code of your site, including metatags to better “tell: the search engines what your site is about
  • Content marketing: Creating keyword heavy blog posts for distribution across the web.

Variables to the cost to get on Google:

  1. Amount of competition for keywords/ complexity of goal
  2. Size and complexity of site
  3. Experience of SEO firm
  4. Range of services provided- full service to bare minimum

Price Range of services that will help:

Keyword Analysis:  The low range is around $250, and the highest range is $2500. The variable can be attributed to how in depth the report is, and how experienced the SEO packages professional

Site Optimization: The low range is around $300 and the high range caps at $3000. For best results, ask for a price range based on hours of work. This directly correlates to how big and complex the website is.

Monthly retainer: For on-going SEO Packages: (Site and External to Site Services) $1000-$3000.

Content Marketing: Blogging + content submission: $500-$2500 a month, depending on how many hours/blog posts.

Google + Page Claim: $300 month seems to be the average price, but they go as high as $500.

Social Media Management: Yes, Social Media and SEO are blending into each other, making it hard to do one without the other.

Internet Marketing Consulting and Recommendations: Range from $76-$200 on average. Most SEO firms will include a set number of hours in their monthly retainer SEO Packages.

It’s recommended that, at the very minimum, your SEO package includes not just recommendations, but actual hand coded SEO Optmization of your website.

It is also recommended that your provider use the triple prong approach to off page SEO: Places, Organic, and Paid. This way you can cancel your SEO Package and still receive the benefits of a high ranking website well into the future.

For more information on the three ways to get on Google.

Your Turn!

I’d love to hear your questions or challenges – Tell me in the comments below.

And, if you enjoyed this post, please share it!

Laurel LindsayLaurel Lindsay is a Calgary Internet Marking Consultant & President of The New Media Group Inc. She has over 8 years hands-on Internet Marketing experience.

Laurel is enthusiastic and passionate about helping people live better lives by leveraging the power of the internet.

 

How to: Track and measure your internet marketing results.

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Image courtesy of renjith krishnan at FreeDigitalPhotos.netMost of our clients contract us because they want a steady flow of qualified leads to their business, effortlessly.

As one of the only firms in Calgary that guarantees internet marketing results, I often get asked, what results do you guarantee and how can we track them?

The most obvious results we generate are leads.

Leads are typically thought of as phone inquiries, web inquiries, or walk-ins to a retail location. However leads from an internet marketing campaign can also take the form of Facebook fans or messages, sign ups to your newsletter or webinar etc.

By determining what a lead looks like for you, you’ll then have a great foundation from which to measure the results of your internet marketing campaign.

What you can do is download the internet marketing results tracking template from our blog. This gives you a handy spot to measure all contacts to your company. It’s as easy as asking every single inquirer how they heard about you, and marking it down all in one place.

This information will not only show you the return you’re getting on your investment in an internet marketing campaign, but also what methods are the preferred and most successful in terms of driving business.

From our perspective, generating leads is the end result of a lengthy sales funnel we’ve created for you as the core of our internet marketing strategy.

Typically a consumer needs to go through a 7 step process to get to the point of being a qualified lead.

So, we view results as being quantifiable increases in all the factors that contribute to converting a prospect from mildly interested, to the- cheque-has-cleared.

In a very common situation a consumer will conduct a search online and find your site. If they’re satisfied with the information on your website, they’ll take action to contact you. This is internet marketing in its simplest form.

In order to generate these types of leads, we work backwards, delving into detailed metrics.

Based on a 4% conversion rate (the average percentage of people who will take action based on a website visit), how many visitors do we need to get to the site? So, we measure increased visitors as a metric of a successful internet marketing campaign.

Likewise, page one placement on Google is also viewed as a success factor, as this generates the exposure and traffic necessary to generate the leads.

Fundamentally, we ask, are we generating enough exposure and interaction with prospects to generate leads?

If you’re the business of selling to other businesses, the sales cycle may take quite a bit longer than the ideal internet marketing situation described above.

Typically a business or commercial consumer will go through more steps before becoming a customer, but the payoff is generally larger per lead closed if you end up with a customer for life.

In this case, we measure things like the open rate and click through rate on your newsletter, as well as the rate of sign up.

No matter what your unique situation, you can be sure we measure all the pertinent statistics on our end. Using Google Analytics, a free web traffic measurement tool, we’ll deliver monthly reporting on your web traffic and all internet marketing success factors.

However, the most accurate measurement needs to take place internally. You may even need to provide an incentive for your staff to provide accurate measurement for you.

Here’s the template.

Your Turn!

I’d love to hear your questions or challenges – Tell me in the comments below.

And, if you enjoyed this post, please share it!

Laurel LindsayLaurel Lindsay is a Calgary Internet Marking Consultant & President of The New Media Group Inc. She has over 8 years hands-on Internet Marketing experience.

Laurel is enthusiastic and passionate about helping people live better lives by leveraging the power of the internet.

 

How to Get on Google: 3 proven tactics to drive new business.

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Google-RankingYou already know that having a presence on Google is critical for maintaining a steady stream of automatic leads.

But did you know there are three different ways to attain the coveted position of page one on Google?

Here’s the lowdown on your options.

Get On Google, Fast: Pay Google Directly.

Also known as setting up a Pay Per Click or Adwords account, paying the search engine giant directly is the fastest and easiest way to get to page one.

How it works:

You create a Google Adwords account, create your ad, set a daily and monthly budget and supply them with your credit card number.  Each week they will bill your card for the amount of clicks your ad received.

graphic 1

 

Your ad will then display near the top of search results.  Where you show up exactly, and how often depends on your ad budget and what your competitors are spending.

What you need to know:

You need to do 2 things to maintain your page 1 position.

  1. Check your ad regularly and implement the not so optional suggestions.
  2. Continue to pay

Fail to do these 2 things and you will drop into oblivion.

Get on Google: organic ranking

Organic ranking is when your website shows up on page one without directly paying.

How it works:

Typically Organic Ranking is achieved with Search Engine Optimization services, which is when your online presence is optimized based on best knowledge of Google’s algorithm.

Google has a mathematical algorithm which dictates where your website displays in their ranking. There are many factors that go into this algorithm including how your website is coded, how many visitors you get to your site etc. To be ranked high, your site and presence on the web needs to adhere to and be optimized for all factors in this algorithm.

graphic 3

 

What you need to know:

Organic ranking typically won’t change too drastically, even if you stop marketing for a particular set of search terms. So, while it may take longer to achieve page one ranking, the payoff is much higher as the benefits of page one last far beyond the initial investment.

Typically results can take up to 90 days to appear.

Get on Google: Google Places Account

The third way to get on page one is to claim and optimize your Google Places account.

This means you’ll show up in the maps search section of of a search results page.

graphic 2

How it works:

You’ll need to claim your Google Places account – which requires a physical address, as they will send you a postcard to verify.

Once you have claimed your account, you’ll need to spend time filling out your profile and soliciting reviews.  Where exactly you’ll rank depends on what your competitors are doing, as well as how active your places account is. For best results get as many people to review your business on your places account as possible.

We have covered three ways to get on Google. The tactic that works best for you will depend entirely what you’re trying to achieve and what resources you have to allocate to your objectives.

For best results, a combination of all three tactics is recommended for best possible internet marketing results.  But, the best thing to do is start anywhere you can right this minute.

Your Turn!

I’d love to hear your questions or challenges – Tell me in the comments below.

And, if you enjoyed this post, please share it!

Laurel LindsayLaurel Lindsay is a Calgary Internet Marking Consultant & President of The New Media Group Inc. She has over 8 years hands-on Internet Marketing experience.

Laurel is enthusiastic and passionate about helping people live better lives by leveraging the power of the internet.

 

Top 7 Ways To Ensure A Successful Internet Marketing Campaign

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Image courtesy of FrameAngel at FreeDigitalPhotos.netFrom a desire to enhance your quality of life by providing automatic, qualified leads from the internet, we’ve analyzed our most and least successful online marketing campaigns.

From this analysis, we’ve determined the top 7 ways you can help your internet marketer create and execute a successful and profitable internet marketing campaign on your behalf. So take out your pen and get ready to make some notes! Here they are.

1. Have a USP.

Many companies we work with can’t tell us why it is that a consumer should choose their business over the competition. This makes it extremely difficult for us to “sell you” to your target market. If you don’t have a USP (unique selling proposition), you’d be better off investing your internet marketing budget in a business or marketing coach prior to launching a new marketing campaign.

2. Know your target audience.

Do you know who your ideal customer is? The product or service that makes you the most profit? What your customers are most concerned with, and how you help solve their concerns?

The more you can tell your marketer about your target audience, the better the odds will be of them delivering your dream clients on a silver platter.

3. Commit.

We’ll generally start an internet marketing campaign with a keyword research report which will show us the demand for what you’re selling. Your internet marketer will need 90 days of solid effort targeted on one set of keywords in order to get you on page one of Google. So, it’s really important you’re committed to that course of action.

Changing the target product, service or keyword mid-stream will dilute the internet marketing efforts and net you almost no results.

In addition, do understand that all marketing efforts create a snowball effect of delivering leads over a period of time. We generally need the entire 365 days to deliver ROI. So will your marketer.

4. Delegate and Trust.

There’s a reason businesses turn to professionals to solve their internet marketing needs. It’s because we have the track record that proves we can get the job done.

We’ve achieved amazing results based on executing internet marketing strategies that work. Therefore, we recommend you give your marketer the permission and license to execute these strategies on your behalf.

Of course, they’ll require you to vet and approve all our efforts on your behalf, but please don’t cut them off at the knees by requesting fundamental changes to their efforts unless you find it offensive or misrepresented.

We’ve had internet marketing clients that request fundamental changes to our strategies and then complain they aren’t getting results. With all due respect, if you focus on your business and let them focus on theirs, the results will be much better! We promise.

5. Get back to them quickly.

Our internet marketing campaigns are set to run on a flawless 30 day production cycle. This cycle has been perfected and optimized over the years to deliver the best results in the shortest amount of time. This is how most internet marketers are able to provide consistent growth for their clients.

Please help your marketers help you by getting back to them within 24-48 hours of us requesting your feedback. This will help them stay on track for you.

6. Measure Results.

A good internet marketing company will agree on what success looks like for you, well in advance. Please help them by measuring your results internally, so you can be sure of your return on investment, and they can be certain they’re achieving what you want us to.

7. Help your marketer help you.

They may request that you place posters (that you’ve approved) in your place of business, or send images or any other materials to use in campaigns for your business. Please do your best to accommodate these requests. By failing to deliver the materials needed for your internet marketing campaign, you effectively leave them powerless to help you, and neither of you will feel good about the results you get.

 

Now that you know what your internet marketer needs from you – and why – the whole thing probably makes a bit more sense. Take a minute to note down which ones need a bit of work, and commit to making a difference to your business this year by changing the things that might be hindering your marketing campaign’s effectiveness.

Learn more about Internet Marketing and what it can do for your business.

Your Turn!

I’d love to hear your questions or challenges – Tell me in the comments below.

And, if you enjoyed this post, please share it!

Laurel LindsayLaurel Lindsay is a Calgary Internet Marking Consultant & President of The New Media Group Inc. She has over 8 years hands-on Internet Marketing experience.

Laurel is enthusiastic and passionate about helping people live better lives by leveraging the power of the internet.

9 Easy Steps to Success: A Sample Internet Marketing Plan

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internet-marketing-sample-planThis year, resolve to be present where your future customers are searching and interacting – online. Our gift to you this New Year’s, we’ve decided to give you an outline to put together your very own Internet Marketing Plan. Follow the steps below, and your online presence will become a great contributor to your bottom line.

1. Determine what the objective is.

Determine your revenue goal this year as it relates to internet marketing. For best results, target the most profitable products or services you sell.

2. Find out what people are searching for:

The most important part of your internet marketing plan. In the Google Keyword Tool , type in what you think your future customers are typing into Google. You’ll soon find out the actual demand for your services, as well as the level of competition. Choose about 3 terms that have low competition and high searches and write them down.

3. Create your yearlong content strategy

Create a table with 3 columns and 12 rows: one for each month. In the first column to the right of the month write in what your customers are doing or are concerned with in that month. For example in January, a lot of consumers are concerned with New Year’s Resolutions. In the next column write down anything you’d like to promote as it relates to their concerns.

4. Commit the time :

Block out 15 hours per month in your calendar now and commit to them, (or hire an assistant) they can be either scattered throughout the month or all in one chunk. This time will be used to execute your marketing plan each month.

5. Review your sales flow:

Modify your process to ask your customers for 2 additional pieces of information. The first is permission to use them as a case study, the second is a testimonial. Once you’ve finished the job you’ll now have a critical part of promo for your internet marketing plan; social proof.

6. Review your internet marketing tools:

You should at the very minimum have a decent looking website with a blog section, a Facebook or LinkedIN page and an email marketing account (like with Mailchimp). If not, get signed up for each of these now, or make the updates necessary to bring your accounts up to speed. In addition, sign up for Google Analytics and YouTube if you’re feeling ambitious.

7. Optimize your internet marketing tools.

Ask your webmaster to embed the Google Analytics code into your website, and add in the Mailchimp signup code and the Facebook Like box, and then add in a blog if you don’t have one.

8. Internet Marketing Content Creation.

• Write 3 blog posts a month. For best results aim for 3 posts per month using the keywords you arrived at in step 2, as it pertains to your customer’s concerns and your promotion of the month from step 3.

• Collect and organize any new case studies or testimonials, photos, videos etc and post them to your website

• Post each blog post to your website

• Add new contacts to your Mailchimp list, or friend them on Facebook.

• Create a monthly internet marketing schedule for when you’re going to release this content via social media and email marketing tools- and commit to releasing it this way.

 

9. Track your internet marketing results:

Keep track of subscribers to your newsletter and Facebook , phone and web inquiries.

Check Mailchimp and Facebook – are people opening your emails, commenting on your posts? Login to Analytics and compare your results from last month.

Check that your internet marketing campaign is generating more traffic to your site, and better ranking on Google.

It’ll take about 90 days, but with sustained effort you’ll see results from your internet marketing campaign.

Learn more about Internet Marketing and what it can do for your business.

 

 

Internet Marketing Tools Reviewed: QR Codes

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What are QR codes?

QR codes are interactive graphics. They are embedded with data that can be read using QR scan apps available on today’s smart phones.

Once a user scans the QR code with their smart phone, they are automatically directed online.

What are the benefits of QR codes?
1. As with all internet marketing tools, the easier you make it for consumers to get in touch with you, the better the odds they will. QR codes offer consumers an easy & instant way to take action on an offline ad. There are no phone numbers or website addresses to remember.

2. QR codes are also one of the most recent developments in internet marketing. By adopting this technology you can reach a whole new audience of tech savvy consumer.

3. Through the use of Google Analytics, you can track the response and ROI of your offline marketing. Analytics helps measure internet marketing campaigns by reporting on your website traffic sources and the behavior of your website visitors.

What are some strategies for implementing QR codes?

Internet marketing & QR Codes: Specialized landing pages


Say for example you have an ad with a QR code running in the newspaper. By creating a specific landing page for people who act on that ad, you receive two benefits.

A specialized page can more personally address the consumer based on where they’ve come from. Even stating “Thank you for clicking on our ad in the Calgary Herald” enhances the user experience.

In addition, if you make this page hidden from all other users in your website, you can confidently state that all the traffic to this page is as a result of the newspaper ad.
Internet Marketing & QR Codes: From contacts to customers

Not only does it look really cool, but adding a QR code to your business card increases the chances of your contact information becoming added to your prospect’s smart phone.

A way to do this is to have your QR code send the user to an online Vcard, which can be downloaded to automatically add you to their contacts.

Not only have you made a lasting first impression, but in contrast to having your stylish business card thrown in the garbage or recycled, you’ve now earned a spot in their smartphone. Now when they need your product or service, you’re right there in their phone.

Internet Marketing & QR Codes: From offline to online:
Placing a QR code on a flyer or poster in-store and link your QR to your mailing list sign up or Facebook page.

Capturing prospect’s data; whether it be their email address, or having them as a fan on your Facebook page is invaluable. Data capture is the most basic and critical of internet marketing strategies. It allows you to grow and nurture a list of prospects, and the bigger your list, the better your odds of converting prospects into customers through ongoing internet marketing activities.

In summary
QR codes are an inexpensive and cutting edge addition to your marketing or internet marketing efforts.

QR Codes offer enhanced tracking abilities and a compelling call to action for tech savvy users. QR codes transform prospects from passively reading an ad to actively participating in your internet marketing campaign.

Your Turn!

I’d love to hear your questions or challenges – Tell me in the comments below.

And, if you enjoyed this post, please share it!

Laurel LindsayLaurel Lindsay is a Calgary Internet Marking Consultant & President of The New Media Group Inc. She has over 8 years hands-on Internet Marketing experience.

Laurel is enthusiastic and passionate about helping people live better lives by leveraging the power of the internet.

10 Domain Name Registration Do’s and Don’ts

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Successful Internet marketing or website design begins with a few not so sexy details that need to be taken care of first.

domain-name-registration-calgaryOne of these details is domain name registration.

The process is an extremely important, yet often overlooked part of marketing your business online. If you’re new to dealing with it, here is some basic information you should know, including 10 important do’s and don’ts.

What is a domain name?

A domain name is a website address, for example, www.thenewmediagroup.ca.

It’s not a website itself – it’s just the actual name which comes after the “www.” part.

It is essentially the internet equivalent of your business name and you need one in order to have a professional online presence, period.

What is domain name registration?

Domain name registration is the process of purchasing and registering your website address.

You can search for what domains are available through websites called domain registrars.

There are plenty of registrars out there, and like buying anything you want to be careful who you pick.

I personally recommend Godaddy.com because they’ve always provided me with good service.

How does domain name registration work?

You search to see if your domain is available and then you purchase it for a period of time. You will need to pay this fee yearly to stay registered.

They are inexpensive, usually about $20 or so a year.

5 Domain name registration DON’Ts

  1. Don’t pick a name that is an acronym of your business name. No one will remember it
  2. Don’t pick a name that is longer than 15 or so characters
  3. Don’t pick a name with dashes
  4. Don’t pick a .org or .net, unless you’re a not for profit
  5. Don’t let your website designer handle your domain name registration for you unless it states in your contract you own the property rights to everything they do on your behalf.

5 Domain Name Registration DO’S

  1. Do pick a name that’s easy to remember – think in terms of benefits or keywords – we own BESTCALGARYWEBDESIGN.COM for example
  2. Do pick a .com or .ca
  3. When you’re in the process of domain registration, do click the Auto-renew option. This ensures you’ll be automatically billed each year, and won’t risk losing your domain
  4. When you’re in the process of registration, do make sure the email address you input is one you will be able to access in the long term as, you’ll need to access it if you need to make any changes to your website hosting provider
  5. If a web design company is handling your registration for you, do be sure they put you as the Registrant and Administrative contact- this ensures if anything goes wrong with that relationship you can get access to change providers.

Domain name registration privacy

If you don’t choose the privacy option, the billing address your credit card company has on file will be made available to anyone searching to find out who owns your domain.

If you want this information kept private, select the privacy option.

Domain name registration in Canada

When you register a .ca, it’s mandatory to create a CIRA username and password. You’ll get the request via email.

Be sure to keep this information on file. You’ll need it if you want to make changes to your domain name registration.

Your Turn!

I’d love to hear your questions or challenges – Tell me in the comments below.

And, if you enjoyed this post, please share it!

Laurel LindsayLaurel Lindsay is a Calgary Internet Marking Consultant & President of The New Media Group Inc. She has over 8 years hands-on Internet Marketing experience.

Laurel is enthusiastic and passionate about helping people live better lives by leveraging the power of the internet.

How Internet Marketing Works

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The widespread adoption of New Media into our lives has drastically changed consumer behavior and with it, the need for businesses to adapt to a new way of attracting customers.

Consumers are now in control and perform the majority of their pre-purchase research and decision making prior to picking up the phone or stepping foot in your store.

What this means is, in order to maintain your success, you need to be present where your future customers are; online.

About the Author:

Laurel LindsayLaurel Lindsay is a Calgary Internet Marking Consultant & President of The New Media Group Inc. She has over 8 years hands-on Internet Marketing experience.

Laurel is enthusiastic and passionate about helping people live better lives by leveraging the power of the internet.

Google makes Social Media Participation Mandatory.

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It`s just like middle school all over again.

At least when it comes to the success of your internet marketing campaign.

It’s accepted knowledge that where your site displays in Google’s search results (search engine optimization) can heavily impact your business.

There is firm evidence to support the long suspected importance of social media engagement in where your site ranks in Google search results.

Google Analytics  is now tracking the Social Engagement of your website.

Not just for tracking Google +, the website performance tracking tool also tracks and reports on Facebook Comments, Likes, Twitter Tweets and more.

Notorious for keeping the exact formula for how your site ranks top secret, you can bet that if Google thinks it’s important enough to track, that it’s factored into their ranking algorithm somehow.

On-page social media engagement can be seen across the web especially on blog sites, where options to comment on, and share the article across social media platforms are available.

It’s already known that the popularity of your site is a factor in search engine ranking, so this latest development is a logical extension of that rationale.

That the popularity of various pages on your website, as determined by social media, are now for certain, a huge factor as to whether your site is on page one, or page 50 of Google’s search results.

Social media marketing has been received with skepticism by some Calgary businesses, as they struggle to understand the benefits of social media marketing in their internet marketing campaigns.

 It’s no longer a question of whether social media marketing can impact your business in a positive way.

At the very minimum, In order to gain or maintain any sort of ranking in Google, you need to enable your site’s visitors to engage via social media by installing a social media plugin like the one shown above.

What’s recommended however, is that small business owners take this very strong hint and create their social media plan.

In this internet marketing consultant’s opinion, it’s already a dent in your credibility if you don’t have account with the big 5: A Blog, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN and You Tube.

People spend their time on social media websites. It’s much more effective to have a presence where your future customers are, and it’s a great place to promote your website and your products and services.

Your Turn!

Leave your questions about Internet Marketing Services, Social Media Marketing, Google Analytics or Website Design / Search Engine Optimization– below and we`ll answer them.

And, if you enjoyed this post, please share it!

Laurel LindsayLaurel Lindsay is a Calgary Internet Marking Consultant & President of The New Media Group Inc. She has over 8 years hands-on Internet Marketing experience.

Laurel is enthusiastic and passionate about helping people live better lives by leveraging the power of the internet.