Thanks to the Internet, attracting new customers has never been easier for small businesses.
Online marketing gives small businesses the ability to promote their products and services to customers not only in the towns where the companies are located, but all across the country. Internet marketing, also known as online or digital marketing, refers to the use of digital assets for marketing brands and selling products or services, said James Barry, an associate professor of marketing at Nova Southeastern University’s H. Wayne Huizenga School of Business and Entrepreneurship.
“It entails the use of social media, online advertising, search engine marketing and email marketing together as a way to connect with audiences completely through our computers and smart devices,” Barry told Business News Daily.
All of the various online marketing strategies — search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, social media marketing, content marketing and link building — are designed to increase a business’s online presence.
Companies using Internet marketing say they have seen tremendous benefits from it. Louis Leibowitz, owner of owner of Walt’s Sleep Shopin Middletown, New Jersey, said online marketing has given the company the chance to make sales throughout the country.
“It offers greater visibility of our products all over the U.S, and it represented a great opportunity to increase our sales, and reach a bigger target market with less costs,” Leibowitz said. “Thus, instead of selling sofa, RV and marine mattresses only to people around Middletown, we now ship orders to states like California, Florida, New York, Texas and so on.”
Online marketing is also significantly cheaper than traditional forms of marketing, such as print, radio or television advertising, according to Leibowitz.
“It is a cost-efficient way to compete with big chains that offer similar products to ours, like Ikea and Walmart,” Leibowitz said.
Rather than conducting online marketing on their own, many small business owners employ Internet marketing services to do it for them. These firms provide a variety of services that help businesses improve their search engine rankings and build a stronger online profile.
Business News Daily’s sister site, Top Ten Reviews, conducts in-depth reviews to help business owners find the best online marketing services. Here are Top Ten Reviews’ top three recommendations for the best online marketing services:
Increase Visibility was the highest-rated online marketing service by Top Ten Reviews due to its ability to maximize a website’s efficacy and profitability. The company specializes in a wide range of Internet marketing services, including search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, affiliate marketing, brand management and mobile marketing. When working with new clients, Increase Visibility’s experts design a comprehensive campaign to improve deficiencies, maximize the efficacy of the site and boost its traffic. All of the company’s campaigns are planned and customized to suit the needs of each client. In addition to using social media to build relationships with current and potential customers, the service also works to increase traffic through local searches that help build local clientele and brand awareness. Additional services offered include website design optimization, copywriting, and the creation and management of YouTube videos.
Promotion and performance: In order to promote a positive image of its clients, Increase Visibility helps businesses with online brand design and management. This includes blogging and syndication, writing press releases for the media and conducting in-depth analyses of competitors’ websites. In addition to receiving biweekly or monthly reports on the success of their campaigns, businesses can also access campaign statistics every day to ensure things are progressing as desired.
Education and support:Increase Visibility offers clients an instructional blog, as well as links to articles about industry trends and Internet marketing news. The company also provides an educational video and a variety of information related to the services it offers. For those in need of a bit more help, the company provides telephone, email and live chat support for all clients.
Cost: To compare costs, visit Top Ten Reviews’ best online marketing services.
[For a side-by-side comparison of the best online marketing service visit our sister site Top Ten Reviews.]
#2. WebiMax
WebiMax earned high rankings from Top Ten Reviews for its effective practices, customized service and dependable performance. The company offers a variety of Internet marketing services, including search engine optimization, search engine marketing, website design, social media marketing, pay-per-click advertising, affiliate marketing and mobile marketing. WebiMax also employs in-house writers for all content creation and copywriting. For businesses that already have SEO strategies in place, WebiMax provides a dedicated consulting and training team that can boost those efforts. The company prides itself on using only ethical and effective SEO techniques to drive traffic to each business’s site. On-site optimization, link building, social network advertising, contextual search advertising and video SEO are among the other services offered.
Promotion and performance: WebiMax provides an online marketing client center that lets users review their campaigns as often as they like. The dashboard gives clients the opportunity to review reports, rankings and results in real time. WebiMax also has the ability to handle brand management, performance reporting, competitor analysis, blogging, syndication and press-release writing.
Education and support: The WebiMax website features a variety of educational videos, a company blog and a host of services-related information. The firm also provides users help and support via email, live chat, phone and an online form.
Cost: To compare costs, visit Top Ten Reviews’ best online marketing services.
Server Side Design scored high marks for its focus on search engine optimization and pay-per-click advertising, as well as its ability to serve clients of all sizes. In addition to SEO and PPC advertising, other services the company offers includes website optimization, onsite and offsite Web marketing, copywriting, link building, local search optimization, video SEO, keyword research, affiliate marketing, mobile marketing, contextual search advertising and social network advertising. Server Side Design also designs and manages its client’s social media profiles, including those on Facebook and Twitter. Additionally, the company offers the upLOCAL service, which helps businesses rank prominently on map searches.
Promotion and performance: Server Side Design’s performance reports track a variety of metrics, including site traffic, rankings, social media and pay-per-click results. The company also provides competitor analysis, branding design and management, blogging, and press releases.
Education and support: To better understand each aspect of a campaign, Server Side Design’s website provides information on the company’s entire suite of “up” services, including upRANK for SEO, upLOCAL for maps, upCLICK for PPC and upSOCIAL for social media. Additionally, the company provides an analysis of each client’s website, examining the site’s directory structure, navigation, database, content, file names, metadata and site code.Server Side Design offers telephone, email and live chat support for those needing extra assistance.
Cost: To compare costs, visit Top Ten Reviews’ best online marketing services.
Originally published on Business News Daily