Social Media Sites
There has been an explosion in the popularity of online communities where people can network, exchange information and ideas as well as advertise their products/services. An online presence has become essential for any business that wants to be visible to their market sector.
Carefully used, it allows companies to build a passion for their products and services by writing clear, targeted copy with concise text that speaks directly to the audience you wish to reach. Make sure that you highlight any unique features that differentiate you from the competition. If your goal is brand/company name recognition, we suggest using your company name in the title or somewhere in the body of the text
Create your copy so that it is as simple and easy to read as possible. Avoid long sentences or complex punctuation. Use simple, grammatically correct, complete sentences and language. Use proper punctuation, punctuate the end of sentences, put spaces after full stops and commas, and don't use hyphens instead of full stops.
Don't try to fit every detail about your product or service into the text Make it clear what your product or service is so a user can tell what your website will be about, but save the details for your landing page.
Your copy should convey a call-to-action along with the benefits of your product or service. A call-to-action encourages users to click on your advert and should explain to the user exactly what you expect them to do when they reach your landing page. Some call-to-action phrases include: buy, sell, order, browse, sign up and get a quote.
Face book is a social network service, although their face book Page is aimed at business marketing. Their website was launched in February 2004 that is operated and privately owned by face book, Inc. As of July 2010, it has more than 500 million active users, which is about one person for every fourteen in the world
There are two types of face book, a personal one that can be used as a day to day personal event diary and a face book Page that allows professionals to have a web presence distinct from their website. Create a face book Page and start talking to your customers in a few easy steps - www.facebook.com/Pages
It is important to promote your page. Let a client know after you have detailed their car, shown or sold them a car to check out your profile on face book Page. The more people following you on face book the more likely others are willing to like your business and the more likely those viewing your profile will become your next client, especially when they see all of the positive feedback. A page lets you display all of the relevant information potential customers might be looking for such as:
· An overview of your services
· Website for more information and pricing
· Contact Information
· Location
· Hours of operation
· Reviews
· Customer interaction
· Photographs of vehicles cars and boats you have detailed
Face book pages are extremely easy to update and provide analytics information so you can see how often users are visiting your pages, liking what you post, or sharing your page.
It will take a time to build up your fan base, just remember to always be asking people to become a fan of your page. Constantly promote your page as much as possible and be sure to keep your content fresh to keep old fans coming back and to entice viewers to join in. If you have a website or email marketing program make sure to cross-promote your business page
Face book Pages are increasingly becoming a “second home page” for businesses online. And while more and more Page owners are learning how to become expert face book marketers, face book has recently created many new opportunities for Pages to get more traffic through the tried and true methods of – you guessed it – search engine optimisation (SEO).
Marketing APIs help advertisers achieve success on Facebook at scale through efficiency and innovation. Facebook has developed a set of Marketing APIs to enable developers to offer innovative solutions that help marketers scale their presence on - Face book Marketing Solutions - http://www.facebook.com/marketing?sk=wall
10 Key SEO Strategies Every face book Page Owner Should Know - http://www.insidefacebook.com/2009/07/13/seo-facebook-pages-10-key-strategies/
Stik.com - Stik.com is a website that uses Face book to connect people who need high-value goods or services with trustworthy professionals that their friends recommend. When you need to make an important purchase, it is better to deal with people you know. You will get a better deal, with less stress and hassle.
Stik.com makes it easy to find the right people by searching your personal Face book network. To get started, use the search box to tell us what you need - we'll find someone who can help. It helps professionals build their reputation and referral networks on Face book. The site does this by collecting hundreds of recommendations and referrals on Stik.com professional profiles.
The average Face book user has 40,000 friends and friends-of-friends on Face book. Stik.com allows you to tap into this vast universe of potential buyers and turn your social network into a referral network, driving you business from buyers with whom you already have a personal connection.
If you are a professional looking to build your reputation and referral network on Face book, follow the directions to connect with your Face book account and build a Stik.com profile.
If you are looking to find a trusted professional, simply search for the kind of help you need in the search box and connect with professionals in your network recommended by your friends
Blog- if you only have the time or desire to create one social media platform, a blog should be at the top of your list. Blogs give users a few distinct advantages over the other platforms that make them absolutely invaluable in the world of Internet marketing, plus search engines love blogs. First, become the “go-to” expert in your industry.
They have plenty of content and are easy for the spiders to crawl and categorise online. Second, consumers love blogs. They aren’t hard sales, but instead are a mix of marketing and education that online shoppers trust.
Really Simple Syndication (RSS)
RSS allows you to see when websites have added new content, as soon as its published, without having to visit the websites you have taken the feed from. Feeds are also known as RSS. There is some discussion as to what RSS stands for, but most people plump for 'Really Simple Syndication'. In essence, the feeds themselves are just web pages, designed to be read by computers rather than people.
If you do any online networking, especially on social sites that use the Ning platform, you can add your blog’s RSS feed to your profile. Every time you update your blog, your profile will be updated with the new information from your blog. Other people may wish to syndicate your blog, or they may wish to add you to their blog reader. Providing an easy accessible RSS url on your blog will increase the chance that other people will follow your blog.
Submit your blog to different blog directory sites, but they need to know your RSS URL; simply add this to the end of your blog address: /atom.xml (i.e. http://TOGWT ® 1980.blogspot.com/atom.xml) with some bloggers you add feed after .com
YouTube - the main video sharing platform, YouTube is one of the best forums available to create a viral marketing campaign. From publishing client video testimonials to creating social proof of your abilities, YouTube videos are a great way to get other site owners to link to your website.
Twitter - is a micro blog that limits posts to 140 characters. Although you’ll typically hear the most scepticism about Twitter, it can be an amazing tool for your business.
Twitter plug-ins allow you to update Twitter and literally push it out to your other platforms, such as Face book. Additionally, Twitter posts rank in the search engines
LinkedIn - is a popular business profile site, LinkedIn ranks very well in search engines and is a great platform for sending event updates out to business associates.
When optimising your Social Media sites, select one core keyword (or search term you would like to be found under), use it frequently without sacrificing consumer experience, and watch your profile skyrocket in the search engines.
Social Media Marketing is a vital addition to any public relations marketing campaign. With a Facebook Page that has interesting and regular updates to it s content, you’ll get people following your every move, which will lead to more customers and higher sales; the exact payoff every business needs.
Detailing Forums
Posting a descriptive write-up and photographs (always obtain owner’s permission before posting and blanking out their registration plate) of details carried out is another great form of marketing
Website
An Internet website is a very viable resource for marketing. Costing as little as $500 depending on what you want doing.. Hire a competent professional web designer, the internet is an ever evolving so you need to hire a person to give you a professional web presence; it's their job to understand it.
Ensure there are no spelling errors, and thoroughly check the quality of written English, as these types of mistake will put off consumers who could have concerns about a website's credibility, and will negatively impact sales. This is because when you sell or communicate on the internet 99% of the time it is done by the written word.
Contact a web developer that will provide both an attractive and easily negotiated website, ensure you can make updates to the website easily and make sure it has the ability to capture e-mail information about visitors through registration for a “car care” newsletter or tips.
From the e-mail information, you will be able to follow up and better serve clients and potential clients. When you run a promotion this e-mail list will get your company name and a specific promotion directly into the inboxes of your clients and potential clients.
Have a regularly updated section on ‘Car Care’ so that you can provide advice and ensure both clients and potential clients visit your site, which keeps your company name fresh in their minds and will boost recognition
Page Speed Online analyses the content of a web page, and then generates suggestions to make that page faster. Reducing page load times can reduce bounce rates and increase conversion rates - http://pagespeed.googlelabs.com/# or Torbit -http://torbit.com/ref/8l7
The single largest upload speed killer is image resolution. Develop a standard practice with your photos and images, with Photoshop or whatever image hosting site you use you use, set the resolution to 72dpi If your images are higher resolution than this you are wasting bandwidth and significantly reducing the amount of time the site needs to load. Scale down image size and resolution, the larger the image the more bandwidth you'll need.
Email Marketing Software
Create profitable customer relationships for your business; a website owner’s email marketing tools like professional email signup forms and auto responder services make it easy for you to build your email list and stay in touch with prospects. - http://aweber.com/
Back links
These are links from other websites.
Some examples:
1. You create an entry on local.yahoo.com that includes your web address.
2. You edit your signature on autopia.org to include a link to your website.
3. You publish an article about car care on ezinearticles.com that includes a link to your website.
4. The car dealers and other automotive businesses you work for include a link to your website on their own websites.
Google sees all of these links to your website as "votes" as to your popularity on the Internet. Generally speaking, the website with the most "votes" gets the top spot on Google. [602rwtq Autopia]
Google Places
Millions of people search Google Maps every day. A free listing on Google Maps makes it easy for them to find you.
Use Google Places to create your free listing. When potential customers search Maps for local information, they'll find your business: your address, hours of operation, even photos of your storefront or products. It's easy, free, and you don't need a website of your own. Local customers are already searching for the products and services you offer. Why not make it easy for them to find you on Google search and on Google Maps? Google Places is the place to start - https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=lbc&passive=1209600&continue=http://www.google.com/local/add/businessCenter?hl%3Den-US%26gl%3DUS&followup=http://www.google.com/local/add/businessCenter?hl%3Den-US%26gl%3DUS&hl=en-US
Search engine optimisation (S.E.O)
[:is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site or a web page (such as a blog) from search engines via "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results as opposed to other forms of search engine marketing (SEM) which may deal with paid inclusion.
The theory is that the earlier (or higher) a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search and industry-specific vertical search engines This gives a web site web presence] [1]
S.E.O is an acronym for search engine optimisation or more simply; how to get more ‘traffic’ to your Website or Blog. The practice of obtaining high search engine rankings by performing keyword research, modifying the HTML code to reflect such keywords and building relationships with other websites to promote your site via a linking campaign
Search Engine Optimisation Starter Guide - www.google.com/.../search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf
SEO can also lift your site, by helping search engines find your site. Search engines on the Internet allow users to type in key words such as “detailers,” “detail services,” a company name, or anything else. In the blink of an eye, the search engine scans the millions of sites on the web and lists those that have meta-tags identical to the typed-in search term.
This tool is very helpful for finding out the strongest words on your site. Make sure you keep your site title relevant to the content. Some things to include; keyword research, title tag and word search optimization, search, working on HTML source code, image, hyperlink and header tag optimization and page ranking - www.freshegg.com
Flash
Programming in ‘Flash’ my look attractive, however, it's invisible to search engines, because to an SEO it’s essentially a collection of pictures and not actual text. Google does not recognise pictures; only text.
Meta-tags
Meta-tags are simply words and phrases that describe the contents of your website and the nature of your business, making it easier for the search engines and interested viewers to find you.
Meta-tags are not a magic key to site effectiveness, but they do increase the chances that your site will be included in the list that pops up when a web surfer types in a key word or phrase.
The use of meta-tags is a technical subject you should discuss with your web designer to make certain that they include a full measure of appropriate tags in your home page. How to Use HTML Meta Tags - http://searchenginewatch.com/2167931
Web Crawlers
A web crawler is a relatively simple automated program or script that methodically scans or crawls through Internet pages to create an index of the data it's looking for. Alternative names for a web crawler include web spider, web robot, crawler, and automatic indexer.
There are many different uses for a web crawler. Probably the most common use associated with the term is related to search engines. Search engines use web crawlers to collect information about what is available on public web pages. Their primary purpose is to collect data so that when Internet surfers enter a search term on their site, they can quickly provide the surfer with relevant web sites.
All the content is taken by the Web Crawlers and copied onto indexes. The frequencies of the visits by web crawlers to websites depend on the popularity, quality, size of the website and the number of visitors a websites receive. A website such as face book is crawled several times per day, however, if we have a website that receives only a few hits per month the web crawlers may only visit once every few months in order to check for updates.
Pay per Click (PPC)
Advertising on Google is the most powerful breakthrough in marketing this century, yet very few small business owners truly understand its power. I'll be keeping you updated on Pay per Click in the weeks and months ahead.
The key to successful advertising is to find a method of conveying your information to as many people as possible while keeping your advertising costs to a minimum. PPC advertising may be one of the easiest ways to generate traffic to your website
Using Video and Social Media
Taking a video of a detail (seek the owner’s permission beforehand) and then up loading it to YouTube, face book or other social media networks is a good and inexpensive form of marketing (See also The CMO's Guide To
The Social Media Landscape). It’s also a good idea to send a copy or a hyperlink to your client; they will proudly show them to their friends, thereby expanding your network of future clients. You could also add it to your Blog and/or Website
Other resources
Related Articles
“Essentials for Starting a New Business”
“Marketing on the Internet”
“Becoming a Professional Detailer”
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