4 Basic Marketing Strategies to Take Your Business to the Next Level

Every successful business has a marketing plan that consists of many different strands of marketing strategies. Those might consist of advertising, channel marketing, internet marketing, promotion, public relations, etc. For the purpose of this article, I would like to focus on internet marketing, and the sheer power that it offers your business. To be more particular, I would like to focus on 4 basic marketing strategies that can take your business to the next level.

1. Article Marketing:
Article marketing offers you a tremendous opportunity to drive traffic to your website. You just simply write a short article that pertains to your business, and publish it on any article directory on the web. You want to ensure that you only publish good quality articles. You want to appear to your readers that you are a subject matter expert. Quality over Quantity will win every time.

2. Video Marketing:
If you are doing a search on the internet, and you have a choice between reading something or watching something; you will most likely watch something first before clicking on any other results. It is human nature. That is why it is very important to include videos in your marketing efforts. Produce a short video no longer than two to three minutes in length, and post it on the web. Again, include quality footage.

3. Blogging:
Blogs are the most favored kind of websites by the search engines. They have more authority in the search engines than any other type of website. Posting good quality information that pertains to your business in a blog, and using good keyword research will be very beneficial to you and your business. Good quality information paired with keyword research will very easily help your material to rank high in the search engines. The higher ranked you are in the search engines, the higher your chances of success.

4. Social Media:
Social media is another marketing tool that is becoming more and more popular for business promotion. In fact, if Facebook were a country, it would be the 3rd largest in the world. That is incredible! Using social media like Facebook to promote your business can be highly beneficial to you. You do need to walk a fine line between using your social media accounts for personal and business use. You do not want to come across as a spammer and push people away. Only use social media sites to create curiosity, so that people are coming to you with questions.

It is important to remember that these 4 basic marketing strategies take repetition and hard work. Post as many articles and videos as humanly possible. Blog several times a week. Be active in your social media accounts. If you are persistent in these 4 basic marketing strategies, you will truly be amazed at your results.

Dave Fennell is an Internet Marketing Coach and Corporate Mentor for one of the Internet's largest marketing schools. Specializing in Article Marketing, Social Network Marketing, and a multitude of other Marketing Strategies, he trains both total beginners and seasoned professionals from all over the globe to achieve financial freedom through proven business techniques and continuing education to keep ahead of trends and remain on top of the competition.

Article By Dave Fennell

3 Easy Ways to Get More Out of Your Website

Most people know they should have a website nowadays, and many people do. The question then becomes; how do you get the most out of your website?

Here are three easy ways to help you do that:

1) Keep Your Website Updated

This may seem like an easy one, but the more frequently you update your website, the more reason people have to come visit. It's similar to when you make changes to your home. You don't necessarily have to go through a whole remodeling process to have a desire to show something off. Every new project, new photos, new staff members, etc. are great opportunities to keep your community involved and updated on what's going on with you. A blog linked to your website is a great way to do this.

2) Claim Your Online Listings

This is the one of the best ways to get more exposure online, and it is very easy. All you have to do is know where to look and claim your listing in various popular directories throughout the internet like the online yellow pages, Merchant Circle, the Super Pages and more. For a list of great resources online to claim their business listings at click here.

It does not take very long, and could easily be some of the best time you have invested in your company in a while. Simply fill in some basic information like your business address, phone number and website and you're done. People won't always find you through ordinary searches online for your keywords, so by claiming your listings you are diversifying your online presence and giving yourself more of a chance to be found.

3) Utilize Social Media

Many small business owners would be amazed at the amount of traffic they could drive to their website if they utilized social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Blogs. A few minutes is usually all it takes to add some basic information about your company and create a profile. About five minutes or so for every new post and you have the potential to increase your exposure exponentially. A couple simple sentences with a link to your website or blog can go a very long way towards expanding your business and developing relationships with your clients.

When you get involved like this, you are going where the conversation is, instead of relying on the people to come to you. You don't really have to spend a lot of time here, at least once a week would be ideal, but even if it's once a month, just having a presence helps your company immensely.

If you feel like spending some extra time, list yourself in some twitter directories like wefollow.com and twellow.com. You can also do twitter searches at search.twitter.com, which are similar to Google searches and will provide results with the keywords you are searching for. For example, if you are a landscaper, you may do a search for "landscaping services" and find some potential clients who are in the market for what you offer and made a posting with your keywords in it.

I would also highly recommend creating posts on Craigslist to your appropriate categories with a link to your website. Again, very easy to do and you will be placing yourself in front of many eyeballs who are already there and open to looking at what you have to offer.

Ideally you would like to sync all of your online marketing together. For example; make a new blog post that is linked to your website. Then post a link on your twitter and Facebook accounts, and you will be getting maximum exposure for the time you spent on your new blog post.

The best thing about all of these resources is that they are free. Every business owner has access to them, all it takes is a little time. These are great tasks for office managers or assistants to handle if you are fortunate enough to have their services available to you.

Article By Steve Seager