On Wednesday January 20th, several business owners from lower Bucks County and Mercer County New Jersey invested 1 ½ hours out of their day to understand how best to incorporate Search Engine Marketing and Social Networking into a 2010 marketing plan. After watching this short but compelling video highlighting the revolution of Social Media and the impact Search Engines on consumer behavior, we learned many useful techniques that can be applied immediately and begin delivering measurable results.
Ninety-one percent (91%) of online consumers were more confident about their Product/Service purchases after researching online.¹ What that means to your business is that the overwhelming majority of your potential customers are letting their fingers do the walking, but not in the Yellow Pages. Most are using Google, Yahoo, Bing to name a few. Many are signing onto Facebook and Twitter to ask their friends and followers…”What do you think about this product?”
The good news is that 87 % of these searchers are choosing to use the telephone, email or visit a Brick and Mortar location to complete the transaction.² Developing relationships with a provider is as important as great service, reliability and of coarse a fair price.
More good news for the website owner is that it is not as difficult to get your website found online as you may think. Search Engine Optimization or SEO considers how search engines work and what people search for. Optimizing a website primarily involves editing its content, HTML and associated coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines.
The next step is to embark on a strategic linking strategy designed to increase a website’s popularity while adding value to your user experience.
Donna Serdula added value to our session by offering many Social Media best practices a business owner can start using immediately. By engaging clients in conversations through Facebook, new social media friends, linked in networkers and Twitter followers an area business owner can begin his/her own Word of Mouth marketing campaign.
Our big Take Away for the day was…Use the Tools your Future Clients are Using! The time to start is now.
1. Online Consumer Confidence Survey 2009, PriceGrabber.com
2. Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey June 2009, BIGResearch
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