Small Businesses – Gain The Edge Online

In today’s digital age, finding out all about your competitors has never been easier. With just a few clicks you can see who they are, how they are advertising and in some cases, even how much they are making online. The trick to gaining that edge online is to utilise this easy access of competitor information to your own company’s advantage.

Identify Your Competitors

The first thing to do is discover who it is that you are actually competing against. Online it not as simple as simply competing to get customers through your door, you need to consider search engine results, advertising banners and any other form of marketing techniques you are employing online.

A great tool for identifying the active players in your market is Google Alerts. The software will alert you whenever it discovers new content about a select group of keywords, meaning you can stay up to date with who is marketing in your industry or sector.

Dig A Little Deeper

Once you have identified who you believe to be your biggest rivals online it is time to delve into more detail about their companies and customers.

Another handy tool (also from Google) is the DoubleClick Ad Planner, which allows you to uncover the demographic of users visiting the websites of your competitors. In addition, you can see the types of website your potential customers are visiting, allowing you to place your marketing campaigns accordingly.

In terms of discovering how much your competitors are actually making, the internet has also made this much easier too.

A large percentage of firms use affiliate marketing, where other sites direct traffic towards the company’s in order for commission on any revenue they generate. In order to attract new affiliates, your competitors need to publish their commission rates along with estimates of how much the affiliates can expect to earn. Combing this data with the information you uncovered about their customers, you can gain a pretty good idea of the kind of money your competitors are making annually.

Structure Your Own Campaign

Once all this is completed, it is time to structure your own business’ campaign. Often, firms turn to internet marketing companies for professional advice on online marketing strategy and for small businesses this can often help them gain the edge.

Make sure you budget carefully for the amount your business can afford to spend on its campaign and take time to plan out your expenditure. Again, marketing companies can offer you expert advice on the most effective forms of online marketing and how best to spend your advertising budget.

Internet Marketing Companies Can Help Your Business Soar To New Heights

Internet marketing companies – they’re all pretty much alike aren’t they? They all offer the same services: Search Engine Optimisation . . . Pay Per Click . . . Social Media Marketing . . . Website design . . .


While it’s true that many Internet marketing companies do provide similar options in terms of the range of services offered, the results of their marketing efforts can vary dramatically according to the competencies of the ‘experts’ concerned. With the upshot being that you may not always feel you are getting value for money.

This can lead you to believe that throwing your budget at Internet consultancy services is a complete waste of money.

We hear it all the time in the media: “PPC doesn’t work, Social Media is too difficult to get to grips with and as for SEO – well it could take me years to get anywhere in the ‘organic’ search listings.”

None of which is true . . . providing you know what you are doing.

When looking to work with Internet marketing companies, it’s vital to weed out the ‘can dos’ from the ‘cannots.’

An expert Internet marketing company will look closely at your marketing plan, (or put one together for you if yours is out of date), and create a plan of action that will help you get where you want to be as quickly and as economically as possible.

Where the ‘can dos’ among Internet marketing companies really earn their corn is in the quality of the leads they generate. In other words, the number of qualified buyers that are sent to your website on a daily basis.

Because it doesn’t matter one jot if 500 people visit your website every single day, if none of them are in a position to buy from you. In fact, you could be wasting your valuable time trying to engage with people who have no inclination of buying from you. Ever. Higher volumes of traffic don’t necessarily indicate a greater ratio of buyer conversions.

So how can you ensure your business has the best chance of succeeding in the Internet jungle?

Your chosen Internet marketing consultant will devise precisely the right strategy to attract the kinds of people your business is aiming at. People you can convert into satisfied and loyal customers, who will stay with you for years. And they’ll tell their friends about the exceptional service they can expect from a great company like yours.

Internet Marketing Companies – Not All Are Created Equal

If you’ve had experience with online Internet marketing companies you’ll know that some are quite excellent in that they deliver a great service that produces first class results . . . while others can be unreliable.

The best Internet marketing companies will use ethical Search Engine Optimisation techniques to drive targeted traffic to your website. By using ‘White Hat’ processes, you are assured of getting more relevant visitors to your website and not just any old body – relevant or not!

There are literally hundreds of Internet marketing companies vying for your business online, and new ones seem to be springing up every week. When choosing a marketing consultancy, it’s vital to check out their credentials to ensure you are making a wise investment.

Your appointed Internet marketing company should be working hard to ensure that your site ranks highly in all the major search engines’ organic listings. After all, the better targeted your traffic and the more relevant your visitors, the more likely those visitors are to want to do business with you.

Having only highly-targeted traffic improves your company’s profile and reputation which in turn means you get a better Return on Investment too. Using SEO tools to drive targeted visitors to your website can dramatically impact on your conversion rates, increasing sales revenues and boosting your customer base. 

And you know it’s around eight times easier to sell to someone you’ve previously sold to, over someone you haven’t, right?

An effective marketing campaign is vital to the success of any business that has an Internet presence. 

More than that, having a great marketing strategy in place can be the difference between realising your potential and going out of business due to lack of trade. It’s a sad fact that thousands of businesses every year go into liquidation or are declared bankrupt. And in some cases, there is only a miniscule difference between those businesses that make the grade and those that go under.

Taking action to improve the website experience for your visitors can make the difference between having a profitable business and one which is losing you money. Inertia is not an option here. If you do not have the skills to optimise your website so it attracts the right kind of visitors, then it’s really worth considering having an expert do this for you.

Utilising the services of a top Internet marketing company to help you define your keyword strategy and work towards a higher listing makes perfect business sense. 

Boost Your Search Engine Ranking

For any company operating in today’s increasingly digital age, taking steps to improve traffic to their websites is a must if they are going to remain competitive. But it’s not as easy as it may appear, and sometimes reading up on the subject yourself or taking one of the many quick-fix ‘courses’ on offer is not enough to get you the results you want. This is where it may be a good idea to look at bringing in one of the many online and search marketing companies out there to give your business an expert boost. Here are just some of the key services they can provide you with to take you to the next level:


Increasing traffic: You may have identified the keywords potential customers will need to type into the search engine to bring you to your site, but do you know how to convert these to newly generated traffic? Experienced internet marketing companies know exactly how to place these keywords to improve your search engine rankings. Rather than floundering in the sea of other websites all clamouring to rank highest for those particular terms, a paying for a professional, targeted approach will start getting you visitors quickly, and this will lead to...

Higher conversion levels: You have now got the visitors to your site, which is great – but that is only half the battle. Your site needs to be appealing and, above all, easy to use. If a customer is unsure whether to buy from you and the payment process is complicated or difficult to see, you may well lose that sale. Find yourself an expert to provide the full package, from search engine optimisation to a comprehensive website review and your new site traffic will soon start translating to bigger sales and profitability.

Research and analysis: Do you know how to thoroughly research your market and competitors, as well as providing a thorough analysis of your current website performance? Do you know how to find out the most common search enquiries people are making relating to your sector? Don’t worry if not – these are essential elements to any company’s business strategy but it is also part of what the best search marketing companies are there to do.

Paid online marketing: There are times – perhaps during peak sale times – when SEO methods are not enough. At these times it may be advisable to use online advertising methods such as paid placement and pay-per-click to further enhance your ratings. If employed correctly, these methods can provide a real boost, but handled inexpertly and you are spending money to no purpose. If you’re not sure, it’s best to get expert advice from somebody who can advise you on what is appropriate for your website and your market.

Hiring search marketing companies, then, can be a wise medium-term investment. Do choose wisely though, as the quality of service out there does vary. Most importantly, it is worth finding out whether the company you are considering is highly ranked for their keywords themselves, and whether they can provide evidence and testimonials from clients to back up their claims. If not, move on and look for someone else.

Hiring a search engine marketing company to improve your website’s search engine ranking can be looked on as a wise investment. If you hire the right one you can look forward to increased website traffic and much greater visitor conversion levels.