Miscellaneous tasks associated with an online marketing plan: As part of the online marketing plan, it is imperative that small businesses use all the available tried and tested methods to pitch their businesses to the online audience. Some of the efforts include but are not limited to submitting articles to well-known online directories manually and without using a bot. Online directories have a repertoire of good, popular and well-known sites that will help your website become popular through its association with other popular sites. There are two main types of online web directories. These are general and niche directories. As the terms suggest, the former lists sites in broad categories while the latter has subcategories, sets and subsets these topics

Backlinking: If you use a good resource to add the essential and effective element of backlinking to your online marketing website and affiliate sites and advertising campaigns, they can work wonders for your business. By incorporating high-quality and relevant Incoming links from external websites that have a good PageRank and therefore a good rank on the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) into your website, you can increase the popularity and ranking of your website too. While most web developers offer reciprocal backlinking services, you can give ‘web rings’ a shot. This is a backlinking that involves two or more websites.

Ad scheduler: Some advertising campaigns like the Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns offer extremely useful features that help small business increase their visibility. For example, the ‘ad scheduler’ option in Google AdWords enables advertisers to choose suitable timeframes that they would like their aids to show up in. There is a primetime for ads to just like with radio and television. Using the ‘ad scheduler’ option, ads can be schedule for the weekends or during good time slots on the weekdays. A good idea would be to create multiple ad campaigns that have a different time setup to test which campaign is doing really well.

Ad text and content: Compelling, engaging, persuasive ad content is a necessity based on the type of online advertising campaign you wish to run. Irrespective of the nature of the campaign, the ad text and ad content have one element that is common to both of them. This element is relevance. A good ad copy for any online business or any online marketing venture should always be professional. Irrelevant words that are used to draw user attention will not work for long. The content of the ad and the title must not only tie in well with each other but also suit the overall theme of the associated website.

Management: Good campaign management helps you drive your online advertising campaigns to succeed. The very nature of the online market place makes sound campaign management as prerequisite of the process of setting up campaigns and creating a market plan. For example, advertisers need to keep themselves updated about the various advertising products and web applications that are an integral part of the process of online advertising. The CPC (cost-per-click) of keywords keep varying from time to time and campaign managers need to closely monitor their campaigns to make the necessary changes in time. Test campaigns must be set up as a part of the process.

Website Navigation: Though many business owners tend to overlook this crucial factor, well-defined tabs and user-friendly website navigation is extremely important. Some of the essential elements of website navigation and search functionality designs include site maps, mouse-over functionality, radio buttons and menu drop down options. The ease of primary, secondary and subsidiary navigation must be taken into account. The user must be able to find their way around the site easily and get the information they are looking for in the shortest possible span of time.

Web development and database development: Excellent websites can be created using an inventory of different kinds of software and applications. These are also an integral part of SEO that help a website drive and boost its conversion figures. The website must not only have a professional look and feel but must be professional enough for users to feel comfortable enough to make a financial transaction through the website. For example, all the payment gateway pages must be https pages.

Affiliates and referrals: While renowned and big brands become popular with time and adequate marketing, small businesses need to put in a lot more effort in ‘spreading the word.’ A good way of doing this would be to either create or use a good and well-connected network of referrals and affiliates. Affiliate marketing works through partners and referrals and are highly specific for online marketing programs.

Geo mapping: Local internet marketing for small business will be effective by using the process of geo tagging. The process of geo tagging involves linking your website to search features like ‘Google Maps.’ There are many other services that can assist you in the process of defining your either your company’s or store’s location with the latitude and longitude option or by using just the physical address. Allow people to find you when they type in search queries related to your business. The aim of any small business is to go ‘Glocal’ (Global and Local) using available technology.

Recent research indicates that an astonishing thirty to thirty five percent of user-based search queries on the major search engines like Yahoo! and Google are targeted exclusively towards small businesses. This clearly indicates that small businesses can grab a piece of the online marketing pie if they design a good online marketing strategy. Online marketing has tremendous potential and it can help small and local business maximize their potential ROI in a big way. Search engines too need to work on newer and better ways of helping these people give their business a much-needed impetus and a great head start.

Some of the best methods that go into creating a a successful online marketing plan for small business include but are not limited to:

Search Engine Optimization (SEO): SEO helps you promote your site and services in a big way. SEO is one of the most effective ways to increase the visibility of your website by leaps and bounds. Though there are various both internal and external factors that go into achieving the desired result and success of the marketing campaign, optimizing your website for SEO would be a good place to start. Internal factors include those connected to the site like its overall design, layout, and content. These changes involve minor and major modifications to the source code of the website.

Setting up online advertising campaigns: Google AdWords and Yahoo! AdCenter are advertising campaigns offered by these major search engines. Signing up for an online advertising account would be a great way to build your online marketing campaigns. When a user types in a search query using Google ads show up on the same page above the search results and sometimes on the right side of the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). If the search query is targeted towards a small business, your advertisement may be displayed if the keywords in the search query pertain to your business. This helps site promotion.

Search engine features: Some of the most helpful and useful features offered by the search engine giant Google include the ‘Nearby’ search feature. This smart and intelligent feature gives users local search results in response to their local search queries. While the traditional WDD (within driving distance) option of small business searches was successful for a short span of time, it gradually made way for the more advanced and sophisticated ‘Nearby’ search feature. This recently launched Google application has now been integrated into mobiles as the ‘Near Me Now’ feature. It works in mobiles that use the Android platform and iphones.

Target audience: As an online marketer or an entrepreneur or as the owner of an online business, it is extremely important that you have answers to the three main questions. These questions are important as you need a lot of clarity before you decide on an advertising spend for your online marketing campaigns. In order to create the blueprint for your website, you need to know: 1. The target audience: Is your audience a global audience or a local? 2. The content on the website: Do you have relevant content? 3. The navigation pattern: Can your users easily find what they are looking for on your website?

Other modes of online marketing: There are many other smart and effective ways of promoting a small business. Some of them include but are not limited to email marketing, blogs, online forums, videos, social networking sites, affiliate and referrals networks, etc. When used intelligently, these modes of online marketing that are primarily geared towards enhancing the visibility of your website can also drive sales figures and help you maximize your potential Return On Investment (ROI). Email marketing campaigns are a form of ‘direct marketing’ and ‘viral marketing.’ The reach is phenomenal as you can reach a large audience using email marketing campaigns.

Keyword research and analysis: Keyword research and analysis not only play are an integral role in the text content of your website but also help you create successful online marketing campaigns. If you want the web crawlers to index your site and also give it a high PageRank, your campaigns must include a mix of good and relevant keywords apart from the most sought after high-traffic keywords. Meta tags have description meta tags prove to be extremely effective if they are populated with plural and other variations of good keywords. This also helps optimize your advertising campaigns in an effective manner.