Wouldn’t it be nice if you had a marketing task checklist? Mindlessly scrolling through marketing articles on Facebook about things you can’t really take action on is pretty stressful. And how do you even begin to sort through the good tips and bad tips? As a leading resource for Internet marketing in Chicago, our team at Design & Promote decided to put together a of the most relevant marketing tips that are easy for you to start implementing today. When we work with clients, we don’t like to just hand over finalized strategies and solutions to; instead, we like to educate our clients to help them understand the most effective and useful online marketing resources available.
So for you, our reader, we’d like to make your job a little easier by lining out things you can do to actually help your business standout online. These 50 effective marketing strategies are broken down into 5 key categories, which we feel will help businesses create a rock solid brand and marketing plan.

Branding

• Get the logo right; your logo should become synonymous with your company; work with a qualified source for web design in Chicago to create the final look in a comprehensive range of formats
• Present a consistent brand identity throughout every marketing forum
• Create company email addresses for a professional, trustworthy corporate identity
• Include your brand logo and contact info with every email sent for memorability and professionalism
• Always have your branded business cards on hand
• Brainstorm ways to use giveaways to increase your subscriber database
• Match your domain name to your business name: it’s the easiest way to ensure prospective customers can quickly find your online identity
• Think about what your demographic throughout the whole design process; what do they want/need to know about you?
• Showcase your USP (unique selling proposition)
• Don’t overstuff your homepage with “everything”; keep it simple with 1-3 key corporate differentiators to encourage guests to click on other pages

 

SEO

• Keyword matter; work with your chosen SEO company in Chicago to pinpoint the most powerful keyword for your business
• Use keywords strategically in title tags, headers, content, URL’s and alt image tags for optimal ROI
• Create a blog on your main website; post consistently, at least once a month, and always include a call to action
• Use backlinks; they build credible and sustainable momentum
• Implement backlinks throughout your site pages as often as possible
• Write press releases; a skilled SEO company in Chicago will show you that you actually have a lot to announce, use that to create a press release complete with backlinks, as well as a distribution channel
• Create a Google+ business page
• Don’t duplicate blog content; always create fresh, relevant copy on your blogs
• Guest blog to broaden your brand exposure
• Don’t forget to optimize your video content

 

Social Media

• Don’t just create pages and ignore them; use them as part of your marketing plan daily
• Consider these pages your opportunity to make an online first impression with your followers
• Use LinkedIn as your online professional identity
• Create a content calendar to keep you on track with posts
• Keep it interesting; diversify the type of information you share
• Leave LinkedIn endorsements so your network will return the favor
• Incorporate hashtags whenever possible; use sites like keyhole.co to see what hashtags are trending now
• Use online analytics to determine when your followers are most active; this is the perfect time for your next post
• Modify the same posts on each forum, like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc., to maximize results
• Don’t sign up for every social media forum; decide which ones best suit your business needs

 

Web Design

• Go high-speed; a slow loading site will get ignored by the search engines
• Have your web design company in Chicago create optimized pages using strategic keywords
• Be sure your selected team of specialists for web design in Chicago creates a 301 redirect so old pages point to new ones
• Also, include a 404 error page to direct viewers to alternate pages
• Ensure your site responds to fit every screen size
• Consistently backup all of your web files
• Include a call to action on each page
• Create a separate page for every product/service your business offers
• Implement a process for consistent quality assurance where links, spelling and formatting issues get fixed
• Check for WordPress updates for the best, and latest, security and bug fixes available

 

Web Maintenance

• Conduct web analytics each month to measure results
• Use a simple data collection form to build your subscriber list
• Get critical feedback by asking for comments, surveys and testimonials from clients
• Test different page designs and setups to determine which setup yields best results
• Identify trends from your most popular blogs for topic ideas
• Use different phone numbers for different leads sources to track results
• Gather statistics using a CRM program
• Pinpoint lead sources and conversion rates
• Checkout recent visitor stats and identify new B2B leads
• Include Majestic SEO to count backlinks from other websites.

Remember: Knowledge is only good if you use it. We hope you’ll pick a few of these tips and put them into practice. Did you find this list helpful? Share it with a friend to help them create their own rock solid marketing strategy! Contact Design and Promote for help crafting and refining your online presence.