It can be a case of mixed feelings when you hear the news that one of your competitors have closed down. On one hand you fear the worst – that the same might happen to your business if the demand for your products or service is slowly drying up with the current state of the economy. On the other hand, you’re feeling that this means there should be more opportunity for you to gain a bigger market share. So how do you grasp that opportunity through your online marketing?

Gain instant traffic with pay-per-click adverts

As soon as you hear the news, you could set up a new campaign in your PPC account to target those searching for the closed down company’s name. Add variations of their company name to your keyword list and create adverts that inform searchers that the company has closed down, as well as displaying your key USP. Let’s make an example, let’s say you have a website that sells football socks and your company name is ‘Red Socks United’. Your competitor that’s closed down is called ‘Blue Socks City’. Here’s the type of PPC advert I would run along with keyword variations of ‘blue socks city’ to target those searchers:

Attract traffic to your site with a blog post

To target people searching for your competitor’s brand name through organic search, you could write an article or blog post to publish the news online. Using their name in the title could help you pick up organic traffic, and with Google’s recent freshness update, your article may just appear on the first page of results for a few days after posting. Obviously you don’t want to be seen to be taking pleasure in them closing down, so keep it non-biased and informative like a proper news post. However do make sure you have a call to action of some sort at the end of the post which encourages readers to stay on your website.

Improve your organic rankings with broken link building

This is an SEO link building technique I’ve been reading about more and more recently, and is one which I feel brings a fresh lot of link opportunities for those who have become a bit stuck and are running out of ideas. The concept is basically that you find broken links on a website that you want to gain a link from, kindly tell the webmaster that you have found the broken link whilst browsing their site and just wanted to point it out to them, with the aim that they will agree to link to your site instead, since you have content which is suitable enough to replace the previous content they linked to.

Whilst doing some competitor analysis the other day, I came across various links to a site of a company which I know went into administration last year. As they would’ve been a competitor of my new start-up client, a lot of the links that they have to their (now dead) site could link to my client’s site instead as they sell the same products that their competitor did.

Gain more revenue from your existing customers

Knowing that one of your competitors have gone bust might make you re-evaluate what you’ve done to stay successful and what you’ll probably find is that an important factor is – without a doubt – your customers. Now is a better time than any to thank your customers and businesses can always do more to gain more revenue from their existing customer base. Why not send out a newsletter/email to everyone on your subscribed list and offer them a brilliant discount, free delivery or a free gift with every purchase – whatever you think your customers will appreciate, what you can afford to give away and still make a profit on.

Don’t let a competitor’s misfortune get you down, instead adopt these positive online strategies to try and increase your share of the online market. If you need any help with putting these strategies into place, call Creare on 01788 551 591.

Despite the odd bit of controversy here and there, ‘Red or Black’, the new game show presented by Ant and Dec has been a relative success in terms of giving ordinary members of the public an opportunity to become a millionaire. Now I know that this is a game based on luck, however I want to focus on the important decisions that have to be made and relate those to the decisions that you as a business owner have to make at various stages of an SEO campaign.

There are ten big decisions that contestants have to make on ‘Red or Black’ before the wheel spins for one million pounds. You will however be pleased to know that I am not going to go through ten different decisions that have to made before and during an SEO campaign, rather focus on just two or three that play a pivotal role in the whole process.

Decision One: SEO or not?

We all know that the current financial climate is not great, so putting your business one step ahead of competitors could make the difference when it comes to prolonged success. Whilst word of mouth is a great tool to attract fresh business, in today’s day and age with so many businesses on the market, new tactics have to be employed.

With more and more people using the internet to search for available services from plumbers and window fitters through to hotels and restaurants, wouldn’t it be great if you could appear at the top of the page when people search for terms in your field of business? A successful SEO campaign can help you achieve this and with a dedicated team of professionals on board, any investment you make will be rewarded with hard work and all being well, positive results.

Decision Two: How much to invest?

Once you have decided to embark on an SEO campaign (good choice) the second decision you must make is to consider how much of your hard earned cash to put into the project. This is of course a difficult one so always take the time to review your options, assess your finances and then give the go ahead to begin once you have a budget in mind.

A campaign can be developed around the money you have available to spend and no matter how much, or how restricted that may be, you will be assured of the highest possible level of service with the sole aim of helping your business climb up the rankings.  A combination of hard work, a positive attitude and patience will give your business the best hope of drawing in new custom and ensuring you stay affluent and are able to grow even in these tough times.

Decision Three: Time to add more?

As your business begins to feel the benefits an SEO campaign can bring, you now have the decision of whether to stick with what you have or add additional services to further enhance what is currently occurring.

There are many other services that can be implemented alongside an SEO campaign such as social media, email marketing and pay per click to name just three. Again, experienced professionals within each field will work alongside you and push your business on to the next level through their commitment and expertise. You will obviously need to invest a little more to get the additional features, however it could well be worth it in the long run.

As ‘Red or Black’ draws to a close this weekend, you will see many more members of the public having to make a tough decision, choosing red or black? As a business owner embarking on an SEO campaign, you will undoubtedly have to make similarly tough decisions and take a gamble along the way. Making the correct decisions at the appropriate times to suit your business could most definitely make the difference between long standing success and languishing in the business doldrums fighting to stay afloat.

Discover how you can set your business up for a season of success

It’s that time of year that every fan looks forward to the most; the start of the new season. It’s just around the corner and hopes are high that your favourite team will succeed in the 30 or 40 league games that lie ahead. The start of a new football season links in well with that of an SEO campaign, so if you have not previously considered it for your business, why not invest and see your business climb the rankings in much the same way as you hope your favourite team will rise up the league this year?

After a summer of recruitment and investment within your favoured football club, why not do the same with your business as you strive for success? With a dedicated team of SEO specialists working alongside you, the benefits of increased traffic to your site and ultimate sales will be profound.

Every football fan wants to see their team do well and win trophies however this takes a great deal of hard work and dedication from all involved. It is also not something that will happen quickly either, which is exactly the same as your SEO campaign. After extensive planning and researching of your competitors, in a similar fashion to scouts  studying certain teams and sourcing quality new players, your SEO campaign is likely to be in a much stronger position in time for the big kick off.

It takes a strong squad of players to win a league or a cup competition, and for your business it is important you have similar strength on side when involved within an SEO campaign. From your specified consultant who will be the linchpin of your whole campaign right through to your article marketing team and stage system linking builders, each need to work together in order to bring prolonged success.

Once the base has been built and you have a strong and committed team working alongside you, it is then that you can invest further in additional services such as social media, pay per click and email marketing. See this as your transfer window whereby you have the opportunity to purchase new players to your team in the hope of even more success.

With many twists and turns along the way, you’re sure to experience similar ups and downs as you would when sitting in the stands watching your favourite team. There will be periods of success where you are doing well whilst there may be the odd occasion (for one reason or another) that things slip slightly. It is how you deal with the harder times that matter and with an experienced team who never lose enthusiasm for the task in hand alongside you, your business is almost certainly going to bounce back even stronger.

Investment in the right areas and a strong commitment to the project at all times will undoubtedly offer your business the best chance of success for the campaign ahead. As your football club plays its final preseason friendly before the real stuff starts, get your business off to a flying start against your competitors with an SEO campaign.

There are so many outlets that as consumers we can gain information about new products and services. I will suggest 5 ways to target the right people for a new product launch. You will need to take an integrated approach to be successful. In the modern age, a combination of traditional marketing methods, SEO and social media are all tools easily at hand.

• Traditional Marketing

Don’t over look the tried and true local advertising, local radio, trade shows and industry specific promotional events will all help you reach out to your target market. My parents favorite saying is “fail to prepare and prepare to fail” you need to invest time and effort into understanding the buying behaviors and demographics of the people you wish to reach out to.

• SEO

I would like to hope if you are reading this you already have some ideas about the benefits a strong SEO campaign can bring to your business. A well optimised site is an easy platform to reach out to an existing market already interested in your products and services. Add a new page optimised for your product launch, with a feature linking from your home page. Press releases are a pricey but worth it with the rewards they can bring.

• Social Networks

You have at your finger tips a group of your target market who are already “sold” on your services. All of these people have the potential to share your new information, make sure you put the time and effort into communicating with your friends and followers, answer any questions, keep information updated and start to create a buzz. Skittles is a prime example of a hugely successful internet marketing campaign, 14,909,637 followers on Face Book. Good effort!!!

• Email Marketing

Reaching out to people you have existing relationships with and giving them an early preview will help nurture their feelings toward your company. Everyone likes the feeling of being the “first” to be in the know, offering them the chance to pre-order could be a way to make some early sales.

• Guest Blogging

You would be hard pushed not to find a successful blog in your niche that will have an active following interested in latest developments in your industry. Take some time and get to know the webmaster, his audience and the way they structure their content. You can then offer your product to them to review.

There is such an extensive range of social media and internet marketing tools available today, you really are missing a huge opportunity by not integrating these into your traditional marketing strategy.

How Can E-mail Marketing Benefit SEO And Your Business

One thing that sets small businesses aside from large corporations is the personal touches that the company is able to offer. For customers it is important to have a regular contact, to know that someone will be available to talk through any problems that they may have and to be known as more than just a number.

However, just because a business has a large number of employees or premises across the UK or even the world, does not mean that they are not customer focussed. Essentially, all businesses have to start small and it is the customers that enable them to grow.

So how can larger companies ensure that they remain on a first name basis with their customers? E-mail marketing may be the answer.

Unfortunately, e-mails sent in bulk through a marketing system have often been considered as spam that will be deleted as soon as it sets foot into the inbox. Yet, it can also be used to contact existing customers in a personal way.

Sending personalised e-cards such as, birthday cards, Christmas, Easter or even ‘One Year with the Company’ cards, will give customers a slight nudge just to remind them that the business is still there, but it will add a personal touch to the business and consumer relationship.

E-mail marketing could have a slight impact upon a company websites SEO too; including links in an e-mail will encourage click through’s to the website increasing the numbers of visitors to the site, and the more visitors that a website has, the more authority that is gains in the eyes of a search engine.

Sending e-cards to customers can not only have benefits for SEO and add a personal touch to the relationship with the consumer but it could potentially lead to increased sales for the business.