Tag: online marketing

Creating a Digital Marketing Plan for Beginners.

Post author By Skynet Solutions
Post date June 9, 2017
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Hand showing social networking concept made with white chalk on a blackboard

Now, more than ever, your company’s online reputation and ability to reach potential customers is important. Without a digital marketing plan in place, your company could be missing out on the many benefits available through online interaction and exposure. In order to achieve this goal, your company must first create a digital marketing plan.

Review Existing Digital Marketing Plan or Strategies

Chances are, unless you are just beginning to build your online reputation, you have invested in some form of free exposure or paid exposure in the past. Before creating a digital marketing plan, it is important to review past strategies to determine what worked and what didn’t. If is also important to take this time to determine what social media sites you should invest in as well as other online mediums that may be utilized.

Create a Digital Marketing Plan or Campaign

The digital marketing plan you create will likely be the determining factor in how successful your efforts are. Now that you know the platforms you hope to use, it is important to start determining how you will leverage these platforms. For instance, Facebook offers both organic reach opportunities as well as paid advertising options. Set your budget and determine your target markets, then prepare to implement your digital marketing plan.

Launch Your Digital Marketing Plan

Now that your digital marketing plan is finished, it is time to start implementing your strategies. Be prepared to experience some hiccups along the way but ensure you remain flexible and optimize your campaign for any possible adjustments that need to be made. There are plenty of online tools that can help make your campaign roll out more smoothly.

Examine and Optimize

When your digital marketing campaign is implemented, data will likely begin rolling in quickly. It is important to carefully examine this data to determine the effectiveness of your current efforts. If needed, this data can help determine if you should pivot or invest more heavily in strategies that are currently benefitting your company.

Still Need Help with YOUR Digital Marketing Plan?

The internet is a game changer for marketing. It’s never been easier to put your brand in front of people for little to no cost. At Skynet Solutions, we can help determine the best digital marketing strategies for your business, as well as implement them if you are uncomfortable doing it yourself. You can fill out our contact form to get started today. You can also connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn!

Tags digital marketing, marketing, online marketing

Marketing

Methods Used to Increase Website Traffic

Post author By Skynet Solutions
Post date November 28, 2016
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White Button with Web Traffic on Computer Keyboard. Internet Concept.

If asked, most business owners would likely say they wish they had more website traffic. Website traffic can often directly translate to sales, increasing the revenue stream experienced by a business. These proven methods can help increase website traffic.

Advertising

Perhaps the most obvious method of increasing website traffic is engaging in paid search results. Paid advertising functions to build your brand and increase the amount of people that are being exposed to your site throughout the advertising process. To effectively increase sales, keywords should be scrutinized to have the biggest impact.

Social Media

Social media channels are undoubtedly the most effective free method of driving website traffic. Perhaps the most common way of doing this is to promote your content and services through your social media account with links that return to your website. Blog articles should contain an excerpt that will entice readers to follow the link to obtain more content.

Mobile Optimization

Recent studies have shown that nearly 56% of all web traffic to the leading US websites originates from a mobile phone. Smartphones now allow constant connectivity to the internet, meaning customers can find your business at any time. This is especially important for e-commerce sites to allow impulse buying without taking the time to find a computer.

Email Marketing

All businesses should have an email marketing list that is regularly being added to and updated. Email marketing allows customers who are already interested in products or information you offer to know when new content or products have been added to your website. Don’t be afraid to tastefully send emails to let members know this content is available.

You can always call the experts at Skynet Solutions for help with your business listing, website development, marketing or anything else you need to help make your business succeed. With our diverse range of skills and experience, we are sure to have the tools you need to make 2017 your business’s best year yet. You can fill out our contact form to get started today. You can also connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn!

Tags online marketing, search engine optimization, search results, small business, social marketing

Marketing

Skynet Solutions Recieves Congressional Commendation

Post author By Skynet Solutions
Post date June 14, 2016
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The team at Skynet Solutions was recently honored with a Congressional Commendation by U.S. Representative Jim Bridenstine, in recognition of all the work we have been doing to educate, enhance and strengthen the small business community in Oklahoma. A Congressional Commendation is awarded by a member of Congress to officially recognize outstanding public achievement by those in their districts. One of the most rewarding parts of being an official Google Partner is all the events we get to host and speak at where Skynet Solutions marketing experts get to share their knowledge and interact with other local businesses.

Here at Skynet Solutions, we love being a part of the small business community and using our skills to help other local entrepreneurs succeed as well. Since fall 2015, we have been hosting and participating in “GYBO” (Get Your Business Online) seminars throughout Oklahoma to help small business owners get their businesses online. Thanks to our partners at Google, the REI Women’s Business Center, the Tulsa chapter of SCORE, area chambers of commerce and others, we have been able to help dozens of local business—like yours—improve their online presence in a variety of ways!

We’ve hosted workshops across the state, from Ponca City to Stillwater and Muskogee to Bartlesville and have covered topics ranging from how to use Google Analytics effectively to what S.E.O. is and how you can use it to amplify your business’ online presence. We also covered and held entire workshops dedicated to helping business owners get their business listed on Google Maps and other maps listing services, like Bing and Apple, and other effective tactics to make sure potential customers are able to easily find their business online. We have found maps listings to be one of the most effective ways to help a small, local business grow.

Skynet Solutions also recently co-hosted a special event in May to celebrate and promote National Small Business Week. Along with Tulsa SCORE, we created and hosted the inaugural SCORE Small Business Summit Tulsa, which brought together about 100 mentors, business experts and entrepreneurs from around the region to network and discuss all aspects of starting, owning and running a small business. Speakers from The Small Business Administration, Constant Contact, Tulsa Economic Development Corporation, the Tulsa chapter of SCORE, Skynet Solutions, REI Women’s Business Center and other local and regional institutions discussed everything from email marketing and small business taxes to bookkeeping for small businesses and social media marketing.

It’s hard to overstate the importance of a robust and up to date online presence for a local business; 50 percent of all mobile searches are conducted in hopes of finding local results, and 61 percent of those searches result in a purchase, according to Search Engine Watch. In addition to that, 56 percent of mobile searches are from users seeking local information, like business hours, directions or a physical address for your store—which is why maps listings are so critical. If your business can’t be easily found online, customers are going to go elsewhere. You also have to make sure your business website is mobile friendly.

With the majority of internet searches originating from mobile devices, not desktops or laptops, according to Google, the majority of people who end up on your business’ website are going to get there from a mobile search. The majority of customers believe it is easier to find information on a mobile-optimized site and 48 percent of people who visit a site that’s not friendly feel that the company doesn’t care about their business. That’s definitely not the impression you want to give off to your valued customers!

To learn more about all of the educational small business-focused events that Skynet Solutions participates in and hosts, you can keep up with our blog, follow us on social media or give us a call. In the meantime, you can always get in touch with the experts at Skynet Solutions for help with your online business listing, website development, social media marketing or anything else you need to help make your business succeed. With our diverse range of skills and experience, we are sure to have the tools you need to make 2016 your business’ best year yet. You can fill out our online contact form on our website to get started today. You can also connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn!

Marketing

Skynet Solutions Helps Eufaula Cove Marina Set Sail

Post author By Skynet Solutions
Post date May 31, 2016
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Just in time for summer, Skynet Solutions helped Eufaula Cove Marina, one of Oklahoma’s best summer spots, launch a new and improved website. The new website, which is also hosted by Skynet Solutions, features new design and graphics to give it a cleaner look, a redesigned backend to make it easier for employees to use and customers to navigate and fresh content to provide all the relevant information for Marina visitors. Our content team also wrote an introductory, welcome blog post for the blog page on their site, to help Eufaula Cove Marina get their blogging efforts off the ground. Blogging is an overlook and often underutilized marketing resource for many small businesses that has many benefits. It gives you a free opportunity to promote your business, your products or services and any ongoing promotions or specials on your site and social media (we know how paid advertising can add up). It also gives you another chance to show your business’ personality and humanize your brand, which is important because people are more likely to use services or buy goods from a business they feel they have a personal connection with. Most importantly, however, blogging gives you a chance to regularly produce new website content. This is important because the more quality content you have on your site and the more often it is refreshed, the higher your website is going to be ranked in search engine results. It won’t happen overnight, but in time, regular blogging will improve SEO (search engine optimization). Google (the most used search engine) uses a complex algorithm to rank websites. But they have said that length and quality of content are big factors in that algorithm. The best thing for you to do is blog at least once a week, to include relevant links in your content and aim for your blog posts to be between 700 and 1,000 words long. Keeping your entire website, not just your blog, up to date is extremely important for any business, no matter your industry or your size. Did you know that the lifespan of a website is only about three years? Technology changes rapidly in the span of three years, meaning everything could be looking, and running, a little behind the times. Your website also might not be mobile friendly anymore, which is a huge roadblock to success—especially for a local business. According to Google, more searches now happen from mobile devices than laptops or desktops. And the majority of mobile searches are made with the hope of finding local results. What this all boils down to, is that if your website doesn’t work on mobile, it doesn’t work. No matter your business or your target clientele, customers are looking for you online, via mobile devices. And if they can’t find you, or they can’t use your website quickly and easily, they will go to a competitor who has a website that is easy to use from a mobile device. You work hard to make sure your business is as good as it can possibly be. And as the digital face of your company, your website should work just as hard to please your customers as you do. You want a website that looks good, has relevant information about your business that customers seek, loads quickly and is easy to use on every device under the sun! Take some time today to look at your business’ website and see if it is up-to-date. Is it mobile friendly? Is it less than three years old? Do the pages load quickly? If the answer to all three of these questions isn’t yes, it is definitely time for you to overhaul your site. In the meantime, you can always get in touch with the experts at Skynet Solutions for help with any design, development or marketing needs, including your online business listing, website development, marketing or anything else you need to help make your business succeed. With our diverse range of skills and experience, we are sure to have the tools you need to make 2016 your business’s best year yet. You can fill out our online contact form on our website to get started today. You can also connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn!

Marketing

5 Steps of Writing Evergreen Content

Post author By Skynet Solutions
Post date April 5, 2016
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Evergreen Content Message, Evergreen Background and text Evergreen Content

It’s basically the Holy Grail of blogging—creating evergreen content that can drive traffic to your site continually and be just as relevant in six months as it was on the day you posted it. These articles move beyond what’s trending right now and speak to the constants in your industry whether that is marketing or agriculture or software design or interior decorating. While flashy, topical posts might bring in clicks here and there, it’s evergreen content that builds a loyal following behind your brand. Here are five steps to creating evergreen content for your company’s blog: What is Evergreen: you know your industry better than anyone, so start by thinking about what you read, the brands you admire and what sources you reference when you’re looking for information relevant to your industry. You gravitate to these for a reason and if you look closely you’ll probably find that they’re great examples or sources of evergreen content. Examine them closely for topic and content and periodically check back in to see if they are updated over time. This will give you a guide to work off of. After all, you have to know what evergreen is before you can write it. Already Evergreen: that being said, whether it was intentional or not, odds are you’ve already written some posts that would be considered evergreen. If you’ve written any kind of how to guide, glossary of industry phrases or index of industry resources or written anything entitled “7 steps to…” or something along those lines, you’ve created evergreen content. Congratulations! If you have some of these already, use them as a guide for future evergreen posts. If you haven’t written anything like this yet, consider these some starter ideas. Updatable or Timeless: as HubSpot points out, there are really two kinds of evergreen content. The first kind is content written on a subject that will truly never change. An example of this is, “Five Steps to Making the Perfect Grilled Cheese.” The second kind is content written on a topic that will likely always be relevant, but might need to be updated periodically. An example of this is “Why You Should Update to the Latest Version of Windows.” The first one will always be relevant; grilled cheese is grilled cheese and a good recipe will stand the test of time. The second one will continue to be relevant as long as it is updated each time a new version of Windows comes out. Maintain It: just because content is evergreen doesn’t mean it doesn’t need a little sprucing up every now and again. Every tree needs trimming to stay healthy. As we mentioned in the last point, some topics will always be relevant, they just need to be periodically updated so that they can be as relevant as possible. So make sure you’re periodically going back through articles and updating anything that has gotten a little behind the times. Once you’ve updated, repost these blogs so they appear at the top of your feed and re-share them on your social media accounts. Make it Long: one more thing that evergreen posts tend to have in common? They are often longer than other posts. While the ideal content length for a blog post is about 700 words, a good evergreen post can go well beyond that. Evergreen content is, by nature, explanatory and in depth. So, while your followers won’t thank you for writing a novel, don’t be afraid to really dive into a topic and save the surface-skimming posts for your quick-hit, fleeting topics. If you need any help keeping up with your blogging requirements or updating your content, call the content creation experts at Skynet Solutions. We can write interesting, fresh content for any industry or business, as well as handling your social media and other marketing needs. Whether you’re targeting specific customers or just want to get the word out about your new business, we can handle it. We also have a talented development team who can build you anything from a basic website to custom software. With our diverse range of skills and experience, we are sure to have the tools you need to make 2016 your business’s best year yet. You can fill out our online contact form on our website. You can also connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn!

Tags content marketing, editor, marketing, online marketing, social marketing, social media

Marketing

Social Media Hacks: Getting Your Business on Instagram

Post author By Skynet Solutions
Post date March 29, 2016
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Instagram page — Alushta, Russia - October 28, 2014: Woman holding a iPhone 6 Space Gray with social networking service Instagram on the screen. iPhone 6 was created and developed by the Apple inc.

When Instagram was released in 2010, the photo and video-sharing app rapidly took off with teens and young 20-somethings. Initially, it was seen as a platform for teens to share selfies. By the time it was acquired by Facebook less than two years later, it had 100 million active users worldwide and was valued at $1 billion. It has only continued to grow since then and now boasts over 400 million active, monthly users. It has one of the largest and most engaged audiences of any social media network with the average user spending 21 minutes a day using the app. With the majority of its users in the coveted millennial age group and an even split between male and female users, it’s a marketing platform you can’t afford to overlook. Here are some tips for setting your business up on Instagram and hitting the ground running: Create Your Strategy: if this is your first social media account, you’ll have to start from scratch; if you have others, you can adapt those strategies to your Instagram account. Make sure you have a clear goal, whether that be brand awareness, website clicks or whatever you want it to be, and center all your posts around that. Make sure all your posts are consistent to your brand’s feel, your message and the rest of your social media accounts. Learn from Example: Instagram provides “case studies” of about 80 companies who have been extremely successful on the app. Find some that are similar to your business and look at what they did to become so successful. Sign Up: there is no separate sign up for businesses on Instagram like there is on Pinterest or Facebook, but they do have an Instagram for Business page that explains how to get the most out of your account, so make sure to read it. Use your company name as your account name and your company logo as your profile picture. If you use other names or pictures, it could be really confusing for customers who are used to seeing that name and logo associated with your business. Let People Know: let people know you’re now on Instagram. Put a button on your home page, share a link from your other social media accounts and write a blog post about it (side note: if you don’t have a blog, you should. And there’s no time like the present to start). Find People to Follow: spend some time searching and finding customers, competitors, suppliers and other industry leaders to follow. Also make sure to follow accounts of other prominent members of your community—like popular sports teams, schools or local news outlets—they provide great posts to share and if you interact with these accounts, people might recognize your name and follow you as well. Once you find people to follow, make sure to engage! Like their photos, comment on them and generally be active. Social media interaction is a two-way street; you want your followers to be active with you, so you need to be active with them, too. Start Posting: when you’re starting out and getting adjusted to the platform, it might be helpful to have a posting schedule to make sure you don’t forget about it. Check and see what times of day are good to post and stick to it. Whether it’s every day at noon or once at 10 a.m. and once at 5 p.m., do some research and create a schedule for you and your employees. Make sure your images are high-quality, cleanly-edited photos or videos and tag your location and any people who appear in the photo (if they’re customers, make sure to ask permission first). Instagram also allows you to use a variety of filters on your photos, but unless your business has a creative, edge vibe, try to ease into these. As you use the account more and see what your customers like and respond to, you’ll start to see what works better for your particular audience and you can tailor your posts to that. Write Captions: believe it or not, one of the most important parts of a good Instagram post is a great caption. Yes, Instagram is a visual platform and your image has to be interesting enough to make the user stop scrolling. But often it’s the caption, not the image, that leads to a conversion for a business. A great caption is difficult to write but the rule of thumb is it should be two sentences or less, include a brief description and call to action, and direct customers to where they can purchase or order. Hashtags are also very important on Instagram so make sure to find hashtags that are relevant to your customers and your industry and jump on them. In the meantime, you can always call the experts at Skynet Solutions for all of your social media and marketing needs. We have an expert team that can build you a social media strategy that will work on any platform or any combination of platforms that you choose for your business. Whether you’re targeting specific customers or just want to spread the word about your new business, we can handle it. We also have a talented development team who can build you anything from an e-Commerce website to custom software. With our diverse range of skills and experience, we are sure to have the tools you need to make 2016 your business’s best year yet. To get in touch with us, you can fill out the online contact form on our website. You can also connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn for more information about our services, updates from our blog and marketing tips and tricks.

Tags activity, blogging, digital marketing, marketing, online marketing, photo, social media

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