Why Get the Services of a Professional Online Marketing Team

Sometimes, it is tempting to dismiss the benefits of having a professional online marketing team behind you and your business. After all, everyone's online these days. The internet seems easy to figure out. And you can always sign your company up on Facebook, Twitter and other Social Media venues.

But then again, online marketers wouldn't be in business if everyone can do what they do, right? A professional online marketing team is the best way to tackle the complexities of doing business online. It goes without saying that the internet is not as simple as it seems. It is a continually changing landscape, where rules, standards, opportunities and "the next-best things" are constantly changing. You need a team to keep updated, and ensure that you are maximising your online presence.

1. A professional online marketer makes sure that you keep within acceptable online practices: Sometimes, we are wont to overdo a good online practice. For instance, we know that adding keywords to your online content can help with your online rankings. We can do over-the-top with this, and end up stuffing our web pages with keywords. Instead of improving your site's ranking, you end up making it worse. A professional online marketer would know the right amount of keywords to include. In the same way, they would also know the best keywords to use for your business. A professional online marketer can ensure that you only employ web marketing practices that are within acceptable standards. They can effectively maneuver your business toward online success.

2. A professional online marketer knows the online landscape more than the average person: Of course, they should know more than the average online person -- it's their job! An online marketer has updated portfolios of online venues and options that you can use to maximise your online marketing efforts.

3. They know to draft and test several Call to Actions: Your site's Call to Action is what converts online traffic into subscribers or customers. There are steps you need to take before you come up with the best one for your business. You need to test several landing pages, and assess which is more effective in reaching out to your target market. A professional online marketer would know the effective approach to getting this done.

4. A professional knows the different strategies that you can do to market your products and services online: Online marketing is not just about having a website. There are also other means of marketing online, such as email marketing, video marketing, ebook and the like. A professional online marketer can devise the best approach for your business.

SEO Basics

Whether you're doing your own Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or outsourcing the task to a BPO company, it is a good idea to brush up on SEO basics. Knowing a little bit of SEO is your starting point in assessing what works and what does not work for your website. Are you getting enough traffic? Can people find you online? Do the people who find you belong to your target market?

All this has got to do with your SEO. Knowing a bit about it lets you approach web development planning, development and launch with a list of to-dos and the outcomes to expect. You might be able to pinpoint problem areas. If not that, you can at least know what's possible through SEO and why you shouldn't skip doing SEO for your website.

1. SEO makes it possible for your online audience to find you: Even when prospective clients don't know your URL or domain name, they can still find your website to know more about your products and services if you do your SEO right. This means your search engine optimisation employs legitimate online practices. If you do this, your site gets indexed by spiders from search engines such as Google. Your site can then appear on search results for your selected keywords.

2. Your keyword choice is as important as choosing to do SEO: The effectiveness of your SEO depends on how wisely you choose your keywords. For instance, if you are putting up an online flower shop, you might see some search engine referred visitors from keywords like flower bouquets, flowers Sydney, rose bouquet delivery and flower delivery. However, if you use keywords that your target market aren't likely to use, you're not going to see your online traffic increase. Nor will your website be seen as relevant for keywords that suit your business.

3. It's not just about what's on your page. What's off your page also matters: Your website's SEO does not stop with what's on your pages. web pages that link to you affects your SEO ranking too. So, when you get to planning your SEO, talk to your developer about offpage search engine optimisation.

These are the basics. There's a lot more to know, of course. Here's a good place to start: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2259693/SEO-Basics-8-Essentials-When-Optimizing-Your-Site

Content Marketing Tips

Your content is the most crucial aspect of your website. You can forget design for now. Forget search engine optimisation. Forget your social media marketing. All of those are for naught if you do not have an effective content marketing strategy.

Content marketing refers to the creation and sharing of online content, such as articles, videos, memes, ebooks and others. The end goal of all this is to get traffic onto your website, where you can convert them into subscribers and online buyers. To get this done, having awesome share-able content is essential.

You "bait" your target market with informational content -- content they'd actually want. With this kind of content, they are likely to stay longer on your website. They may sign up for your newsletter or buy from you. Better yet, they may even share your content through their social media profiles, which would then increase your number of linkbacks.

Here are some content marketing basics you should not forget:
1. Make your content truly helpful. If you can't make it helpful, make it funny: Your goal with your content is to catch the attention of your target market, and make them loyal followers of your website. You will want them to keep on coming back to you for fresh content. And they would do so if they know that you are aware of the kind of information that they are looking for. Of course, it's not all serious stuff. You may be able to draw them in using humor or inspiration. Whatever strategy you use, you will want to convert your online traffic into loyal followers. You want to transform your site/ brand into something that they trust/ like the most.

2. Experiment with other methods: Content marketing involves a gamut of online formats. It is not limited to website articles. You can do Youtube videos, ebooks, memes, among others. Of course, remember that when you use these formats, always include a way to lead users back to your website. Embed links or include watermarks with your online address. You do business on your website.

3. Talk about issues that concern your target market, not your product/ service: Traditional marketing that hawks a product can be annoying to some users. In these digital times, it's so easy to just tune out and skip the commercials. It is more effective getting your user's attention by talking to them about what concerns them. Say, you are selling flowers online, you can talk about the best flowers to give at different occasions. If they find your advice helpful, they may decide to buy from you.

Online Marketing Options

When you venture online for the first time, one thing to remember is that your online marketing options are not limited to just having a website. Online marketing is a broad subject, and it comes in different flavors and forms.

Having said this about websites, let's get one thing clear and out of the way: you need to have a website. Regardless of what online marketing strategy you use, you need a website. Your website is your online representative. This is where your prospective clients get to know you. And, when you embark on an online marketing campaign, one of the more important end goals is to get your prospective clients to go to your website. Your website does the job of filtering qualified leads. It is also where you can convert traffic into actual sales. Your website is where you do business. Online marketing is a way to drive traffic to your website.

Online Marketing Strategy 1: Email Marketing
A popular yet vilified form of online marketing is email marketing. Here, you would typically send your subscribers email updating them about industry trends, as well as news about your company. Some people frown at the mere mention of email marketing because it's an abused form of marketing. Note how we mentioned 'subscribers' in the previous sentence. Those who abuse this form of online marketing send to everyone on their email list, whether or not they signed up for it. We know these guys as 'spammers.'

However, this should not take from what is naturally a great way to get qualified leads. Email marketing is one of the best online strategies available to you -- AS LONG AS YOU DO IT RIGHT.

This means sending to those who really signed up for your news, including an opt out option, and creating a truly engaging email and website content. We will talk about this in detail in future blogs. For now, keep email marketing in mind. It still is a legitimate way to reach your target market.

Online Marketing Strategy 2: Ebook Marketing
You don't need to be a writer to write a book. You just have to be a savvy online marketer! If you are an online marketer who's weight your weight in gold, then you'd know to outsource your content development and concentrate on marketing your ebook.

Ebook marketing is a great way to reach your target audience. and build your reputation. It can lead to sales and other opportunities. If you can't write, have someone else write it for you.

The point is to get your ebook out there. It should be about a topic that people are interested to know about. So much so that they will subscribe to you and download it; or, they might even buy it.

Online Marketing Strategy 3: Guerrilla Marketing 
Guerrilla marketing is such a precarious topic -- it is online marketing that can be anything. It just hits you like a jab. Next thing you know, you've been marketed to.

That's what is so great about it. With guerrilla marketing, you can't immediately tell you're the target until you find yourself buying. And for an online marketer, this is a great thing.

Typically, guerrilla marketing (as the name would suggest) is done through covert means. For instance, a shoe brand markets its waterproof shoes through a supposedly legitimate extreme sport of 'water running.' Water running involves individuals making record time running on the water's surface. This shoe brand enlisted known extreme sports athletes for the campaign. It was such a success that people actually thought the sport to be real. They shared videos and talked about it in several social media. And that makes for great guerrilla marketing!


There is a lot more strategies available to you if you take time to explore digital media. As it is, there really is no limits to what you can do and accomplish online when you let your creativity and perseverance take control.

Why Get Professional Website Design

In this day and age, most everyone has a website. It can be a blog, a profile page, a template site or an actual site that does business online -- whatever it is, individuals and business entities have found a way to represent themselves online. And this is one of the major reasons for having a website, right? A website is your online representative.

It follows that every commercial entity should have it. Whether your business intends to sell online or not, you should have an online representative where people can contact you, ask questions, and know more about your products and services.

Having said that, as a business entity, it is important to project a professional image, in person and online. This means that you should never settle for a free or sloppily made website. A website is an investment. Do it well, and you can gain leads and increase your sales online and offline. So, it is important to use professional web design services.

Only a professional design team can provide you with:
A visually impressive site
Optimised onpage and offpage content
A Call to Action that works

In most cases, non-professionals will not know the relevance of elements outside your website's looks. While an appealing look matters when it comes to your website, the other elements should be present. Otherwise, you'll just have a nice-looking website that nobody every sees.

A professional web design company knows beyond Photoshop and HTML. They can create websites that actually work for you... websites that rank you on top of search engine results, and gains you online traffic and qualified leads.

This knowledge comes from experience. When you work with a professional design team, you are gaining from their having worked with previous clients, some of which might even be in a similar industry as yours. Through this, you can have the best approach to going online.

If you want professional website design services, talk to us and we'll provide some recommendations to you. One of the teams on the list is Outsourcing Marketing, who has been our partner Business Process Outsourcing company for years. For a complete list, just holler!

Why Should Your Business Outsource

These days, any business will surely come to a point when they will consider outsourcing. In the span of just a little more than a decade, outsourcing has become a practical strategy for any organisation that wants growth. This came with the leaps and bounds in telecommunications and network connections. As these support technologies become more and more powerful, outsourcing -- regardless of where you outsource -- has also become more reliable.

So, should your business outsource? Since this is a BPO blog, the obvious answer there is 'yes.'

But that's a qualified 'yes.' A business has to be ready to outsource. And, it has to approach outsourcing as a strategy toward industry success, not a last ditch effort to save a dying business. The latter reason is a risky way of approaching outsourcing. After all, it is still an investment in resources, and time is a variable when it comes to the returns.

A business should outsource when:
1. There is an increase in the number of clients that need their services. Outsourcing can be a way to deal with the lack of qualified manpower to handle these extra projects. Hiring a new staff right away can be risky if the increase is only temporary or seasonal.

2. You want/ need to expand your operations because of new opportunities but don't have enough funds to do so on your own. Outsourcing can give you a broader presence.

3. You want to focus on your core competencies, and invest manpower acquisition and training there. You can outsource work in the supporting departments to experts. This might actually be the better strategy than putting up new departments and hiring staff for these. With experts at the helm right away, there is only a minimal learning curve. You can expect returns from their efforts sooner.

4. You want to minimise your overhead spending. Hiring new staff brings with it additional overhead spending. Apart from salary an training expenses, you will spend more on office furniture, supplies, electronics, and electricity, among others. If you keep your operations small and jut outsource some of your workload, you can earn bigger profits.

These are the top reasons. And those who've adopted outsourcing as their business strategy have found degrees of success, depending on how good their outsourcing partner was.

In the end, it really boils down to a different question. It is not: why should business outsource? Instead, the question is: who should be your outsourcing partner? This is the deciding factor in how otsourcing can work out for you.

Calling All BPOs

Since this blog will talk about anything BPO, all Business Process Outsourcing reps out there! Get with us about anything you want to discuss. We will take in suggestions on new topics, trends and just about anything we can write about in this space.

Much Ado About BPO

Ever since the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry experienced a boom back at the turn of the century, the industry has received praise while being the subject of revilement. It is both boon and bane for businesses. On one side, it can mean staff cuts, and jobs shipped elsewhere, where labor may be cheaper or more efficient, or both. On the other hand, it has helped many businesses  streamline their operations and really focus on what they are good at. This is for both ends of the spectrum; such that support industries focus on providing support while financial, manufacturing, technology and other industries become more efficient in their respective industries. 

This Jekyll and Hyde characteristic is actually the best thing about business process outsourcing. The threat of job loss has forced individuals and businesses to become better at their specialties. Accountants and engineers become better accountants and engineers. Finance and design companies become improved finance and design companies. And, the support companies they outsource to take on jobs they are well-trained for; and, in turn, grow.

This way, BPO is really a co-beneficial partnership between specialized organizations. The furor that came with outsourced jobs is just a defensive reaction, without really considering the self-improvement that comes with such an arrangement. 

When done right, outsourcing can be the best thing you can do for your business.

The BPO That Works blog will talk about anything and everything BPO. Check back here every now and then for news, updates and tips.