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Month: February 2015

How to Grow Sales Without a Sales Team

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Small businesses are often confined to small budgets, making it difficult to market and reach the right target audience. Fortunately, for those businesses who don’t yet have it in the budget to hire a sales team, there are simple secrets that can help propel the business (and profit) without spending too much, or anything at all!

  1. Provide nothing short of exceptional customer service

    While it should be the goal of every business owner to create the best possible experience for a customer, providing excellent customer service is one of the easiest ways to grow overall sales. Today, review websites such as Yelp and Google+ are changing the way people search for products, with customers only frequenting a business if it has a proven track record of excellence. If you provide a great customer service experience and a friendly smile, the free publicity and exposure just through word of mouth can do wonders to boost your sales – all without costing you a dime.

  2. Share your knowledge with the community

    Whether you provide a free demonstration that highlights your product or service or you use your knowledge to help other start-up businesses, sharing what you know is a great way to promote business and brand. It can help to get your name out in the community and put you at the top of mind of prospective customers should they need your product or service in the future.

  3. Seek referral partnerships

    Networking has always been instrumental in the growth for a business, but challenge the traditional idea of networking and seek referral partnerships with other local businesses. Find businesses that offer a product or service that is different from yours, but would target the same people. You can then work to create a relationship with them, sharing and referring customers to each other to help grow one another’s business.

  4. Start the conversation on social media

    Social media management is a great way to grow a business, and social media platforms are being used more and more by small businesses. Twitter works best for updates about the business while Facebook is perfect for sharing deals, discounts and building your brand’s image among your targeted demographic. And when used right, promoting on social media can all be done for free!

If you’re interested in learning more about growing your business, don’t hesitate to reach out to Saba, Inc., San Diego’s trusted internet marketing company. We offer affordable pricing that appeals to businesses of all sizes and can help you gain online visibility through PPC and SEO in San Diego, helping to increase leads and profits. Call us today at 858-277-1717 for a free website consultation and see if our services are a good fit for your needs!

Tips for Picking the Perfect Domain Name

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A domain name can make or break a website. Your domain name is the name of your business that people remember or forget, and whether or not you receive traffic to your website may very well depend on what name you choose. If you haven’t picked a domain name, the following tips from our San Diego SEO experts will help you avoid some of the common mistakes that could land your website in the dark corners of Google search results.

Short and Sweet

The best domains are those that can be easily recalled and typed in a URL bar. Try to use a domain name that is no more than two syllables and make sure you use a common spelling. Unless you have a ton of money to throw behind a brand campaign, misspelled domain names on purpose won’t do you any good.

Unless you use the name of your company or yourself, your domain name should directly relate to the type of business you’re in. Because the Internet has been around for over two decades now, the most basic of names are taken, or are on sale for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Narrow your niche to come up with something that is more unique, yet is easily identifiable with your business.

Keyword Brainstorm

Your website will be focused around a set number of keywords, and your domain name will be at the very core of your plan. Our San Diego internet marketing experts recommend using the Google Keyword Planning tool to help determine which words are popular enough, yet not too competitive.

Start with three to five strong, basic keywords that explain your website. For example, if you sell shoes, brainstorm around the words “shoes”, “sneakers”, and “running shoes”. These are all very broad terms that are too hard to win, but, when paired with a specific word, you can narrow your niche to a winnable size. For example, if you sell shoes in San Diego, options include sandiegoshoes.com and sandiegoshoesandsneakers.com.

Avoid the Use of Hyphens

Have you recently picked up a book on SEO that was published nearly ten years ago? The Internet marketing game changes on a daily basis, so you should rarely use internet advice from a source so old!

SEO experts that built websites over five years ago commonly used hyphens in domain names to separate the main keyword of the site from the rest of the name. While this trick might have worked before, it’s best to stay away from it now. Google is smart enough to read your domain name, and they care more about the content of the actual website than how you use hyphens in your domain. The hyphen is also a guaranteed way to lose customers who want to find you by manually typing your URL into the search bar.

Finding the right domain name can take weeks, if not months to complete. Tread lightly and never make split second decisions without performing extensive research. For more information about domain name selection, building a responsive website or marketing your business in the online world, reach out to Saba, Inc. at 858-278-1717 and schedule a complimentary, no-obligation consultation with one of our marketing experts today.

3 Tired Web Design Trends that Marketers Should Retire

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Marketing a product or service is largely done through the websites connected to that business, and the user experience associated with that online marketing. Despite the fact that most innovative web design tactics truly make a website stand out, there are some that seem to take a toll on the user experience rather than bettering it.

As a trusted San Diego web design and development company, we wanted to share three web design trends that are outdated, do not contribute to the viewing of a site, and quite frankly, should be retired!

Pop-Ups

No one likes having their website browsing interrupted by a pop-up offering the option to subscribe to a blog or newsletter. Pop-ups often make the loading time of a website longer, which can impact overall customer experience, even forcing a customer to go to another website or competitor.

Another problem is that marketers have tried to make pop-ups clever, enticing the reader to enter their email to subscribe or become a member. Unfortunately, “clever” is in the eye of the beholder. For instance, a pop-up that says “No thanks, I like missing out,” might have seemed like a great idea to a marketer (it’s been done before), but to a customer could come across as rude, possibly offensive. It’s important to focus on the message your website presents, whether it’s on a pop-up or not.

Auto-Play Videos

A video that starts playing without the user clicking a button does nothing but ambush the user with sound. If someone wants to watch a video, they should be able to decide when they would like to view it. And because of the ever-increasing popularity of mobile searches, it’s also important to keep the mobile user in mind. Many mobile plans charge individuals based on data and usage. If you have an auto-play video on your website, you are increasing the chance that the user will hit the back button as soon as the video begins to play to avoid incurring a high charge. The result? They won’t even bother browsing your website.

Separate Mobile Sites

In the past, it wasn’t uncommon for a business to have two sites – one for desktop users and one for mobile users. Today, it’s a better practice to create a website that has a responsive design, allowing it to fit itself to any sized device. This will help to ensure that a prospective customer has access to all of the important information that you are offering and will also help to enhance user experience, which can help you achieve a higher ranking in organic search results.

Have other questions about creating the best user experience for your customers? Visit our website at www.sabaseo.com and learn how we’re helping businesses throughout the nation increase their online visibility or call us directly at 858-277-1717 and schedule a complimentary website audit and consultation today.

Best Practices for Promoting Your Brand on Social Media

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More and more San Diego internet marketers are recognizing that social media is becoming an important marketing channel for all companies to consider. Some businesses, particularly the smaller ones, are often faced with the challenge of limited budgets that cannot afford them the luxury of social media specialists. There are, however, a few things you can do to self-promote your brand.

Decide on your Platforms

Social media options seem to be growing by the day. Take the time to do some research to determine which platform will work best with your business model. Realize that you will not be able to work all of them effectively. Instead choose those that cater best to your brand and are used by the demographic you are targeting.

Provide a Service

Before you decide on how to share your brand, consider the needs of your audience. What type of information are they looking for? Use social media as a way of providing the knowledge they are seeking by sharing relevant information about your brand, encouraging conversations, answering questions, promoting your product or services, and offering solutions.

Foster Relationships

Much like the advice above, make sure your social media followers feel that you are there to meet their needs. Social media is more than brand promotion; it is about connecting with them on a personal level that fosters a lasting relationship. Be responsive. Hold contests and giveaways. Offer referral bonuses or special offers for preferred customers.

Catch their Eye

In today’s sound-bite world, it takes a little extra effort to capture the attention of your social media clients. Use photos, graphics, and illustrations that will catch their eye. Think about ways to convey useful information in easily illustrated ways such as infographics.

Brand promotion via social media does take some time and effort, but it doesn’t have to be an unreachable goal even for small businesses. For those businesses who aren’t interested in managing social media on their own, there are cost effective options for outsourcing such as Saba, Inc. We offer social media management in San Diego and also provide internet marketing services ranging from web design and development to SEO and PPC.

To request more information about how to increase your visibility in the online world, request a free website analysis and consultation or call us directly at 858-277-1717.

How Long Should It Take to See SEO Results?

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A question that many San Diego SEO companies get asked by customers regards the timeframe in which they will start seeing results. The truth is, any legitimate SEO company will not make promises on when they can deliver results, especially in terms of what rankings they’ll achieve for your website. That’s because an SEO campaign can take anywhere from 3 months to a year before page one rankings are achieved, and there are many factors that come into play.

Factors Influencing an SEO Timeline

If your website has incurred penalties from Google, it is crucial to fix these problems before starting to build upon a new SEO campaign. On the other hand, if your website has been up-and-running without any penalties, you’ll start to see results faster than a website with little to no search engine history.

In addition to domain age which was mentioned above, other factors like website authority, backlink profile and competitiveness of market, will factor into how fast your website will achieve high rankings – of course, only when these things are completed in accordance with Google’s best practices.

It’s also important to keep in mind that building a campaign too quickly, such as adding a number of irrelevant blogs and backlinks, can sometimes signal to Google that you are trying to “game the system” with a quantity over quality approach. With SEO, slow and steady always wins the race.

Evaluating Results

Rather than expecting specific results from an SEO company, you’ll want to see steady month over month improvements. If you are ranking on page 100 for your target keyword, you want the SEO firm to show that you’ve been slowly climbing up the rankings. This should be the case for all of the target keywords you’re aiming to rank for.

A proper SEO campaign takes time and its effectiveness can be substantiated through reporting tools that the SEO firm you’re working with will provide you on a regular basis. It’s important to note that it’s not always about the raw traffic numbers either. You’ll find that conversion is just as important and that certain keywords will perform better than others.

Becoming a High-Ranking Website

SEO is a marketing channel that is not always predictable, but when done properly, can help businesses attain high ranking in Google in the long-term. And for businesses that are looking for immediate results, SEO can always be supplemented with a well thought out pay-per-click marketing campaign.

Interested in learning more about search engine optimization or online marketing? Reach out to Saba, Inc. today and speak with one of our San Diego internet marketing professionals. We offer free website analysis, complimentary consultations and can answer any questions you may have about becoming more relevant in the online world. Call us today at 858-277-1717 – we look forward to hearing from you!

What’s the Point of Blogging?

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Blogging isn’t just for people who love to write. While it may be tedious for a San Diego business owner to update a blog on a consistent basis, doing so is necessary for a variety reasons. When you consider the different ways in which businesses can market themselves online, including pay-per-click ads (for immediate reach) and buying email lists (which you shouldn’t do in the first place), your marketing expenses could run you out of business.

Blogging is the easiest way to create relative content that your readers enjoy, and the content you create is the backbone of your online marketing campaign.

Driving Traffic to Your Website

Assuming that other search engine optimization aspects of your website (meta tags, URLs, images, structure, etc.) have all been correctly optimized, updating your blog will help drive relevant visitors to your website.  Every time you write a blog post and upload it to your website, Google and other search engines index it. Search engines like websites that are updated regularly because it tells them that your website is active and relevant for browsers.

Once you’ve built up a social following, your blog posts will help increase your audience on networks like Facebook and Twitter. Each blog post you create and share via social media will likely be shared by your loyal followers to their friends. This is a simple and affordable way to increase your brand online and grow your potential customer base.

Convert Potential Customers

Strong blog content that is written to target a specific customer base will help increase conversion rates. Converting customers is done by creating a strong “call-to-action” at the end of the post. The call-to-action normally directs the customer to click on a link and fill out a form. Once the customer fills out the form and submits the information, you can now market to them directly via email.

Customers Crave Value

The Internet has given businesses a generation of customers who look beyond generic advertising methods. As a business owner, you must move away from the “in-your-face” marketing of the past and concentrate on giving your customers something of value that they enjoy.

Beyond trying to convert customers, a high quality blog can result in a large and loyal following. Also known as a “community”, your loyal fans will often do the marketing work for you. From recommending their friends to sharing your content and acting as repeat customers themselves, you’ll be surprised at the free publicity a few hours a week of writing can do for you.

For more information about why businesses should blog or for help blogging to promote your business and SEO efforts, reach out to Saba, Inc. today. We are a trusted online marketing company in San Diego that is committed to helping businesses from all industries thrive in the online world. Call us today at 858-277-1717 for a free website analysis or consultation.

A Small Business’ Guide for Making Marketing Plans

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Understanding your target market is the foundation of any solid marketing plan. It’s important to understand who your target demographic is, what they’re willing to pay for your product or service, and what motivates them to buy. Once you’ve gathered this data and thoroughly assessed your target market, you’re ready to make your marketing plan.

Not sure where to start? Saba, the San Diego online marketing experts, share a few strategies for how to create an effective marketing plan that reaches your potential customers.

  • Determine your budget

    First things first. You need to determine how much money your business can afford to spend on marketing strategies and customer acquisition. It’s important to keep in mind that not all high-budget strategies are successful, and not all low-budget ones fail.

  • Develop multiple marketing strategies

    Using a single strategy approach isn’t going to provide maximum reach. Don’t spread your budget too thin, but also be careful not to throw your entire advertising budget at one part of the overall plan. A combination of strategies, like print advertising, social media and San Diego PPC management, will help to reach different audiences and will allow you to test which strategies are best for your business and brand.

  • Track your progress

    Be sure to set goals that you can measure against your progress. That way, you can modify your strategies in the future to focus more on what was effective. Rethink ineffective strategies, or scrap them altogether.

  • Know when to make changes

    Good marketing plans leave room for change. If something isn’t working, it’s usually better to fix the problem early instead of stubbornly clinging to ideas that didn’t work. When you learn new information that leads to a better strategy, you might also want to immediately factor that new information into your plan.

There are often many untapped resources for learning more about particular markets. Public libraries can provide information about local demographics. The local Chamber of Commerce can provide information about local economic development and trends. Trade associations can also provide lots of industry-specific information about a particular target market. Constantly learning new information about your customers needs to be an ongoing part of any marketing plan.

For more information about how to best reach and market to your target audience, call Saba, Inc. today at 858-277-1717. We are an internet marketing company that provides a wide range of services including PPC management, web design and development, mobile app creation and SEO in San Diego. We offer complimentary website audits and are happy to answer any questions about marketing, so don’t hesitate to call us today!

Saba Recognized as a Trusted Google Partner

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Today, Saba welcomed a new member to our San Diego SEO company, the Google Android! While the Saba office receives a number of packages on a day-to-day basis, we have to say that this one tops the list. Along with the Android (who we’ve yet to name), Google sent along a fun game so that we can participate in the Google Partner Game Night.

While the little green android is no doubt a cute addition to our office, we’re proud and honored to be recognized as one of Google’s Partners and preferred SEM companies. Our San Diego PPC managers and AdWords experts always:

  • Stay up to date on the latest Google tools and products
  • Have the latest certifications by passing AdWords exams every 12 months
  • Share knowledge of their proven success in campaign management
  • Work closely with clients to maximize their marketing budget
  • Stay ahead of the curve by accessing Google trainings and product updates

Saba Inc Google PartnerSaba, Inc. is delighted to display the Google Partner badge on our website, a badge that recognizes the companies that excel with Google’s products.

In Google’s words, their recommended partners have earned their highly regarded spots because their “businesses are healthy, their customers are happy, and they use Google best practices.”

If you are looking for information on running an AdWords campaign, search engine optimization or simply want to have a conversation, reach out to Saba, Inc. today. We offer a free website analysis and are more than happy to answer any questions you may have. Call us today at 858-278-1717 or contact us online by filling out our request free information form.

5 Ways PPC and SEO are Better When Used Together

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For the most part, businesses choose to use either PPC or SEO campaigns for one main reason: they’re working with a limited budget. However, as a San Diego online marketing company, we know that integrating both PPC and SEO campaigns together will maximize your traffic results and generate more paying customers for your website.  Here are a few other reasons to use PPC and SEO at the same time.

PPC Can Maximize Your Keyword Strategies for SEO

While it may take months for organic search campaigns to generate a constant stream of traffic to your website, PPC campaigns can help maximize your results immediately, and assist with future keyword planning at the same time.

Test major keywords with your PPC campaigns to determine which ones drive the most conversions. Once you’ve narrowed down your list to a select few, create content and ad copy, and plan out your SEO campaigns for future months. Doing so will allow you to gain insightful knowledge from your PPC campaign while enjoying immediate results from customers who convert through your paid advertisements.

Increased Click Through Rate When PPC and SEO are Combined

A significant amount of testing done with Google AdWords shows that both clicks per search and ad CTR rates increase by at least 15 percent when using both search engine optimization and PPC at the same time. The click through percentage increases because your website owns more real estate on the search engine results page, therefore convincing a searcher that your website has something of value that he or she may be interested in.

All About the Quality Score

The quality score is a special number that’s used by AdWords to tell you how well you’ve optimized each page on your website that’s connected to a specific ad campaign. Studying these numbers is a great way to improve your SEO on every page, and improving your SEO will, in turn, help you achieve higher paid search rankings for lower bid amounts per click.

It’s always good to remember that any issues you discover and fix when running your San Diego PPC campaigns will help your SEO campaign as well.

Increase in Click Share

Recent studies have shown that marketers who use both SEO and PPC at the same time show PPC campaigns garner 40 percent of the click share even when their company is listed among the top few first results on page one of Google.

PPC is always a necessity, and can even increase ROI when used in conjunction with SEO, especially for companies who currently maintain a top ranking in organic search results.

Enjoy Immediate Results

Business owners want to see results fast. As a marketing manager, using a PPC campaign to achieve immediate conversion results while waiting for an SEO campaign to take full stride is a great way to increase revenue and motivate employees within the company. If you’re working with a limited marketing budget, allocate most of the money upfront for PPC campaigns, and scale it back to make room for SEO after you see results.

For more information about using PPC and SEO effectively, reach out to Saba, Inc. today. We are a trusted San Diego SEO company that works with companies locally in California and throughout the United States and Canada create effective organic campaigns that work seamlessly with pay-per-click marketing. To see how we can help your business, call us at 858-277-1717 for a free website audit.

How to Leverage Social Media for Business

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Social media is poised to be a mainstream marketing platform for the foreseeable future. Many small business owners, however, aren’t social media savvy and have very little time to learn how to create and manage a successful social media marketing campaign.

A recent study showed that more than 80 percent of small to medium sized businesses in North America, that have an annual revenue between $1 million and $50 million, use social media to help grow their brand and raise awareness among consumers. While social media should be a major focus for all types and sizes of businesses, integrating it with other digital marketing techniques will garner the best results. The following tips will help you get started with simple social media marketing techniques that won’t break the bank.

One Goal At a Time: Brand Awareness

Social media marketing can be used for a variety of marketing efforts. If you’ve recently created social media accounts for your business focus on brand awareness first.

Spread your brand across social media by encouraging current customers to follow you on Facebook and Twitter. Create intriguing posts on a daily basis, offer special promotions, and do whatever it takes to have your loyal fan base share your posts and promotions with their friends. Sharing and re-tweeting posts are both essential but basic steps to increasing brand awareness among potential customers online.

Credibility and Authority Among Your Target Audience

Targeting a small dedicated fan base is much easier than trying to win over thousands of people who may never buy your product.

Put a significant amount of effort into discovering what type of consumer is attracted to your business. What characteristics do they have and what are their hobbies? If you’ve discovered your niche audience, take a look at some of the more authoritative social media accounts that they follow. Whether it be another business or a person, if they have credibility among your followers, you must form a partnership with them. Have them share your posts or mention you in a few tweets. You’ll notice a significant increase in followers once your new partnership takes form and your name is placed squarely on their profile.

Metrics and ROI are Important

Even if you aren’t spending thousands of dollars on an expensive marketing campaign, your time is worth money and it must be spent wisely.

Concentrate not only on social media, but integrate your social campaign with SEO work, content marketing, PPC campaigns and more. Track your return on investment by using specific metrics to see how many followers you gained, whether or not these followers turned into conversions, and how your increased social media presence affects your organic search ranking.

To learn more about using social media for your business, reach out to the online marketing experts at Saba, Inc. It is our mission to help businesses gain visibility in the online world, using a combination of social media strategies, PPC and SEO in San Diego. Call us today at 858-277-1717 for a free consultation and a complimentary website audit and analysis.

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