“New Media” offerings by 7Bends can increase your business online

It’s all about funneling qualified prospects to your web site. Learn how:

In these challenging economic times, small business owners know that they must advertise – perhaps now more than ever before. They also know that they need to be smarter about allocating their advertising dollars to the most effective marketing channels – both on and off the web.

The world has changed

And, marketing has changed. So must your approach. The majority of marketing is done over the Internet now. How much do you know about what’s available to you online – to get more sales for your business? How can you build traffic – and relationships – on the web?

7Bends.com provides positive news about people and events in the Shenandoah Valley, and aims to connect Valley people and businesses with people and businesses across the Greater Northern Virginia/DC area. 7Bends is an online portal that’s “of the people, by the people, and for the people” – where we publish articles about current events and business happenings. We also offer web advertising on 7Bends.com (Contact us for pricing.)

Getting regular, targeted web traffic is both a science and an art, and it happens by combining a number of different activities, based on your web site, what you’re selling, and your objectives.

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Straightforward, effective marketing support – to help you get more business on and from the web –

In this article, I’d like to introduce you to some of the online promotion services 7Bends offers, and let you know a little about how and why these particular web marketing activities work on the web:

1. Optimized web copy writing – for web sites – We do research on the actual words that are used by people searching the web for the services you provide, and then with our 20 years of marketing and writing experience, we can create copy for you that attracts people to your site. The copy is geared to communicate with the search engine bots, as well as to be attractive to potential site visitors. (To give you a rough idea, we charge approx. $500 to write three optimized pages of copy for a web site; if you have more or less than this, we can work out a fair price.)

2. Optimized web copy writing – for press releases – Most PR these days is done online. The words in a press release also should be optimized for the search engines – in order to attract the most attention and traffic online. We charge $250 to write an optimized press release, and give it to you in electronic format for your use.

3. Press release distribution – Any document out on the Internet that has a link back to your site increases your website traffic. We also offer a service where we will distribute your press release to various paid and free press release sites on the web, thus getting you relevant links – most permanent – that keep working for you. (Prices vary on this service; email us at the address below for more information.)

4. Article creation and distribution – There are also dozens of great “article banks” out on the Internet. These are sites that post articles about many different subjects with links back to the referring web sites. For example, a series of three articles written and optimized and then placed on the web in a number of different places, establishes you as an expert in that field AND gets you web traffic. We charge $250 for a 400-500 word optimized article, or $700 for a series of three optimized articles.

(We can also post these articles to the article bank sites for you, if you like. Prices vary on this service; email us at the address below for more information.)

5. Blog entries – A good blog creates fresh highly-specific content  – which means more targeted web site traffic. But, in order to benefit from a blog, entries should be optimized and be posted regularly (at least 3 times per week.) We can augment your staff and write blog entries for your business. We charge $500 to write 12 quality entries per month. (Let’s discuss other content opportunities, or needs  you may have.)

6. Custom web “sales pages” - These work as funnels on the web. Have a specific product, property, or service to sell and know who your best prospects are? We can help you find those folks on the web. We’ll develop one or more promotional pages that we put out on the web – and using these, we’ll direct traffic back to the specific corresponding pages on your web site. This service helps you develop more traffic – but more importantly, more refined, qualified web traffic. (Contact us for details and pricing.)

7. Basic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) package – SEO involves everything technical, everything marketing, and the words and interactivity of/on your site. A good SEO plan will attract qualified traffic to your site. Qualified traffic is what it’s all about!

We can do a Basic Assessment of your current site, looking at its three main pillars:

- Findability (can people find you on the web?);

- Useability (do you engage people to learn more and have a pleasurable experience when they are on your site?); and

- Convertibility (do your web visitors contact you and buy?).

All three elements are important, and of course, are interconnected. A basic SEO Assessment of your site, with a resulting 2-page web marketing recommendations report (specific to your particular web objectives) runs approx. $750-1,000.

By putting our 15 years of Internet marketing experience to work for you, you can avoid some of the pitfalls of web marketing, and can benefit from utilizing the latest tools available to build your business online. We can shorten your learning curve and help you get results faster – and more consistently.

8. Web marketing advisory session – over the phone or in-person (in the Greater DC area) -  by the hour, or in half-day or full-day sessions. We can address any web marketing issue or opportunity you have. Based o our experience, we’ll brainstorm with you, and point you in the right direction – whether we end up handling the work for you, or making suggestions on the best resources for your specific online aims and needs.

For example, do you want to use social networking (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and want to know how to best integrate it with your web site? This is a great subject for a web marketing advisory session. (Contact us for pricing and getting a time on our schedule.)

9. Web business plans – for corporate or entrepreneurial ventures – We also research, write (and give input to) Digital (“New Media”) Marketing Plans. We have much to offer regarding both the technical and marketing aspects, as well as your content strategy – whether you have  a start up or an established web site.  (Note: Anything you see on 7Bends.com is a living example of the types of online activities that we can advise and provide for you.)

It goes both ways – All of the web  services we offer are considered “organic” – meaning that they are actions taken ON your site to build traffic and actions taken out on the Internet that create  inbound traffic to your web site.  Unlike ad words – where you pay to get traffic and it stops when you stop paying for it – the traffic you develop through organic means does not go away. It takes time to build organic web traffic – and the know-how – but it’s sustainable.

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Did we give you some food for thought? If so, contact us via email, communicating what you want to accomplish, and/or asking questions, and we’ll get back with you. (Note: We use Pay Pal.)

Email us at:  info at 7Bends.com.

**New small business resources for web marketing - If you learned something new and valuable about web marketing and web writing from reading this article, let us help you take the next step – to action!

Tags: blog writing, digital strategy, new media consulting, online PR, press release, SEO, Shenandoah Valley, web copy writing, web marketing