Make belief – The official blog of Renaissance Creative

In challenging economic times, the natural response of many companies is to cut back on marketing. A new survey by the American Association of National Advertisers reported that 77% of marketers plan to reduce their media budgets in 2009. In fact, down economies are when businesses need to increase their marketing efforts. Marketing during periods of decline not only enables companies to more easily capture the limited amount of available work during slowdowns, but also to increase market share permanently, when conditions improve.

The key is not doing more, but doing more for less by taking advantage of free and/or low-cost marketing opportunities. The most effective is promoting your website. There are many simple, substantive ways you can help yourself, dedicating little more than your own time. Below is a list of 10 FREE or LOW COST strategies to maximize your website’s visibility and page rank; and ultimately, your company’s revenue and market share.

1. Provide Valuable Content – For successful search engine optimization (SEO), content is king. Provide information on your site that your target audience will appreciate. Make yourself a resource. COST: FREE

2. Write Effective Meta Tags – The three most important are your Title, Description and Keyword tags. Titles are the text seen at the top of browser windows on all pages. These are the most important to search engines. They indicate what each individual page is about. They should be succinct (not exceeding 75 characters), include high traffic keywords and for most businesses, be geographically specific.
Description tags are the descriptive copy web-surfers see when organic search results pop up. This information helps people determine if they want to visit your site, so make them strategic (use keywords), informative and compelling (250 characters or so).
Keywords are a list of words and phrases relevant to the content of your site. They are not as important as Titles and Descriptions, but still help. COST: Once written, an hour or two of coding time

3. Secure Inbound Links – Incoming links into your website increase traffic. Also, when Google and other search engines see multiple incoming links into your site, they assume it’s important and rank it higher. Encourage as many relevant links into your site as you can. This can include strategic “partners”; satellite offices; Chambers; subs, etc. One-way links are considered the most natural and desirable, though “reciprocal links” are fine, if they are logical. COST: FREE

4. Submit Your Website to Directories – Submit your site to key directories, providing as much information as possible. Then scouting the numerous other business and specialized industry directories. The important ones include: Google Local Listings (aka Google Maps); Yahoo Local; MSN Live Search; and the Open Directory Project (dmoz.com). COST: FREE

5. Blog – Want links? Become a resource; encourage inbound traffic; publicize new content; and encourage others to pick up your stories, all in one step! The secret to blogging: Don’t worry about being a journalist; keep it short, conversational and dedicate a set period of time to it (an hour or two a week). COST: FREE

6. Pinging Services – If you’re going to put in the time to blog, make sure people know. Each time you make a new entry, visit Google Blog Search Ping Utility at http://blogsearch.google.com/ping and type in your blog address. Pingomatic.com is another good one. COST: FREE

7. Write & Submit Articles – See #5 Above. Submit content to article directories for abundant backlinks. Go to www.ezinearticles.com to begin. COST: FREE

8. Write and Distribute Press Releases – Yes, you can do it yourself for only the cost of your time. Distribution is free at PRlog.com COST: FREE

9. Leverage Social Networks – Linkedin for professionals; Facebook for friends and family. Both provide invaluable exposure for your website and your content and there are many more. COST: FREE

10. Promote Yourself In Online Forums & Blogs – Participate in online groups. Get started by investigating Google Groups (groups.google.com) COST: FREE