While some people get too wrapped up in monitoring web analytics data such as toolbar PageRank, top 30 rankings and number of daily visitors, there are some crucial metrics to follow and act on in order to improve your website and your search engine rankings.

To get a real sense for how your website is performing, spend your time monitoring things that illustrate successes and failure, such as conversion rates, how many backlinks you've collected and how engaged you visitors are. Here's a look at the three online marketing metrics you'll want to pay close attention to:

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In a world where social media gives businesses more immediate ways to connect with customers, is e-mail marketing still relevant? I think so. In fact, the volume of e-mail marketing messages remained at record-setting levels in June, according to Chad White, research director at marketing company Responsys, and retail e-mail volume will grow about 20 percent this year (vs. more than 16 percent in 2011), thanks to a shift away from old-school direct mail and print.

 

That makes for a more crowded party. Your e-mails are competing with (literally!) millions of others, which means you must be intentional in your efforts to create messages that truly engage your customers. Here's how.

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So you want to create a video that everyone'll talk about. You want it to be shared globally and earn views, retweets and "likes." In other words, you want it to go viral, like Dollar Shave Club's hilarious video, which earned the company a whopping 12,000 new customers in the first two days it hit the internet.

How do you make that happen? There is no surefire formula. You can't conjure up viral; you can't force it. But here's the thing: If you are looking to market your business, you don't necessarily need a viral hit--you just need to attract enough attention to draw customers. Here's how.

Focus on the story. Before trying to be clever, consider the message. Why are you producing the video? What problems does your company tackle, and in what unique ways does it do so?

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Unless you’ve been under a rock like the guy in the Geico commercial, then you have probably noticed that a lot of changes have been happening on Facebook, particularly to the fan pages. Here is a look at how you can take advantage of these changes and use them to market to your targeted audience.

1. Using Facebook as a Fan Page

This is by far one of the most powerful changes, in my opinion, to fan page functionality. Why? Before this change, there were only a few ways to share your fan page with people who are not a fan of your brand on Facebook. The first was by sharing the page directly with your personal profile’s contacts. The second was by hoping that your page’s fans would share it with their contacts. And the third was by spending money with Facebook advertising. 

Now, with the option to use Facebook as your page, you can do something that reaches out to Facebook users in your targeted audience for free. Here are easy steps on how to get your brand in front of a larger Facebook audience.

How to Use Facebook as Your Page

You must be an admin of the page you want to market before going any further – if you aren’t, then become a fan of the page and ask another admin of the page to add you as administrator. 

Step 1. When logged into your personal profile, go under the Account menu and select Use Facebook as Page.

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Content marketing is a simple phrase. It involves just two key elements.

“Content” which can be articles, videos and images in all their various multi-media formats.

“Marketing” which means taking that content and letting the online world knows it exists. In essence it is implementing strategies and tactics of making your ideas spread.

Marketing your content though is a challenge in a world where there are over 2 billion internet users who are bombarded with emails, streams of tweets and banner ads.

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To best market your non-profit, learn about your constituents and converse with them through the appropriate media.

communication service image by Julia Britvich from Fotolia.com

It may seem that marketing a non-profit is counter-intuitive, but company owners must concede that no matter what your business, you are always competing for support. To make your non-profit successful you need to develop sound promotional strategies. According to branding expert Laura Reis, the more powerful a non-profit brand is, the more money it will raise and the more volunteers it attracts.

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With over 135 million users, 59% of which are located outside of the United States and with 75 of the Fortune 100 companies using the network for marketing and recruiting purposes, LinkedIn has become a critical platform for building, connecting with, and growing your personal and professional networks.

As the leading business social network, LinkedIn offers the chance to connect with professionals all around the world and from all industry backgrounds. But how do you convert networks into customers, and ‘likes’ into sales?

1. Learn from your peers

Successful marketing is all about listening to what your market needs. The LinkedIn Groups feature provides a space where you can discuss issues with others in your industry and learn from their advice. You can bounce ideas off industry experts and stay informed on new developments. You also have an opportunity to establish yourself as an expert in a certain industry/area allowing you to build relationships with current and prospective customers in a more organic and credible fashion.

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While every event is different, online event registration company EventBrite has been tracking how people register for events using its technology for several years now. After crunching some data, Tamara Mendelsohn, the company’s vice president of marketing, shared a few interesting insights at the Meeting Professionals International World Education Congress, held in late July in St. Louis.

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It’s one thing to create beautiful art, it’s another thing to produce art that is selling in the marketplace. Selling, marketing and P.R. all need to be in place before you finish that large artwork or body of work.

Take control of your future art sales, by following these 6 simple tips for marketing and selling your art.

1. Create a Press Release

Press releases are an effective way to build your public relations and search out new collectors. You don’t need to wait for a major event,  to send a press release—any news is news worth sharing”. The fact that you “are creating new work” is news. Get started today on writing and sending your release, because it could take months before you capture the attention of an editor.

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Ever increasingly your customers, everyone’s customers are spending more and more of their time online, and on the mobile net. As has always been the case, the job of every marketer is to reach into the places where potential customers are, in particular towards local. In a digital world where “local” means Facebook, Twitter, g+ and others, communities of potential buyers now hover around content and digital communities. Soon mobile will mirror and integrate for a new kind of marketing synergy.

Here are some figures and facts that may help you get up to speed on the next phases of small business success. (even large business for the matter)

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