• FAQs

          Search engine optimization (SEO) helps businesses drive visits to their website through organic search traffic. Given that the top organic search results receive a third of the clicks, a decline in ranking could be detrimental for your business. Implementing SEO best practices on your website will help to ensure that your web content is seen by as many potential customers as possible. The more visitors you have, the better your chances are of converting those visits into sales!

          Local search engine optimization (SEO) helps local businesses gain visibility by optimizing their local business listings for local search. A business that leverages local SEO will include its address, phone number, local opening times, and exact location in the form of a local citation. The goal is to rank for local searches which are usually performed by people in a specific geographical region looking for a business near them.

          We typically see results within the first 30 to 60 days, but when it comes to SEO, there are many factors at play. It's important to remember that SEO is a long-term strategy and results may not come as fast at you wish.


        • FAQs

          Digital advertising uses the internet to send advertisements to customers who are online through different websites and social media platforms like Google, Bing, LinkedIn and Facebook.

          The price for Google Ads management depends on the monthly ad spend. For accounts with $1,000 in monthly ad spend, the price is $550/month. Between $1,000 and $5,000 a month in ad spend, the price is $950/month. For $5,000 to $10,000 a month in ad spend, the price is $2,000/month. For more than $10,000 a month in ad spend, the price is $4,500/month.

          The price for Social Media Ads management depends on the monthly ad spend. For accounts with $1,000 in monthly ad spend, the price is $550/month. Between $1,000 and $5,000 a month in ad spend, the price is $950/month. For $5,000 to $10,000 a month in ad spend, the price is $2,000/month. For more than $10,000 a month in ad spend, the price is $4,500/month.


        • FAQs

          This depends on the complexity and size of a redesign and if eCommerce is needed. On average, it takes around 14-18 weeks from the web design intensive stage to launch.

          If your website experiences the following issues: it’s not responsive on all devices, has a slow loading speed, the design appears old and tired, users don’t spend long on the site, sales are stagnant, or your business is going through a rebranding - your website needs a redesign to boost your brand awareness and sales.

          Sometimes there’s no need to rebuild a website. Minor edits, refreshing page content and images, or restructuring page layout for SEO best practices can boost traffic and sales.


        • FAQs

          Semantic search launched in 2013 with the release of Google's Hummingbird update. Since then, Google's search engine has become more complex. The integration of machine learning, with RankBrain, and NLP, with BERT, has enabled the search engine to better understand the context of a query and deliver more personalized and targeted results. Semantic SEO is the process of creating machine-readable content using structured data and linked open data to help search engines better understand your content.

          On-page SEO is the practice of optimizing individual web pages in order to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic in search engines. On-page SEO refers to both the content and HTML source code of a page that can be optimized, as opposed to off-page SEO which refers to links and other external signals. From meta tags to page content, website structure, and HTML, on-page optimization services are focused on making your website more visible to search engines.

          Structured data refers to any organized data that conforms to a certain format, such as information in a relational database. When information is highly structured and predictable, search engines can more easily organize and display it in creative ways. Structured data involves using a piece of code that is laid out in a specific format easily understood by search engines. The search engines read the code and use it to display search results in a more dynamic way.


        • FAQs

          An SEO agency has experts in different areas of search engine optimization that may be out of the realm of your marketing team's abilities. SEO can be very complex and time-consuming. Furthermore, as search engine algorithms change it can be difficult to stay current on the latest ranking factors and strategies for improving online visibility. You will likely see a greater return on investment and better results from using a professional SEO agency than you would from tackling this on your own.

          As a digital marketing agency, SMA Marketing provides products and services in four areas: SEO, Local SEO, Digital Advertising, and Web Design

          We focus on building authentic, long-lasting relationships with our clients. We’re goal oriented and results driven and believe in doing good and making a difference in the world.

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10 Easy Tips to Building a Better LinkedIn B2B Marketing Strategy

LinkedIn is the world’s leading social media platform for business professionals. It’s growing fast. In 2015, LinkedIn had about 380 million users. That number grew to 900 million users in 2023.

If you’re in business, then LinkedIn is a must for you. In addition to sharing your content, you have the opportunity to connect, learn and grow as a business leader. It has never been this easy for B2B companies to connect.

With so many other social media networks out there and more and more sprouting up each day, deciding where and how to spend your marketing time can be a bit of a challenge. Though it’s considered one of the top social media platforms for business, LinkedIn is often an afterthought for many business owners. When it comes to B2B marketing, LinkedIn is the best place to be. Think about it. It’s a social network full of other business professionals looking to connect. Using LinkedIn to it’s fullest can help your B2B business make meaningful connections that could lead to growth.

So to help you build a better audience online and make more meaningful connections that will actually help your business, we’ve put together this post of 10 easy tips to building a better LinkedIn B2B marketing strategy.

Building Your Profile

1. Claim your public profile URL

This simple step goes a long way in helping people find your profile. Don’t settle for the URL that was issued to you when you created your page. Creating a public URL will look nice and clean like this: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryancshelley

You can customize your URL by clicking here and modifying your public profile URL on the right-hand side of the page.

2. Add a Cover Image and Recent Profile Image

Adding a cover image to your profile gives your page personality. It is important to remember that LikedIn is a professional network, so pictures of your cats is probably not a good idea.

You can add a background cover photo to your profile using these steps:

  • From your Profile page, click the pencil icon to Edit Profile.
  • Then click the pencil icons to either change your avatar image or cover image.

Note: LinkedIn specifies that your cover photo must be a JPG, PNG, or GIF file under 8MG in size and should have a resolution of 1584 x 396 pixels for the best look.

When choosing a profile image, make sure that it is a current and professional picture of yourself. Social media networking works best with authenticity and if the image you are using is outdated it says a lot to the people you are connecting with. If you don’t have access to a professional photographer, you can easily do it yourself using your smart phone.  Here is a great article about taking a great profile picture.

3. Optimize your LinkedIn profile for SEO

SEO is important in every aspect of your online marketing. Most people don’t realize that you can actually optimize your social media pages. LinkedIn is a very SEO-friendly site and you can optimize your profile to get found by people searching inside of LinkedIn for keywords you want to get found for. Make sure that you add these important keywords to various sections of your profile such as your headline or in your summary.

4. Show Off Your Work

After all, you did put a ton of effort into it. LinkedIn allows you to add a variety of media such as videos, images, documents, links, and presentations to About section of your profile. This allows for you to show off different projects, provide samples of the work you’ve created, and it better optimizes your LinkedIn profile.

Pro Tip: Use SlideShare to create interactive presentations. Since LinkedIn owns SlideShare, they have integrated the two platforms together. After uploading a presentation, you can simply click the “Add to my Profile” button and it will be added to your LinekdIn profile.  

5. Showcase Your Services

Showcasing your services helps your business get found in search. On your Profile page, you’ll see the option to Showcase Services. Click Get Started and you’ll see an overview of the services you can showcase:

LinkedIn Showcase Services on Profile

Click Continue and then select your services.

LinkedIn Services You Offer Showcase Services feature

After you  save your settings you’ll see that your services appear on your profile. This makes it easy for connections and potential clients to see what you offer.

Making Connections

After you create and optimize your profile, it’s time to start building connections and marketing yourself on LinkedIn.

6. Check your Network Updates (or share your own)

What is a Network update? Network Updates are essentially LinkedIn’s version of the Facebook News Feed. Just like with other social media platforms, you should check this feed periodically to get an idea of what your connections are up to and engaging with. You also want to share updates of your own, such as industry-relevant content or content you’ve created yourself.

7. Identify Yourself

By allowing others to see who you are if they view their profile, you will create a better first impression.  This is easy to enable.

  • Visit your Settings (click your thumbnail image in the top right and click Manage next to Privacy & Settings)
  • Click Change next to Edit Your Public Profile and then edit your visibility settings.

8. Check out who’s viewed your LinkedIn profile

With the Who’s Viewed Your Profile feature, you are able to see who has viewed your LinkedIn Profile. On your Profile page, scroll down to Your Dashboard and you’ll see the Who’s Viewed Your Profile tab. What’s really great about this tool is that it shows how you compare against the profile views of your connections, people in your company and even other professionals in your industry. Pretty powerful stuff and LinkedIn gives it to you for free.

When prospecting for inbound this, “who’s viewed your profile” tool, can give you some amazing insight. Maybe someone you’ve wanted to connect with has viewed your profile? This could be that “in” you were hoping for!  One important thing to remember. If you didn’t do the step 6 above, this feature is not available to you. So make sure you Identify yourself and reap all of the benefits!

9. Leverage the power of LinkedIn Groups

One of the most powerful aspects of being in LinkedIn Group is that if you’re a member of the same group as another user, you can bypass the need to be a first-degree connection in order to message them.

Now there are a few stipulations to help make sure people don’t abuse this privilege.

  • You must be a member of LinkedIn for at least 30 days
  • You must be a member of the particular group for at least 4 days

It is also important to note that LinkedIn allows you to send up to 15 free 1 on 1 messages to fellow group members each month. This is across all groups you belong to, not for just one group. Your 15 messages each month excludes any back-and-forth replies that are the result of an original message.

Group members also have the privilege to view the profiles of other members of the same group without being connected.  So in essence, if you join more groups you’ll be able to send more messages and view more profiles or prospective connections.

Groups are private and membership must be approved Learn more about LinkedIn’s group membership guidelines.

10. Personalize Connection Requests

People are more likely to accept your invitation to connect if it’s personalized. When you click the “Connect” button, add a friendly note letting them know why you would like to connect. Tell them what you have in common, how you know them or where you met, and the value you bring to the connection.

Bonus Tip: Train Your B2B Sales and Marketing Team for Success

One of the key factors in the success of a B2B marketing strategy is the role of the people behind your company or your brand. For the successful implementation of a B2B marketing strategy using LinkedIn, people should see the credentials of your employees through their LinkedIn profiles.

With the right sales training, your business can also benefit from having highly trained employees because their LinkedIn profile will look more appealing. It would entice more potential B2B clients to do business with you.

Training your sales team for success means honing not only their sales skills but also their overall life skills, such as not easily giving up when a prospect turns down an offer. It gives them a more powerful drive to think of more effective solutions, such as providing customers with more options (e.g., flexible payment terms and lower interest rates for a higher upfront payment or vice versa).  

Here are the things that sales training can offer:  

  • Provide an in-depth understanding of new sales and marketing strategies that work for a B2B business like yours. Also, your employees will get updates on the latest trends when it comes to B2B marketing, and can apply them to your next B2B marketing campaign.
  • Assess each of your employee’s strong points and weaknesses when it comes to sales pitches and customer engagement. It would mean increased sales skills and more sales for your business.
  • Electronic learning or e-learning allows self-training using web-based educational materials so your salespeople can learn at their own pace without pressure.  
  • Classroom sales training is group interactive, wherein members can share their experiences. Also, it promotes better collaboration and brainstorming.  
  • Training your sales team for success means allowing them to unleash and maximize their sales and marketing talents at their optimum level, benefiting your customers and your business. 

Whether you work for a fortune 500 company or run your own business, LinkedIn is a great way to make meaningful B2B connections on the internet. By leveraging the power of your profile and adding valuable content to the network, you can grow your audience and influence online.

LinkedIn is also a powerful tool for companies.  By optimizing your LinkedIn Company Page, you can drive targeted B2B leads straight to your business. To help make sure yours is set up correctly and optimized for the latest layout, featuring a compelling and high-quality banner image, we’ve published a free guide about how to optimize your LinkedIn Company page.

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 Editor’s Note: This article was originally published November 2, 2015 and has been updated for accuracy and freshness.

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