By Alan Graner
The following is an excerpt from the Hubspot free eBook “8 Google Tools to Improve Your Marketing Effectiveness.”
Google offers several tools to help you market your business. Some may be familiar and some may be new, but all can help increase your visibility, sharpen your competitiveness and help increase sales.
Google’s Keyword Tool
It helps you create a keyword research strategy. Although Google Keyword Tool is part of Google AdWords, you don’t have to enroll in the PPC (pay per click) ad program to use it.
When people search for information, entertainment and merchandise for sale, you want them to find your company. Keyword research is essential for attracting these qualified leads to your site.
There are two types of keyword strategy.
A broad keyword strategy uses common terms like “education”. The Keyword Tool suggests other keyword ideas and also indicates how competitive the phrases are. For PPC, highly competitive search terms cost more and convert less.
A long-tail keyword strategy uses narrow and specific keywords. Instead of “education,” a long-tail search term might be “youth education program Massachusetts.” These search terms cost less and convert more.
Google News
Google News’ real-time marketing gives you a competitive advantage you can exploit by helping you find news relevant to your industry and then using it to generate content ideas
By writing about recent industry trends (and giving them your unique perspective), you can become an industry thought leader and a go-to resource for online searchers.
Google Reader
Google Reader helps you stay current on what’s happening in your industry and is a great source for content ideas. It saves you time by quickly filtering through news stories, blog posts and other relevant industry content you subscribe to and notifies you whenever their content is updated.
Commenting on blogs is another way to become a thought leader, but who has time to read all of them? With Google Reader you can skim through them and quickly find articles you want to comment on.
Google Places
Once you’re listed on Google Places, Google itself makes it easier for people to find you. If they type “moving company,” Google uses their IP address to pinpoint their location. Google’s advanced search algorithm then returns the names of movers in their area.. Obviously you want one of those names to be yours. As a result you gain more visibility, attract more traffic and level the playing field by being listed on Google’s first page.
For more in-depth information on these Google Tools as well as for Google AdWords, Google Docs, Google Alerts and Google+, download “* Google Tools to Improve Your Marketing Effectiveness” at http://www.hubspot.com/8-google-tools-ebook/ Registration is required.
What other tools do you recommend to improve marketing effectiveness?
Image: Google logo by Ruth Kedar
Alan Graner is Chief Creative Officer at Daly-Swartz Public Relations, an Orange County, CA marketing communications firm. For more information on the ultimate marketing tool—a full public relations campaign—email Jeffrey Swartz at jeffreyswartz@dsprel.com.
