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The Secret To Small Business Marketing

admin — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 17:03:21 +0000

It really isn’t a secret when you’re business is doing well. Everywhere you go, people can feel your success. Maybe it’s your energy. Maybe it’s the way you present yourself. In any case, when people sense success, they tend to ask how you got there.

So is there a magic formula to success? Is there some secret that a successful business has that they could simply pass along to everyone else?

Actually, the answer is yes.

1. Do a little research. In today’s world, you can’t hide your road to success. So spend a little time looking around, and discover how a successful company is marketing their business. Are they online? How do they advertise (i.e. magazines, newspapers, radio, direct mail)? What message are they sharing?

2. Talk with the company owner. Every industry has its own internal structure. Look for organizations, tradeshows and associations within your industry. Attend the major events and make sure you get the latest publications. Study up on the industry leaders and find out what they are doing.

3. Find mentors and vendors that can help you emulate the success. If you know an industry leader is getting 50 percent of his business through the Internet, find someone to help you create a dynamic web presence. Discover how to use social networking more effectively. And begin studying up on online marketing techniques.

Then don’t stop. The reason why the majority of small business marketing methods fail is because the business owner doesn’t give them enough time to work. Commit to a handful of ideas, and see them through to success.

How Email Looks In 2010 And In 2020

admin — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 18:01:45 +0000

If I say the word “email” what comes to mind?

Studies show that as of today, 90 percent of all email sent is SPAM related. Scary. Yet can you imagine not having an email address? When you meet someone, isn’t your email address almost as important as a phone number?

Email still works today. But what about tomorrow?

Colleges are shutting down their email programs because students never check email. When professors or administration would send out notices to students, most of their email goes unanswered. Why? Because students use social media and smart technology way more than adults do. Why bother with something that predominately has things you have no desire to receive, read, or use?

What should you use instead? Go with the masses. Which means Facebook.

Facebook is the second largest search engine, has well over 300 million active users, and has more time spent on average by a user than any other site. When someone receives a notice in their Facebook account, via wall, “email” or through groups, they read and take notice.

How about other technology?

Let’s talk Kindle and Nook and iPad – they allow you to instantly receive new subscriptions to the information you truly want. It’s easy to set up a Kindle subscription to your blog posts (take a look at mine for my photography niche), or create an app for the iPad very easily.

Have a podcast, either video or audio, in which you promote your business by handing out tips? ITunes allows you to have instant access to podcasts – and people will gladly use iTunes to sort and house the information they truly use.

If you send RSS through your blog, you can instantly feed into an RSS reader on whatever the tool of choice is – mobile device, Smart phone, iPad, or whatever comes up in the future.

Does that mean email is dead today? No. But be aware that it’s changing. You need to build your list today in a variety of ways. As one goes away, implement another. Always give choices to your customers, and realize they are at all levels of the spectrum. One may truly love your on Kindle – the other barely understands email. Your goal isn’t to force a client into a particular method; its to allow them to receive information in the manner they prefer.

7 Reasons To Use A WordPress Website For Your Small Business

admin — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 16:07:28 +0000

Having designed websites and worked towards using SEO and other online methods to get ranked high in search engines for years now, I know the importance WordPress plays in that role. While many companies are still designing websites using more traditional methods, we’ve transferred our entire process to designing WordPress websites, and couldn’t be more excited with the results. For us and our clients.

The key to small business success is getting results. Having a pretty site is nice, but if you aren’t attracting new leads and new clients all the time, what’s the point? While many people have head of WordPress and may think of it as a simple blogging site, WordPress has morphed into so much more over the last few months. Here are 7 reasons to use a WordPress website for your small business.

1. Gives you the control over your content. What’s the number one frustration with small business owners and their websites? Control over their content. Small business owners are great at coming up with ideas – sometimes late on a Saturday night, ready for action in the coming week. If you rely on a traditional web designer, you have to email your changes, and sit back and wait until he or she has time to make the changes, sometimes waiting a week or more for the results. So much for quick thinking. With a WordPress website, no more waiting. You have an idea, you login to your account, and you make the change. Up and running in a matter of minutes.

2. Is it a website, or is it a blog? With WordPress websites, you have the convenience of both. By controlling your pages and your posts, the two are integrated together – your clients and readers won’t know the difference. You gain the traffic from having the blog side, and the formalities of having your information in a static location, available whenever anyone chooses to view it.

3. Plugins and widgets made easy. One of the reasons WordPress is so powerful are the many plugins available to make your site even better. The All In One SEO Pack is a powerful plugin that makes SEO a snap. Want to put your most popular posts upfront for people to view – there is a plugin for that. Want people to view your Flickr stream, or be able to easily join your Facebook fan page? There are widgets for that. And with the ease of technology, you can copy and paste most anything right where you want it to be.

4. Add photos and videos. The search engines and your viewers want more than text – they love looking through your photos and videos too. Why not take advantage of using other sites like Flickr and YouTube to build your presence on other popular sites – and connect them back to your website too?

5. Are you mobile ready? By 2020, the prediction is most people will be using mobile devices for their internet access. Desktops will become a thing of the past as we migrate towards mobile technology, that can allow us to be connected anywhere, anytime. Haivng a mobile ready website is at the top of the list in importance as we migrate to this – and WordPress makes that possible.

6. You save time. Because your site is controlled through online technology, you can control your website anywhere. Whether you use your mobile phone on the road, check in at a clients location in another state, or sit down at your own desktop, you always have capabilities to make a change.

7. You save money. Ultimately its about easy access and how much you make as a business. If you’re not spending money on a designer every month, you have more to invest back into your marketing for your company. It should always be about helping your bring in more business.

[Want help designing your WordPress website? We've helped dozens of small business owners take charge of their online presence - give us a call.]

Yellow Page Advertising – Does It Still Work For Small Businesses?

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:48:02 +0000

How long have you used yellow page advertising to market your small business? Why do you keep using it?

If you’ve been considering or using yellow page advertising, it might be time to ask yourself several questions:

Is your client using the yellow pages to find services?
Can you find similar or better quality clients in other ways?
Is this the best use of your marketing dollar for future growth?

Many service businesses advertise in the yellow pages because they always have, and they still get calls from their ad. But how much are you making from these clients? Is it enough to cover your monthly phone bill? And is your client list growing or shrinking by using this form of marketing?

In many households across the country, the phonebooks move from the front doorstep to the recycle bin, without even opening the bag they come in. (I’ve been doing that for more than 10 years now.) If I can’t perform a search and find you in Google, then you aren’t the business for me.

Overall, an online customer is more affluent, better educated, and more savvy in finding the perfect business to suit their needs. They are willing to build a relationship with a company that can provide the service they are looking for.

Online marketing is:

Less expensive – many tools are available at no or low cost
Permanent – it’s not pay or delete like the yellow pages – once you implement a technique, it exists online forever
The way of the future – if someone has a problem or needs a service, they search online and Google it. And with mobile technology growing in leaps and bounds, being findable and mobile ready is just as important.

It’s not about doing what you’ve always done. It’s about going where your clients are. And where you can build a strong, lucrative future.

[Are you a small business looking to trade in your yellow page advertising for online marketing? Our new local business search program may be just what you're looking for. Contact us today.]

5 Ways To Market Your Business With Video

admin — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 18:45:09 +0000

With all the advances in technology, and the ease of using a video camera to capture anything, anywhere, how do you go about using video to market your business? Here are 5 ideas to get you going.

1. Have a video introduction on the main page of your site.
Why not place a video to greet people when they visit the first time? Place it along the side or in your header, and make it clickable for people to watch if and when they prefer. Always give people the option to watch a video – if they’ve visited your site before, they may have a specific purpose for being back. Making them watch a video, or hunt for a way to turn it off can be frustrating. If people desire to watch it, they will find a way.

2. Add video testimonials to your sales pages.
Reading a testimonial is the first step to finding a new client. From there, give your testimonials more authority. Including a photograph and a link to a corresponding website will offer a stronger believability factor. And by taking the next step and actually recording a client giving a testimonial gives you the highest recommendation. If someone is willing to talk directly to you about a company – that’s believability.

3. Give away free video tutorials.
Do you have a product where training is a part of your service? Why not build a few video tutorials to show how easy your product is to use. The great thing about building a few promotional video tutorials is you can use them in many ways. Share them on YouTube, and they may go viral. Put them on your blog and they become a permanent part of your content.

4. Interview an expert.
Who is an expert in your industry? It may be someone in your company, yourself or your spouse, or a mentor you’ve been following for years. What can they add to your site to give your product or service more credibility, and make people want to do business with you? Remember, you don’t have make this a sales pitch – just information that your readers will find useful. A wedding photographer could interview the editor of a local wedding magazine, and get 10 tips to creating a beautiful wedding. It builds up your credibility because you personally had contact with another expert. And it adds to your content by showcasing ideas for weddings in a great way.

5. Create a video with how to advice, tips, or information.
These are the easiest to do. Head to a quiet room in your home or office. Set up your Flip Video or Bloggie Camera on a tripod and start shooting. Remember to keep it short and to the point. YouTube videos can be no longer than 10 minutes, and anything longer than that would lose interest anyway. Have a few ideas in mind, be sincere, and start sharing.

What Does It Take To Get 100 Million Views On YouTube?

admin — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 20:34:09 +0000

Putting video to use on the Internet doesn’t require sophisticated equipment, a full production staff, or several actors. The more natural, the more fun you have with it, the more you make it stand out – have a reason for it to go viral – the better your chance.

YouTube announced the most popular videos of 2009. The top 5 had a combined total of over 250 million views this year, with the top video taking almost half of that.

Number One – Susan Boyle on Britain’s Got Talent
(The original video that achieved over 120 million views did not allow embedding – this is one from the finals.)

Number Two – David After Dentist

Number Three – JK Wedding Entrance Dance

Number Four – New Moon Movie Trailer

Number Five Evian Roller Babies

Drew Carey Bid $1 Million For Twitter @drew

The Importance Of An Ebook

admin — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:06:19 +0000

A blog without an ebook is like a retail store without a front door.

It’s pretty easy to understand that if you open up a retail store, you have to place it in a location that will attract customers. You have to make it warm and inviting, giving people a reason to step through your front door. You also have to have many forms of advertising to move people from their cars into the parking lot, and into your store.

What’s not so easy is understanding the same philosophy works online as well. Your blog is your “store”. People may window shop – look at various posts and read what you have to say. But in order for them to eventually become “customers”, you have to push them off the fence and help them decide to take the next step.

And that’s where ebooks come into play.

An ebook is simply an electronic book. It doesn’t cost you anything out of pocket to produce (unless you have someone create it for you); just your time to write up the ebook. But the power of your ebook can help increase your business tenfold if you create the right ebook.

Let’s look at five things you need to create a dynamic ebook.

1. An eye-catching headline.
People like things that are intriguing; something that makes them take a step back and start wondering if they truly know the answer. A title of, “How To Make Cupcakes” isn’t very appealing. Anyone can make cupcakes if given half the chance. But what about, “Ten Tips That Can Make Your Cupcakes Lighter, Fluffier, And More Beautiful Than A Professional Cake Decorator”. Hmmm… All of a sudden you took a common topic, and made it a whole lot more interesting. You also raised awareness and intrigue, and gave people a reason to want the information.

2. Relevant content.
If people sign up for your ebook, they want the information you promised. If they signed up for, “Ten Tips That Can Make Your Cupcakes Lighter, Fluffier, And More Beautiful Than A Professional Cake Decorator”, they want ten tips that will help them improve the taste and look of their cupcakes. Don’t fill it with information that’s off topic, or worse, a sales pitch for products and services. You want this initial contact to be pleasant for the reader. You want to build trust. If you deliver what you promise, they will be back.

3. True tips and advice.
The worst kind of ebook is one that provides hints and teasers on what it promises, but makes you purchase something to get the true answer. If you promise “Ten Tips That Can Make Your Cupcakes Lighter, Fluffier, And More Beautiful Than A Professional Cake Decorator”, deliver on that promise and give ten actual tips they can use immediately. Make them easy to understand, easy to implement.

4. Questions for the future.
Once you have delivered what you promise, then its okay to open up new topics. At the end of your ebook on cupcakes, for example, it’s okay to mention your book, “101 Recipes and Tips For The Best Cupcakes Ever”. The ebook holder already has an interest, has possibly tried some of your tips, and may be interested in taking the next step. Your ebook sets up a potential sale by giving quality information up front, and providing more information for a fee second.

5. Provide direction.
Every ebook should be written with a goal. If you are giving away an ebook from your blog, what is the ultimate purpose? If 100 people download that ebook today, what would be your ultimate goal for each of those 100 people? It may be simply to get them on to your list for future promotion. It may be to get them to buy a small product or service from you. Or maybe it’s to introduce a larger product, service or training program that occurs sometime in the future. Whatever that goal is, make sure you incorporate it into your ebook. Provide a short bio in the back describing who you are, and inviting them to take the next step. Don’t deceive people on what you are truly selling. Be upfront and honest the whole way through, and you’ll start building a list of incredible potential.

Think Businesses Are Marketing In Traditional Ways? Think Again

admin — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:55:51 +0000

If the bad economy did anything for businesses, it made them become more efficient in the way they market. No longer do they simply spend because they’ve always done so. They’re looking at what they spend on, and how well it works at attracting new clients.

According to B to B’s 2010 Outlook survey, 87 percent of all businesses will be keeping their current marketing budgets steady or increasing them in the coming year. But where they will be spending that money will vary greatly.

The highest area of decreased spending is in the print category and in attending events, both at 63 percent.

The highest area of increased spending is in the online category, with over 80 percent anticipating increasing within this category.

So where are the best places to increase spending online? Email campaigns, search campaigns, social media and website development were the top categories – pretty much as expected.

We all know the struggle traditional media sources are having right now. Just today we went hunting for a story on a local media site, and found it as a current release. However when we did a Google search for the same story, we found it in online sources from several days ago.

You can’t stay in traditional sources because you’ve always been there. If your clients are moving on, you need to as well.

Shifts happen quickly now. Where it took years for new technology to penetrate the main population even a few short years ago, now technology can affect the majority in a matter of months.

If you’re not learning something new, it will have an impact on your business.

3 Limiting Beliefs Holding You Back From Business Success

admin — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:03:29 +0000

I recently met with a potential client that has seen his business shrink every month over the past year. He’s marketing in the same way he always has. And every time he contacts a potential customer through one of his old methods, he is finding they’ve been contacted by many of his competitors, or simply aren’t interested in what he has to offer anymore.

So I proceeded to spend an hour with him educating him on the benefits of using a strong online presence. We talked about social networking, blogging, and offering a free report for lead generation.

I told him this isn’t a “get rich quick” formula. It does take time to set up and get it into place. But if you plan on being in business five years from now, why wouldn’t you implement a new method that will help grow your business into the future?

He almost became a client on the spot – but he wanted to check in with his business partner first. His business partner had doubts, and they decided to put the whole thing on hold, and continue doing what they’ve always done.

I’ve seen this happen many times before. In fact I’ve gained many clients over the years who come back several months later because their business continues to decrease, and they finally reach the point where they have no choice – either shut it down or try something new.

When it comes to believing in building up your online presence, I’ve found there are 3 limiting beliefs that hold most people back from business success.

1. It’s just the economy, it will come back around.
Have you ever read the book “Who Moved My Cheese?” I love that parody. It spins a tale about two different types of mice: one who will stand by the old way no matter what, believing things will eventually return to normal; and one who understands things change, and sometimes you need to move on and look for other ways of doing things.

Sure the economy has completely changed things over the past couple of years. But its not just the economy. Its also about doing business differently. People simply don’t accept old ways of marketing. They have found ways of avoiding television and radio commercials with things like Satellite radio and Tivo. The more advertising surrounds us, the more we ignore it.

Twitter has shown us we want something new. People spend more time on Facebook than any other online application. They like building relationships online. They enjoy the benefits of talking to “friends”. And if you’re not learning more about this for your business, you’ll continue to watch it fall.

2. I just don’t get the online world.
Many people have a website because their company or franchise offers them one – for a fee – that’s attached to the main company’s site. And they feel comfortable with that because they simply don’t understand much about technology, and don’t want to invest any time into learning more.

The problem with company attached websites is they do you know good. They give you a tiny presence that’s impossible to find without knowing exactly who you are. They give you know leverage when it comes to growing your business in your local community.

Technology is difficult for all of us. But it’s not an option anymore. You have to know about it or you’ll never survive as a business. Don’t ignore it, find someone to help you through it. Don’t go with a company who handles it all and tells you nothing. Go with someone that believes in teaching you along the way to make sure you understand it a little better. It’s the only way to successfully grow for the future.

3. I have nothing to say.
I see small, five page websites all the time, with very little information on the business. It’s basically an online brochure.

When your customer is searching online, they don’t want to find a brochure; they want to find a solution to their problem. They don’t search for:

“a brochure for coaching”

They search for:

“a career coach to help me get a new job”

They want answers. They want solutions. They want to find an expert that offers enough information to make them realize they’ve found the right company.

So the only question now is, “Will you be that company?”

When I created my Social Networking Strategy program, I wanted to find a way to help businesses get the most out of new technology without having to understand all the nuances. I help them create the content and get it into the social realm in a way that will help bring business to them. Yet because I believe in education, I also include coaching as a part of the program. I want you to understand what I’m doing and why it works. I want you to be able learn new strategies along the way. And become a better business person in the process. If you want more information, I’m ready to start helping your business grow in a new direction.

3 Reasons To Stop Sending Email

admin — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:39:21 +0000

It’s costing more to send out brochures and postcards, so when you’re on the hunt for new business, just email. Right?

Not so fast. As tempting as it is to use your email to send out ads for new business, email is not your best choice. In fact it may be the quickest way to damage your brand, and cause you to lose more business than you’ll ever gain.

Here are 3 reasons to think about the email you are sending, and change your patterns for the future:

Quick Buck versus Lifetime Relationship
Think about your own email patterns. How many emails do you get in every day? This morning when I opened up my own email account, I had over 360 new emails waiting for me. Add in the non-stop email that comes in throughout the day, and I’m pretty sure I receive in excess of 500 emails per day.

Yes, I’m pretty good with the delete key. If you don’t make a great impression in your subject line, or I don’t recognize your name, I hit the delete button. I could easily spend all day with my email if I didn’t. So for me, nothing is more frustrating than opening up an email, only to find it’s a blatant sales pitch, trying to get me to buy something. Not only would I never do business with someone like this, I’m also more apt to tell about the experience as well.

Can you pick up business like this? Of course. But will it allow you to be in business five years from now?

SPAM
Depending on your email provider, its fairly easy to list an email as Spam – you simply click a button. If you send out dozens of email every day, and a good percentage of them tag your email as a Spam message, you’ll quickly find yourself without an account. They shut down first, and don’t ask questions. And if your hosting for your website is attached to the same server, your website might also be turned off, losing you hours or even days of being online while you move accounts.

Spamming the system simply isn’t worth it. There are easier ways to build a following, and have people come to you for information instead of trying to create an easy, quick sale.

Damage Your Brand
The Internet is fast. If you’re on Twitter or any of the other social sites, you know how fast one message can grow and penetrate an entire population.

If you use email to stay in touch with people that have requested information from you, you’ll create relationships. If you use email as your cold call method of choice, you’ll quickly anger people and cause them to lash back. With just a few clicks of the mouse, they have access to unlimited channels – and they know how to use them. The last thing you want to have to do is do more marketing to recover from bad publicity.