Online Marketing Impact For Your Local Business – Tip #1

Being able to identify what your target market is looking for is KEY when you are designing a successful website or web page. When you have decided that you will establish an online marketing presence for your business, you now have to determine how you would like to present your company to these potential customers.

The first thing you need to do is determine what you audience is looking for so that  you can design your website to appeal to the largest group of prospects; once you have identified this you then can begin to design your website.

If your business is a print shop, one of the ways to determine how to best design your web page would be to see how many people online, in your local area, are actively searching for print shops. You could do a keyword search (which we discuss in further detail in Tip 3) to see how many people are looking for print shops. This will prepare you for further developing your online marketing more effectively.

From there you will be able to see how many people typed in that keyword, as well as other similar keywords. For example if your print shop offered colored paper printing, and the top search online was for colored paper printing, you can now design your website to focus on the fact that your business offers colored paper printing as an option for your potential customer.

When you learn how to identify what your target market is looking for you are able to customize your pages, your offers and your online marketing will then appeal to the larger audience of potential new customers.

Use this to establish a base line and to develop an understanding of the needs to your customers so you can establish trust, and continue to build your brand as a reliable and trustworthy business, which focuses on the needs of their customers and provides them with the solutions they need.

In the next chapter we will be discussing the different options for creating your website that are available to you. When you are ready to start looking at designing a web presence it is important for you to consider all the possible options that are available.

The goal is to drive online traffic, offline to your store front, so remain focused and take the time to learn the steps needed to ensure your advertising campaign budget is focused, and well spent on targeting those that are in your local market with your online marketing.

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Three Terrible Social Media Marketing Mistakes And How to Avoid Making Them

Social media marketing is a necessity for growing your business in today’s climate. While just about everyone knows at least a few things about how to make social media marketing work well…hardly anybody has a good understanding about the type of mistakes that can be made, nor do most people know how to avoid those mistakes.

The good news is, we’re about to put you in the ranks of the few…here are three top social media marketing mistakes companies make, plus valuable insights for avoiding these mistakes.

Failing To Monitor Your Social Media

You’ve  done a great job of setting up your Facebook page, and you’ve made friends and fans all over the place. Don’t expect your social media marketing to keep on running on its’ own.

One reason social media marketing works so uncannily well is its’ “social” aspect. You should be updating constantly (at least once every day or every two days) and you should be paying attention to what friends and fans are telling you.
Read the messages that come in – don’t just delete them!

Answer every message that seems to require a response. If you fail at the “social” aspect of social media marketing, you’re just another company, just another cog in the machine.

One of the best ways to avoid making this mistake is to assign someone the task of monitoring your social media for you. This way, you don’t have to wade through everything that comes in, and you can be a resource for the person or team who handles your social media marketing.

Your customers will appreciate the way you interact with them, and you’ll be getting an awesome ROI.

Ignoring Complaints And Failing To Admit Fault

This is one of the biggest social media marketing mistakes any company of any size can make. Imagine you have a dissatisfied customer, who decides to spread his aggravation with your company all over twitter and Facebook.

What do you do?  Should you ignore the guy and hope he goes away?

Absolutely not!  If you make this mistake, people are going to start to wonder.

Be friendly and courteous, and show your customer you care about him.  Make a public apology. While eating crow might not feel the best, it’s a great way to show that “social” side of your business. Who knows, you may even endear yourself to your customers, even more.

Everyone makes mistakes, so if you’re caught in a mistake, don’t lie or cover it up. Handle it, and move on.

Failing To Provide Incentives

Don’t expect fans and friends to flock your way without providing them with an incentive to do so. Offer special discounts to your loyal customers, and give out helpful hints on a regular basis.

My favorite greenhouse gives gardening tips every day, and for some reason, I can’t help but go there and buy more plants and products. I also give them lots of recommends. This is just one example of how much people love to believe that they are getting a value, and illustrates the fact they enjoy passing the things they like on to others.

This is one of the biggest reasons social media marketing works, so give good incentives, and watch your business grow.

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What Is Backlinking And How It Can Help Your Business

Using SEO techniques to improve your page rank is the top way to get your business noticed. Backlinking is a very important part of search engine optimization – and, while it is time consuming work, backlinking tells Google how popular your business site is.

The more popular Google believes your site to be, the higher page rank you will have. I can hear you now – “Huh?  Run that by me again?”

Let’s break some things down into parts, so you’ll have a better understanding of what your SEO professional is talking about when he or she talks to you about improving your presence on the internet. Backlinks, also known as incoming links or inbound links, are links that come into your site. These are built into other sites, pages, articles, or blogs.

While you might occasionally get a backlink from a satisfied customer who is talking about what a great experience they had with your business…in THEIR blog, that is just not going to happen enough to make a difference to Google.

Remember, the internet is growing exponentially every day.

How do you get backlinks, if not by accident?

Your SEO professional builds them for you by using hyperlinks and  high quality, relevant anchor text on pages that link to your website.

Article Marketing is one way to build credible backlinks.

While you might be tempted to write all your articles yourself, and post them as they are on sites like……ezinearticles, ehow, or about.com, it is wisest to leave the article marketing to the pros.

Effective article marketing requires specific keywords as well as a specific percent of keyword density (2%-3%). While the articles about your business or product need to be useful and informative, they also need to be engineered properly.

Page Rank is Google’s way of telling consumers which sites are best. You want your business to rank well in several different searches related to the product or service you are offering.

Say you sell pre-owned cars in San Diego.

You want to rank well in searches like “pre owned cars san diego”, “used cars san diego”, “san diego used cars”, san diego pre owned autos” and so on. While these terms may seem ridiculously redundant to you, covering all the bases can help get your site a higher page rank.

SEO marketing professionals have the fine art of page rank down to a science – just one more reason you need to work with a professional if you’re not doing so already. Once effective backlinking has been put into place, your business will enjoy a higher Google page rank, and receive more internet traffic.

In turn, more potential customers will know you’re out there, and they will use your business simply because it was easy to find on the internet.

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How To Avoid The Top Three SEO Marketing Mistakes.

Once you’ve made up your mind to use search engine optimization, there are a lot of things you’ve got to do –
…or, if you’re among the lucky – things your internet marketing agency has to do.

Either way, be sure to educate yourself about the process of Search Engine Optimization…and avoid making the kind of mistakes that will make you wish you lived back in the days of black and white TV.

While there are plenty of mistakes and errors to be made with anything you undertake, including SEO, there are some that require special mention. Here are three of the worst SEO mistakes anyone can make – plus tips for avoiding them and getting the most for your advertising dollar.

Mistake #1: Failing To Hire A Reputable SEO Firm

When you look at SEO from a consumer’s standpoint, everything might seem to be pretty cut and dried. You can blog, you can backlink. You might even be able to build some code into your very own website.

The question is, do you know what you’re doing?

Is it effective, or is it a waste of time?

Do you have time to do research on a regular basis, and make changes to your site as required?

Failing to hire a good SEO team is absolutely the worst mistake any business can make…and it’s the best way to waste your own time and energy that could be put to use in the daily improvement of other business aspects.

Mistake #2: Failing To Take Your SEO Team’s Advice

Great!  You’ve got people on your side, working diligently to get you a great Google page rank, and get your business noticed. Now, if only you would listen to them!

Here’s the best advice any business owner can take, when it comes to SEO.  Pay attention! Your website is there to serve your customers. Not to appeal to your own sense of what works.

If you’ve been in business for years and can remember old newspaper ad campaigns, read this again.

Your website needs to appeal to your customers, whether you like the way it looks or not. It needs to be easy to navigate, and you’re going to have to come up with new content on a regular basis.

Finally, believe your team when they tell you that what worked six months ago is not going to work now. The internet changes by leaps and bounds. Let your SEO team focus on what they do best, so you can focus on running other aspects of your company.

Mistake #3: Failing To Utilize SEO Principles

If you don’t use SEO techniques like blogging, article marketing, video marketing…and social media marketing because they seem like a waste of time to you, you are only shooting yourself in the foot. You might have gotten to the place you are in today by controlling every aspect of your business…but  the fact of the matter is this: unless you get on board with SEO, you’re making a major mistake.

Give it a try – and we promise, we won’t say “I told you so!”

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How LinkedIn Can Help Your Small Business

LinkedIn is a social network that is geared toward linking together small businesses. This network – well over twelve million strong – provides an opportunity for folks to stay in daily and weekly touch with their current clients, as well as their potential clients (leads).

Here is a short list of the ways that you can use LinkedIn to improve your chances at small business success!

• As noted, use LinkedIn to stay in touch with people who resonate with your business. These can be current clients, potential clients, or folks who are interested in your business or have similar or related businesses.

• Ask your peers about their vendors.

• Trade services.

• Use the LinkedIn’s Groups directory to search for industry associations and networks.

• Find out which conventions your peers (and possibly your competition) is attending (or are likely to be planning to attend).  Similarly answer questions and show your expertise.

• Use Group Answers (pull-down menu in Groups) to see what questions people are asking (and who those people might be!)

• Fund Raising: Though you might not actually ask for help raising funds for your venture, just being connected to the right people may provoke them to offer you assistance.

• Combine your efforts with other social networking accounts such as Twitter – or even Facebook  (You can actually sync your contacts between LinkedIn and Twitter).

• Provide links to your small business blogs to show your expertise in your area.

Make sure you abide by the rules that LinkedIn sets for business and small businesses. You want to avoid any association with spamming. Like any other business-related activities, this can all take time.

Yes, you have to check in daily and spend time reading other people’s blogs and questions and answers. But using them also adds a certain mystique to your corporate image. Do you want to be seen as the conventional, stodgy homegrown business?

Or do you want to be seen as an entrepreneur?

Finally, Be forewarned: Like other social networks, LinkedIn can become a respite away from business-related business. Be mindful of this and steer clear of the temptation to socialize. Keep community and business functions separate, or better yet, hire a firm to take on some of the most time consuming social media marketing tasks for you.

Your time will be your own, and everything that needs attention will be handled immediately.

Facebook – A Great Social Media Marketing Tool To Build Loyalty.

There’s a lot of buzz around social media marketing, and for good reason. Let’s take a few minutes to look at how facebook builds loyalty.

If you’re like most people, then you probably have a personal facebook account, where you keep track of your friends and family. You might have located an old high school sweetheart, or found out that your old nemesis from sixth grade is now a preacher in middle America. Whatever the case may be, facebook is a fun way for people to connect.

It’s also extremely addictive – and that makes it a super effective marketing tool – one of the best, least expensive ways to build loyalty.

While you might be one of the few folks who does stay off facebook in your personal life, people like you are few and far between.

Let’s take a closer look at why facebook is such an important part of any  social media marketing campaign for small, local business!

Build Loyalty

Have you ever noticed that the more stake you feel you have in something, and the better relationship you feel you have with an entity, the more likely you are to feel loyal toward it?  Whether your company offers a certain type of service or a certain product, having a presence on facebook and inviting your customers and potential customers to join will help you build a loyal following.

Facebook Accounts Build Themselves. Well, not really – you do have to interact to make the most of facebook.

But, as social media marketing goes, facebook is easy.

Here’s an example:

You build a facebook profile with basic information about your business and a few snazzy snapshots. Now you’re up on facebook, but you don’t have any friends yet.

Don’t worry – they’ll show up.

Once you’ve gotten your profile up, it’s time to start looking for people you know. Go through your customer list, and look for them on facebook. Invite these people to be friends or fans!

Once you have some friends or fans, invite them to participate in a special offer – let’s say you have a coffeehouse:

Facebook Friday!  Friends and Fans get a latte for $2.

Come in and see our new fireplace!

You’ll be swamped on Friday, and you’ll be building brand loyalty through social media marketing.  So, take a look at facebook, see what different companies are offering, and come up with your own plan.  If you are pressed for time, consider hiring a consultant to help you with this aspect of marketing your business via social media – you’ll be thrilled with the results.

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Website design software is everywhere, and so are website design companies. You can even design your own website for free, if you so desire, on many different site builders. Considering the many options that exist, it’s completely understandable that small business owners often feel a sense of confusion when it comes to building a website.

While there are many extremely desirable elements to website design, there are also some things you should avoid.

Here are five website design mistakes you should be careful never to make.

Website Design Mistake #5:  Using PDF Files Instead of Pages

It might be tempting to scan existing documents into pdf format and upload them onto your website. Give visitors a link to click, and up comes your pdf. Easy, right?  Wrong!  People hate finding pdf’s on websites. They take a long time to load, and they can be hard to read. Take the time to create a new page that contains the pertinent information.

You can build links and backlinks, add great photos, and make your page a pleasure to visit instead of an irritation.
Annoyed visitors leave a site and look for a better one – so skip the pdf’s.

Website Design Mistake #4:  Using Bookish Text

People want information fast. They want to scan your site and see whether you have what they are looking for.

So:

• Do not make your site look like the page of a book.

Keep it interesting.

• Use photos and vary the text size to highlight different areas of your page.

• Use bulleted lists and quick paragraphs with headers that tell the visitor what they’re going to find under that heading.

• Make your site interactive.

The more fun people have when they visit your site, the more successful it will be.

Website Design Mistake #3:  Building A Flashy Site That Is Too Complicated For Users To Navigate

You can have the most beautiful looking website in the world, but without elements that are properly built using proven website design techniques, your site will be just more pretty pictures – and the internet is full of those!

People want to go to a site, find what they are looking for, and leave. The better and faster the internet gets, the faster people expect sites to work.

Website Design Mistake #2:  Preventing Smartphone Users From Accessing Your Site

This is a relatively new mistake in website design, and if you’ve got a website now, it’s worth looking into. Can people who surf the web on their iPhone, Droid, Blackberry or other smartphone get into your site?

Can they find what they’re looking for, and navigate well? If not, your site needs first aid. Fast.

Website Design Mistake #1:  Not Hiring A Professional To Handle Website Design

You might want to help your buddy who is learning about website design build his portfolio by building you a website, and while that might be OK if he has some experienced guidance…it also might ruin your chances of ending up with a great site that is both user friendly and high ranking.

These days, website design is about a lot more than looking good.

Hire a professional, and your site will do exactly what you need it to – gain you business, and increase your bottom line.

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Why Google Places Is A Great Way To Get Your Business Noticed

You know your small business exists.  You probably spend a good portion of every day running it!  The question is, how can you get people who have never been there before to notice you?

Google Places is one great way to do it.

Whether your business is on a well-travelled corner, or if you’re tucked away on a winding country lane, Google Places will inform potential customers about your location, as well as give them information about the products or services you offer.

Why Google?

While there are other search engines out there, Google is by far the most popular, as well as the most comprehensive of them all.

What Is Google Places?

Google Places is a free service offered by Google, to help business owners inform consumers about their hours of operation, products and services, special offers, and more. Your business can display photographs and videos on Google Places, and you can communicate with clientele and get important feedback that can help you improve your bottom line.

What are Google Places Tags?

Google Places offers and additional service that places special tags that look like coupons over your business.
Tags are a way to stand out to potential customers, and while they don’t improve SEO rank, they do create better perceived value.

As of January, 2011, it is free to try  Google Places Tags for 30 days, and the service costs a flat rate of $25 per month if you choose to continue using it.

Why Google Places Works So Well

According to the folks at Google, one in five internet searches are directly related to locations. Since Google places allows business owners the ability to update their offerings in real time, customers can find you and you have the opportunity to create a sense of excitement by adding special coupons just for customers who find you on Google Places.

Add Google Places for smartphone users, and you just might see your business improve by leaps and bounds.
The bottom line is, your customers and potential new clients are looking for what they want on Google, and if you are there, you are going to be noticed.

No one can pass up a great deal, so come up with a promotion, put it up on your Google Places Place Page, and watch the magic happen.

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What is social video marketing?

On the surface, it’s a way to get existing and potential customers to interact with your website. It’s an entertaining way for you to get your message across. At best, it’s a great way to improve your overall SEO picture.

Social video marketing is nothing like those old TV commercials – instead, it combines gripping images…
…and motivational text or music to make your customers feel they need to do two things:

Heed your call to action, and share your message with people they feel would appreciate what you have to offer.

What Social Video Marketing Is Not

Social video marketing is not a standard commercial. A film crew does not come to your place of business and build a highly choreographed visual press release. In fact, most social video marketing for small businesses takes place with the help of a good internet marketing specialist…

…and a few people who have the talent to put a quick, entertaining video together.

Quick cameras like the Flip and others like it make the process of producing and editing short films a snap!

Social video marketing is not spam.

Some businesses make the mistake of being overly forceful, which is something you definitely don’t want to do…
…the most effective social video marketing campaigns are those that people actually WANT to watch.

What Social Video Marketing Is

Putting out a black and white definition of social video marketing is nigh impossible. It’s different things to different people. The best social video marketing doesn’t really even look like marketing to most consumers, which is precisely why it is so effective.

Here are just a few things that define social video marketing:

* Social video marketing triggers a psychological response. It creates a need, and a drive to interact.
You want your customers to see your videos and think, “Wow! I need to share this!”

* Social video marketing uses platforms that are already in place.
YouTube and Facebook are two examples of places where effective video campaigns enjoy red hot success.
People are always watching, sharing with friends, and taking action.

* Social video marketing is all about you and your business. It is original, fresh, and often funny or gripping in some other way.

We’ve just barely covered the tip of the iceberg in this introduction – find out more by talking with your online marketing specialist.

He or she can give you even more specific insight about how to use this incredible tool to make your business more successful than you ever imagined it could be.

The Secret To Growing Your Business – Fast!

There must be some reason why some small  businesses outperform others. Let’s pretend for just a minute that you own a small café in a part of town that is just about two blocks off the beaten path. Lunchtime crowds could be a lot bigger!

You’ve noticed that your competition, who has higher prices and worse white bean chicken chili than you…
…and who is a whopping four blocks off the beaten path of the lunch time warriors has a steady stream of customers.

Why?  Stop wringing your hands.  You’re about to find out.

Social Media Marketing: What It Can Do For Your Business.

Social media marketing translates to success. A successful social media marketing campaign can take your little bistro from barely making payroll to a booming success. It can move you from the back lot to the spotlight.

“But” you might say, “I’m a bistro.  How can social media marketing do all that for me?  You people are crazy!  I have soup to make.  See ya later!”

As astonishing as this might seem, and as offbeat as some of the most successful social media marketing campaigns are, they work. Stick with me, soupy sales, here’s why!

Social media marketing gives you the power to reach out to your customers any time of night or day.

Let’s say it’s 10 a.m.  Bored office workers everywhere are looking forward to lunch. In fact, they’re asking each other:

“What do you think, where should we go for lunch?”

They check their twitter and facebook feeds to see what their friends are up to, and then, magic happens.  They spot your tweet or your facebook status. Their eyes light up, and they start to salivate.  “Dude, let’s go to Soupy Sales! He’s got that awesome white bean chicken chili for lunch.

Perfect weather for it.  Man, he’s on Facebook…we better get there before it’s gone!”

At 11:30, you start getting busy.  At 1 pm, you’re completely out of soup, salad, bread, soda, and those cookies you thought might sell well. And, best of all, you’ve convinced your customers that they should not pass up the opportunity to have lunch with you, because you’re just so popular. While this is an admittedly simplified explanation of what social media marketing can do for you, it’s definitely food for thought.

Whether you sell soup or landscaping services, you need to get in the game and stay in the game with social media marketing. So, find an expert, start a campaign, and watch your business grow faster than you ever thought possible.

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