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Showing posts from March, 2009

Search Engine Optimization for Small Business

You want search engines to find and feast on your site. Content is king but you better understand the importance of link building, how to structure your pages to accommodate search engines, and key html elements. Just because you have your page up doesn't mean search engines will find it and know what it's all about. Most website owners have two or three key phrases that they would love to be the first result for in the search engines. This simply won’t happen for a brand new website and likely will never happen for businesses operating in highly competitive industries. Unless you have very little competition online your best hope is to initially chase secondary key phrases, or drill down your key phrases to match your niche exactly. Take for example the phrase “marketing consultant”. This is a highly competitive term that will be very hard for a new business consultant to rank competitively for in search engines. The solution is to break it down further into phrases that refi...

Small business tips in a recession

Recession impacts everybody. From the small business owner to wealthy business moguls, no one is unaffected in a recession. People begin to shift from eating in restaurants to preparing more meals at home, and start tightening their purse strings as much as possible. Companies begin to scale back their operations, and even let go of employees. The question on many small business owners' minds is " how can I capture market share and keep my business going during difficult economic times? First of all, you must keenly understand the mind of the consumer. Customers still have to buy things in a recession. But, they tend to more carefully consider their purchases rather than buying on a whim. They take time to research the best possible deals. So what can you do to keep your customers? The following suggestions can help your business continue to grow in a recession: Advertising : one of the major mistakes that happen during recession is that small business owners cut down or comp...

Internet Marketing Advice for Small Business Owner

A lot of small business owners think that they can just get by with word-of-mouth and by scrimping and saving on their own marketing budget. You will never become a successful player if you don't do any marketing at all. Sure, you may think that it's a David versus Goliath battle against similar companies who make millions of dollars in profit every year, but you are going to have to step up to the plate and at least try to get the word out about your company. Now, it is the time to start doing internet marketing. Small business owner can consider hiring a firm to help you out. An Internet marketing firm is going to know how to market your business, and if you work with one who specializes in helping out small businesses, you are going to get even better results. Sure, working with a firm is going to be pricier than doing it yourself, but unless you know what you are doing, you are probably going to get more value out of working with a firm because you won't make a lot of c...

Use Facebook to Promote Your Small Business

Why should you use Facebook for your small business ? Because there is a lot of people out there for you to prospect to. 79 million of them. Because you should use social marketing in your small business. Do you still think only college students use Facebook? Think again because today the average user is over 35. And because the Facebook social networking experience can be precisely what you want to make of it. Think of Facebook as a professional tool for a small business, and that's what it is. It doesn't matter how millions of high school and college students are using Facebook to get out of doing homework. You can make it into whatever you want, even your own personal media broadcasting channel. Among the several opportunities and benefits here are a few: Brand evangelism (even if you have to do it yourself) Generate cheap leads for your small business Build a list for your small business Personal branding Establishing yourself as a thought leader Facebook group as yet anoth...

3 Simple Marketing Strategies For Your Small Business

Small business marketing strategies that increases customer retention and bottom-line profits without breaking the bank. If you're in business for yourself then sooner or later you're going to be asking yourself the following questions: How do I get more customers? How can I get my customers to spend more money with me? How can I get better quality of leads without breaking the bank account? Is there a better way of targeting my advertising so that I win much more than I lose? Below are three strategies to attracting more business and making more money: Strategy #1 - You Must Understand The Lifetime Value Of Your Clients Every business owner needs to fully understand the life time value of their customers. This is the total profit that a customer will bring to your business over the lifetime of your dealings with that customer. The following example will explain why it's important to know this number: Let's pretend you own a book store. If your customer spends $50 ever...

Blogging for your small business

Small business owners  will certainly benefit from blogging , Blogging is where you have the opportunity to write about anything. These are free web areas and highly beneficial to businesses. Blogs are online journals. Blogging has been around for quite some time now, but has only recently become a fad.  Blogs can consist of anything and therefore can be used to advertise a business. Keep it simple, say what you mean without taking the long trip. State your business, define it well, then tie everything up in your concluding paragraph. Make your blog assessable to everyone, keep to the point and avoid going to tangents. What does Blogging Provide to Small Business? Blog software is easy to use. Simply write your thoughts, link to resources, and publish to your blog, all at the push of a few buttons. Blog software companies such as: Movable Type, Blogger.com and Typepad all offer easy blogging tools to get started. Blogging is a low-cost alternative to having a web presence. For small bu...

Social Marketing Advantage for Small Businesses

Along with search engine optimization, social marketing is a key element in any small business marketing plan. Through the various social networking tools, social media sites offer small business owners new ways to increase web traffic and broaden their scope without increasing their advertising budgets. Traffic Much traffic can be attained from social networks. Better known as 'competition', the integration of social networking sites into your small business marketing plan is an absolute must if you expect to keep a leg up on the competition. As quickly as news travels on the internet, any delay could result in the loss of thousands of potential customers. Backlinks Through social media sites, you can make connections with other related business and participate in a link exchange. By visiting content-relevant blogs and posting to them, you can include a backlink to your own site and/or blog, automatically increasing brand awareness without spending one cent. SERP (Search En...

Local Internet Marketing for Small Business

Internet Marketing is more and more important for small business. After developing a websites, Many small business owners didn't have a clue what to do with them. They seemed to expect people would show up like magic and start buying stuff. They don't know how to get traffic to their site. Internet marketing for small business is a hot topic now, and is only going to get bigger as more small businesses get online. GeoLocal - Local Internet Marketing One of the first sites devoted to the subject of using the Internet to promote small local business, since 2001. Greg Sterling - Local Search Guy GeoTarget Search 'Location' search engine marketing can put your business in front of people while they search online for products and services by city or metro area. Kelsey Group Local Media Blog The Kelsey Group's Local Media Blog. Local Search Marketing Guide A guide to local search marketing options for small businesses. Learn how to gain visibility in Google Maps, Y...

How to build a small business

What is required to start your own small business ? Even if you have your own product to sell, how do you know that you have a group of people willing to buy it? Are you aware that the desires of the buying public are as diversified as the people buying products or services are? Those are some pretty basic questions and right now you are thinking that maybe you have wasted your time coming here but Wait! How many people try to start a new business with something they think is a good idea without any research. You may think it is too simple but most businesses are started just that way. Doing Research You need to do your research to find put what is current and what the public is willing to buy and if they are willing to buy that product or service from you. After all, there are a few bad people out there trying to fleece the pockets of the general public but more importantly there are many honest business people out there that are new and trying to make a buck using outdated products t...