Increase Your Website Visibility
So you have opened your doors for business and now you need to build clientel. Your focus is going to be walk-in business, NOT Internet sales. How can you use the web to get your business seen, attract quality visitors AND increase sales? The answer, as you will see, is simpler than you may think.
First, you will want to find the largest search engines online, which is easy. The big ones are Yahoo, MSN and Google. All of these sites offer a directory called “Local Search”. Local search basically acts as a phone directory, but is much more than that. It is a highly targeted, focused results based data base that tells potential customers exactly where to find you.
All you need to do is go to each search site in turn and register your business. The basic info is all you need to put in. The form you fill out will ask for business name, address, phone number and web site (if you have one and I strongly suggest you do!). The whole thing takes about 5 minutes and you are usually up and in the results pages within a couple of hours.
Now you are probably thinking about relevance to your business. That is not a problem with the local search feature. When a customer looks for a product or service, they are asked to enter a post code. The results displayed begin at the centre of that post code and radiate outwards like the spokes of a wheel. So the nearer you are to the centre of your local city post code, the better the results for you.
Still, this is a great tool for local brick and mortar businesses to gain visibility. Not only that, but you can reach into homes and places you normally would not be able to market your business to. Think about being able to put your business in front of every Internet user in your local area at the touch of a button. You could never pass out all those flyers or tag all those cars yourself.
Since the customer has specified a product or service, the results are targeted to your business, too. This means that they have searched for what you are offering, so you KNOW they are already interested. In essence, the customers who find you this way are pre-sold when they call or walk in to your store.
Now you don’t have to have a web site to use local search marketing, but it helps and here’s why. Say a customer finds you through the local search. Since they are already on the computer, all they will have to do is click your site’s link to see what you’re all about. That first page can have a lead capture form that you can use to capture the details of everyone visiting your site.
If that home page includes a ‘web only’ coupon offer, that will probably entice the prospect to call you or actually walk in to your location and check you out. Remember that the customer is already interested in your product, so you just need to push them over the edge, so to speak. That coupon offer is the key to the golden palace with your customers.
Besides the customers you can reach out to, local search also has other benefits for your home page. The more people that click your link makes your site more relevant to that product niche. This is what is known as organic search results and can make your web page visible in general web searches for that product or service. So not only do you get the local search business, but the general web search as well.
This is important even if you are not selling on the web. The visibility you gain is nothing short of stupendous. All of a sudden, your business is getting top rankings and is being seen by more and more people. Plus, if you practice superior customer service, your customers will tell their friends about you and where to find you, whether it’s on the web or on the street.
In conclusion, if you are looking for a way to be more visible, reach more customers and make more sales than the competition, this is the way you want to do it. It all starts with a five minute registration and a physical brick and mortar location coupled with a desire to really succeed.
Are You in Touch with Your Customer? The Do’s and Don’ts of Email Marketing
E-mails are one of the best things on the internet, allowing almost instantaneous communication with ease and as fast as you can type your message. With the features such as attachments where you can send files ranging from PDF, photos, and even music, it has naturally also become one of the accessible strategies for online marketing. But just as you have already experienced the benefits of e-mailing, you have probably also encountered the headaches associated with annoying spam and endless advertisements that grow on your inbox like weeds. For effective e-mail marketing, make sure that you follow these steps.
The Do’s
Remember that the first thing to remember when dealing with potential clients and customers is that you want them to patronize your services, avail of your products, and maybe even get in a few testimonials to spread the excellence of your service. Hence, begin e-mail marketing with humane treatment. First, make sure that your mailing list does not cover just about any random e-mail address that you know of. Ensure a mailing list that addresses a particular target market. After all, a teenager will not appreciate receiving newsletters and press releases about roofing or plumbing services, while a parent will not necessarily adore the opportunity to subscribe to a teen magazine.
Next, always remember the basics of writing your releases and promotional articles. Make them short and concise with a catchy headline and a good load of information. Otherwise, no one will read them, plain and simple. Also opt for automatic response systems so that each response to your e-mails will automatically be answered. It is also best to send promotional mails in stages. First send teasers, then follow up with informational articles about your services, before sending the call-to-action message, where the action called for is a purchase. These should be done with a few days in between to keep the clients in anticipation. Finally, always allow clients the option to unsubscribe as they see fit.
The Don’ts
With e-mail marketing, never ever be tempted to sell your mailing list to third-parties. This is simply unethical. Also, while e-mailing can be an easy task that involves nothing more than a click of a button once you have already finished your content, be sure not to over-do it. Sending too much mail will simply make you look pathetic and desperate. Next, make sure never to forget the importance of grammar, spell-checking, and well-written articles. Nothing creates a worse impression on a client other than businesses who cannot even spell right. Also, do not forget to personalize your mail. Nothing adds that good old human touch the same way a signature does. Impress upon your clients that you are available for queries and questions, and make sure to never leave feedback and comments unanswered.
The general assumption today is the e-mail marketing is becoming an obsolete means to online marketing. In most instances, however, it is not e-mail marketing itself which does not work, but the strategies where this tool is employed. Following the do’s and don’ts, you just may end up with affordable online marketing strategy that will ensure that you are always in touch with your customers.
SEO: The Small Business Lifeline
Each day over 2 million searches are made in search engines like Google, and according to studies, at least 65% of the sales generated in the internet result from the 2 million searches. Consequently, billions of dollars are exchanged over the internet each month and considering the global scope of the internet, it is no wonder. With a good online business, you can theoretical be raking in your fair share of the billion dollar online sales pie. The problem, however, is how to translate theory into reality through effective online marketing.
SEO as key marketing strategy
Because of the pivotal role which search engines have in the virtual market, one of the unbeatable key strategies that must be incorporated in any efficient and effective online business plan is search engine optimization. Statistics prove that with each search turnout, only 5% or less ever reach the third page of search engine results. Getting your site on the top of the first or second page usually marks the line between making a sell and adding to your profit, or losing revenues.
How does it work?
SEO is a marketing strategy that uses algorithms to improve search engine results in favor of your particular product or service. As one of the primary marketing moves, search engine optimization can begin with the html coding used in the web design itself, and in the use of web content that are easily optimized for search engines. When effectively used, SEO can lead to increases in traffic for your site, and a listing above the thousands of others vying for a customer’s short attention span on the internet, naturally leading to better sales, improved internet presence, and maximum profit.
First is always better
Online marketing services that integrate search engine optimization in the over-all marketing plan is one of the sure-fire ways to boost and jumpstart your small online business. Through SEO, search engines yield your website among the top of each search result, leading to better traffic and creating customer impression of your dominance on the field. After all, first is always better. Thousands of other online businesses are climbing the online business bandwagon, and the reasons are clear. The markets are shifting towards cyberspace and the reasons are easy to understand, with the growing share which online commerce has resulted in.
DIY or Professional SEO?
While there are measures that a small-business owner such as you can take in order to maximize search engine results for your favor, such as the use of search engine optimized web content, an article library in your website with optimized titles and keywords, always bear in mind that with the highly competitive nature of online businesses, a few lines below the top of the search page can be all it takes for clients with shorter and shorter attention spans to choose other service providers. Eye tracking studies show that the general eye movement is from left to right, and from top to bottom.
While your do-it-yourself SEO attempts can get you in the top three search engine results, consult many SEO marketers for the sacred top spot in the first search result page, and watch as your business is saved by the lifeline leading back to profit – all for affordable fees.
When was the Last Time Your Website Attracted New Clients to Your Business?
It is not a question that many business owners want to admit. Yet it is also one of the most pivotal questions in any industry. When was the last time your website attracted new clients to your business? Whether you like it or not, the answer to this question could spell the difference between drowning out like so other small businesses in the face of the global financial crisis and the major recession that the world is facing, or staying afloat and leading the rest of the pack.
Local to online, through web marketing
Online marketing is one of the most effective tools that many small business owners have yet to fully maximize. Amazingly, it is also one of the most cost-effective means to market your services and merchandise. Instead of taking risky chances with the outdated marketing methods, stop ignoring the potential benefits which online marketing can have for your business. Here are several tips to get you on your way.
Plan ahead
For your first step towards cyberspace, be prepared and create a comprehensive plan of action. Many people who have set up web pages on the internet have failed to attract any business transactions because of lack of planning and foresight. Make sure that your plan integrates marketing in both short-term and long-term plans. You cannot make do with simply hoping for the best and wishing that Google and other search engines will list you on the top of the list – unless you plan on how.
Ready the guns
Make sure that you have what it takes to make your strategy work by scouting for cheap and accessible resources to help you. Among the tools you need are affordable and effective web pages through hosted blogs. Try out Word Press which offers affordable web pages that are both easy to use and which can be customized for a highly professional look.
Test the waters
Automobile conventions for car enthusiasts can lead to massive reservations and sales for the car manufacturers. On the web, you can employ the same strategy by utilizing online social networking websites. From the ubiquitous Facebook to other social networking sites, creating online contacts is one way to give you a solid list of people you can directly employ your marketing strategies on. Aside from social networking sites, in some cases it is also essential to affiliate yourself with online guilds and industry websites that people may go into for your products or services.
Ask for marketing help
Most importantly, ensure competitive marketing without which your web page will succumb to a natural death, becoming another unvisited and neglected little page in the great book of cyberspace. In many instances, it is here that you need to look for professional online marketing specialists that will pick the load of your business promotion plan off your shoulders so that you need only to worry about sales and customer service. There are many things you can do yourself. But there are some others that need expertise. If you want to be competitive, be ready to have competitive professional marketing people backing you up with affordable and effective marketing strategies.
The next time somebody asks when was the last time your website attracted new clients to your business, be sure ‘today’ is your answer with online marketing.
Marketing In a Recession-Boom without the Budget Blow-Out
Daily web activity
If you are like most people, you probably have not spent more than a day or two without checking your e-mail and the many online newsletters and electronic magazines, or e-zines, that you have subscribed to. You have probably found out the conveniences of being updated on all of your most important concerns in topics ranging from finance to tips on how to raise your family. Yet one of the least noticed truths behind your daily activities is that one of the best marketing strategies amidst the global financial crisis is already staring at you blankly in the face. Whether you have noticed it or not, online marketing is actually one of the leading influences in whatever remains of buying and spending habits of people during recession time.
Consumption habits on the move
With the rising costs in keeping actual infrastructure for your business, such as your brick-and-mortar shop complete with items on display and perhaps a mannequin or two, and with peoples’ knowledge about the additional costs when purchasing from neighborhood retailers, a large percentage of the population’s consumption habits is moving towards the internet. With easy price comparisons and many options to choose from, it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out why many small business owners are suffering.
Marketing in and for cyberspace
For you to survive the major recession, which some analysts are predicting to carry through to a several more long years, the trick is to maximize the affordable and effective online marketing strategies offered in cyberspace, and suited for cyberspace. Marketing in virtual reality maintains the same principles used in traditional, old-school marketing – get your presence established and increase people’s awareness and knowledge not only about your company and your products, but the point-by-point reasons why you among your other peers should be chosen. However, the new medium presented by the digital age takes more finesse to master. It is no longer a simple matter of blowing big bucks for an enormous billboard on the highway, because the backstreets and alleys in cyberspace are equally important venues.
Marketing where it counts
Check out marketing strategies on the internet that will provide you marketing services to get your name and URL on more and more pages on the internet. Through the specialized services offered by online marketers, you get not only a growing number of links in the approximately 9 billion web pages in existence today, but you also get the discriminating services of personality targeting, making sure that in the billions of pages where your URL and company name may crop, yours will be on the pages where it counts – without the budget blow-out
Small Business Owners: Your Customer is Online, Are You?
One of the most difficult adaptations that brick-and-mortar businesses are facing today is the shift towards online marketing. If you are a small business owner, chances are that you have already experienced the downward sales trend. Worse, no matter how fancy you can make your shop window, people are simply still not buying your merchandise, and the pamphlets and brochures for your services are left on the shelf untouched.
The problem is simple and unavoidable – the market is migrating online, and for any business to thrive, it must cope. Search engines and services Studies show that more and more people are no longer looking at the yellow pages for goods and services. A surprisingly large number of online activity, however, is focused on the use of search engines to look for whatever service and product a person wants. Instead of hiring logo designers from an art company downtown, more people are looking into freelancers available on the World Wide Web for better deals. And indeed, the deals are much better, with astonishingly low prices for high-quality work and a wide range of products found in the internet. No wonder many small business owners still wiping the stain off the window shop are suffering.
Remember the essentials Like many people, you may have already tried dabbling on with the web through a website. And like many traditional small business owners who deal with anything from furniture selling to accountancy services, you may have found little or no traffic on your website, and so decided to take it off the web. What most traditional entrepreneurs do not know, however, is that there is more to online commerce than a simple web site. As in the real world, the essential element remains to be marketing. Promotion with a friendly price Before finding yourself in the hindmost of the pack, start establishing your online presence through a thoroughly promoted website and watch as your business begins to flourish. Unlike marketing strategies in the ‘real world,’ however, you do not need to suffer the enormous prices for a billboard, or the skyrocketing fees needed for television commercials that are only partially effective in today’s fully digitized world. Just as the average Joe checks cyberspace for his basic needs ranging from roof repair services to an excellent futon to sleep on, there are many services available to help you market your website online, ultimately resulting in a living and breathing personal business that can survive the big-fish-eat-little-fish market of the twenty-first century.
Web marketing strategies
Among the options that you can try out for beginning your profitable venture into cyberspace are web marketing strategies such as the maximization of online social networking to increase your publicity in free public forums, where press releases with informative content can give you virtual foot traffic to bring you one step closer to making another sale. Media placement as well as the use of RSS feeds and even the classic e-mail can all be maximized in easing your transition from the owner of an ailing small business with a brick-and-mortar shop, to one who has flourished in the major market shift towards cyberspace. Through online marketing, your customer will not only be online, but you will be there to service their profitable needs.
Network Marketing System
So what do I mean by “the way you introduce your prospect to your business is often the KEY REASON whether they join your business or not?” Hint: Your prospects, want to know, “Can I Do It?”
Well, rather than immediately tell you, I’m going to ask you some questions.
Do most people have a lot of free time? No! What if some distributor, let’s call them Joe, introduces you to their MLM Opportunity and it takes 30 minutes to do it? What would you think? You’d probably think, it took Joe 30 minutes so I guess I would need to spend 30 minutes to introduce this MLM opportunity every time I want to share it with others. And I don’t have much free time!
By the way, I’m not saying you shouldn’t spend time with your prospects, the key point here I’m talking about is when you initially introduce your opportunity to others. Are you effectively marketing and presenting your business so that they can see themselves doing it. And not taking up a lot of time personally to present your business to others.
Now, back to my example with Joe the distributor and you as a prospect. Would you join Joe in his company if you thought it took 30 minutes to introduce the business to every prospect and time was a major concern for you? Of course not! Would it matter how great the opportunity is and all of the benefits they offer? Of course not! Why? Remember they want to know “Can I Do It?”
Key Point: If the way you present your business is something that doesn’t work for your prospect then they will never join your business. Remember K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Silly)
People are looking today to “INCREASE, EXPAND, ENLARGE and EMPOWER themselves and their family’s life” and you simply must show them how you can help them do that. Present it in a way that they can say hey I can do this. This is simple. If you can do that, your results will bloom massively like fruit on a tree, a Money Tree! And your growth will be unstoppable in this business of MLM and Network Marketing.
Visit my blog to get more details about the three things that create effective marketing in your business.
1. Impact
2. Emotional Connection
3. Value
We are effectively reaching 50 to 100 prospects daily without selling, telling or cold calling leads. I can share these tips and techniques with you on my blog for free.
Ronald Cheek
CEO/President
Creative Marketing Systems, Inc.
Lead Generation Help…
Generating leads too soon can be the most costly mistake when you start your MLM business. You must find leads, sure. But they are just a means to the end of making your business profitable. Discover how to avoid going broke in the process.
Before you spend money on generating leads, make an estimate of your cost per lead and of your expected return. Not every lead will buy from you, and your revenue from those who buy must be at least equal to your total cost for all leads.
This will be difficult at first. You get started on this process by building your sales process. This includes how you will prospect your leads, what your offer is and how you present it, and how you will follow up with your prospects.
Last not least it includes your follow-up process with your customers. You will put this in place to make sure your customers will stay with your for a long time. It is much easier and cheaper to keep a customer than to find a new one.
As you are putting together the pieces of your sales process, you will also make estimates of what fraction of your leads will move successfully through each stage. This gives you the final revenue you can expect from your leads, and that sets the limit for the cost that you can allow for lead generation.
Now you are ready to start generating leads. As they are coming in, you know exactly what to do with them, and you are gathering data about your success rate. In this way, you can update your first estimate, make the necessary adjustments and move your business into profit.
This entire process of building and refining your sale process is part of a complete marketing system that provides you with proven tools and strategies.
Discover the secret MLM marketing system that is creating a new six figure earner every six months and how you can be next. Click here now for access to this free video that reveals all.
Find out how you can make money quickly through this insider “Heavy Hitter System” – Click here now.
Dr. Kai Druhl
Home Business Product
There are many ways online of making money, but the very best is to find a way of selling your own product or service that allows you to keep 100% of the profits. Find something you are passionate about and you could have an extremely rewarding career.
Before you even start looking for the service that you want to create, do some research that allows you to check the size of the market to ensure that there are people looking for your service. You should also check out any potential competitors, and have a look at the various pricing methods available for this type of service.
The most kind of product that individuals will create online is an eBook – an informational product. This kind of product will be based on a subject that you have accumulated experience of, or will be something that you are particularly passionate about.
Many of us will have special skills, something that we know something about more than others do. And even if you think you may not know enough, you can always expand the knowledge you do have by using self-education techniques.
Many new business do not always create a new product, but they attempt to improve something that already exists. The initial creators of this type of product may have received a lot of recognition, though they might not have had the know-how to sell these products to a large group of consumers. This is how subsequent business people have succeeded in launching this previously created product to a whole new group of people, capitalizing on these initial mistakes.
The best example of this kind of product is in the movies, where many movies are simply repackaging others to appeal to new consumers. There is no need to develop new superheroes when you can make your money from the familiar. Many movie-goers used to watch this as a child, which is why there is such mass appeal for repackaging the product.
The most important way for you to create a successful product is to try to find a need that you can fulfill. Spend a little time thinking carefully about this.
If you want to improve the success of your business then you should also think about the area you are moving into. Is it already overcrowded with hundreds of different suppliers? If you can’t offer something cheaper and better then you may not be making huge profits with this kind of business.
Starting an online business from home means that you always need to look for a product that can be sold online and delivered to anyone around the world. This makes it a very convenient way to buy the product, which is the main advantage of an offline product.
One of the most famous examples is Amazon.com. Though they are simply selling books that already exist offline, they brought them online with competitive prices. This is how they slowly built up their market to become the world’s largest online retailer for books. So look carefully for every potential opportunity and you should start thinking of ways to improve them.
Let’s see Paid Surveys Online online website and another one for Online Paid Surveys
Video Marketing Techniques
The online video marketing community is buzzing these days with news that YouTube is on a rampage. They are shutting down accounts right and left, without any warning whatsoever! Thousands of online video marketers have been affected by this already, and YouTube is still on the war path.
Imagine putting long hours into creating online videos that get you on the front page of Google. You’ve got a nice steady stream of free targeted web traffic on a daily basis. Maybe you even paid big bucks for online video training and you followed the advice of the pros. The leads are coming in and life is good.
Now imagine trying to log in and finding out your account has been permanently disabled. And guess what, there is no way for you to get it back. All of your hard work is down the tubes, no pun intended. You are no longer on the front page of Google, or any page for that matter. And the free daily leads, you guessed it, gone, nada, zip, zilch!
If you don’t want this to happen to you, and hopefully it hasn’t already, here are some online video marketing guidelines for avoiding the wrath of the mighty YouTube.
1. DO NOT create multiple accounts. Only create 1 YouTube account, no matter what you have been told in the past. The rules are changing. You can still have multiple channels within your single account.
2. DO NOT upload the same video with a different title, keyword, description, etc. Unless you want to get shutdown and lose everything. Only 1 upload of a video.
3. DO NOT use software to add friends on your channel.
4. DO NOT use software to add comments to your videos.
5. DO NOT purchase YouTube views. Create good videos, use viral networking, and get views naturally.
6. DO NOT spam your video description, title or tags with keywords.
7. DO NOT use Traffic Geyser to upload your videos to YouTube. However, you can still use Traffic Geyser to upload to other video hosting sites.
Bottom line, create a single account, upload a video once, avoid software such as TubeBlasterPro and Traffic Geyser, and no spamming titles, descriptions, or tags. If you try to “game” the system, the penalty is very high. Don’t do it, you will get caught!
One more tip. Don’t rely on a single lead generation strategy. You should have at least 3 main traffic strategies. To claim your Free Access to “15 Ways To Grow Your Business Online” just click here to send me a blank email and you’ll start receiving valuable information that can help you get more traffic to your website or blog and make more money from your visitors.
Karen Sielski is a passionate online wealth builder, using her 20+ years in the high-tech industry to help small businesses, entrepreneurs, and online network marketers successfully grow their businesses online. She has a Masters Degree in Computer Science and owns a successful online business.
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