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December 26, 2011 by admin

Does a Small Business Really Need a Website?



Starting a brick and mortar business can be extremely difficult, first you need to come up with a business idea which will be able to compete against established businesses in the area, you need to study the demographics and your target market. Once you have a good business plan, the next step is to apply for proper funding in order to get your business started. It is very common for a well-planned business to operate for about a year before realizing any profit at all!

Most small business entrepreneurs can’t handle such waiting period and their ventures end up being dismantled. In other words, the amount of capital you are able to invest in your brick and mortar business will determine how successful you can be, as well as how soon you can start getting returns on such investment, the results are also the direct product of your creative and business plan.

Taking all of these factors in consideration, small business owners realize that the fastest way to generate profits and operate your business is by opening your own virtual store or website. Taking your business online means that you can tap into a wider audience which can provide a fast feedback loop for your marketing efforts, the following are a few of the benefits you get by starting your own website compared to a brick and mortar business:

24 Hour Business:

Online stores operate 24/7 all year long, this means that your store can earn you money even while you are taking a vacation, sleeping or doing other things.

Small expenses compared to brick and mortar businesses:

The investments to start your online marketing campaigns are insignificant compared to those expenses incurred in brick and mortar businesses where you could easily go over 100K without realizing any positive return.

Unlimited traffic potential and customer base:

Unlike traditional businesses, websites can tap into geographical regions which are impossible to reach by your brick and mortar business, this means that you will have a wider audience which can be filtered and geo-targeted for better results

Fast ROI:

Online business sites provide faster returns on your investment compared to traditional businesses. With the proper online marketing campaign you can start realizing profits within 24 hours after your site has been launched, compare that to the average 1 year wait you get with a traditional store.

Today’s online business arena is very competitive so you will need to prepare a good marketing strategy to take on similar businesses operating within the same niche you are. Remember to create initiatives, build, test, refine and then test again for optimal results and better ROI.

By: Ivan A Cuxeva

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December 17, 2011 by admin

To Grow Your Business on the Internet, Make Your Website Visible



When most small business make a commitment to Internet Marketing, their first step is to create a website. Unfortunately, many business owners believe this is where their work ends. They think “if you build it, they will come.” In reality, “they” may come, but only if a business owner takes the necessary steps to make their website easy to find and visible. And even then, considering how many websites there are competing for high ranking and visibility, it can be a time consuming, expensive, and sometimes frustrating effort.

While there are myriad tools and techniques available to drive awareness and visibility online for today’s businesses, small and medium-sized companies can get started by focusing on a few core techniques that will move them down the path to visibility, and driving more, qualified visitors to their website:

SEO - Of all the techniques, SEO may still be the most effective, highest volume source of gaining visibility on the search engines, and the lowest cost of long term online customer acquisition. SEO continues to deliver the highest visibility by ranking you at or near the top of the organic search rankings for phrases your target market uses to find your goods and services. For developing long term brand awareness for your website, for being visible to searchers as they start their online purchasing process and for being there when they are ready to take the next step, SEO continues to be worth the investment in time and money.

Paid Search (PPC) - Many people think that they need to make a choice between SEO and PPC when deciding how to increase their visibility online. Nothing could be further from the truth. The two are complimentary and work well together to provide maximum visibility. Using both together in an integrated plan will provide a synergistic jump in online traffic to your site. PPC provides companies the ability to appear prominently on the search engine results pages (SERPs), with a tailored offer to a target geography and demographic. It is very sales focused and enables companies to exploit unique opportunities, react quickly to changing market dynamics, and engage with a targeted audience at the time they are ready to buy. While SEO benefits take time to manifest, benefits of a PPC campaign can be felt immediately, and can begin the inflow of online leads while you are waiting for the results of your SEO project to be felt.

Local Search – The third of three sections on a SERP, Local Search is an incredible opportunity for small businesses serving a local community to get first page SERP visibility. While it may technically be considered part of SEO, Local Search is the fastest and lowest cost technique to achieving first page SERP ranking. And with the growing mobile internet phenomena in full swing, getting your local business on the first page of the SERPS is more important than ever.

Social Media – Search engines are not the only vehicle for being found online anymore. This newer and dramatically growing dimension of online marketing continues to offer fresh and exciting ways to engage your target market, build your brand and interest in it, and generate both buzz and new customers. Whether it is Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn or any of the hundreds of other sites, Social Media enable businesses to create a community of like minded people around their brand, directly interact with their customer and fan base with dynamic content and a two way conversation, and bring a more human element to their business online.

Blogging – Blogging enables you to establish a recurring conversation with your target market. You can use this tool to establish yourself as a domain expert in your field, to communicate trends, the latest news, case studies, and any number of different themes. This will bring attention to you, your business, and your website, and build a following that will translate into more visitors to your site. Blogging is also a significant component of “off page” SEO, important in it’s own right. And when you combine blogging with a strong Social Media presence, you begin to establish a more visible and authoritative presence online, and lay the foundation for long term brand building and website traffic.

Creating an attractive website and driving new visitors to it are critical to your the success of your Internet Marketing efforts. But you can’t stop there. Once visitors start arriving, is your website designed to make it easy for them to find what they are looking for? Have you eliminated friction in your conversion paths to make it easy for your visitors to take the action you want them to take? Is your business ready to accept this inflow of new visitors and engage them attentively, professionally, and courteously? There are many dimensions to growing your business via the Internet, and you need to pay attention to them all if you want to maximize your ROI and maximize your success.

By: Lou Unkeless

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December 2, 2011 by admin

Business Online Marketing Strategy – Your Different Options



Driving traffic towards your business website is of prime importance in spreading the news about what you have to offer your target market. Thinking of a business online marketing strategy might require some time but, once you have this done, you will discover the ease and efficiency of driving a lot of visitors into your website. In here, we will discuss the different business online marketing strategy options that you can employ for your small business.

First among these things would be to make use of recommendation and review internet sites. Quite a few of the locally focused websites these days present visitors with the chance to post testimonials or reviews about the products or services of a business enterprise. Take a couple of minutes to ask your local consumers to go in and review your small business. These recommendation web sites incorporate: JudysBook.com, InsiderPages.com, AOL City Guide, Yelp.com, and AngiesList.com.

Next, you can also turn to local search engine sites. Most of local search engines will allow you to list your web site and attach it to specific geographic areas. These locally-focused websites include CraigsList.com, Merchant Circle, TrueLocal.com, Google Local, Yahoo Regional, InfoUSA, Local.com, and MSN Regional.

On the other hand, you can also optimize your website for local internet research. You’ll find quite a few tweaks that you can add to your site that will help optimize it for local searches. These things include local terms inside your site titles. Local terms are those that are part of your anchor text, which is the visible, hyperlinked text on a web site that’s frequently underlined and added on with a different color than the rest from the copy.

Making use of other directories can also be a good option. Most often nearby media organizations and enterprises offer you locally-based directories exactly where you’ll be able to list your small business for free or for a small affordable fee. Places that you might check within your community include newspapers, TV stations, magazines, independently owned local directories, city guides provided in search engines, profession or industry directories, regional/state sites, and chamber of commerce or visitor bureau internet sites.

Your next option would be to generate back links. In here, you need to request inbound links to your website from other local corporations that you are acquainted with. Search engines specially favor one-way back links from highly trafficked sites, so when you do not have to list a reciprocal link back towards the linking internet site on your web site, the linking technique becomes even more effective. Rather than making use of your small business name as the anchor text, you should make use of a geographic description of your company.

Another basic but very effective business online marketing strategy would be to place in a location map on your web page. Make it easy for locals to discover you. Google Maps makes it extremely easy to embed a map of your respective location on a page within your website.

By: Dan B Barnett

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November 26, 2011 by admin

Business Consultant Internet Marketing Small Strategy – Article Submissions



Running a business consultant internet marketing firm is one of the best types of businesses these days. In here, you assist other business establishments in making their names flourish in the industry. Now, who would have though that you can make money from lending others a helping hand? If you are running a similar business as this one, pay close attention to the business consultant internet marketing small strategy that I will be providing you with in here. Make sure to take note of the advantages that article submissions can offer you and your small business consulting firm.

Here are a few of the advantages that article submissions can offer you and your business consulting firm:

1. Articles submissions show your credibility to your target market.

Writing a few articles in a day about your personal experiences will allow your readers to know about your credibility and expertise in the business. Articles can become a medium that you can make use of in spreading the word about how good you are in the business.

2. Article submissions enable you to become uncovered in a lot of search engines on a variety of conditions.

One of the strategies of content submission is usually to intersperse your primary website search phrases into your write-up to ensure that your content articles will aid you in improving your look for engine ranking on your search terms. This will help you in getting organic targeted visitors on your web site on an array of keywords and phrases. You will discover that nearly all of these would have certainly not occurred to you as search conditions. Nevertheless, these conditions will be present in one or more articles or blog posts that you will write. Now, your goal in here would be to produce a call to action on your individual post pages to improve the number of subscribers to your newsletter, which serves as the primary call to action on your website.

3. Article submissions establish you as an expert.

With this, I will give an example about my personal experience. I submit 10 to 12 articles within a month through the use of a content submission service. Anyone seeking content articles that I have written in any of the major content banks will possibly locate at least 10 that I have authored. These days I searched my name, and observed numerous sites have listed me. I would say that about 98 percent of the results refer to me, and that a huge portion of those varieties are links to content blogs, articles banks, and ezines publishing my content articles.

4. Article submissions encourage joint ventures or strategic alliances with organization owners in other industries pursuing exactly the same target market.

I have been previously approached by a variety of other organizations who are seeking link exchanges, strategic alliances, and referrals solely based on reading about me. I have decided to pursue some of these, and I would have certainly not had the opportunity without applying article submissions as a way to spread the word out about my services and my firm.

By: Austin Hatcher

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November 14, 2011 by admin

21 Free Ways To Advertise Your Home Business: Online and Offline



As a home business owner you know that effective advertising is an essential part of your success. Many will argue the fact that paying for your website exposure is the best way to go. I see the same advertisements from the same home based professionals on various websites often. Do these people get more traffic than the ones that don’t pay for advertising? Maybe so, maybe not.

However, I will tell you there are a plethora of absolutely free ways to go about advertising your home business or website. You don’t have to pay for it in order for it to be effective. There are several free techniques for both online and offline promotion. Start with sporting your favorite, creative thinking cap, and opening your mind to new and innovative advertising opportunities and ideas.

Promoting is the easy part. Getting your home business in the hands of your target market, creating an effective call to action, and producing sales is the difficult part. I have a few places and tips for you that may help.

Below are 21 free effective advertising techniques you may want to consider

Online

Participate in online message boards. Always follow all rules and guidelines, as you certainly don’t want to be banned. Write articles relating to your business and submit them to directories, forums, and websites. (article marketing) Create a free blog and start participating on other blogs. Make useful comments without spamming your web links around. Exchange articles with other webmasters and bloggers. This will benefit both parties with fresh content and search engine friendly links. Signature advertising. Include your signature when posting on forums and email marketing Join free newsletters, ezines and submit your ads and articles. There are several online and new ones are being created daily. And most of them offer free ad and article submissions. Join online niche directories and submit your website. This gets you some free backlinks and therefore, higher website rankings. Participate on various social networking sites such as, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace. Always handle yourself in a professional demeanor, and without spamming links as opposed to offering invaluable information. Proper networking is key when representing your business. Exchange links with other webmasters, preferably ones with high search engine rankings. Host a contest on your business message board or on your blog. Offer real prizes such as a free sample or free advertising. Email marketing. If you have a nice compounded list of past customers, members on your forum, or members on your networking website, email marketing could be in your favor. Of course an attention-grabbing headline is key with this advertising method. Guest blogging is becoming more popular, as many webmasters have converted their websites over to blogs. And to sustain their traffic flow and also due to time issues, many are seeking guest bloggers to keep their blogs going strong.

Offline

Create business cards from your home computer and post them throughout local businesses in your area Create flyers and post them throughout local businesses in your area Donate freebies for fundraiser events with your business card attached Network with others in your church community that also have a home business. Get in on the various events that are taking place within the church. For example, if the community has craft shows, maybe by being a member of the church, you can get a free booth. Giving gifts. Whenever you give a gift, include them from your business inventory. Always have your logo and card attached to them. 6. Keep a stash of business cards and flyers in your car for whenever the chance of advertising presents itself. You never know when the opportunity will arise, this way you will always be prepared. Vacation time is upon us, whenever you take some time off for a vacation, always leave your business card with the front desk and also the maids when you leave your tip. Ask about leaving your business cards at salons, daycare centers, and laundry mats. These are high traffic areas where moms are always around. Word of mouth. This is by far the best way to advertise offline. Whenever you are out and about, talk about what you offer and what you do from home.

There you have it, the best of both worlds, some free online and offline marketing ideas. I hope they are helpful. Whenever you think of advertising, you may think of high cost strategies. In today’s marketing world, there are a considerable amount of free ways to help promote yourself. Finding free ways to advertise as a quick way to make money is one of the best money making ideas for your business.

By: Scott Lindsay

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October 15, 2011 by admin

5 Reasons To Create Your Own Small Business Website



How do you get your name out, further than the boundaries of your small town where your business is based? Are you limiting your reach?

Most likely if you are you are limiting your small business’ potential.

The best way to get your name out there is to brand yourself and create a strong internet presence.

To the small business owner this may make perfect sense (and it definitely is) but where should one start? Creating your own small business website is the logical way to go.

You can hire a freelance web designer to do your website for you and pay him a great deal of money. Or you can go with a web design firm. These are just some of the options but they may be out of your reach if you have just launched your small business and haven’t even reached the break even point as yet.

There is another option and that is to do it yourself.

Here are 5 reasons why you should create your own small business website.

1. You will save a considerable amount of money by doing your own website and this can be done very easily with the different types of software available today. Even if you don’t know complicated coding.

2. You will create bigger opportunity for yourself and your business as the internet can bring you closer to your target market. As a matter of fact it brings your target market closer to you as they find you instead of you having to find them.

3. You will be more in control of the online side of your business even if you do hire someone to maintain your site for you afterwards.

4. You will be able to partner with businesses related to your market allowing for joint ventures that wouldn’t have been possible if you had been offline.

5. You will cut advertising costs considerably as it will take less effort and money getting clients.

So you see, creating your own small business website is to your advantage and this is something you should consider in the early planning stages of your business. If your small business is already well established but doesn’t have an online presence then now is the time to start.

Creating websites yourself doesn’t have to be a hassle. You do not have to learn complicated code since most website builders nowadays are wysiwyg or what-you-see-is-what-you-get editors. Even better are the drag and drop type of website builders where you can just drag your elements such as images and video where you want them to be.

One of the best drag and drop website builders to be released in recent times is Site Rubix, which was created with marketers in mind. The website builder makes it possible to create beautiful and professional looking websites in a matter of minutes. It is definitely something I would recommend for creating your first small business website.

By: Jay Gumbs

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October 3, 2011 by admin

Top 3 Website Design Software Programs



Having your own website is crucial when you have a business. When it comes to building your own site, you must have good website design software. It is a great way to reach your target market and increase your sales. You want to have a site that people are drawn to. Think about the sites you enjoy visiting and what draws you to stay and search. It is the design. You have a lot of options for different software programs to help you, but the following three are reputable.

Coffee Cup Visual Site Designer is known for its ease of use. This is a must. You do not have to be an experienced code writer to use this software. The manual is very easy to understand and follow. You can build a site from the ground up or use templates to get started. It also includes an FTP client. This will help you to make changes directly to your site.

Web Plus is another good one. This one is also relatively easy to use. It has lots of media tools such as Flash and You Tube. There are helpful tutorials, also. Free hosting is included. Nowadays, hosting is usually pretty low, but that is definitely a benefit to this software. They also have templates, but they are not very eye appealing. If you do not know about HTML, you may feel limited.

Web Easy Professional is the best option for people who are new to building a site. It is known for being very simply and user friendly for anyone. This software features iPhone and Smartphone templates so that your site can be viewed from anywhere. This is a great feature that the other two mentioned do not have. This program has newer templates and other helpful tools to get you through the process of creating your site.

All three of these are going to be very useful in providing you with your needs to build your own site. Their costs are not excessive. They are all under one hundred dollars. When you are making your decision research each software program, first. Make sure that your needs will be met. If you are a novice do not buy software that requires you to be an expert, for example. You want to create a site that people are going to want to look at and explore what you offer. Something that is professional and organized.

By: David Halim

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September 29, 2011 by admin

Catering Business Marketing Ideas



Before you start to write a marketing plan for your catering business you should do some research in the market to find out what your potential competitors are offering. You also need to know exactly what prospective clients are looking for.

The following article sets out some ideas to consider as you proceed to put together your catering business marketing strategy.

What are you Selling?

Before you can start your marketing plan you must first be able to clearly define exactly what products and services you are selling. Before you can plan your menus and services you need to understand what the people in your target market want.

There are many different catering niche markets such as wedding receptions, seated dinner events, corporate functions, barbecues, boxed lunches and picnics to name a few.

When choosing the kind of food that you would like your catering service to specialize in you should try to choose an area that is currently being under served. Or you could specialize in area that is so popular that there is plenty of space in the market for a new player. If you do your research and talk to enough people you will be able to reveal what these areas are.

Branding Ideas

A brand is not only about your companies visual representation in the market. Sure you need a great catering business name and logo design but there is much more to a brand than that. Your brand is all about your reputation in the market, the promises that you make to clients and the standards that they expect. If customer perceptions of your brand are positive then it will make your marketing efforts much easier.

Set high standards for your business and go out to satisfy clients with great service wherever possible. Always try to over-deliver with your service and you will find that you have grown a strong brand in no time.

Pricing and Packaging Catering Services

The next step in the process of designing your marketing plan is to package your products or services into marketable units with pricing that is attractive and profitable.

Create some promotional materials for your catering business. Every time you cater an event don’t forget to take pictures of the dishes that you have prepared. You can use them in your brochures, information packs, menus or on your website to show customers how your food is presented.

How will you Compete?

Try to go into an area that you have a competitive advantage in because you have unique skills or because you have access to unique suppliers for example. If no area jumps out here just try to think about how you can offer the same service as other caterers but in a way that makes you stand out from them. You need to develop a ‘unique selling proposition’ that sets you apart from what your competitors are offering.

Advertising and Marketing Methods

Research and implement a marketing strategy that combines traditional advertising methods, online marketing of your website, direct marketing and buying leads. You can also experiment with other forms of marketing such as ‘word of mouth’ or networking.

Test every method and track them carefully wherever possible to discover which methods justify the costs and time involved.

Sales – Closing the Deal

When going along to meet with prospective clients always take a few small samples of your food, even if it is just a few hors d’oeuvre’s for them to try. Learn how to sell your services to a customer and how to encourage them in a polite way to spend a little more than what they originally planned.

Work out a consultation and sales process that can be refined over time until perfected. Some caterers prefer to communicate naturally while others work predominantly off a sales script. Find out what works best for you.

Successful catering business owners develop marketing systems that are constantly bringing new prospects to their business. They then make the most of the leads that they get and know how to maximize sales. Mastering the art of catering business marketing is one of the most important factors leading to a ‘six figure’ income in this business.

By: Robert Sutherland

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August 5, 2011 by admin

Free Ways to Advertise My Business – The Most Effective Ways to Advertise For Free



How does a small business effectively reach its target market for little or no cost? Whether a business offers a product or service, the advertising challenge is the same: reaching qualified customers. Free classified ad websites are excellent sources of qualified leads that can bring about significant traffic to your brick-and-mortar business. A strong and smart presence on several leading classified ad websites will significantly increase your customer traffic. Below, are seven steps that will lead your business to proven advertising results- without using your wallet.

1. Compile a core list of products or services your business provides. Identify five or ten ‘product leaders’ that are driving your business.

2. Consider the methods your customers use to research and/or locate those products or services. What key words might they use to locate your products online? Determine at least five key words or phrases one might use in a search query to find your product.

3. Determine the top three free classified websites that enable users to search and post at a local level. Yahoo!Answers recently conducted a poll and the following sites topped the local classified charts: Craigslist, WantedWants, Kijiji.

4. Prepare several ‘posts’ that will act as your advertisements. Post an ad in each category that corresponds to the top products that you identified. Be sure to post in the “For Sale” section, as well as the “Wanted” and “Small Business” sections. Always maintain an active ad for each of your top products. In each post, use the keywords or phrases that you previously identified. When a consumer searches for that product or service, your ad will likely be the first result.

5. Maintenance. Record your ad submissions/posts for each website and note the length of time each ad stays active. Be sure to re-post your ad as soon as the previous post expires.

6. Consistency. Over time, your business becomes top-of-mind to consumers. When your business is consistently in the eyes of your customers, your business’ foot traffic will undoubtedly increase.

7. Track your results. Offer a coupon to customers who print the online ad and present it at the point of purchase. This will provide you with useful insight into the effectiveness of your online advertising.

Free classified ad websites are a small business’ best friend. The sites take in millions of daily users and first segment them by location, then by products sought after. Small businesses can take this localized hot-list of qualified consumers and use it to their advantage – for free.

By: Douglas Bordegon

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July 16, 2011 by admin

Magazines Reach Your Market With a Targeted Advertising Message



Advertising in magazines has long been one of the most powerful tools in the kit of any marketing department or advertising agency. Almost as long as there have been print media, advertising space has been sold in this media to subsidize production costs and to make these publications profitable. One of the older and still to this day the most effective ways of targeting a specific demographic is to place advertising in magazines.

Unlike newspapers, magazines tend to have a more specific audience in mind and have readerships which by and large conform to a certain demographic profile, making magazine advertising placements particularly desirable for companies with a product or service to sell with a strong appeal to these groups.

Buying advertising space in magazines is more cost effective to the advertiser than is purchasing a similar amount of space in general readership publications such as newspapers, since the advertiser can be far more? certain of reaching their target market towards these publications.? There are magazines which appeal to any? demographic group or interest imaginable, with advertising placements available for any company in search of? a way to reach their target market.

Of course, not every magazine which is aimed at your prospective customer base does an equally good job in? terms of getting their interest. This is why it’s important to get all of the details on a publication before you even take the time to inquire about their rates. Your company needs detailed demographic information on the magazine’s readership, as well as the all-important circulation figures; you want to know how many copies are distributed, where and to whom. You also need to see the media for yourself to assess whether the publication is a good fit for your adverts. The quality and feel of a magazine is an important indicator of how it will be received and read. Some B2B publications rely on targeted editorial content to build interest quickly, while B2C titles tend to be more focused on grabbing the attention of readers around good quality images of people in real-life situations and environments.

Finding the right advertising partner is just as important to publishers as it is to advertisers. Publishers are in business to make a profit, by and large and just like the advertisers they are selling space to, their income is also to a large extent dependent on advertising. Magazines rely on ad sales to make up a large part of their budgets and finding companies who are interested in their publication and willing to pay top dollar for advertising space is a vital part of remaining viable as a publication.

The question for publishers is thus how to find advertisers who are looking to reach their readership. The more? closely the content of the magazine aligns with the interests of the target market, the more valuable magazine advertising will be to them. Every magazine is a hot commodity to some advertisers. it’s just a matter of finding these companies and positioning their publication as the perfect venue for their magazine advertising.

By: Andrew K Long

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