Internet Marketing Success

Building the Right Reputation for Your Small Business

 Article Provided by Pierre Zarokian from Reputation Stars

Marketing Techniques for Small Businesses

Professional reputation is not only important to develop when you have a high profile career, but it is also important to develop for your small business. The reputation of your small business is going to dictate whether your small business is successful or if it fails. However, while knowing it is important to have a good reputation when running a small business, most small business owners do not know how to develop the right kind of reputation for their company.

Tip #1 – Create a Profile of the Ideal Reputation

The first step in developing a good reputation for small business is to determine what your company’s ideal reputation should be. For example, your company’s ideal reputation may be based on your competitive drive, your professional aggression or the quality of products that you produce, or it may be better for your company to have a softer more nurturing reputation.

Tip #2 – Identify Opportunities for Publicity

Publicity is going to be one of your most important tools for shaping your small business’s reputation. Publicity can be bought, however, it can be more effective if you look for opportunities for “free” publicity. “Free” has been put into quotations because there is no such thing as “free” publicity. There is always a “cost” for your publicity, whether it is a financial donation or your time. Great opportunities for “free” publicity include taking part in charity events and taking part in community programs.

Tip #3 – Be Consistent

Consistency is very important when you are trying to develop a good reputation for your company. Your efforts need to be focused on the profile for the ideal reputation at all times. If you sway back and forth between foci you will confuse your customers and you will hurt your chances of creating a solid reputation of any type. Your customers may even see you as a weak company because you cannot commit to one focus.

Tip #4 – Infuse Your Company Culture with Reputation Characteristics

It is important to integrate the characteristics of your idea reputation into your company’s culture. This can be accomplished by formatting your company’s guidelines, mission statement and other documents so that they reflect the characteristics that you are striving for. You will also want to provide your employees with training to develop the ideal characteristics in them as well.

Tip #5 – Lead by Example

The final tip for building a reputation for your small business is to lead by example. As the owner of your small business your actions, both in private and in business settings is going to impact your company’s reputation. This means what you do as an individual can either help or hurt your company’s reputation. This is why it will be important to participate in events and activities, make charitable contributions and take part in community committees and boards in order to enhance your small business’s reputation.

Email Marketing

Email Marketing Tips for Small Business Owners

Small business owners may need some e-mail marketing tips to maximize the benefits of direct communication without overstepping their bounds.

Email is an important and free tool that small business owners can successfully use to grow their business. It is an effective way to draw frequent customers back in, keep customers informed, and to gain new clientele.

There are some do’s and don’ts for the small business owner when it comes to using e-mail as effective marketing tools

Email Marketing Tip for Small Business Owners: 1. Make the Subject Line Clear

Always include the subject matter in the subject field of the email. The recipient should have an idea about what the email content is before they open it. Phrases like “We’re Moving,” “30% Sale” or “Summer Specials” are acceptable.

Email Marketing Tip for Small Business Owners: 2. Keep the Emails Newsy

If you cannot come up with a subject to describe the email, re-check the email to see if it is something you should really be sending out to current customers. The email should be newsy and include some information and details about an upcoming event at your business.

The email could be about a special promotion, sale, added services, an expansion, or some other “newsworthy” event.

Email Marketing Tip for Small Business Owners: 3. Limit the Number of Emails

The number of emails you send out to customers should be limited. There is no business that can justify sending two to three emails a week every week to their customers. If there is that much going on in the business, keep the emails to one a week at the maximum.

Email Marketing Tip for Small Business Owners: 4. Stay in Contact

Depending on the nature of your business, one email a month, one every two months, or one every three months may work best.

Email Marketing Tip for Small Business Owners: 4. Promptly Remove Anyone who Requests It

If a customer has emailed you and requested you remove their address, promptly do so. Do not ask why. Do not email them to tell them you removed them. If they ask you to change their email from their home to work or vice versa, be sure to do that as well.

Email Marketing Tip for Small Business Owners: 5. Offer Email Specials

Offer email only specials to current customers. This will keep customers interested in continuing to receive the emails from your business.

Digital Marketing

Top Ten Marketing Tips for a Small Business Owner

Small Business Promotion is Key for Exposure

Having been a small business owner for more than 13 years now, I know that marketing a small business can be one of the most time-consuming aspects of running a business. However, without marketing, it’s tough to get clients or customers. Since clients and customers are what make your business profitable, it stands to reason that marketing is essential for the success and growth of a small business.

Over the years, I’ve learned a lot about marketing and promoting a small business, both from trial and error and reading everything I could find on the subject. This article will summarize the top 10 small business marketing tips I have learned.

Small Business Marketing Tip No. 1 – Network, Network, Network

There is just no way around it, networking is key to marketing a small business. Who you know, who they know and who knows you and your business can make all the difference. The best advertising any business can get is word-of-mouth.

Small Business Marketing Tip No. 2 – Become an Expert

Read, study, learn and know your business and its industry better than your competition, and share that knowledge so others know. Share your expertise in your field via marketing articles, a professional Web site with information, pod or webcasts or telephone seminars so your clients or customers can see you know your stuff.

Small Business Marketing Tip No. 3 – Know your Consumer

Be your own customer, put yourself in their shoes and look at your small business like a potential client or customer would view it, and not like someone in the industry. Perhaps you’re too close to your own small business to see it the way a consumer would so ask friends, family or business associates to give you critical and honest feedback from the perspective of a client, and then use that feedback to best benefit the consumer.

Small Business Marketing Tip No. 4 – Make Time to Market

Marketing is easily one of the least favored aspects of owning a small business, and all too often, small business owners do not spend the time necessary to market their business. Marketing should be done every week, consistently, if you want new clients or customers. Set aside time every week, at least a couple of times per week, to market and promote yourself and your small business and stick to that schedule.

Small Business Marketing Tip No. 5 – Follow Up with Consumers

Once you have a customer or client, it’s easier to keep them and has repeat business from satisfied consumers than it is to attract new business. After all, you should have their contact information already and you’ve already performed quality work for them, so follow up on that. Take the time to e-mail or call former customers or clients and thank them for their business and ask if you can do anything to help them with future or current needs.

Small Business Marketing Tip No. 6 – Have a Web Presence

The Internet is a great place for additional exposure and marketing avenues, and most everyone seems to be on the Internet nowadays. People research things on the Internet before they buy or use services, and if you aren’t on the Web, you’re missing a marketing opportunity for your small business. Web hosting and design can range anywhere from very inexpensive to expensive, depending on what you purchase, but reasonable rates can be found to put up a Web presence for your small business with contact information and products or services.

Small Business Marketing Tip No. 7 – Have a Plan

Marketing can be hit or miss if you’re out trying lots of different things but not sticking with any of them consistently. Set a plan, decide what you’re going to try and then put the plan into action. After a time, look at what is working for you and what isn’t, and adjust your plan as necessary, removing those things that haven’t proven useful, and putting more work or time into those things that are.

Small Business Marketing Tip No. 8 – Start a Newsletter or Blog

Keeping your business in front of the consumer will make them remember you when they need your services or products in the future. Once you’ve made contact with a potential client or customer, offer them something free, such as signing up for an informative newsletter or blog. This can tie in with tip No. 2 of making yourself an expert in your field. This also gives you the consumer’s contact information so you can target marketing directly to the client.

Small Business Marketing Tip No. 9 – Don’t Spam or Scam

Marketing isn’t easy, as any small business owner knows, and it’s easy to fall into the scam and spam shortcuts that are offered by other ‘marketers.’ While many of these schemes do work short term to drive traffic or customers to you or your Web site, eventually, these techniques will give your business a bad name, make you look bad and will do nothing to foster a relationship with a consumer. Don’t take the quick-fix route.

Small Business Marketing Tip No. 10 – Network, Network, Network

I know! I’ve already mentioned this one, so now you’ll feel you are cheated out of 10 tips, but I cannot stress the benefit of networking enough. Join associations or groups that are specific to your field, join your local chamber of commerce, associate with people in your field. One of the biggest paying assignments I ever received for my small business came from a competitor who was too busy to accept the assignment so he referred the client to me instead. Never underestimate the value of networking.

Proper marketing takes a little time and effort, but it is absolutely essential for the growth and stability of your business. Don’t be afraid to put yourself and your business out there and be known. Paying attention to marketing and trends for your small business can make the difference between success or go back to that ‘day job.’

SEO

10 Steps to Getting Links to Your Business Website

Getting links to your business website is an important process for Internet promotion of your business website. Here are ten steps on getting links to your business website.

1. Look around the Internet for websites that are somewhat related to your business website somehow. You want to get websites to link to your business website that would catch the interest of other people visiting the other individuals’ website. For example, another website that is about dogs then it is a good one to have linked to your business website if you sell stuff for dogs such as treats, toys, and dog food. Continue reading…

Content Marketing

How To Write Articles That Attract Future Clients To Your Website

You are going to learn about how writing articles benefits you in the long run with future clients. It is possible to attract future clients to your website through articles that you write. The more articles that you write about your specialty then people perceive you as an expert in the field.

Write What You Know About

Use acquired knowledge to write about topics that you consider yourself an expert in. Consider all the college degrees that you have acquired over the years. Consider writing about your previous profession. I know this real estate agent that makes himself more popular by writing articles about everything regarding real estate which increases his profits. People enjoy reading his articles on a regular basis and he is known as an expert in his field. The real estate agent ends up selling more houses long term since people know that he knows what he is talking about.

Use Articles to Educate People

Make sure that your content is informative. You want to help educate people when you write each article. You want people to remember your name whenever they think about the topic that you write the most about each day. You want them to remember your name because you are an expert in the field. People want to remember you as being a very knowledgeable individual that has never failed at writing good content.

Use Links to Your Website

The bottom of the articles can include a link back to your website for further information. Make sure to mention to them that they can read more articles on your website. The link at the end of the articles will encourage future clients to visit your website to read further. Future clients will eventually pick up the phone to call you when they need you. Encourage them to bookmark your website to check back for new articles published each week or daily.

Offer a Special Discount on a Product or Service

Offer an discount at the end of your article to encourage them to call you for a service or product. Discount offers will encourage many people to visit your business in order to acquire a product or service. Make sure that you have good quality products or good service. Tell them about any “refer a friend” programs since it will encourage them to tell others about you.

Online Marketing

5 Tips How To Generate Additional Traffic To Your Website

This article will explain in detail on how to generate additional traffic to your website. Here are five tips.

Post a short note on Blogs

Blogs are a excellent method to use as a source of advertisement. You can leave a short friendly comment. Make sure to leave a link to your website at the bottom of your message on each blog that you visit. Blogs are a good source to learn new information constantly and also a method for you to advertise your business website. You need to use blogs to their full advantage.

Create a Newsletter

Newsletters will always generate more traffic. Why? Because it keeps the readers interested in your website or business. You may be wondering how can I do a newsletter? Almost every company out there can offer a newsletter. Why? Every service or company offers something of value to people. Your newsletter can be about what your business is about. For example, if you sell lawn mowers then your newsletter can be about lawn care or something of that sort. It is up to decide which topic you want your newsletter to be. Always include a link to your website in your newsletter.

Use the signature space

Make sure to use the signature space on forums and guestbook. Forum and guestbooks are a wonderful method for advertisement. Signature spaces are frequently acceptable as forms of advertisement all over the Internet on a regular basis usually. You always need to make use of the signature space on every forum. The more people know about you through your signature space the better.

Put Your Website Address On Your Advertisements

Business cards, emails, and envelopes should all have your website address on them. The paper you write on needs to include it . The more you advertise your website through every possible way then more visitors will visit your website. Any ad in the newspaper or magazine needs to have your website address on it. You want to have your website address displayed on anything that is regarding your business.

Buy Advertisement Space

You can buy advertisement space on almost any newsletter, ezine, or website. There is reasonable prices to buy advertisement space on websites or in newsletters and ezine. You just have to look around to find the best deal when you decide to purchase advertisement space. You could include a link to your website in the advertisement space. You can just tell a little bit about your company and then include a link to your website. It is quite a simply process to buy advertisement space for a monthly fee from month to month.

Online Marketing

How To Write Post That Will Drive Traffic To Your Blog

Article by Web Design Express

Looking for a way to bring more visitors to your blog? You can try every promotion technique and trick, but good content is the surest way to gain – and keep – readers. If your blog posts aren’t interesting and useful, you won’t hold the attention of any visitor for very long.

Take some time to visit some of your favorite blogs. Odds are they have one thing in common: They inform you with interesting, relevant articles.

So if you want to drive more traffic to your blog, you’ll need to do the same thing. And even if you’re not a writer, there are some simple tricks that will help you create blog posts that will interest and inform your visitors.

KNOW YOUR TOPIC: This is one of the most important things when writing blog posts. If you don’t understand your topic, you’ll have a hard time conveying information about it to your readers. If you’re new to blogging, pick a topic that really resonates with you. Do you have a hobby you enjoy? Are you passionate about a particular cause? Find something meaningful, and you’ll never have a problem developing topic ideas for your blog posts.

KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE: Almost every topic has subsets within it. If, for example, you want to blog about fashion, consider whether you want to write about fashion for teen girls, hip urban moms, professional women, college men or toddlers and infants. Narrow your topic down so that you have a basic understanding of the demographics of your audience. Then make sure your posts are focused on that audience. It’s probably not a good idea to write an article about new baby shoes in your fashion blog if you usually focus on college-aged men.

USE KEYWORDS: Keyword rich content will help your blog posts get noticed by people surfing the Internet for your topic. If your blog is about model airplanes, don’t waste a post rambling about your last vacation to Tahiti. Instead, focus the content and use keywords so that random Internet searchers will stumble upon your blog. Most bloggers get a lot of traffic from web searches, so keywords are vital to hooking these readers.

KEEP IT SHORT: In today’s information age, no one wants to read a novel online. We want our information short and quick. Because of this, you’ll need to avoid rambling in your blog posts if you want to keep your readers’ interest. If you have a lot of quality information about a particular subject, consider splitting your blog article into two or three different posts. Not only will it keep the posts short, but you’ll also get repeat visitors when readers return to read the second and third part of the article.

SET A TONE: Do you like to keep things light and funny? Does your topic dictate a more serious style of writing? Find a tone or style of writing and keep it consistent throughout your blog. It’s fine to deviate every once in a while – perhaps you’re usually serious, but something tickled your funny bone that day. But in most cases, it’s best to stick with the overall tone of the topic so your blog visitors know what to expect.

INFORM, ENTERTAIN OR DO BOTH: Most blogs do one or the other. Some do both. You need to provide content that readers find useful. Otherwise, they have no use for their blog. Imagine what you’d want to read in a blog about your topic, and use that to generate ideas for articles.

Creating interesting, readable posts will help drive more traffic to your blog. Keep your articles fairly short, know your audience and strive to provide good, usable information.

ORM

What is Online Reputation Management?

What is Online Reputation Management? Online Reputation Management is an online public relations and (sometimes) marketing service that is offered to people and companies that want to protect their name and/or brand. People that work in Online Reputation Management could be considered, in the offline brick and mortar world, as spin doctors. But it’s no longer just politicians and large corporations that need these spin doctors for online reputation protection. It’s now small businesses and common regular folks too. The internet has made it easy for information to travel fast and search engines like Google that do a good job with search results, have made the most relevant information to a name or brand appear high on the search result pages. Blogs and forums have also added to the need for Online Reputation Management. Continue reading…

Online Marketing

Promote Your Knowledge Through Podcasting

With today’s technology, many internet bloggers are turning to podcasting as a great way to boost their name and get their message heard. With many podcasting websites offering free support, the ability to send and receive messages, without the use of radio, is becoming increasingly more popular through podcasting.

While some bloggers are using their Weblogs, aka blogs, to carry podcasts, most will find the blogs simply do not provide the adequate space to old these type of media files. As a result, your message through podcasting may be promoted via your blog but, ultimately, may be carried through a web host who specializes in podcasting production.

The advantages to podcasting lie in the ability to reach a specific demographic and tailor your message to meet the needs of a specific audience. It is a “win-win” situation in that you are free to develop and promote podcasts at your leisure and there is no issue of rejection in terms of production.

To that end, you will want to be sure that if you develop a podcast, and promote it well, that your listeners have an opportunity to provide feedback. To do this, be sure to reference your blog site in your podcast or provide a link in which listeners can contact you directly to add questions or leave comments regarding the quality of the material or the quality of production. Without this information, you may lose valuable listeners and, ultimately, podcasting may not be an effective marketing tool for you.

With the use of a microphone, computer and audio card, you can create your own podcast, on any topic of your choice, compress it through iTunes and then transfer the podcast to the Web through a podcasting host such as Libyn.com. For a nominal fee, your podcast will be produced to provide your listeners with any easily accessible method for acquiring the information you have released in audio format.

Podcasting, as a new wave in marketing strategy, is a rather simple concept to put into place. The key to successful podcasting, however, lies in your ability to market your product. Using sites such as Associated Content, My Space and even your own personal blog, will create an opportunity in which you can drive listeners to your podcast, whether it is 10 seconds long or 10 minutes long. So, to make podcasting exciting and useful in terms of promotion, intertwine the concept in your various other internet marketing and social networking sites.

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