Small Business Marketing Strategies

November 11, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Think about this question for a moment. What is your business?

Did you answer “Marketing Business?” Well you should have. That’s right; you’re not in the chiropractic business, real estate business, coaching business or whatever happens to be profession. You are in the business of marketing your products or services.

You see, without marketing, you don’t have a business at all. To be successful in business, your business needs to be based around your marketing. To fully grasp this concept, I highly recommend checking out The Duct Tape Marketing Complete Small Business Marketing System.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Probably the #1 question I get asked is, “how do I get found on the search engines?” Most of the time, it’s just a matter of researching the right keywords. Learn how to organically position yourself in the search engines.
learn more

Pay Per Click (PPC)

Where SEO is organic or natural search engine marketing, PPC is the paid sector of SEM. PPC advertising can be a highly effective and quick way to get targeted traffic to your site. You can also blow your whole marketing budget if not done correctly! Find out how to build a profitable PPC program.
learn more

Postcard Marketing

Postcard marketing may seem a bit antiquated with so much emphasis on the internet today but postcard marketing, when done right, can produce excellent leads and sales.

Social Networking

Social networking is basically socializing online. This can be a very effective, and fun, tool in your internet marketing arsenal. Find out how to incorporate social networking into your business.

Email Marketing

The importance of having your own email list cannot be overstated. Virtually every visitor that comes to your site the first time is not going to buy anything. You worked hard to get them to your site, doesn’t it make sense to capture their contact info so you can try to sell to them again? There’s really only one thing you need to do to get them to hand over their email address.

Relationship Marketing

Social networking and email marketing are essentially list building tools, but what you do with your list is what counts. Cultivating strong relationships is key to building a strong sustainable business. Learn how relationship marketing can transform your business.

Filed Under: Internet Marketing Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Tracking Website Visitors With Google Analytics

October 19, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Don’t forget the analytics! Now that you’ve got your site set up, some content and just the right look and feel, I know you’re dying to start marketing it. But take 10 minutes first to setup a Google Analytics account. It’s free but the data you get from it is invaluable.

Google Analytics

It’s so very important to know how visitors are getting to your site and what they are doing once they get there. You can even integrate it with Google Adwords, track ad campaigns and email campaigns. Probably one of the most powerful features is the ability to create goals and funnels to let you know conversion rates and ROI, if you’re selling directly from your site.

Google Analytics Funnel

Here’s how to get the code and install it on your site.

After you’ve created your Google Analytics account, click Create New Website Profile. You’ll be adding a profile for a new domain.

Create Google Analytics Account

Then click on continue. The next screen you see is going to be your tracking code. The New Tracking Code is the selected by default. That’s the one you want. The Legacy Tracking Code is the old code.

Google Analytics Tracking Code

Then click in the box and it will automatically highlight the entire text. Then copy it and go over to your WordPress Dashboard.

Installing Google Analytics Tracking Code

If you are using WordPress you won’t have to mess with any code. And if you’re using a Studiopress theme, you don’t have to install any other plugin.

For my Studiopress Theme, I’m going to go to Corporate Theme Options then scroll to the bottom.

You’ll see a box labeled Analytics/Stat Tracker Code. Now just paste your tracking code in this box. Make sure the “Do you want to include analytics/stat tracker code?” dropdown box says Yes.

If you are not using a Studiopress theme, use can use the WordPress plugin Google Analyticator.

If you’re not using WordPress but are using another Content Management System, check their documentation to see what plugins or addons they support. Otherwise, find the footer includes file and paste the Google Analytics code just before the ending </body> code.

That’s really all there is to tracking website visitors with Google Analytics. You should start receiving data within 24 hours.

Your next step will be to determine what goals you’d like to setup. I recommend setting up a goal for subscribers to your newsletter and, if you sell anything directly from your site, the sales funnel.

Filed Under: Internet Marketing Tagged With: , ,

Small Business Search Engine Optimization

October 19, 2009 By 1 Comment

The marketing question I get asked about above any others is, “How do I get traffic from the search engines?” like there’s some quick magical answer. So now I can just say go to my site and look up Search Engine Optimization. :)

The answer: It takes work! I know, bummer right?!

Getting your website ranked in the search engines is a combination of art and science, skill and research. It’s really not difficult and depending on your niche, it might be easy. But you are going to have to work for it.

Search Engine Optimization or SEO for short is made up of 3 basic ingredients:

  • Keyword research
  • Content
  • Link building

You may or may not have heard the expression “Content is King.” This is a widely debated topic within the SEO community. What they are talking about is the content on your site is #1 above all else. The other side says that links are more important. Links are how many sites point to your site.

Bottom line is this, both are important! However, if you have no content on your site, I don’t care what anyone says, you’re not going to rank nearly as well or, maybe even more importantly, for as many keywords as if you did.

I’ve broken it down for you in detail with these three tutorials:

Keyword Research

Before you start writing your content, it’s a good idea to know what people are searching for. Remember how you search for your business and how others search for your business could be two completely different things.
learn more

Content

Now that you know what people are searching for, it’s time to write content around those keywords. When you plan out your content, each page should be focused on one keyword – called keyword focused content pages.
learn more

Link Building

The next component of SEO is link building. This is where you get as many websites to link to you as possible. Think of these links as “votes” of credibility.
learn more

Filed Under: Internet Marketing Tagged With: ,

Pay Per Click Search Engine Marketing

October 19, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Pay Per Click or PPC is the paid sector of search engine marketing. This is a great place to start when you have a brand new site or one that you are just beginning to implement SEO strategies on.

PPC advertising is also an excellent way to get search engine traffic quickly because you can create a campaign in 10 minutes and within an hour, you could be receiving traffic from those ads.

Here’s a screenshot to help illustrate where the Paid vs. Organic listings show up.

The way it typically works in a PPC campaign is you bid for a position. Generally the higher up you are, the more you paid for that position. This makes sense since the higher up you are the more visibility your ad gets.

The big three PPC search engines are the same big 3 regular search engines. There are a ton of others in the game but these are where I recommend starting.

Facebook maybe another I would consider trying out. I haven’t personally used them much, but they have some excellent targeting features that make it a very viable option.

When creating your campaign, be as targeted as possible. Bidding on very broad keywords will not only get you untargeted traffic, it will also cost a lot more! Depending on your chosen keywords, you may be paying $0.50 to $1.00 or more PER CLICK. That can add up really fast.

Therefore bidding on “Wilmington, NC” maybe a smart move for a hotel chain in Wilmington for instance, but not so smart for a specialty merchandise store.

Formula: Revenue / Ad Cost = ROI

Let’s say that specialty merchandise store spends $100 on PPC which only brings in 1 customer that nets her $50 in revenue. She’s in the hole by 50% and hasn’t even taken into account the overhead associated with that customer.

The formula here would be: 50 / 100 = 50% ROI

She only got back half of what you put into the campaign.

Now, if you take that same scenario but this time it’s the hotel chain. They have a higher revenue per customer so their ROI would look much different. For this example, we’ll say the hotel nets $250 per customer

This time the formula would be: 250 / 100 = 250% ROI

Hopefully it’s obvious at this point but I’ll say it anyway. For PPC to be a cost effective advertising medium, you must diligently track your costs and you have to know your ROI (Return on Investment).

Filed Under: Internet Marketing, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , ,

Keyword Research

October 19, 2009 By 1 Comment

Before you start writing your content, it’s a good idea to know what people are searching for. Remember how you search for your business and how others search for your business could be two completely different things. This is because you know the jargon whereas your potential customer my not.

A really good quick way to do some simple keyword research is to use the Google Adwords Tool. This will give you a good representation of how people are searching for your product or service.

Here’s a search I did for “wilmington nc storage.” This shows you what keywords are being searched and how many searches are being made on Google.

Just that one main keyword has produced potentially a dozen keyword phrases (multiple keywords) that you can now write content on.

Think of keywords as fish hooks in the water. The more keywords your site is optimized for, the better chance of getting a bite.

Take a look for a moment at the Advertiser Competition column. This is based on how many people are bidding on those keywords within Google Adwords, which is where you pay for search engine traffic from Google. Learn more about that here.

This does sometimes translate into how competitive the keyword is in the organic (free) search results. The more competitive a keyword, the more work you’re going to have to do to rank for it.

For more advanced keyword research, check out Wordtracker. You can create massive keyword lists, know exactly how many sites are competing for your keywords, plus uncover even more keywords through their research tools.

Filed Under: Internet Marketing, Uncategorized Tagged With: , ,

11 Ways to Build Quality Links

October 19, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Here are 11 legitimate ways to build quality links to your site:

  • Article Marketing – where you write and publish articles to article directories.
  • Directories – does your town have any websites that list local businesses? Also search for directories specifically for your niche; real estate, automotive, plumbing, storage, etc.
  • Press Releases – most press release distributors will allow a link, sometimes with an extra fee, but it’s worth it.
  • Association Sites – Does your Chamber of Commerce post the links of their members’ websites?
  • Social Media – Facebook, Digg, Delicious are all great places your site should be although not all will count towards SEO.
  • Link to Others – gets their attention and they may reciprocate.
  • Make Contact – yep, good old fashion asking. Ask colleagues, associates, family and friends to put your site in their blogroll, please.
  • Blog Comments – Comment on other blogs most allow you to post a link. Again, not all will count towards your SEO but some will and it will get the attention.
  • Forum Posts – Along the same lines as blog comments but your link is included in the signature file of your posts.
  • Guest Posts – See if you can do a guest article for blogs that would benefit from your information.
  • Hub Sites – Create pages on sites like Squidoo, Hubsites.
Filed Under: Internet Marketing, Uncategorized Tagged With: , ,

Link Building 101

October 19, 2009 By Leave a Comment

A main component of SEO is link building. This is where you get as many websites to link to you as possible. You can use online directories, article marketing, associations you are a member of, get people to write on their blogs about you, etc.

There are many ways to try to do this but it is tough. Ask yourself, “Why would somebody link to my website?” Sometimes people will link to your site if you provide quality content or something of value.

The search engines look at links pointing to your website as a “vote” for your site. So the more votes you have, the more authority it must carry. Like any other SEO method, link building has been tried to be manipulated as well. Search engines are getting smarter all the time, so even if you think you’ve pulled one over on Google, don’t count on it to work for long.

Filed Under: Internet Marketing, Uncategorized Tagged With: , ,