Small Business Online Marketing

How To Dominate Locally With Internet Marketing

Marketing your business online is a must these days regardless of how big or small you may be. From one employee to 100 small businesses are finding it more and more necessary to market online not to mention are getting introduced to just a few of the many benefits to online marketing like greater return on investment, better tracking of marketing dollars, and actual statistics on people viewing a particular marketing piece.

There are 3 or 4 main areas small businesses should focus their efforts online, web design, seo, pay per click advertising, and email marketing. Each and every one of these methods are as important as the other and need to be a part of your marketing mix. Below this guide will show you how to do it effectively.

Website Design For Small Businesses

The thing you have to keep in mind is online, appearance is everything. Being on the internet allows you to look as big or as small as you wish. Having a professional website design, offering lots of helpful information, and appearing authoritative on the topic in which you are trying to sell helps make any potential sale a lot easier. Conversely, if your website looks outdated, unattended, or lacks helpful information it will be much more difficult to make a sale or gain a potential customers trust. Having a great looking authoritative website is the first and one of the most important steps to marketing online for any business, not to mention small businesses. Think of your website as your "virtual showroom" what do you want people to think about your business when they see it?

Be Open To National Design Firms
Get Multiple Designs
Don't Be Afraid To Make Revisions
Use Company Colors On Website
Provide Tons Of Helpful Information
Earn Potential Clients Trust

Search Engine Optimization For Small Business

Search Engine Optimization or SEO as it is more commonly known focuses specifically at the "organic results" or the results to the left of Google and other search engines. These are the non paid results and are by far the most sought after. There is a certain amount of trust and authoritativeness that a website gets by ranking high in the search results. People trust Google or other search engines to give them what they are looking for, by having your site appear there you automatically get a certain amount of trust shared with you by whatever search engine they are using. One of the reasons so little is understood about seo is that there are so many parts to it, not to mention shady salespeople selling results they cannot possibly deliver. Things like link building, content, title tags and meta descriptions all seem really foreign to a business owner just trying to keep more people in their door. You cannot skip this crucial step in marketing your website.

Find A Company Specializeing In Small Business
Work With Someone Who Will Work With You
Establish 6-7 Keywords You Want To Rank For
Make Sure You Monitor Rankings On Keywords
Work With Your SEO To Project Results

Pay Per Click Advertising For Small Business

Pay per click advertising, other than SEO is one of the most overlooked marketing efforts a small business can commit to. Pay per click advertising or PPC deals with typically the top 2-3 spots in search as well as the right sidebar. It is generally thought and accepted that people who click on on PPC ad's are a lot closer to purchasing. Even with a local approach, something where you are only targeting a single city or state it is very difficult to rank in the top 5 for any more than say 5-10 keywords. What PPC allows you to do is rank highly for keywords just in the area you wish to target. That is why it is so powerful for busin This is best illustrated by an example. Say you sell discount shoes in Chicago, to compete in organic search might be a little easier as you would want to rank for terms such as "discount shows chicago". When it comes to PPC if you want to bid on "discount shoes" it will be very competitive, geotargeting fixes all that.

Geo-Target Your Ad's To Your Target Market
Get Help With Your PPC Campaign
Have Custom Landing Pages
Make Sure You Track Conversions
Use A Tracking 800 Number
Strive For Constant Improvement

Bringing It All Together

So the information contained in this guide can be a bit overwhelming. The idea of all these new internet marketing measures can be a lot to digest. Some of you may have tried a few things before, or have been looking for a while. There are others however that this might be the first thing they are reading about the topic. The key is to ask a lot of questions, get many price quotes, and get references from any Internet Marketing Company you may choose to work with. If you are considering doing this on your own it can be done, just be ready to commit enough time to understand what makes a good website, things to keep in mind for SEO and tips and advice for PPC. Together all forms of online marketing when combined will make sure your small business looks anything but when people come across it online.

Talk To Many Firms
Read Blogs
Talk To Other Small Businesses That Have Succeed
Establish A Relationship With Your Firm
If Doing It On Your Own Take Your Time Avoid Getting Overwhelmed
Don't get discouraged if things don't turn around right away
Authoritativeness Online Is The Key To Long Term Success

Make sure and choose something that makes sense for your line of business, for example if you are an independent photographer you will want a real artsy site with lots of great images, of you sell flowers a similar theme will make sense. Take a look at what some of your competitors as doing as far as design work and have your designer take the best of each.