Businesses need to work to get noticed by potential and existing customers, even if their business is a really small business. Waiting and hoping someone will notice you and buy from you just isn't enough. Even if you have a prime location, you can't just leave things to 'chance'. Think it's too expensive to make room for marketing initiatives in your already tight budget? Small business marketing can be done, even on a shoestring budget, especially when you use the internet to your advantage. Read on for a few of the things you can do with a small budget in terms of internet-based marketing.
Search Engine Optimisation
SEO, or search engine optimisation, doesn't cost much. A bit of effort and investment will help you get free traffic. Instead of paying for every click to your website through paid advert programmes, get listed for targeted keywords and phrases that people use to look for your product. Do this to send them to an optimised website and you can look forward to traffic streams that can result in sales both online and offline.
Search Engine Marketing
Pay per click advertising sounds expensive but if you research, prepare, and do it right, a small amount of money budgeted for PPC ads could net sales. Take half the profits from those sales and re-invest and you've turned a small investment into an income stream. Don't just jump into PPC advertising without taking the time to learn how it works. A marketing consultant could be great help in this area.
Lead Generation / Email Marketing
Are you treating every visitor to your site as a lead? Don't let that visitor leave without trying to capture their info. Consider adding an opt-in form and doing something to entice people to opt-in to receiving future contact from you. If you've optimised your site well, you should be getting the right sort of traffic and by getting info you can market to that person in the future through e-mail marketing.
The above methods are just a few of the ways you can inexpensively create a small business marketing strategy. As you see results you can increase your budget, knowing that you are likely to get great return on your investment. If you are having trouble, or doubts about, navigating the world of online advertising you can find small business consultants who can advise you and do a small campaign for you to help you gauge potential and then expand on it, should it be successful.
Monday, 31 January 2011
Saturday, 29 January 2011
How a Marketing Agency Can Make More Clicks Count
Are you anxious to get more clicks on your small business website? The web can kick your sales up a notch but mere traffic won't necessarily do it alone. Do you want to make sure that those clicks count? Consider getting some help from a marketing agency that is experienced in helping you to increase your conversion rate. It takes more than website traffic to make an online business site successful.
Clicks & Conversion Rates
Clicks are good. Conversion is better. In other words, all the clicks in the world won't help your business if no one buys from you. Your internet marketing strategy should encompass more than getting traffic. It should work on getting targeted traffic and then converting them from a browser into a buyer.
Developing a Marketing Strategy
Web marketing is about more than just traffic and the right strategy can help you achieve your desired results. Most entrepreneurs and small business owners have trouble doing this on their own. Running a business is time consuming and making time for marketing isn't easy. That's where getting help from a consultant can come in and make a dramatic difference.
Marketing companies can work closely with you to develop a website marketing strategy that transforms your website from a brochure into a sales tool. They can do this through a multi-faceted approach that includes some of the following attributes:
• Analysis of your existing website (if applicable). A few tweaks and adjustments could make a difference in your search engine rankings and in how our visitors react to your content.
• Research into your market. A marketing agency will look at your industry and your competitors. Business intelligence gathered will provide valuable info that could help them help you make subtle or maybe even major changes that could boost conversion and click through rates.
• Split testing. If, for example, a website re-design is warranted, split testing may be done to analyse reactions from your visitors. When tests are conducted it can be easy to see which ad or which landing page could make more sense. Results can be evident fairly quickly, allowing you to reap benefits of that redesign quickly.
• Proven marketing techniques that insert a prospect into a sales funnel. The prospect very often exits that sales funnel as a client.
A marketing agency can look at raw data and make sense of the statistics and the graphs. Their analysis could turn that data into an action plan that reaps substantial benefits in the area of getting more traffic and converting more traffic into sales. Consider talking to a consultant to find out what they can do for your business and your online success.
Clicks & Conversion Rates
Clicks are good. Conversion is better. In other words, all the clicks in the world won't help your business if no one buys from you. Your internet marketing strategy should encompass more than getting traffic. It should work on getting targeted traffic and then converting them from a browser into a buyer.
Developing a Marketing Strategy
Web marketing is about more than just traffic and the right strategy can help you achieve your desired results. Most entrepreneurs and small business owners have trouble doing this on their own. Running a business is time consuming and making time for marketing isn't easy. That's where getting help from a consultant can come in and make a dramatic difference.
Marketing companies can work closely with you to develop a website marketing strategy that transforms your website from a brochure into a sales tool. They can do this through a multi-faceted approach that includes some of the following attributes:
• Analysis of your existing website (if applicable). A few tweaks and adjustments could make a difference in your search engine rankings and in how our visitors react to your content.
• Research into your market. A marketing agency will look at your industry and your competitors. Business intelligence gathered will provide valuable info that could help them help you make subtle or maybe even major changes that could boost conversion and click through rates.
• Split testing. If, for example, a website re-design is warranted, split testing may be done to analyse reactions from your visitors. When tests are conducted it can be easy to see which ad or which landing page could make more sense. Results can be evident fairly quickly, allowing you to reap benefits of that redesign quickly.
• Proven marketing techniques that insert a prospect into a sales funnel. The prospect very often exits that sales funnel as a client.
A marketing agency can look at raw data and make sense of the statistics and the graphs. Their analysis could turn that data into an action plan that reaps substantial benefits in the area of getting more traffic and converting more traffic into sales. Consider talking to a consultant to find out what they can do for your business and your online success.
Your Internet Marketing Consultant - The Key to Your Online Success?
Successful small businesses owners don't always get to the pinnacle of success on their own. In many cases, because they're a small company, they don't have the manpower that larger companies have. Many small business owners don't have the resources to increase their staff permanently and many don't always have the marketing knowledge and expertise to help themselves. A good solution is to hire contractors and consultants to help them.
One area that business owners or entrepreneurs might seek help with is with their infrastructure and their growth. A consultant could help a small company succeed in many ways. Hiring an internet marketing consultant, for example, could help you take your moderately successful business to the next level of success. If your business is failing or flailing, an expert could help you strategise and execute a plan of action to turn things in a better direction. If you're just starting out, a consultant could help you hit the ground running.
Hiring someone in a mentoring role could be just what you need. Instead of hiring a permanent employee, a consultant allows you to hire a seasoned expert either temporarily or in a specific capacity. This can be a symbiotic relationship,
Help for Start-Ups
Let's say you're just starting out. Whether you're experienced with the internet or not, getting help could be detrimental. There are many important facets to your internet marketing strategy. The consultant can help you with web design, search engine optimisation, paid advertising campaigns, gathering market intelligence, product launches, social media optimisation, reputation management, and more. They can also help you analyse your campaigns so that you can achieve optimal results and maximise our marketing budget.
Let's say you're already established but want to fix something that's broken or want to grow your business. An internet marketing consultant can help here, too. A professional can help you ascertain where improvements could be made both to your internal infrastructure as well as to your online efforts. Maybe some website tweaks, a new focus, a direct mail campaign, or another area could help you jumpstart efforts or regain lost market share.
So many different factors could be hampering your success. Maybe you know just what is standing in your way and maybe you're at a loss. In either case, an outside expert could be just what you need for perspective and for guidance on how to get from where you are to wherever it is that you want to go.
One area that business owners or entrepreneurs might seek help with is with their infrastructure and their growth. A consultant could help a small company succeed in many ways. Hiring an internet marketing consultant, for example, could help you take your moderately successful business to the next level of success. If your business is failing or flailing, an expert could help you strategise and execute a plan of action to turn things in a better direction. If you're just starting out, a consultant could help you hit the ground running.
Hiring someone in a mentoring role could be just what you need. Instead of hiring a permanent employee, a consultant allows you to hire a seasoned expert either temporarily or in a specific capacity. This can be a symbiotic relationship,
Help for Start-Ups
Let's say you're just starting out. Whether you're experienced with the internet or not, getting help could be detrimental. There are many important facets to your internet marketing strategy. The consultant can help you with web design, search engine optimisation, paid advertising campaigns, gathering market intelligence, product launches, social media optimisation, reputation management, and more. They can also help you analyse your campaigns so that you can achieve optimal results and maximise our marketing budget.
Let's say you're already established but want to fix something that's broken or want to grow your business. An internet marketing consultant can help here, too. A professional can help you ascertain where improvements could be made both to your internal infrastructure as well as to your online efforts. Maybe some website tweaks, a new focus, a direct mail campaign, or another area could help you jumpstart efforts or regain lost market share.
So many different factors could be hampering your success. Maybe you know just what is standing in your way and maybe you're at a loss. In either case, an outside expert could be just what you need for perspective and for guidance on how to get from where you are to wherever it is that you want to go.
Which Steps Are Vital to Take for Internet Marketing Success?
If you want to succeed in business on the internet, marketing is vital. There are many facets to internet marketing. Which ones are the most important?
There's no right answer to that question. This is a subjective topic and because the internet is very open source, there is no right or wrong answer but here is some information from a marketing consultant about several vital steps that could help you increase your chances of online success:
Do Your Research
Before you embark on an internet marketing campaign, doing a substantial amount of research is essential. You'll want to research your market, your competition, your audience, and review information to help you define a search engine marketing and / or pay per click advertising strategy. If you can't do the research yourself either due to lack of expertise in this area or lack of cycles you could hire an internet research or consultancy firm to help you.
What's important from a research perspective? Whether you do it yourself or get some help, keyword analysis is important. Analysing your competition will help you as well. Looking at various social media strategies can provide a wealth of info and gathering general business intelligence will pay off in multiple ways --- helping you define, strategise, and execute a campaign that will work.
Analysis
After you've defined and executed your web marketing strategy, ongoing analysis will tell you what's going well and what isn't going so well. Info gathered for internet marketing campaigns can help you with improvements and can also help you fuel future campaigns as well.
Reputation and Relationship Development & Management
Work to develop a great reputation online. Establish yourself as a professional and establish your company's presence as one that believes in customer experience, value, and service.
Online success needs more that just development of a reputation and / or a brand. It also requires that you nurture relationships. Social marketing is a two way street. So is blogging. Customers are looking for value and this can help to establish trust. Nurturing online reputation and relationships can equate to trust and success in gathering subscribers and followers to your website. Those subscribers and followers could become future clients and sources of word of mouth referrals.
Again, there are many facets to internet marketing and taking a step at a time can help you success. Regardless of whether you're embarking on a campaign on your own or getting help and whether you're new to this or not, taking steps toward increasing your online presence is exciting and can pay off huge dividends.
There's no right answer to that question. This is a subjective topic and because the internet is very open source, there is no right or wrong answer but here is some information from a marketing consultant about several vital steps that could help you increase your chances of online success:
Do Your Research
Before you embark on an internet marketing campaign, doing a substantial amount of research is essential. You'll want to research your market, your competition, your audience, and review information to help you define a search engine marketing and / or pay per click advertising strategy. If you can't do the research yourself either due to lack of expertise in this area or lack of cycles you could hire an internet research or consultancy firm to help you.
What's important from a research perspective? Whether you do it yourself or get some help, keyword analysis is important. Analysing your competition will help you as well. Looking at various social media strategies can provide a wealth of info and gathering general business intelligence will pay off in multiple ways --- helping you define, strategise, and execute a campaign that will work.
Analysis
After you've defined and executed your web marketing strategy, ongoing analysis will tell you what's going well and what isn't going so well. Info gathered for internet marketing campaigns can help you with improvements and can also help you fuel future campaigns as well.
Reputation and Relationship Development & Management
Work to develop a great reputation online. Establish yourself as a professional and establish your company's presence as one that believes in customer experience, value, and service.
Online success needs more that just development of a reputation and / or a brand. It also requires that you nurture relationships. Social marketing is a two way street. So is blogging. Customers are looking for value and this can help to establish trust. Nurturing online reputation and relationships can equate to trust and success in gathering subscribers and followers to your website. Those subscribers and followers could become future clients and sources of word of mouth referrals.
Again, there are many facets to internet marketing and taking a step at a time can help you success. Regardless of whether you're embarking on a campaign on your own or getting help and whether you're new to this or not, taking steps toward increasing your online presence is exciting and can pay off huge dividends.
Marketing Companies Can Help You With Your Online Reputation Management
How's your company's online reputation? Do you even know? The results of a quick search could be startling for you. Marketing companies could specialise in this area, helping you manage and accelerate a positive online reputation.
Why is online reputation management important?
More people than ever look to the web to help them make decisions about everything from minor purchases to big ticket items. The internet provides consumers with a plethora of information to help them make decisions, such as: product specifications, user reviews, and information about where to get what they want. If your reputation isn't nurtured, one of two things will happen:
Nothing?
If you have zero reputation, people won't find you. Lack of a poor reputation is a good thing but in many cases, if they know about you and find nothing positive or negative, they'll keep looking. Many people want validation for their choice through reviews, testimonials, and an online presence that puts them at ease.
Of course no reputation is better than a poor reputation but if you're even moderately successful offline, you'll want to share that positive reputation online so that you can take advantage of it.
Lost Sales - £££
If you're not paying attention to your reputation and something negative is said about you, this could be even more damaging than something positive being said. Bad press can rise like wildfire in the search engine results for your name or your niche. You can't necessarily control the bad press but marketing companies could help you boost the good press so that it outweighs the bad press.
How Online Marketing Companies Help:
Online marketing companies can track what's being said, can optimise the good press, and help you encourage feedback from your clients. Feedback utilised online in the right way will help you show new prospects that existing and past customers are satisfied.
If something negative is said, your marketing consultancy firm could track it down quickly and do damage control, either by alerting you so that you can act on it or by optimizing proven reputation management tools so that the bad press doesn't necessarily stick out like a sore thumb.
Most companies experience at least a bit of bad press at some time or another. Smart companies learn from this and use it to help them improve weak points in their infrastructure. Marketing companies can help you gather intelligence, boost positive results, solicit testimonials, and spread good news virally so that those considering your products or services will see that you're an organisation worth doing business with.
Why is online reputation management important?
More people than ever look to the web to help them make decisions about everything from minor purchases to big ticket items. The internet provides consumers with a plethora of information to help them make decisions, such as: product specifications, user reviews, and information about where to get what they want. If your reputation isn't nurtured, one of two things will happen:
Nothing?
If you have zero reputation, people won't find you. Lack of a poor reputation is a good thing but in many cases, if they know about you and find nothing positive or negative, they'll keep looking. Many people want validation for their choice through reviews, testimonials, and an online presence that puts them at ease.
Of course no reputation is better than a poor reputation but if you're even moderately successful offline, you'll want to share that positive reputation online so that you can take advantage of it.
Lost Sales - £££
If you're not paying attention to your reputation and something negative is said about you, this could be even more damaging than something positive being said. Bad press can rise like wildfire in the search engine results for your name or your niche. You can't necessarily control the bad press but marketing companies could help you boost the good press so that it outweighs the bad press.
How Online Marketing Companies Help:
Online marketing companies can track what's being said, can optimise the good press, and help you encourage feedback from your clients. Feedback utilised online in the right way will help you show new prospects that existing and past customers are satisfied.
If something negative is said, your marketing consultancy firm could track it down quickly and do damage control, either by alerting you so that you can act on it or by optimizing proven reputation management tools so that the bad press doesn't necessarily stick out like a sore thumb.
Most companies experience at least a bit of bad press at some time or another. Smart companies learn from this and use it to help them improve weak points in their infrastructure. Marketing companies can help you gather intelligence, boost positive results, solicit testimonials, and spread good news virally so that those considering your products or services will see that you're an organisation worth doing business with.
Saturday, 22 January 2011
A Marketing Consultancy Plan is a Necessity For a Business to Succeed
A marketing consultancy plan will help to ensure that your business is moving forward toward meeting your goals. Such a plan will outline a step-by-step guide designed to get your business, and your brand, out in the forefront of the people's minds that are likely to follow through. These targeted people are those most likely to convert to sales for your product or service.
Your Marketing Plan Needs to be Assessed Frequently
There are a number of proven tactics that can be useful when you are trying to market your brand. It is best when your approach to promoting your business includes a number of angles that are designed to target your potential clients. A truly effective marketing strategy means taking stock constantly to determine which efforts are successful and which efforts need to be tweaked in order to help your business to meet the goals you have set for it.
By working with a marketing consultancy firm, you will be assured of having their expertise in business working to your advantage. Your entire marketing operation will be analysed to order to provide you with the best plan to garner your business more attention. You will be given a plan of recommendations that, when implemented, will net you an increase in traffic to your website and follow throughs on your calls to action.
A Full Service Marketing Plan for Your Businesses
Many companies who offer marketing recommendations understand that you might not have the time or knowledge to implement their suggestions. For this reason, a company might offer a package deal that includes suggestions to promote your business as well as some implementation of the services recommended. This arrangement would be a good choice for the busy owner of a small to medium sized business.
In fact, an arrangement of this nature ensures that you are able to concentrate on those aspects of your business that you know best while leaving the promotion of your business, and the implementation of those services that are specifically targeted to your clients, to the experts in that field.
When a marketing consultancy plan includes such items as fresh content for your website, email campaigns, and social media blitzes, you will likely not have the time to give these items the attention they need in order for your business to reap the full rewards. Indeed, attempting to market your business can almost seem to be a full time job in itself.
Your Marketing Plan Needs to be Assessed Frequently
There are a number of proven tactics that can be useful when you are trying to market your brand. It is best when your approach to promoting your business includes a number of angles that are designed to target your potential clients. A truly effective marketing strategy means taking stock constantly to determine which efforts are successful and which efforts need to be tweaked in order to help your business to meet the goals you have set for it.
By working with a marketing consultancy firm, you will be assured of having their expertise in business working to your advantage. Your entire marketing operation will be analysed to order to provide you with the best plan to garner your business more attention. You will be given a plan of recommendations that, when implemented, will net you an increase in traffic to your website and follow throughs on your calls to action.
A Full Service Marketing Plan for Your Businesses
Many companies who offer marketing recommendations understand that you might not have the time or knowledge to implement their suggestions. For this reason, a company might offer a package deal that includes suggestions to promote your business as well as some implementation of the services recommended. This arrangement would be a good choice for the busy owner of a small to medium sized business.
In fact, an arrangement of this nature ensures that you are able to concentrate on those aspects of your business that you know best while leaving the promotion of your business, and the implementation of those services that are specifically targeted to your clients, to the experts in that field.
When a marketing consultancy plan includes such items as fresh content for your website, email campaigns, and social media blitzes, you will likely not have the time to give these items the attention they need in order for your business to reap the full rewards. Indeed, attempting to market your business can almost seem to be a full time job in itself.
Marketing Consultants Represent Your Company
When working with marketing consultants it's important to remember that they represent your company. There are times when clients may come into contact with your marketing consultants, and you want your clients to have a positive experience when dealing with any of your extended workforce.
Choosing a consultant who knows how to market your business and help improve your company is just as important as choosing a consultant who know how to represent your company to clients. So how do you know which marketing consultant offers the best representation? By conducting interviews and discussing your business philosophy with different consultants, you can ensure that you work with a consultant that not only markets your business well but is a good face for your company.
The Right Type of Reflection
You want your consultants to reflect your business in a positive light. Most consultancy firms understand this and strive to provide service that markets your business and falls in line with your business philosophy. Remember that this person may take meetings with some of your clients in order to go over campaigns or ideas that directly affect your clients. If your company holds a certain standard of dress and professional attitude, you want to make sure that the consultancy holds to the same standards. You don't want someone showing up in jeans when everyone else is wearing a suit. The same is true if you're a more casual business. It works best to partner with a marketing firm that doesn't appear overly stuffy so your clients and employees don't feel uncomfortable when dealing with them directly.
Reflective Marketing Materials
Whilst you will probably approve most, if not all, marketing materials, there may be times where the marketing firm has free reign to design and implement their own marketing materials. Make sure that the consultants you work with understand your company image and the image you want to present to clients. You may require them to run all materials by you first.
With a clear understanding, you can rest assured that marketing materials created by the firm for your company will meet your standards and fit the image of your company.
It's also important that if any of your marketing staff give a presentation to clients or your employees that they take into consideration their audience. Public speaking isn't for everyone, not even those who make a living from helping people market their business. When hiring a firm, make sure the marketing consultants have the sorts of skills you need and request the one that you feel reflects your business model and objectives the best.
Choosing a consultant who knows how to market your business and help improve your company is just as important as choosing a consultant who know how to represent your company to clients. So how do you know which marketing consultant offers the best representation? By conducting interviews and discussing your business philosophy with different consultants, you can ensure that you work with a consultant that not only markets your business well but is a good face for your company.
The Right Type of Reflection
You want your consultants to reflect your business in a positive light. Most consultancy firms understand this and strive to provide service that markets your business and falls in line with your business philosophy. Remember that this person may take meetings with some of your clients in order to go over campaigns or ideas that directly affect your clients. If your company holds a certain standard of dress and professional attitude, you want to make sure that the consultancy holds to the same standards. You don't want someone showing up in jeans when everyone else is wearing a suit. The same is true if you're a more casual business. It works best to partner with a marketing firm that doesn't appear overly stuffy so your clients and employees don't feel uncomfortable when dealing with them directly.
Reflective Marketing Materials
Whilst you will probably approve most, if not all, marketing materials, there may be times where the marketing firm has free reign to design and implement their own marketing materials. Make sure that the consultants you work with understand your company image and the image you want to present to clients. You may require them to run all materials by you first.
With a clear understanding, you can rest assured that marketing materials created by the firm for your company will meet your standards and fit the image of your company.
It's also important that if any of your marketing staff give a presentation to clients or your employees that they take into consideration their audience. Public speaking isn't for everyone, not even those who make a living from helping people market their business. When hiring a firm, make sure the marketing consultants have the sorts of skills you need and request the one that you feel reflects your business model and objectives the best.
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