Four simple marketing tips for small businesses

As everyone knows, marketing is a key part of any company’s arsenal if it is to succeed in today’s world of instant communication and fierce competition. But whilst it is certainly essential to have a business marketing strategy in place, you don’t have to overcomplicate things – particularly if you are a small or fledgling business with a limited budget for promotion. 

Here are five simple and relatively low-cost tips to get you started:

• Strategic advertising: Big corporations will often have huge advertising budgets for both television and national newspapers or magazines, not to mention online. But if you are a small company you won’t have the capital for this so you have to think a little more creatively. Place adverts in local papers or on local website and remember that it is more effective to place smaller, cheaper adverts more frequently than to splash out on a big advert that you can only afford to place once a month. Also, design your advertising to help bring in more sales by including some kind of special offer to draw in the customers.
  
  
• Email marketing: Using the internet is a perfect form of business marketing for small companies because it is cheap and you can use it as often as you like. The crucial thing here is to compile a detailed database on your customers so you really know which products will be suited to them. Then you can work on sending out targeted marketing emails which are specifically tailored to their needs. Send out regular e-newsletters as well as this serves both as a reminder that your company is still out there, and as a way of keeping customers informed of new products or offers.
  
  
• Professional website: This is so crucial: your website is your biggest marketing tool and yet so many companies neglect it or allow it so look amateurish. It is worth it to hire a really good web designer to put together an eye-catching and simple-to-use site. Yes, it will cost more but every customer visiting your site will be impressed by its professional look. Once you have your website, update it regularly with new content to keep it fresh and current – another thing many companies fail to do.
  
  
• Joint promotions: Another useful marketing strategy if your budget is small is to team up with other small companies who are not in direct competition with you, but complement your business in some way further up the chain. For example, if you are a catering company, perhaps you might want to contact an events organiser or wedding planner and offer to publicise their services in exchange for them recommending yours. This is a simple and, more importantly, completely free way of generating new business.

If you are a small or medium sized business you may not have the budget or time to spend a great deal of money on your marketing strategy. However, every company needs a marketing strategy of some kind and luckily there are many simple and low-cost methods you can use to get you started.

Time to bring in the marketing experts?

Every company, whether small and local or large and multinational, will find itself going through peaks and troughs. Depending on where the problem lies – whether it is the result of external market forces or problems within the company itself – there are certain times when it may behove you to call in the services of a professional marketing company. 

These exist to help businesses develop methods to keep bringing in new clients and present their goods and services to the world in the best possible way. But how do you know when your company might benefit from a little help in this department? 

Here are some signs to look out for:

• Behind the competition?: If your biggest competitors seem to be everywhere you turn, it may well be because they’ve devised a more effective marketing strategy than you have. You don’t want to lose out to them, so this is the time to hire an expert in before you begin to lose customers to them. If you’re less visible than your competitors, who are clients going to choose?
  
  
• Not enough time: If you’re constantly putting things off, or you and your employees never have enough time in the day, it may well be that you have overextended yourself. If this is the case then there is no way you are going to be able to devote the necessary amount of time to promotion. Hiring in a marketing company will pay two-fold in this situation: Firstly, they will re-invigorate your marketing strategy; and secondly, they should be able to suggest practical ways for you to make better use of your time.
  
  
• Lack of leads: This is one of the clearest signs that your marketing strategy is failing somewhere. Rather than sitting back and waiting for the customers to come to you, you should be using all means at your disposal – print media, billboards, the internet, word-of-mouth or whatever else you can think of – to get your message out there. If you aren’t getting the leads then you clearly aren’t doing this in the most effective way, or often enough. Time, then, to seek outside advice.
  
  
• High employee turnover: This can be for many reasons, but employees will often be dissatisfied if they feel there is a lack of direction or structure to their role. A clear marketing strategy gives employees something to focus on, and also creates a more dynamic, positive working atmosphere are the new business begins to come in. Bringing in the services of a marketing company for a limited period of time will set you on the right track and hopefully ensure your staff feel motivated enough to stick around.

Choosing the right consultant for your business

Once you’ve made the decision to hire a business consultant to boost flagging sales or help set your company on a new path, you may think it’s just a simple matter of picking up the phone and calling one in. However, be aware that there are many companies today offering business consulting services and not all of them are what they seem. 

It’s crucial that you take your time when choosing the right person for you, or you could just be throwing good money after bad. Here is how to go about making your selection:

• Get references: Look on internet forums or speak to other local companies to listen to the experiences of others who have recently hired consultants. What kinds of problems did they encounter, and what did they wish they had done differently? Find out which consultants have helped achieve good results on more than one occasion and which ones have been less than effective. This will give you a good initial idea of who to consider and who to avoid at all possible costs.
• Thorough vetting: It may seem tedious, but when you have selected a short list of consultants you think may work for you, you need to set up meetings to talk to them about what they might offer you. These conversations should be able to tell you a lot: Did they listen to what you wanted, or did they just fire off some ‘quick’ solutions right away? Did they seem to understand the issues you presented them with and ask thoughtful questions, or did they just ramble on with stories of past clients? If the former in both cases, they may be legitimate, if the latter – hire them at your peril.
• Billing: Find out how you will be charged for these business consulting services. Don’t automatically go for the cheapest service, as there may well be a reason why they need to charge so little. Instead, look at the payment structure. Are you able to agree a fixed amount upfront, or are they proposing to leave things open for additional costs later on? If the latter, beware, as many less reputable consultants will attempt to maximise their profits by bringing other ‘advisers’ into the project, for which they will charge extra, or charging for unspecified additional services. Generally, I would say it’s always best to agree from the outset exactly how much you are going in for.

Above all, don’t be put off by the potential pitfalls as a good consultant really can bring enormous benefits. As long as you are careful and follow recommendations from trustworthy sources, you should soon see your business change for the better.

Internet Marketing Companies – Not All Are Created Equal

If you’ve had experience with online Internet marketing companies you’ll know that some are quite excellent in that they deliver a great service that produces first class results . . . while others can be unreliable.

The best Internet marketing companies will use ethical Search Engine Optimisation techniques to drive targeted traffic to your website. By using ‘White Hat’ processes, you are assured of getting more relevant visitors to your website and not just any old body – relevant or not!

There are literally hundreds of Internet marketing companies vying for your business online, and new ones seem to be springing up every week. When choosing a marketing consultancy, it’s vital to check out their credentials to ensure you are making a wise investment.

Your appointed Internet marketing company should be working hard to ensure that your site ranks highly in all the major search engines’ organic listings. After all, the better targeted your traffic and the more relevant your visitors, the more likely those visitors are to want to do business with you.

Having only highly-targeted traffic improves your company’s profile and reputation which in turn means you get a better Return on Investment too. Using SEO tools to drive targeted visitors to your website can dramatically impact on your conversion rates, increasing sales revenues and boosting your customer base. 

And you know it’s around eight times easier to sell to someone you’ve previously sold to, over someone you haven’t, right?

An effective marketing campaign is vital to the success of any business that has an Internet presence. 

More than that, having a great marketing strategy in place can be the difference between realising your potential and going out of business due to lack of trade. It’s a sad fact that thousands of businesses every year go into liquidation or are declared bankrupt. And in some cases, there is only a miniscule difference between those businesses that make the grade and those that go under.

Taking action to improve the website experience for your visitors can make the difference between having a profitable business and one which is losing you money. Inertia is not an option here. If you do not have the skills to optimise your website so it attracts the right kind of visitors, then it’s really worth considering having an expert do this for you.

Utilising the services of a top Internet marketing company to help you define your keyword strategy and work towards a higher listing makes perfect business sense. 

How Web Marketing Companies Can Make Your Business Boom!

Web marketing is a time-consuming activity, particularly if you’re not entirely sure what you are doing. And it’s not something you can dabble in either, unfortunately. Effective web marketing requires know-how and commitment. That’s why many businesses are realising the substantial benefits of having someone else manage their web marketing for them, rather than doing it themselves.

Employing the services of a web marketing company means you can use your time more productively, focusing on the stuff you’re good at, rather than wasting hours churning out content that might or might not work for you.

Your web marketing company should be able to create a bespoke package according to your exact requirements, but here is a taster of some of the things they can help with:

Web Development

How clean is your website? Is it easy to navigate? Is the copy engaging? Does it convert? Is it ‘all bells and whistles’ but no substance?

The aesthetic appeal of your website should not be underestimated. Your appointed design expert will be able to create an attractive, yet functional, web space, that is simplicity itself for you to manage.

Pay Per Click

Having the right PPC campaign in place can generate amazing results for your business relatively quickly. Make sure your web marketing company is qualified to the highest industry standards and that they can produce a bespoke programme that meets your needs perfectly.

Search Engine Optimisation

The best web marketing companies will employ a range of SEO techniques to achieve positive search results organically. Check whether your consultancy has a portfolio of impressive results across the major search engines – for example, have they managed to get clients on to page one of Google? If so, over what period?

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is pretty much an essential requirement for businesses these days. It’s a great way to communicate with your target audience and drive more traffic to your website. Your consultant or advisor will be able to create a social media presence or campaign for you across the major sites including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Copywriting & Content

The ability to create dynamic and engaging content is vital for increasing your online brand visibility and building your reputation. If writing persuasive and lead-converting copy isn’t your thing, it’s well worth employing someone to do it for you.

Mobile Users

Right now there is a fantastic opportunity for companies to promote their websites to users of mobile and remote devices. This is currently a huge, though largely untapped market, which savvy business owners would be wise to take advantage of.

Search Marketing Companies that Will Add Value to Your Business’s Bottom Line

Ever been tempted to stump up $99 to have your website submitted to 1000+ search engines?

If so, you probably don’t need me to point out what a waste of money it was. You’ve almost certainly discovered that for yourself already.

Seeing as the vast majority of traffic is derived from three well-known search engines, namely Google, Yahoo and Bing, plus a handful of other minor ones, there is little point submitting your website URL to the remaining thousand or so that will not bring you any relevant visitors whatsoever.

So, if buying your way into a thousand search engines isn’t generally a good idea, when might it be useful to hire the services of a search marketing company?

Quality search marketing companies can help your business grow exponentially in a relatively short period of time using three main channels:

Search Engine Optimisation, Social Media Optimisation and Online PR.

Let’s look at each of these key elements in turn:

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Your chosen marketing specialists will use a combination of content writing, link building and metadata optimisation to ‘feed’ the search engines, which in turn, will send you a ton of high quality traffic for you to convert into profitable leads.

Social Media Optimisation

If you’re not currently using social media to engage with your target audience, you could be missing out big time. As well as attracting more potential customers to your site, social media is increasingly being used to build reputation and source joint venture partners, manufacturers and suppliers, and even investors.

It therefore makes sense to have your social media operations fully optimised by a social media marketing expert.

Online PR

If you’ve been in business a while, then you have almost certainly used press releases as a way of promoting your business. But have you used web-based press releases? They are the latest way to increase awareness of your brand and promote your products and services to a wider target audience.

Of course, you could submit online press releases yourself, but an experienced marketing professional will add value – not only by structuring your press release to industry standards – but by knowing precisely where to submit it, giving your business maximum exposure.

Using an experienced search marketing company to create and execute a well thought-out marketing campaign for you, means you will achieve optimum results in the shortest time possible.

There are many such experts and consultancies online and the top consultants will include case studies and testimonials on their website, so you can check out their credentials before hiring them.

What is Website Optimisation? and How Can It Help My Business?

You know there are still some people in business who think all they need to do is build a website and sit back and wait for hordes of visitors to appear – as if by magic.

If only it were that easy.

Building a website for your business is a sound investment. Yet if no-one knows you exist, it could be a huge waste of your time and money. No-one wants a ‘White Elephant’ website!

So what exactly is search engine optimisation? And how can it help you attract more customers or clients?

Quite simply, optimisation is a way of improving your website rankings organically. The other option is paid advertising – or Pay Per Click – for instance the Google AdWords programme.

When you enter your search term in the search engine you will get a split-screen of results. Listings found on the left-hand side of your screen are those that have achieved their ranking ‘organically’, while those on the right are paid for ads.

Search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing will rank your website according to various criteria, including content and relevancy.

Not unsurprisingly, consumer surveys consistently show that more people trust those companies that rank highly in the organic listings, over those who rely on ‘sponsored’ results. Indeed, it is not unusual to find smaller companies ranking higher than their larger rivals for particular search terms. While there’s nothing wrong with using paid advertising to drive traffic to your website, ultimately better click through rates will be achieved through organic listings.

You will know from your own experience that if your website does not appear on the first few pages of a search listing, you will not be found. When you do searches yourself, how many pages do you view before you give up? All the ‘experts’ are on page one, aren’t they? Whether or not you believe that’s the case, this is how we tend to perceive things.

So how might your business’s website improve its current position?

Let’s start with keywords. Consider what keywords are relevant to your website and the products and services you offer and build or tweak your web pages accordingly, bearing in mind what each of the major search engines’ requirements are to obtain maximum visibility. Tune your pages to meet search engine requirements and watch your traffic and rankings grow.

Search Engine Optimisation is an increasingly competitive field, so it’s important to choose your keywords and key phrases well. And if your budget permits, ideally it’s advisable to use a combination of SEO and paid for advertising – that way you get the best of both worlds.

Optimisation is the key to effective online marketing – numerous studies consistently confirm that it’s the perfect vehicle for almost every type of business.