Do I Need Social Media

I am asked all the time “David, Do I really need to be on all the social sites?” My answer is always Yes, if you want to be better known and get more leads. All the buzz around social media can give you a headache and downright frustrating experience. After all you are a business owner not an Internet marketing guru. I put together this post to show you some of the reasons you need to be on these sites as soon as possible. Remember that this is the way business is going whether you decide to join or not.

I feel the top reason for being active is to monitor customer satisfaction or support. Nothing is worse than a customer who had a bad experience that was internet savvy. They can spread the bad word over hundreds of places in a mere day. If you are not following this, you have no way to respond and/or make it right. If you do make it right you now look like a caring business that provides incredible support. This will go a long way to market your services or product without even trying.

Next is simply lead generation. 80% of all people that buy locally research on the Internet first. Do you want a chance to get them into your store? Of course you do and being active can only enhance your chances of being found. Many people search the social sites for reviews of products and services and go with those that have the most positive and active review sections.

Want to know what your competition is doing? Want to know when your main competitor is having a sale? An easy way to monitor your competition is to follow them online. If they are socially active they will have most of their lead generating techniques out for you to see. You can counteract any specials or sales that may drive people away from your store.

As a business owner you need to build trust and credibility with your customer base. An easy way to do this is by being active on social sites. They will get to know you and like you. This in turn builds up loyalty and can help in getting them to buy from you in the future. If they are loyal and truly believe in you they will then promote you to many other followers. This in turn drives more people to your store.

I want to do business with places that I know will be around a while. Nothing is worse than buying something and having the store go out of business. No service or support. One of the ways to show you will be around is by actively participating in the new wave. We all know this is becoming an Internet world and if a business doesn’t get this I feel they won’t be around. If they aren’t going to be around I look elsewhere to purchase. I am sure this is a normal activity amongst shoppers. Find a business that understands the Internet and social business and you have a business that will be around a while.

This is not an all inclusive list, however, it does give you some very solid reasons to use social media.  If you don’t want to be left behind then I would get going as fast as possible! How do you get started? The best way is to hire someone who understands this medium to handle it for you. There are many social media managers around (including myself) that can do it on a part time basis for you until it is necessary to hire someone on staff. Tell them your mission, vision, and values and they can get you on your way!

Good Luck and Prosperity to you all!

Internet Advertising on the Rise

Here is a very interesting article about how small businesses are spending their budgets for lead generation. Obviously leads are the lifeblood for any business and spending money to get them is one of the most profitable ventures for a business. It is quite easy to track and figure out your return on investment with most lead gen programs and these leads usually provide for immediate income instead of branding which requires long term investments.

If you look at the top four categories of website design, e mail marketing, new social media, and website optimization, you realize they work with each other. You design your website, its content, and search optimization around driving more qualified customers to your website. Once there your goal is to get them to opt in to your e mail list so that you may market to them for a long time. Once you build up a large list you are no longer at the mercy of traditional advertising to drive people into your storefront.

I also find it interesting that businesses stopped doing most things advertising related in 2009 and now are jumping head first in 2010. This tells me that businesses feel that the economy is turning around and an opportunity exists. Those businesses who start the earliest will have the most “bang for their buck” as some companies are behind the eight ball.

As more lead generation shifts to the internet the ability to track and change campaigns make it very attractive. For instance if you depend on yellow pages you get one attempt and if it fails you are stuck for the year. Most traditional forms of advertising are also hard to track and judge effectiveness. The internet gives you the ability to see what campaign is working in real time, adjust that campaign overnight, and test against other campaigns to see which is most effective.

Have a look at the e marketer article below and start thinking about how to use this information to your advantage. If you would like to talk with someone about it feel free to call or e mail me through the contact page.

Marketers Put More Lead Gen Budgets Online – eMarketer

E mail Marketing is the Key

Two of the major keys for a successful small business is to have great marketing and get repeat business from customers. Yet when I am intrigued over an ad or sale and go to a business very rarely does anyone get any of my personal information. How do they know I am a satisfied customer? How can they contact me for future specials? I think the feeling is they will catch me with their current advertising. Aren’t I different though? I have already spent money there and we should be cultivating a relationship! Let’s examine how to do that.

First and foremost you must get my contact information. I belong to several of those garden clubs but that is not what I mean. Those can be difficult and long to fill out so something more simple. I am always a fan of giving away a gift as a raffle. Just need your name, address, and e mail address. To be part of the drawing you must confirm the e mail we sent you. You could even advertise this on your receipt that prints out. So what do we do with this information? Read on.

The first action to take is sending a postcard to the new client. That postcard will have a coupon inviting them back in and also telling them to confirm their e mail address for the raffle at the end of the month. This gets them used to looking at your e mails and also may bring them back for an item they forgot. As many touches as possible right now to form that bond.

Next send them the e mail for confirmation in the e mail club and for the monthly drawing. At this time you also want to give them something of great value so that they feel wanted. It is another way to develop your business relationship. Also explain to them you will only send helpful information and EVERY email will have a coupon. This will get them to open all e mails that come. Consistently e mail them so they get the rhythm of your contact and they will plan to buy things around receiving your e mails.  A pre conditioned prospect!

If you do this small but simple plan you can get rid of a lot of marketing expense. Yeah but this will cost a lot of money! No, it doesn’t really! Postcards can be sent out for 33 cents including postage. Your e mail campaign can be set up for under 50 dollars a month. Both are semi automated so you really don’t need to hire someone new. In fact hire a consultant to do this for couple of hundred a month and not even have to fuss with it all.

The beauty of this program is in its simplicity to start and maintain for little cost. If you have 15 people come into your store a day and you can get 10 forms filled out you have added 300 potential clients a month. 3,600 people the first year and 10,000 over three years. How would you like to have a client base of 10,000 to mail to? This will allow you to significantly cut back on advertising and save money thus increasing profits. This also allows you to build up loyalty and friendships which help a business become successful. If you need to add subscribers then you have the power to contact other business owners to swap e mail lists! That is for another day!

Local SEO Help | SEO Tips

There are a lot of factors in ranking well locally. This article gives you the three basic steps that you can take to rank well locally. When trying to rank for local buyers you must make sure and optimize your on site and off site seo for your local community. It is also important to link with local businesses which helps search engines determine your service area.

The last column in this series focused on the importance of SEO for local/regional firms and outlined a basic three-step local SEO program:
1. Proactively manage business profile data.
2. Optimize Web pages for local queries.
3. Increase local Web site popularity.Today, I’ll cover implementation tips for each action.

SEO Tips for Local Businesses – ClickZ

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Local SEO Help | top ten SEO mistakes

Local SEO for small businesses is becoming more and more important. During a recession customers shop more than ever based on the fact they are looking for great deals they can afford. How do people shop? The internet of course! It is now more important to rank as high as possible, as more possible customers use the search engines to find the best deals. Here is the first of Local SEO help tips by giving you the top seo mistakes.

This is a mistake many people make and what is worse – even experienced SEO experts make it. People choose keywords that in their mind are descriptive of their website but the average users just may not search them. For instance, if you have a relationship site, you might discover that “relationship guide” does not work for you, even though it has the “relationship” keyword, while “dating advice” works like a charm. Choosing the right keywords can make or break your SEO campaign.

Top 10 SEO Mistakes

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