THE TRUTH ABOUT MARKETING AND 5 KILLER TIPS TO GET RESULTS!
Posted 02-10-2012 at 04:52 PM by iAmNameLess
THE TRUTH ABOUT MARKETING AND 5 KILLER TIPS TO GET RESULTS!
It has become apparent that many people don’t know what marketing really is, and they believe only one piece of the puzzle is good enough.
Is marketing, putting up a website? Doing SEO? Pay per click advertisements? Is marketing just another word for advertising?
The answer is no. Did your marketing and business classes in college even mention any of these?
Running a web design company I often see many clients and potential customers think that all they need is a website. Once they have a website everything is going to start taking off. They follow the famous movie line, “If you build it they will come”. The reality of the situation with websites is that if we build it, your potential customers at least have a chance to come to your website. That isn’t as catchy though, is it?
A website is a great tool, it is a very necessary tool but not the only tool you should be utilizing. I am always looking for new ways to reach out to a customer base and just having a website is not good enough! That goes for any one aspect of marketing, it just isn’t enough! Combine your website with social media and you can funnel traffic then you have better results. On top of social media, you can start a pay per click campaign and get even more results!
Combining social media, PPC, and now adding SEO and public relations, you are now starting to get into a real marketing strategy.
In my opinion, most businesses fail not because of the economy but because of the lack of marketing efforts. There is never just one form of marketing that should be used, you should be using a combination to get the best results. If you have a website, yes, you’re ahead of the people that aren’t taking action towards their goals. Does that mean you’re where you want to be? Probably not. Imagine putting up your website, and combine it with other marketing efforts such as social media, direct mailing, email marketing, newspaper advertisement, billboards, search engine optimization, search engine marketing and so on, that would be a pretty killer marketing campaign right?
It would be great to spend an endless amount of money on marketing, but it isn’t always that simple for new start up businesses. Money is a concern, for everybody! You might be thinking, “Well, this sounds all great but I can’t afford to do those things, how can I use a combination of marketing tools to get results?”. Small businesses and start ups have a better advantage today than they used to! Here are 5 free tips to increase your marketing on a shoe string budget!
TIP #1 – UTILIZE SOCIAL MEDIA IN YOUR MARKETING
For those of you with more experience, this is an obvious tip. Websites like facebook and twitter are FREE, use them. Your consumers are there, almost everyone is on facebook! Create a fan page for your business, share information with your friends. Every time friend likes your fan page, all their friends get broadcasted a message, “John Doe likes Blah Blah Blah”. If the average person has 100 friends and you only have 20 people that “like” your page, it is broadcasted to 2,000 people on average. How is that for brand recognition?
TIP #2 – EMAIL IS NOT DEAD!
Your website looks pretty, you have a facebook fan page and always advertise your site to people on facebook. COOL! Now what? How do you turn those one time visitors into recurring visitors? How do you increase your website leads? Have people subscribe to your website, newsletter, or free information! It works! Maybe they won’t convert into customers right then and there but you will have their email and you can send them helpful information that increases your reputation. I have had people on my email list for a year before they decided to get a website. Staying in your customers face is a good thing!
TIP #3 – Google Places For Local Businesses
Google places is where it is at! If you are in a service business, or any local business, you want to rank high in google places. Do you have a google places account? Get one! It is free, as is all these tips I am mentioning. Do you know what google places, is? Well, if you google San Francisco Psychiatrist, you will see results with a place marker on them saying A, B, C, etc. That is the local listing google provides for FREE! Even a small to medium sized city can benefit greatly from being ranked in the local listings of google. Even if it is 1 or 2 new customers a month, are you willing to turn away potential clients or customers?
TIP #4 – Blog Your Heart Away
When I say blog, I am not referring to talking about how cute your baby kitten is, or how obnoxious your kids are or how much alcohol you are planning to drink over the weekend. I am talking about blogging about your industry, giving out useful information to your customers, your thoughts on current trends and news that is relevant in what you do! What does this do? Well, you might pick up additional traffic through search engines, but more importantly you can establish yourself as an expert in your field. It will give you trust with your clients and that might be the most important thing to have! Once you start blogging, email your email list the link to check out your new blog update. Share the link on facebook, and twitter, which we have talked about in previous tips!
TIP #5 – Do Something News Worthy!
This is the most underrated and most overlooked aspect for start up businesses. It doesn’t matter if you are an attorney, cleaning service, dentist or any other field. Using press releases is a great way to get traffic to your website, and getting coverage in a newspaper, related magazines, or websites. You might think that it would be too difficult, but in reality it is simple! Do something newsworthy. Maybe your business is so innovative and new that you don’t need to do something out of the ordinary to generate press. For many of us though, donating a certain percentage of sales to a charity would be considered newsworthy and should be written about in a press release! It DOES work. You can send press releases out through free press release websites, and also send it via fax(the old school way) to your local news channels, newspapers, and local magazines to generate more coverage!
You can subscribe to receive updates on our web411 blog or receive offers, at Affordable Small Business Web Design and Search Engine Optimization Company
It has become apparent that many people don’t know what marketing really is, and they believe only one piece of the puzzle is good enough.
Is marketing, putting up a website? Doing SEO? Pay per click advertisements? Is marketing just another word for advertising?
The answer is no. Did your marketing and business classes in college even mention any of these?
Running a web design company I often see many clients and potential customers think that all they need is a website. Once they have a website everything is going to start taking off. They follow the famous movie line, “If you build it they will come”. The reality of the situation with websites is that if we build it, your potential customers at least have a chance to come to your website. That isn’t as catchy though, is it?
A website is a great tool, it is a very necessary tool but not the only tool you should be utilizing. I am always looking for new ways to reach out to a customer base and just having a website is not good enough! That goes for any one aspect of marketing, it just isn’t enough! Combine your website with social media and you can funnel traffic then you have better results. On top of social media, you can start a pay per click campaign and get even more results!
Combining social media, PPC, and now adding SEO and public relations, you are now starting to get into a real marketing strategy.
In my opinion, most businesses fail not because of the economy but because of the lack of marketing efforts. There is never just one form of marketing that should be used, you should be using a combination to get the best results. If you have a website, yes, you’re ahead of the people that aren’t taking action towards their goals. Does that mean you’re where you want to be? Probably not. Imagine putting up your website, and combine it with other marketing efforts such as social media, direct mailing, email marketing, newspaper advertisement, billboards, search engine optimization, search engine marketing and so on, that would be a pretty killer marketing campaign right?
It would be great to spend an endless amount of money on marketing, but it isn’t always that simple for new start up businesses. Money is a concern, for everybody! You might be thinking, “Well, this sounds all great but I can’t afford to do those things, how can I use a combination of marketing tools to get results?”. Small businesses and start ups have a better advantage today than they used to! Here are 5 free tips to increase your marketing on a shoe string budget!
TIP #1 – UTILIZE SOCIAL MEDIA IN YOUR MARKETING
For those of you with more experience, this is an obvious tip. Websites like facebook and twitter are FREE, use them. Your consumers are there, almost everyone is on facebook! Create a fan page for your business, share information with your friends. Every time friend likes your fan page, all their friends get broadcasted a message, “John Doe likes Blah Blah Blah”. If the average person has 100 friends and you only have 20 people that “like” your page, it is broadcasted to 2,000 people on average. How is that for brand recognition?
TIP #2 – EMAIL IS NOT DEAD!
Your website looks pretty, you have a facebook fan page and always advertise your site to people on facebook. COOL! Now what? How do you turn those one time visitors into recurring visitors? How do you increase your website leads? Have people subscribe to your website, newsletter, or free information! It works! Maybe they won’t convert into customers right then and there but you will have their email and you can send them helpful information that increases your reputation. I have had people on my email list for a year before they decided to get a website. Staying in your customers face is a good thing!
TIP #3 – Google Places For Local Businesses
Google places is where it is at! If you are in a service business, or any local business, you want to rank high in google places. Do you have a google places account? Get one! It is free, as is all these tips I am mentioning. Do you know what google places, is? Well, if you google San Francisco Psychiatrist, you will see results with a place marker on them saying A, B, C, etc. That is the local listing google provides for FREE! Even a small to medium sized city can benefit greatly from being ranked in the local listings of google. Even if it is 1 or 2 new customers a month, are you willing to turn away potential clients or customers?
TIP #4 – Blog Your Heart Away
When I say blog, I am not referring to talking about how cute your baby kitten is, or how obnoxious your kids are or how much alcohol you are planning to drink over the weekend. I am talking about blogging about your industry, giving out useful information to your customers, your thoughts on current trends and news that is relevant in what you do! What does this do? Well, you might pick up additional traffic through search engines, but more importantly you can establish yourself as an expert in your field. It will give you trust with your clients and that might be the most important thing to have! Once you start blogging, email your email list the link to check out your new blog update. Share the link on facebook, and twitter, which we have talked about in previous tips!
TIP #5 – Do Something News Worthy!
This is the most underrated and most overlooked aspect for start up businesses. It doesn’t matter if you are an attorney, cleaning service, dentist or any other field. Using press releases is a great way to get traffic to your website, and getting coverage in a newspaper, related magazines, or websites. You might think that it would be too difficult, but in reality it is simple! Do something newsworthy. Maybe your business is so innovative and new that you don’t need to do something out of the ordinary to generate press. For many of us though, donating a certain percentage of sales to a charity would be considered newsworthy and should be written about in a press release! It DOES work. You can send press releases out through free press release websites, and also send it via fax(the old school way) to your local news channels, newspapers, and local magazines to generate more coverage!
You can subscribe to receive updates on our web411 blog or receive offers, at Affordable Small Business Web Design and Search Engine Optimization Company
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