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How can I target Small Business Owners Online?

by seanpbh
9 replies
I am setting up a website to offer a service which is business card design/print/delivery.

The part where I always fail is in getting clients. I am looking to target business owners and trying to figure the best way to do this. PPC? Linkedin? I would like to target owners online where they can order through my website.

If anyone has any advice that would be great
#business #online #owners #small #target
  • Profile picture of the author TheCollegeInvestor
    You could try Facebook ads - very cheap and you can target people who have small business or business owner as a job.
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  • Profile picture of the author HumbleGuy
    If you have a solid website in place to impress your visitors with a very nice set of portfolio. I'd suggest using Facebook Ads, Google Adwords and maybe marketing at relevant forums or niche sites would help.
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  • Profile picture of the author MonitorScout
    Facebook, LinkedIn and PPC what I'd suggest.

    But apart from that keep trying to improve your rank in search engine. That will drive you thousands of organic traffic. But it is also true that this organic traffic flow doesn't happen over night. You could achieve that only through endless endeavor.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jay Levine
    My favorite way to contact businesses to sell a product/service as always been to have a nice looking, well written website that ranks well on Goolgle, and then let the businesses contact me. That way they are already pre-sold on what I can do for them, and deal is much easier to close.

    I had a friend who had great success just stopping in on local business, leaving his card, and asking them if they needed anything. If they see you once a week or so, and you have some nice samples to show. Many will eventually take you up on your offer.
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      You could always change your name to "Sean Vistaprint"...:p

      Beyond that, it's a matter of being where your target market is and positioning yourself as a go-to resource.

      If I were going to start a business like yours, I'd be looking for groups of business owners - forums, Facebook groups, Skype groups, LinkedIn groups, etc. I'd jump in and participate as a fellow business owner, building that "know, like and trust" factor.

      The second leg of the triangle would be content marketing aimed specifically at the kind of business owner you want to deal with. Design tutorials, business card etiquette, case studies, etc. Read through some of the "article syndication" threads for ideas on distribution. Jim Edwards's book "Turn Words Into Traffic" is a classic, and "Content Cash" by Paul Myers has an excellent system for getting the most bang for your effort.

      Of course, the base of the triangle is you. Build your website to get prospects on a list, then "drip market" to them so that when they need new business cards (and related collateral), they think of you first. Establish yourself as a top-notch service provider and ask your happy customers for referrals. Bob Burg's "Endless Referrals" and Harvey Mackay's "Sharkproof" are good books on the subject.

      If you're looking for the mythical Easy Button, it doesn't exist.
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  • Profile picture of the author InternetMarketingSmarts
    Have you tried forums where small business owners hang out? Think about your own habits. You come to WF to discuss marketing with other marketers. Well I'm pretty sure small businesses visit forums related to their niche to get advice about various things (general contractor forums, plumbing forums, etc). So maybe you should start setting up accounts in these various forums, participate by giving value via answering questions, giving advice, (not a hard sale.) & eventually you'll get some great clients like this.

    Do this in addition to some of the other suggestions (Facebook Ads, PPC, SEO, etc.) and you should seem some great results. If you see marketers are doing it here, it's because it works. It may not be as sexy as the other things everyone else likes to focus on, but it does work too.

    Hope this helps.
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    • Profile picture of the author seanpbh
      Thanks for the help folks. I have no experience with ppc marketing but would like to try and youse it. Does anyone know any good guides on how to running ppc campaigns. There is alot of information on this forum but I am not sure where to start
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  • Profile picture of the author atrbiz
    I would definitely recommend PPC (Adwords), Facebook Ads, and also possibly purchase a targeted data list of businesses (depending on your goals,etc).

    I've had success generating leads via all sources I mentioned.

    For PPC, dive into the PPC section of this great forum

    Tons of great info on Facebook advertising,etc here on the forum, and of course Google

    Also plenty of list brokers that sell business data,etc - also you could try and find free business data by doing manually searches through manta, yelp, yp, etc. Or you can hire a VA to complete these tasks.

    Best of luck.
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  • Profile picture of the author MoneyReign
    Hey Sean,

    I would recommend you play around with Facebook Ads as it will allow you to really zone in on your demographic and target audience. This way you can make your ads appear to different people and businesses within your location/zip code.

    Pay per click marketing is also effective but you are going to have to deal with landing pages, quality scores and advertiser competition for specific terms.

    I would definitely try them both out and see which works best for you, but Facebook Ads has it's advantages with their demographic targeting and no quality score issues.
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