Marketing

14 Big Online Marketing Ideas for Businesses on a Small Budget

Most businesses are on a tight budget, especially when it comes to marketing. Times are hard and many companies don’t have a lot of money to invest on advertising and marketing.

The irony is, not marketing your business will have a detrimental effect on your business.

One local business owner called Tom who owns a fireplace store has just put a closing down sign in his store window because nobody is visiting his store and he says he can’t afford to advertise any more.

This year alone he has spent over $6000 on advertising in his local newspaper with expensive one time ads and it was a total waste of time and money.

Although it is sadly too late for Tom, the good news for other companies who are still in business is that online marketing is not only much cheaper but it is far more effective than traditional methods of marketing plus you can easily track the success of each marketing campaign that you launch.

Here are some big marketing ideas for businesses on a small marketing budget:

1. Optimize your website for the search engines:

This is one of the first things you need to put on your ‘to-do’ list.

Why? Because Google is not only the most popular search engine on the Internet but it is also your business’ best friend.

Google and the search engines want you to rank high in the search results. If their clients are searching for a product or service that provide, it is Google’s job is to tell them about your business.

However, you have to make it easy for them by optimising your site. This need not be expensive at all and yet will one be of the best investments that you could ever make. The return will be phenomenal as customers far and wide discover your company online.

2. Google Plus Local

While we are on the subject of Google, we can’t miss out Google+ Local. As mentioned in the previous marketing tip, Google really is on your side and it wants to help your business be found. They make sure that if potential customers are looking for a product or service that you provide, Google wants to make sure that its results are totally relevant and your company appears in the listings.

As a result, search results are becoming much more local and personalised and companies who claim their Google Plus Local Page and optimise it properly get the best rewards.

3. Start a Blog

No matter what type of business you are in, you can still have a blog. In case you don’t know what a blog is, it basically stands for ’web log’ and they’re effectively online diaries.

If you are going to create a blog for your company you need to do the following:

Host the blog on your own domain. E.g. YourBusinessWebsite.com/blog

Anyone can set one up, that’s the easy part. Thinking of something interesting to say each time you blog is the tricky bit. You need to write good content that will be interesting for your visitors and customers. People won’t thank you if it’s just going to be one long sales pitch.

Create a community and make your visitors feel part of it by responding to each blog comment. If you do, the more people will be inclined to read and comment on your blog more often.

4. Social Networking

Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus are all popular sites that you can’t ignore. By creating a profile on each of these sites, you will not only create new opportunities for potential clients to find you but they will also be excellent sources of traffic.

Local businesses that use social media sites like these, almost always see a significant increase in monthly traffic. The part that excites them the most is the fact that it is completely free. All it costs is a little of their time but the results are well worth it.

By investing a bit of time and effort providing good content that is relevant to your audience and interacting with your followers you will soon build a loyal following. This will raise your online company profile and make your site easier to find in the search engines.

”You can no longer afford to ignore social media marketing.

In 2012, 85% of marketers found that social media generated more

exposure for their business. “

5. Case Studies and testimonials

If you already have happy customers who love your product or service why not get a testimonial or case study from them?

Case studies and testimonials are a perfect way to get brand new customers because they build credibility and give the potential customers the confidence to try your product or service knowing that other people like it. They will be less inclined to buy if they don’t see any testimonials or reviews.

The secret is to get your customer to talk about your product or service, how they used it, and they results that they got.

Most customers will be happy to do this if you ask them.

You could also provide feedback forms on your website. Online customers are used to and conditioned to leaving reviews. They are a great way to get more people interested in what you have to offer.

6. Write a free ‘Beginners Guide’ for customers to download

No matter what kind of business you are in, you can get a lot more business by writing a free Beginners Guide. It is an excellent marketing technique.

They are an excellent way to get a lot of traffic to your site and increase the interest in your product or service.

Examples:

Beginners Guide to Choosing a Fishing Rod

Beginners Guide to Setting Up an iPhone 5

How to Choose a New Bathroom Suite

Choosing the Right Spectacles for You

Beginners Guide to Tiling

These kinds of free reports rank highly in the search engines and do a superb job of up-selling your products and services, as well as making you an ‘authority’ in your field. Customers will see that you know exactly what you are talking about and will decide to buy from you instead of your competitors.

7. Start an Affiliate Program

This is possibly the best marketing tip for any business on a tight budget.

By having a team of affiliates (individuals and companies who promote your products on their websites for a commission on each sale that they get) you get people marketing your product for free. There is absolutely no limit to the number of people that you can have promoting your services. In fact the more you have, the more likely you will make many more sales.

There are a lot of third party applications and plug-ins out there which make setting up an affiliate program easier. They will handle all of your sales and commissions. Feel free to contact us for more information and we will get you up and running in no time.

8. Answer Questions relating to your product or service

The internet is the first place people look to for answers if they have a question about a particular product or service.

They post their questions on discussion forums and question and answer sites like Yahoo Answers. If you can provide the answers to their questions relating to your products or services, you can attract a ton of brand new customers. It is a perfect free way to get more visitors to your website and gain credibility.

9. Go To Networking Events

Networking events are a great place to find new clients and all businesses should make it a practise to attend networking events if possible.

These are generally arranged by The Chamber of Commerce or global organisations such as BNI (Business Networking International). A quick search online will reveal a number of networking events in your area.

They work because you will always meet somebody who you can form a business relationship with. This will either be as a customer or as a useful contact to give your referrals or joint venture with.

10. Ask For Referrals

It is surprising how many companies don’t ask their customers for referrals. Why not? If you have satisfied and happy customers, you really should be asking for referrals as it a very effective way of getting even more happy customers.

Some people feel shy about asking and are afraid that the customer will turn them down. However, you will be surprised at how few customers actually will say no. If a large proportion of customers do refuse to introduce you to others, it might be a sign that you are doing something wrong and could be doing a much better job of making them happy, giving you something to work on.

For a pain-free way of asking for referrals, why not try this method; Look up your current customers on LinkedIn and see who they are connected with. If you think someone that they know can personally benefit from your product or service, ask them for an introduction.

Most, if not all will say yes, especially if you return the favour.

11. Harness the Power of YouTube

Companies are latching on to the importance of YouTube in their marketing campaigns. Not only do videos now appear in the search results, but you can also use videos to show how good your product or services actually are.

If, for example, you create stunning cakes, why not show a video of you making and icing the cake. Or if you are a painter and decorator, create a video showing the transformation of the room with a before, during and after video. Do you provide a lawn care service? If so, again, video the results.

There is no end to the things that you could video relating to your company. Even a tour around your company premises could be interesting to your customers.

12. Provide exceptionally good customer service.

The best way to keep a customer for life and to get them to tell others about your company is by providing exceptionally good customer service. By doing so, not only will customers be happy with their purchase but they will spend more of their hard earned money on your product or services in the future.

There has never been a more important time for your company to provide excellent customer service, especially as customers are more willing to tell others about their shopping experiences on their social networking sites and by leaving reviews, good or bad.

You want them to tell all of their friends about the great experience they had using your company.

13. Do some online PR

As you know, getting some good PR is a great free way to get people talking about your company. The more they talk about you, the more people will come to your website and check out what you are offering.

Most people think of PR coming from major media outlets such as radio and television. While this would be fantastic, it is not easy to get that sort of attention.

However, there are easier ways to get PR online which can be just as effective, especially if you have a targeted customer group.

Getting the attention of blog owners is one way of doing this, especially if it is a popular and attracts the sort of readers that you want to target.

You can email the blog owner, asking if they would like to interview you. As they are constantly looking for new topics to write about, many will be happy to interview you, especially if it is something that they think that their readers will benefit from.

14. A Crafty Twitter Technique

If you want more customers, here is a great suggestion to encourage people to promote your business for free AND build up a huge mailing list at the same time.

Here is the plan:

Offer a free downloadable report, or set up an exclusive password protected VIP Loyalty Group on your website or Facebook page where you will have special offers and discounts not available to anybody else.

People can get access to the report or VIP area by Tweeting about your product or service.

Once they have sent the Tweet, they notify you and you give them access to their prize.

This is an incredibly powerful way to not only spread the word about your company and website but also to build your online mailing list (if you are giving them the report) or group of followers on Twitter and Facebook. This means that you can keep in touch with these people and build a relationship with them. It will be good for your branding and internet presence.

As a variation, you can do this by asking for ‘Likes’ on Facebook or any other social site.

If just 10 people do this per day and they each have a following of 100 friends and family, you can see how quickly the word will spread about your business.

If you are inspired by any of the powerful marketing tips in this article and want to know more about setting them in place please contact us through the form below and a we will contact you to discuss your needs.

By Stefanie Blackburn|Marketing Tips|0 Comments

The Single Best Way to Market Just About Any Business

Of all the many ways you can promote your business today, I want to share with you one of the most effective, most profitable, and least risky ways to market your products or services – email marketing.

Now just to be clear, I’m not in any way talking about buying an email list of people that don’t know you and blasting out a million messages in the hopes of making a few sales. Sending any promotional emails to people who have not given you permission to contact them is clearly spamming and there are rules and regulations that prohibit that in most countries.

What I am talking about is “Permission Based Marketing” – where you offer someone some free, valuable information (like a free special report, audio or video) as an incentive to give you their email address and permission to contact and market to them in the future. Offering a free email newsletter to your prospects gives you the chance to get your name in front of your website visitors on a regular basis and allows you to provide value and develop lasting relationships with them.

What’s so great about email marketing? Perhaps the greatest, is that studies have shown that commercial e-mail marketing returned a whopping $43.62 for every dollar spent on it in 2009, according to the DMA’s (Direct Marketing Association) Power of Direct economic-impact study.

That’s an incredible return on investment of over 4000%!! Most businesses are lucky if they run an advertisement and get a 200% or 300% return, but when you can get $40 back for every $1 you invest, I’m amazed that more businesses don’t take advantage of this marketing method.

Here are some important points to keep in mind as you consider using email marketing in your business, and next time I’ll introduce you to some of the best online services available to help you with your email marketing efforts.

You must always ASK for permission to email someone first, and once it’s granted to you, you must respect and honor the responsibility that you’ve been entrusted with. You must never sell or give your list of addresses and names to anyone and you must maintain control of your list at all times.
If someone doesn’t want to be on your mailing list, you must respect their wishes and make it easy for them to be removed from your list.
If you don’t already have one, create a Privacy Policy that states exactly what you do with the information you collect from your visitors – and honor it! Just posting a link to a privacy policy can increase the likelihood that a prospect will sign up for your list.
If you’re a marketer in the U.S. you must be certain your email marketing efforts comply with the CAN-SPAM act. It’s not difficult to do, especially if you use a reputable email service provider to handle your mailings for you,
but the penalties for violating it can be steep.

SourceOne Technologies Offers Email Marketing services to help every business. Find out more about our Email Marketing Services Here.

By admin|E-Mail Marketing|Comments Off

Increase your Creditability and Make them Want to Open your Email Every Time

Email marketing is one of the top strategies when it comes to marketing online. Unfortunately, however there is a lot so SPAM or unwanted email that hits everyone’s inboxes on a regular basis. This is why it is critical that you work on gaining the trust and respect from your target market so that when you send them email they want to know what you have to say.

One great way to help develop your credibility and gain the respect of your target market so they want to receive email from you is to have a professional image. One component of this is having a functioning professional website that showcases who you are and what you offer, and maybe even has some of your previous newsletters displayed.

The content you provide in your emails is also very important for gaining the respect of your subscribers and getting them to want to open everything you send to them. You will want to keep your messages pretty short and to the point. The goal is to share the information and hopefully make them take action by asking for more information, clicking on a link and in some cases calling you pr coming into your shop or restaurant.

Always try to make your subscribers feel that they would miss out if they didn’t get your emails and newsletters. This can be done by always providing great content, coupons and specials and making it known that they get this because they are on your list.

There are several ways to gain subscribers to your email list. One method you can use is to connect and communicate with your target market on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. You could also contribute to forums that are of interest to your target market. The goal is to have a link back to your website and email opt-in form without selling on these tools.

Once you have a subscriber base it is important to be consistent with your emails and newsletters that you send to them. You will also need to be patient because it will take time to build up trust and recognition with your subscriber base.

SourceOne Technologies offers serveral plans to help you get started with Email Marketing. To find out more compelte the form below

By admin|E-Mail Marketing|0 Comments

Boost Your Business With Blogging!

A Business blog is an incredible online marketing tool that saves you thousands of dollars but provides great business opportunities in just one click. Blogs are user-friendly, customized and flexible medium for disseminating useful information for effective positioning of your products in the market.

Businesses that are actively blogging have a huge advantage of their competitors. Here are just a few of the advantages:

Word-of-Mouth – In a survey, there are currently 14 million blogs with 80,000 more being added each day and about 30 percent of the 50 million users are blog readers. Imagine how much exposure your company will have, if your products are advertised through blogs. The Internet allows information to spread quickly especially if an impressive write-up goes with your product. Soon your blogs will be passed on to hundreds of possible customers.

Awareness and loyalty – Open communication with your customers creates trust and loyalty among them. Being there to respond to their questions and comments makes them more willing to try your products and services.

Feedback – Blogs are great for product research and reviews. It would be easier to improve on your products if you observe your customers’ thinking and behavioral patterns. You can also take immediate action to your customers’ concerns.

For better marketing results, actively promote your business blogs by submitting your blogs to blog search sites and directories. Do not forget to paste in with your blogs, your URL. Be sure that your blogs contain exclusive information with value and are always updated to keep readers visiting for updates.

SourceOne Technologies offers several blogging packages to help you get started. If you are interested in starting a blog today for your business please contact us at 720-306-5001.

By admin|Blogging|0 Comments

Christmas is Coming – Begin your Marketing Now

The holidays can be a very lucrative time for many businesses, however in order to capture this opportunity you must be ready.

This means that starting the end of August you must begin to plan and start to implement your holiday marketing. Your holiday marketing can consist of many components, however for now we are going to focus on Email Marketing.

In August you need to start thinking about the different promotions you can offer as you head into the holiday season. If you plan in advance you can offer several promotions and hit on the following holidays or events; fall, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years as well as you plan out far enough you can plan for Valentine’s Day and the other holidays.

Once you have your promotions it is time to create your messages that you will use to send to your list via email. The goal of these messages will be for your list to take action – and hopefully this will mean revenue for your business.

These messages can contain coupons, links to products they can purchase online, a special promotion they can call you for or visit your store for, etc. The goal is to tie in with the holiday, offer something and close the sale by having an enticing message that your list will take action on.

SourceOne Technologies has several Email Marketing Plans available and we would be happy to discuss these further with you so that your business can be sure to take advantage of the holiday promotion window. For more information just complete the form below or visit our page on Email Marketing .

By admin|E-Mail Marketing|0 Comments

Tips for Using Email Marketing Effectively in your Business

Tips for Using Email Marketing Effectively in your Business

Using Email Marketing as part of your marketing mix is a great way to stay in contact with your prospects and current customers and in most cases generate more revenue on a regular basis. Email Marketing Tips

One key to using email marketing successfully is to be consistent. Being consistent with your email marketing will keep you in front of your market and help build a connection. Consistency being key you should market to your email list approximately 2 – 4 times a month.

Here are a few additional tips to help you use email marketing effectively in your business:

Provide something of value to members of your list when you send them email. Coupons are great to send out to your list and are often shared with others.

Track your results. It is important that you know what emails are effective and which ones are not. This can be achieved by using a system that shows you who opens the emails and if they click on any links included in the email or not.

Personalize the emails you send. Use a tool that will allow you to personalize the email you send to each prospect and you will see an increase in your open rate. Everyone likes to be addressed by name.

Respect your list. It is critical that you respect your list and never spam them with email they do not want. To prevent this a system should be used that allows subscribers to un-subscribe if they no longer wish to receive your email marketing.

Make it easy to share. Make it easy for your list to share any email you send with someone else. This will help you grow your list over time.

These tips will help you effectively use email marketing to reach your prospects and customers and stay in front of them on a regular basis, ultimately generating more revenue.

About the author:

Stefanie Blackburn is an Internet Consultant with SourceOne Technologies. SourceOne Technologies currently offers assistance to business owners in establishing a complete online presence by offer their services as an Online Marketing Consultant.

If your business is ready to capture the benefits of Email Marketing SourceOne Technologies can assist you in getting started. We offer several plans that range from the do it yourself to the everything done for you plans. Click here to find more about our Email Marketing plans.

By admin|E-Mail Marketing|0 Comments

Implementing an Automated Email Marketing Campaign for your Business

Implementing an Automated Email Marketing Campaign for your Business

Businesses that are run online have been using a strategy for years for selling products and services; email marketing. This is a marketing tool however that many businesses with a store front or office overlooked and did not include into the marketing mix. Email marketing however, can no longer be overlooked and should be incorporated into every businesses marketing mix.

Email marketing will allow a business to build a list of customers or prospects and keep in touch with them on a regular basis. In most cases staying in contact with your list of prospects and customers will increase revenue.

There are several benefits to using email marketing in your business. Here are a few of those benefits:

Low Cost
Offers Unlimited follow-up with your prospects and customers
Offers increased opportunity for more sales
Is a great customer retention tool
Can be automated
Implementing Email Marketing typically increased revenue

There are also several ways that you can use email marketing with communicating with your prospects and customers. Here are just a few:

Thank them for their purchase
Provide a coupon
Send information on a sale or special promotion
Promote an event
Send a newsletter
Share information on new products or services
Profile the customer of the month

As you can see using email marketing has many benefits and uses for every business. Email marketing should no longer be an overlooked item in any business marketing mix.

Stefanie Blackburn is an Internet Consultant with SourceOne Technologies. SourceOne Technologies currently offers assistance to business owners in establishing a complete online presence by offer their services as an Online Marketing Consultant.

If your business is ready to capture the benefits of Email Marketing SourceOne Technologies can assist you in getting started. We offer several plans that range from the do it yourself to the everything done for you plans. Click here to find more about our Email Marketing plans.

By admin|E-Mail Marketing|0 Comments

Business Marketing — Fewer businesses will continue with Yellow Pages

Business Marketing — Fewer businesses will continue with Yellow Pages

If you are a business owner that has used the Yellow Pages in your marketing mix you know that this can be very costly, and sometimes there is little return on this cost. A huge cost with little return is something that most businesses can not afford to keep and remain profitable.

We have one client that was paying almost $1200 a month for their Yellow Pages listed and from what little tracking tools they had were only able to attribute about 2 customers a month from those ads. We have now switched this client to other marketing channels which include Social Media, Blogging as well as Email Marketing. The goal is that within three months of adding these services (at a MUCH lower cost) that we will be able to a substantial increase in traffic and revenue from these efforts.

Looking at other methods to market besides the Yellow Pages is becoming a trend with small businesses or what some call micro-business (micro-business = 10 employees or less). Personally, I believe that there are better methods to market than the Yellow Pages where you can better track and measure the effectiveness of your marketing.

Vistaprint conducted a survey in April of 2010 of 1,100 customers and in this survey found that two-thirds surveyed have no interest in marketing in the Yellow Pages and only 11% plan to use it in the future. Here is graph of the marketing channel trends of those surveyed:

In looking at this graph it is nice to see that many businesses are currently using Social Media, Online Direct Marketing and Physical Direct Marketing. This is a trend that will continue and is one that will help small or micro-business cut cost and build focused prospect lists.

If you would like to read the full survey you can do so here at Vistaprint’s Small Business Blog.

If you are interested in learning more about how you can use social media in your business please contact us via the form below:

By admin|Marketing|0 Comments

Social Networking Can Produce Great Benefits for Your Business

If you're a business owner, large or small, now is the time to begin to capture the benefits of using Social Networking for your business. Many businesses in today's economy have tightened their belts and no longer have a large budget to use for marketing; so now is the time to explore another and possible better avenue; Social Networking and reap the benefits.

There are several benefits of using Social Networking for your business, however we are only going to touch on a few at this time; increasing your network, building relationships, building an online reputation or brand and zero cost marketing.

Increasing your network is a very important thing to do in order to bring more business to you. Social Networking can help you do this. When you begin to use Social Networking and start connecting with others you will find that they know others that are either a resource for you or someone that is interested in your product or service. Since you are currently networking or connected with the first layer of individuals this gives you the opportunity to connect with their contacts as well and increase your network or sphere of influence.

In today's market things have changed and marketing is more about building a relationship than it was 10 or even 5 years ago. People are more selective in who they do business with and prefer to do business with someone they know. If you do it correctly Social Networking gives you the opportunity to learn about your prospects and understand better the needs they have and the challenges they face. Social Networking creates a relationship that will position you as a resource and possibly an expert so that when your network needs what you have to offer you will be the first person they think of.

Using Social Networking properly can allow you to build a reputation as someone that provides tremendous value. In the past companies may have invested thousands and even millions of dollars to create a reputation or brand with advertising, but now you have another method that is faster and less expensive. You can establish your brand and reputation using Social Networking by providing information and value to those that you network with.

A key benefit of using Social Networking in business is the ability to create a zero cost marketing stream. It is not advocated to blatantly promote your product or service, however as you build your Social Networking profile you can provide information on who you are and what your business is, even including the URL to your website or blog. Using this form of marketing is often more effective because it draws customers to you in a non threatening way and it is zero cost marketing.

Social Networking is truly a tool or medium that every business should be using. The benefits are great and in most cases can be seen quickly. You can increase your network, build strong relationships, create an online reputation or brand and create a zero cost marketing channel, using Social Networking. The benefits will improve your business, just be sure to focus on providing value and information to your prospects and building that relationship before you focus on making the sale.

About the author:

Stefanie Blackburn is an Internet Consultant with SourceOne Technologies. SourceOne Technologies currently offers assistance to business owners in establishing a complete online presence by offering their services as an Online Marketing Consultant.

If you are interested in more information on how you can use Social Media in your business please contact us by using the form below.