Whether you are in New York, Kentucky or San Diego, when you decide to create your small business selling virtually any product, your key to growth and success is smart marketing.
Many small business owners are unaware of the options that are available to them to promote their business. Some are under the false impression that they need to hire some costly third party marketing “think tank” to come up with an idea that will suit their needs, in order to have a great marketing plan.
With today’s changing technologies and channels for promotion and exposure, the world has become highly accessible to the small business owner, especially through the realm of marketing their business.
The internet is an extremely powerful marketing tool for the small business owner, and it is not so difficult to access.
Some small businesses consider themselves too small or regional to completely take advantage of what the web has to offer. However, this is not keeping up with current trends as the internet has a powerful effect on the local and global market, no matter where you are in the world.
There are more and more consumers looking online to discover services in their own areas. Therefore, it would be in your best interest to create an online presence for your business.
Creating a website isn’t enough as the web is an infinitely large marketplace with many service providers. One way of ensuring that your site rises to the top of Internet searches is to employ SEO marketing techniques or Search Engine Optimization.
What is SEO and how can it help my business?
SEO marketing is the process of using certain keywords in your advertising that consumers typically type into search engines. SEO marketing can take the form of blogs, articles, or optimizing each of your pages on a site for a particular group of keywords.
It’s important that you don’t over-use the keyword, as the search engine will identify this and mark your advertising as spam.
The power of ‘word of mouth’
Another type of Internet marketing, known as viral marketing, is becoming one of the most cost-effective online advertising tools.
Viral marketing is where you create an attractive ad or piece of marketing through an email. You then send this out to a number of addresses. If the recipient finds your message important or relevant, they will pass it on to their friends with similar interests and their friends will, in turn, pass it on, and so on. Pretty soon, your local venture has a global audience, and you are using the draw of word of mouth at no cost.
Of course just sending an email doesn’t cut it as much as it used to, especially due to the large volume of spam mail, and junk-mail filters that can block out your marketing. So try attaching something that you know you customer may appreciate. For example, if you manufacture dolls, you could attach an e-book that tells how to create original doll clothing. This would be of interest to your customer, and they would appreciate the additional educational information. Hopefully, this will increase the chances that they will forward the information to their friends.
Creating an e-book can cost very little or in fact nothing at all, but if you want something that will really grab the attention of your customer, you may wish to try something a bit more costly. For example, offering customers free site memberships or gift certificates may potentially help you connect with a loyal client base.
If your cash flow is tight, costly methods may not be an option. Fortunately, there is a way to get around that problem. Many small business owners have taken advantage of a business cash advance, which allows them to access funds quickly in order to invest in marketing for their business.
