Are You Doing Any Small Business Internet Marketing

Small business internet marketing has become a necessity. Almost all potential customers (97%) use some form of internet based media when researching products or services. The misconception is that only young people use these technologies but in fact, nearly all of the buying public now use them. The other paradigm shift is that a presence itself just isn’t enough. Today’s consumer not only wants to find you online, but wants you to provide them relevant, frequently updated content.

What Does Effective Small Business Internet Marketing Look Like Today?

Small business internet marketing has become much more targeted and has gravitated towards multi-channel conversations versus the “old school” way of advertising to the masses via radio, TV, newspapers and the Yellow Pages. While the exposure to a large group of people seems advantageous, the return on investment is inconsistent. With small business internet marketing, however, much of the communication is controlled by the prospects through services like Facebook and Twitter, which have more than 700 million members combined—and YouTube, which gets 300 million visitors a month. This allows your small business internet marketing efforts to be much more targeted and much more effective.

What Types Of The Things Does A Small Business Internet Marketing Program Have

Effective small business internet marketing begins with your web presence. Whether it’s a mini site strictly designed for lead generation, or a full blown website, a small business can look much bigger with a carefully crafted website design strategy. Unfortunately, most websites are just glorified brochures that talk more about the business rather than informing the customer how the business can solve their problems. Since content is king, most small to mid-size business owners today are opting for website design that is more fluid in nature, as opposed to static. This way, content can be updated continually without the need for, and expense of, a total redesign. The on-site optimization of the website begins here, and then moves into the off-site search engine optimization phase.

Local search engine marketing is the place for any small to mid-sized business owner to begin their online marketing efforts. Proper positioning for locally searched terms can allow a small business to compete much more effectively with the big guys. Some statistics estimate that almost 40% of all searches have a local qualifier attached. Success in small business local internet marketing relates to your small business being listed in hundreds of local and national directories that the search engines use to determine just how local your organization really is. Reputation management comes into play as well. Just as good reviews help your small business internet marketing efforts, bad reviews can hurt your search engine position, as well as dissuade a potential customer from looking at your small business any further.

Content Marketing is one of the most effective small business internet marketing strategies and helps to attract and retain more targeted customers. The search engines seek out and reward sites that give their customers what they are looking for; a more effective search experience. The savvy owner will enhance the potential success of his or her online small business internet marketing efforts by not only providing relevant, consistently updated content, but also provide all of that content in the various medium by which the customer prefers to consume it. Video marketing, article and blog marketing, and podcasting offer you the opportunity to re-package the same content into the ways a potential customer would prefer to consume it, increasing the potential that your small business internet marketing message will be received and acted upon.

A social media marketing presence has become almost a must for enhancing your small business internet marketing efforts. The business that operates without a Facebook fanpage, a Twitter presence, a LinkedIn profile, or a YouTube channel is not only missing direct opportunities to connect with customers, but also all the free exposure these outlets offer you to others in your customers sphere of influence.

Maybe the most interesting of all is mobile marketing. With the proliferation of smartphones over the past few years, and the expected rise in their usage in the years to come, there can be no doubt that this mode of small business marketing is the next great frontier. If your business doesn’t have a mobile website that is different from your normal online presence, you are missing opportunities. Text message (SMS) marketing has grown in popularity as all different types of businesses have realized the benefits of staying in touch with their customers, as well as opportunities to affect almost immediate responses from their “lists.”

Are My Current Small Business Internet Marketing Efforts Working

Here are the four most important questions you can ask yourself about your small business internet marketing efforts…

• Is your business easy to find online?
• Are you regularly monitoring and enhancing your online reputation
• Are you active in all the places your targeted customers hang out online?
• Do you have mechanisms to capture customers information and follow up with them?

If your answer is “no” or “I don’t know” to any of those questions, we can help with our internet traffic generation services. You need knowledgeable experts to help you plan and execute your small business internet marketing strategies with zero extra effort on your part that allows you to concentrate on running your business. Contact us for a no-obligation consultation.