Web Design, SEO, Blog Marketing and
Social Media Marketing for your Business

The small business owner is always looking for low cost or no cost opportunities to promote their business. The press release is an excellent way to do this. This can be self prepared and released to local media for free; as well as to online newswire sites.

Successful press releases should be a legitimate story that will interest a journalist and your targeted audience. Your press release should cover trends, issues and concerns for your niche or area. Stay away from blatant self-promotion, such as highlighting a new client or talking about how great your product or service is. A good press release answers all of the “W” questions (who, what, where, when and why).

Get to know your local media and the types of stories that they cover. Many of their stories may be dominated by wire stories; but look at the local stories. Who does these stories and what merits coverage? Get to know the editor what sorts of press releases he or she will use.

You should send your press release to journalists that cover your industry. Create a list of journalists that write about your market by looking at other news stories. Then locate their contact information by Googling them. After you send a copy of your release, follow up with a phone call.

If you want to promote your business to a wider audience, consider using the free and low cost online services such as Free-Press-Release.com, PRweb.com or PRzoom.com. More costly services include businesswire.com and PRNewswire.

Consider adding a press room to your website. Include resource materials including photos, history and other background info. Include links to other articles that have been published. This will help journalists easily make changes or additions to your press release.

There are quite a number of website statistical packages available and Google Analytics generally reports the lowest number of visitor traffic. Is it because Google Analytics is correct and the others are wrong? Or is Google Analytics just missing some of the traffic?

There are two types of web analytics technologies in use today.

1. Log File Analysis: This includes analytics such as Webalizer or AWstats. With these the web server records all transaction about visitors. Because the log files are on the web server, the data is logged no matter what browser or what settings the visitor is using.
2. Page Tagging involves a code being placed directly on the web page and reporting back to the analytics package the visitor data. This includes analytics such as Google Analytics and Statcounter. Page tagging works by using JavaScript and cookies (Google Analytics) or JavaScript / cookies (Statcounter).

So what causes the differences?

1. If the user has JavaScript or cookies disabled, Google Analytics will not report visitor traffic. It is estimated that  8-10% of users have JavaScript turned off.
2. Google Analytics will under report if the reporting is blocked by security software like Norton.
3. IP address based analytics will report the same person over and over if they use dial-up. This is because dial-up shows a different IP address with each connection. Since Google Analytics is cookie based, it will report a lower number.
4. Google Analytics has a very good ability to separate bots and spiders from actual visitors. Other analytic packages over report visitor traffic that are actual bots and spiders.

The true measure of visitor traffic is generally somewhere in the middle and is more than what Google Analytics reports and less than what the other web analytics reports. Use your analytics to measure trends and understand that the actual number of visitors may be somewhat different.

Within the last month, LinkedIn has added company profiles into their results. There are now profiles for 160,000 of the largest companies added onto the more than 20 million people profiles. These can only be viewed by members who are logged in.

Companies include the Fortune 500 to philanthropic organizations. The information for the company profiles is pulled from LinkedIn plus aggregated information that is pulled form LinkedIn’s partners, CapitalIQ and BusinessWeek.

LinkedIn selects these companies through finding trends in the work history of users and identifying connections between companies. Companies are not able to add their own profiles. In the next few months changes will allow employees to edit company overviews, upload logos, and add other custom modules.

These company profiles are resources for members to research and explore companies for both job and business opportunities.

Uses of LinkedIn Company Profiles

1. Locating contacts at companies that you are trying to network with.
2. View job opportunities.
3. Read latest company news.
4. See listing people that have recently joined the company.

Top 10 most viewed company profiles for the first month: source: LinkedIn Blog

1. IBM
2. Accenture
3. Microsoft
4. Google
5. Oracle
6. Hewlett-Packard
7. Cisco Systems
8. Pricewaterhouse Coopers
9. Deloitte
10. GE

Price is one of those powerful influencers on our perception of quality. So what happens when a product is placed on sale?

Regular price $799; Now $499. We have all seen ads like this one. They are designed to attract buyers to take advantage of a great deal. But what happens to the consumers perception of that product? Does the cheap price translate into a lower value perception?

Perceived value by the consumer is based on the price vs. what the buyer thinks that price should be. The customer will judge whether prices are too high, too low, or on target. Research shows that major price reductions do cheapen consumers perception of the product or service.

Alternatives

1. Limit the sale time: “Sale! Saturday and Sunday Only.” Research suggests that including a time-limiting component to the promotion stops this perception of product cheapening.
2. Bundling: “Luxury packages” on cars never identify how much you are paying for specific items. Bundling can increase perceived value and minimizes consumer attention to prices. This tends to spur the “emotional buy”.
3. Super size: Giving a larger size or an added companion product at the same price is a good way to increase the perception of savings while maintaining value. Buy-one-get-one-free offers seem to have less of an impact on consumers.
4. Price Points: Pay attention to the psychological price barriers. What is the difference between a home sales price of $295,000 and $310,000? The $310,000 home will probably be shown to about half as many qualified buyers and it could take twice as long to sell.

Business marketing should use a mix of online promotion (SEO and PPC ads) and Off line promotion to drive targeted visitor traffic. Promoting your website URL in ads, brochures and business cards can drive traffic to your website and increase sales, but this is only the start.

Including your website URL in all print advertising can double the volume of website traffic according to studies. Present a short message in your print ad and then refer people to the website for more details. Use the print ad to attract attention and then use the website to close the sale or request a quote.

Here are some ideas that are easy to implement.

1. Email Signature: Include a clickable URL in your email signature that can automatically be added to every email you write or respond to.
2. Direct Mail: Use postcards with a good design and a catchy message sent to your target market. Using an odd size such as 6″ x 9″ or larger can really stand out in a hand full of mail.
3. Newsletters: If you put out a printed newsletter, place specific content areas as ”online bonus” material and direct people to a web page.
4. Yellow pages ads: Many companies do not put their web address in their display ads or below their address/phone line.
5. On-Hold Messaging: Direct your on-hold visitors to special offers on your website or to FAQ’s to answer their questions.
6. Vehicle Graphics: Turn your vehicle into a mobile sign with either permanent graphics or magnetic signs.
7. Promotional Items: Include your URL along with your phone number on everything from pens to refrigerator magnets.

Marketing manager Roger Courville suggests this creative technique.

1. Use a business card printer to print inexpensive cards that have a simple call to action… URL + offer (e.g., free report, free assessment, whatever).
2. Hand these out at trade shows, networking events, etc. Get partners to stack a pile on their trade show table. Leave a few in conspicuous (but appropriate) places for people to pick up.

Newsletters are an important part of your relationship marketing strategy. Newsletters can be emailed or printed and mailed. They are a form of targeted direct marketing to a specific established email or address list. This separates newsletters from blogs. Blogs are an open communication that broadcasts your message via RSS to the world.

Newsletters allow you to send industry or company news to your targeted audience on a regular basis. You need to focus on providing value by sending interesting and relevant information. This should be in a summary format that is quick to digest and understand. It is about saving your reader time. They can then determine if they need more information on the topic.

The design of your newsletter should be graphically formatted and inviting to your readers. According to Donna Anderson of Donna Anderson Auctions, “it should be interesting and visually appealing enough to warrant reading.”

Newsletters are generally used for one of two purposes. They can be focused on building your customer base by getting new prospects. Newsletters can also be used as a relationship tool to maintain and communicate with your current customers.

“A newsletter is a great way to stay in touch with your clients, and hopefully, garner new clients through referrals by constantly reminding them of what you have to offer.” — Neal Evan Caminsky- President of Red Dream Studios

Benefits of newsletter marketing.

1. It establishes your credibility
2. Builds and maintains customer relationships
3. Creates cross-selling opportunities
4. Combine to work with other advertising.
5. Email newsletters have low distribution cost.

Make Social Networks Part of Your Web Strategy. Social networks need to be part of your Internet marketing for your business. They are the new frontier that blogging was just a few years ago. Traffic and personal connections from LinkedIn, Facebook and MySpace are just too big to ignore.

There are many dozens of social networks, many with specialties or niches. For instance Black Planet focuses on the African American community. 43things.com is about goal setting while wayn.com is about travel. Cardomain.com is the networking site for car enthusiasts.

The best and most effective way to use social networks is to choose the one that most closely matches your market. Find the one that most closely fits your ideal “target demographic” and then spend time and really network and become part of the group.

7 Ways to effectively utilize a social network.

1. Choose a network that includes your targeted demographic. Remember that smaller networks tend to be easier and faster to connect with.
2. Decide on what you want to accomplish and what people (industries, level in the organization) that you want to reach.
3. Don’t just sign-up and visit occasionally. Interact and spend time networking with the members and become a part of the group.
4. Don’t go in looking for customers to convert into a quick sale. Go in with the idea that you want to build relationships. You can create many unexpected alliances that can cause your business to benefit in many unexpected ways.
5. Use the phone to contact “friends” you create to increase the interactions and better build business relationships.
6. Constantly adjust your approach and try new things to get new and better results.
7. Real benefits come from networking over a long period. Don’t expect instant results and the results you get will be proportional to the effort you put in.

The challenge that local small businesses face is how to bring targeted local traffic to their website. Here are seven cost effective ways for a local restaurant or dry cleaner to use to reach local prospects.

1. Organic SEO: Optimize your website with your primary keywords mixed in with city, neighborhood, community and local names. Include phone numbers with area codes. These are all ways that people search for local businesses.
2. Google Local Search: These listings appear along with a map at the top of Google’s search results when people search for local businesses or services. You can add your business listing for free by going to the Google Local Business Center.
3. Facebook: Create a Facebook page for your small business. Encourage customers to join your Facebook presence by offering a free glass of wine or free service. You can then reach them offer specials to your fans. Encourage customers to leave reviews on your Facebook page. Forbes did a nice story on a local restaurant using Facebook.
4. Online Radio Ads: Place online radio ads with a service like TargetSpot. You can geo-target your ad down to the zip code and they advertise that you can start with as little as $50.
5. CitySearch: Citysearch is a local guide with the information on local businesses. These range from restaurants and spas, to hotels and retail. Local guides like CitySearch allow you to advertise with a web ad for a reasonable monthly fee.
6. Blog: Create a blog that deals with local services, issues, history or events. The key here is to create local content that is interesting to your targeted customer and that uses local town and community names to draw in local visitors.
7. Google Adwords: Set-up two campaigns. One that uses general keyword phrases that are manually geo-targeted. The second uses the same keywords with city and/or state added to the beginning or end. Use the state or city terms prominently in the ad to get a higher click thru rate.

Providing valuable information in an eBook is an effective way to brand yourself and your company as the authority and the expert in your particular field. eBooks are digital books that are usually published in a PDF format that are easily read on your computer or printed out. The key is to provide valuable information that will be prized by your targeted reader.

eBook Marketing

1. Topic: Select a topic that you are very knowledgeable about and that would appeal to your targeted customer. eBooks that focus on solving a specific problem are considered the most valuable.
2. Plan: Start with an outline, a written plan that will help you tell your story in a logical flow. Include a plan for strategic links to your website that will drive traffic to key pages.
3. Format: Use a 6×9 format with at least a 12 point font. Make it legible and easy to read. Use headlines and bullet points so it can be scanned. Add in images or graphics for visual interest.
4. Create PDF: If you write your eBook in Word or other word processing software, you can convert your document using a PDF converter. These are low cost or free applications.
5. Website: Upload the eBook to your web host. Have visitors register their name and email and then deliver the link location once they have signed up. This will allow you to build up your contact database.
6. Sharing: Invite readers to share this eBook with others. This will spread your company name and links to your website in a viral way.
7. Publicize: Promote your eBook on your website, on your blog, social networks and forums. The more people who download your eBook, the more attention your company will receive.

A good eBook will attract attention, attract visitors and brand you and your company as the expert. If you target your topic properly, the visitors will all be interested prospects.

Web 2.0 technologies of today are about quickly connecting, sharing, learning and communicating. These technologies are perfect for job searching and are a faster than traditional job search methods. More and more recruiters from larger companies are using social media as a tool to connect to potential new hires.

Resume Blog
Using your blog as your resume allows you to put yourself out the widest group of potential employers. Resume blogs are much more in depth than traditional resumes. Post stories about your major accomplishments, projects, your education and any topics you are passionate about. Be real. Be fresh. Communicate in both directions by enabling and encouraging comments.

YouTube
Posting your video resume on YouTube can get you noticed. You are able to stand out from your competition. Use your keyword phrases in the video title and description to help your video resume be found in the search engines. You can also embed your videos into your resume blog to add a voice and face to your resume.

LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a powerful networking tool. Post your profile and connect to as many people as possible with LinkedIn. They have tools that will show you which job openings have people from your network already working at that company. Inside introductions are a powerful advantage in getting your resume to the right person. LinkedIn also puts your information out for LinkedIn members and Google searches. Many thousands of job recruiters are part of the LinkedIn network..

Facebook and MySpace
Facebook and MySpace allow you to post a profile and place regular updates about yourself. It is becoming common for corporate recruiters to log into social networking sites to check out the profile of a potential hire. They are using these sites as another way to check references. Clean-up your profile and remove inappropriate content that you would not want an employer to see.

These job search tools are available for you to use. There is either no cost or low cost to apply these Web 2.0 tools to your job search.