No matter what industry they’re in, small businesses can benefit from a good online strategy. Unfortunately, most small businesses don’t. The good news is that the reasons are simple and so are the solutions.
Oh, and before we get started, this article is for every business owner - not just those that sell online. It’s for professional service firms, retailers, travel and tourism businesses, non-profits and everyone else.
Reason One: Tick Box Marketing - Also known as the ‘build it and they will come’ strategy, many businesses feel that having a website is enough. It isn’t. You need to devote time, energy and resources into promoting your website both online and off.
Reason Two: A Website for You - Your website isn’t for you, it’s for your prospective customers. Your customers want simple information that helps them make more informed decisions. They want to be able to find your contact details easily. They want to be able to make their easily through your site. They don’t want to be made to think. If you’re not sure that your website is up to scratch then you need to ask.
Of course, your site should be attractive but fancy graphics do little to drive business. Ask yourself, ‘what will my customers want to know before making a buying decision’?
Reason Three: No Content - A well developed website gives you the opportunity to demonstrate your expertise and attract visitors in search of solutions. Good websites deliver informative or entertaining content that engages visitors. What content could you add that will show that you know your onions? Think written content, audio and even video. And make sure you keep the content fresh. When was the last time you updated your website?
Reason Four: Bringing Offline Ideas Online - Advertising doesn’t work the same way online as it does offline. People don’t read text the same online as they do in a newspaper or magazine. People don’t find information in the same way online. Do your homework, start by identifying businesses in your industry that are successful online - copy them.
Reason Five: You’re Not Active - Even if you pay no attention to the Internet that doesn’t mean that your prospective customers don’t. Take travel for example. Whether you like it or not, if you’re in the travel industry people are rating and reviewing your offering right now. What forums, websites or social media are people using to discuss you or your industry? What tools are they using to find businesses like yours? You need to know what’s going on online, and for that you need to get active.
Reason Six: You Don’t Know the Basics - If you were born before 1980 you’ll be excused for not knowing how Google ranks websites, what Adwords is or why social networking is important. But if you don’t, now’s the time to learn. Attend a course. Hire a consultant for an hour to explain the basics. Spend time in online business forums.
Reason Seven: You’re Not Doing Anything - If you don’t have an online presence, now is the time to get started. More people are using the Internet to find services and research businesses but getting started is less costly than ever before. If online searchers can’t find you - even if they only account for ten percent of your likely customers - then you won’t get that business.
Mark Nagurski
http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/seven-deadly-online-marketing-sins-676553.html
The core of excellent marketing strategies can be boiled down to ten words:
1. Knowledge
2. Value
3. Perception
4. Communication
5. Frequency
6. Consistency
7. Service
8. Persistence
9. Relationships
10. Organized
Knowledge is the foundation of marketing. Knowledge of the customer. Knowledge of the market. Knowledge of competition. Knowledge of your product or service. Learn more. Research more. Study more. Acquire more. Talk to smart people. Hire smart people. Become a smart marketer.
Value happens when someone gets more than what they gave. Creating value at the customer level is where marketing finds success, certainly in the long run. Many would say in the short term as well. The products and services you provide simply must have a very positive impact (in some way) on the customers you plan to sell to. You don’t out compete competition, you create more value than they do. Produce great value for customers (in their minds) and give them a real reason to choose your company.
Perception means that not everyone sees the world exactly the way you do. In fact, as it relates to your own business, few - if any - will. Your perception of your business is distorted. What is key is how the customer (really) perceives your company. Not what they tell you, not what you think they think, but what they really believe. Great marketing understands that customer perception is the reality the company must work with / and improve.
Communication is the process of sharing ideas. You have ideas about your business and the solutions you bring to the marketplace. If everyone already knew these things, they would all be buying from you. So, you have an educational challenge, don’t you?! It’s about education, it’s about advertising, it’s about messaging, it’s about technology, it’s about genuine caring. A critical part of winning is helping customers “get it” about your business and why they should do business with you.
Frequency happens when you repeat your message. To win at marketing, you can’t just say it once in one way. Searching for the “holy grail” communication strategy rarely works. Great companies repeat their messages in many different ways. It takes more to get through to a market than you would think it would. Advertisers do a campaign. Salespeople follow up. Internet marketers use auto responders. Put yourself regularly in front of the customer. If customers are not regularly saying to you “gosh, I see you guys everywhere” then you aren’t doing your job. People forget; remind them.
Consistency means a regular effort with similar outcomes. It is building and sustaining momentum. If you have a restaurant, it’s not good enough to have a great night, if you follow it up with a dud. To build forward movement, it must be great all the time. The drag about business is that people will always remember the one time you mess up, but will forget the ten times you did it well. That’s human nature. So you must have (almost insanely) high standards. Consistency pays in the communications approach, as it helps lead to the frequency we talked about in the last paragraph.
Service means making customers happy. It means having an attitude that demands a great outcome for customers. It means getting into the details and delivering on the promises you make. When you serve customers really well, it leads to an upward spiral of business. Customers return time and time again and they bring their friends. Bad service leads to the same momentum, but in the opposite direction. A commitment to service also inspires your team, which further fuels the positive progressions. You win when you genuinely serve.
Persistence means sticking with it, even when it is not easy. It never is simple to win in business. Being great means having the dedication to battle through temporary setbacks and disappointments. Part of marketing success is staying in the game and learning over the course of time. Marketing will test you - not just your business knowledge, but you at your core. Good marketing has - and its people have - amazing “stick-to-itiveness.”
Relationships require making genuine connections with other people and organizations. Great companies build huge, loyal customer bases by entering into genuine, mutually beneficial relationships. Dumb companies try to manipulate those relationships, which might work temporarily, but not over the long haul. Build a foundation and be a company that people want to work with for years to come. In addition to customers, relationships serve marketers in other ways as well …. Relationships with distribution partners, media, vendors, sales reps, employees, and others. Often marketing requires a multifaceted effort with lots of people involved. The better the relationships with your entire team, the better the relationships will tend to be in with customers.
Organized is necessary to pull it all together. I thought about “planning”, but really planning is there to simply organize the effort. There are a lot of moving parts. And slight improvements in performance often lead to significant results. In some instances, simply the sheer volume of things you do to win in the market drives success. Regardless, it is isn’t easy and there are a thousand opportunities to win or lose. Getting organized around it often separates the winners and the losers.
Had this article been the ONE word about marketing, I would have selected CUSTOMER. Obviously, the ten words above all come together to create success with customers, and in my book, that is MARKETING!
Curt Clinkinbeard
You may come across thousands of internet marketing companies worldwide who offer internet marketing services with different marketing appeals. Every internet marketing company follows different strategies to achieve their desired goals and results.
If you want internet marketing Company for promoting your business on the World Wide Web, it is very important for you to hire the services of the right Internet Marketing Company providing the services which you are looking for.
While choosing an internet marketing company, one should go for a company which provides a number of services like RSS feeds, article submission, blog submission, forum discussions and others, for promoting and popularizing your website among the targeted traffic on the internet. Nexpider is one of those Internet Marketing Company which works in a systematic and disciplined manner.
Internet Marketing Company should have a structured approach to achieve the desired results. The company should be updated about the latest market techniques and various procedures and work according to the latest market trends.
Internet Marketing Company first tracks your business successfully and then plan the internet marketing strategy for your business accordingly. Company then identifies what exactly is required to be done for the marketing of your business on the internet so that the business gets a unique identity.
The internet marketing company understands the goals and objectives of your business and then make strategic internet marketing plans accordingly.
Internet marketing is by far the best growing marketing technique for every corporation in this scenario. The Internet marketing company deals with Internet MarkMarketing Solutions.
If you are one of those corporations and are planning to promote your products and services online, then you need to hire an internet marketing company. If you want to have an online presence, then you need to have a strong web presence. For this, ultimately you need to look for an Internet marketing company that can offer internet marketing services.
When you are looking for Internet marketing services, you must ensure that these services should be able to provide you all the expertise that you are looking for. You must ensure that you have specific goals for your company and the Internet marketing company that you are hiring is able to meet those goals.
Other factors that you need to consider is to know whether the company has the right experience in the areas that you are looking for and whether they are dedicated towards their work. If you are not aware of your own company, then the internet marketing company that you are hiring will not be able to help you much. The only way the internet marketing company can know where your company stands is only through you. So knowing your company well is a must. You should be aware where it is presently positioned and where it has to stand in the future. Only then you will be able to guide the internet marketing company, whose services you want to hire.
Nex Pider
http://www.articlesbase.com/seo-articles/internet-marketing-company-for-promoting-your-business-on-the-world-wide-web-679458.html