 |
 |
|
 Print Friendly
 Email to Friend
|
|
How to Market Your Small Business Online
|
|
|
Article 1: Why Market Online?
Boston real estate broker John Keith began posting musings about local industry news on a blog, which is short for Web log, back in 2005. It quickly gained traction. Today his blog at www.bostonreb.com has more than 2,500 entries and is a successful lead generator.
In fact, Keith, who also has a Web site at www.johnakeith.com, says he gets all his business through his blog. He doesn’t do any other type of advertising or networking.
“For me the advantage of the technology is I’m able to reach a lot of people in a very simple, extremely low-cost way versus traditional advertising,” says Keith, whose clients tend to be first-time homebuyers, empty nesters and those relocating to the area.
Blogs and Web sites are just two of the many online marketing tools available to small businesses. Others, for example, make use of e-mail, search engines and Web site advertising. Each can potentially benefit companies that don’t sell a single product online.
“Internet marketing allows you to put your company in the research path when people are actively looking for your service,” says Holly Berkley, a San Diego-based new-media consultant and author of “Low-Budget Online Marketing for Small Business” (Self-Counsel Press, 2005).
“When people type in something like ‘San Diego pizza’ or ‘San Diego printing shops’ [in a search engine], they’re very close to making a buying decision,” explains Berkley.
Before starting any Web marketing program, choose the goals of your efforts and find a way to measure their effectiveness.
Hoping to bring more customers to your storefront? Create a coupon on your Web site or in an e-mail newsletter.
Want to learn which pay-per-click ads around search results generate a sales lead? Tracking tools can tell you.
Another plus of the medium is that your interactive budget can be flexible.
“I try to recommend the ‘spend less’ approach and see how your results are,” says Bruce C. Brown, a Web developer in Land O’ Lakes, Fla., and author of “How to Use the Internet to Advertise, Promote and Market Your Business or Web Site With Little or No Money” (Atlantic Publishing Company, 2006). “With any of these campaigns the nice thing is you can easily shift, turn them off, turn them on, and make changes to your campaigns to see how they affect your desired result.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Print Friendly
Email to Friend
|
|
|
 |
|
|
How to Market Your Small Business Online
|
 |
|
|
 |
| Select an online seminar from the Success Skills Archives:
|
|
|
 |
|
|
If you liked this topic, check out these related Success Skills Seminars:
|
|
