SB Internet Marketing Consulting

Get Your Copy Right

Alison — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 11:03:34 +0000

Another easy but vitally important tip to successfully attracting business online – you have to have excellent copy on your site. If you don’t know what copy is, it is the text on your site that will either draw in your audience, bore your audience or confuse your audience. I don’t know about you, but I would prefer to “draw in your audience.”

To do that, you need excellent copy and excellent copy usually costs money (unless you are a word smith). So, budget it into your marketing or at least budget in someone to review your copy and provide suggestions. The difference is substantial and important.

If you are going to write your copy anyway, at least consider following these suggestions:

1. Find ten web sites with great sales pages … they can be in the same industry as you or a completely different one … the point is to get an idea of what is working and what isn’t working on the web.

2. Next, think of four things you really want … like a new camera, a watch, photo editing software and a marketing coach. Now, put each one of those requests into Google (one at a time) and see what comes up. What are those people writing on their sites and do you feel compelled to purchase your products with them? This will help you with how to approach your own copy.

3. After you have written your copy and put it on your site, it is my suggestion that you find a person to review the copy and provide suggestions. If you need help finding that person, I can send you some recommendations by contacting me here.

Remember that large companies pay millions of dollars for the right copy in advertising, slogans and TV, so it must play an important role in success.

About The Author

Are you looking for Web Marketing Experts to help your small business with it’s online marketing? Someone to help you create and implement your social media strategy? I know what you are up against. You need to find the right fit that is within your budget and trust that person to know what he/she is doing and to get it done. You want someone to market your business online. You want to end each day knowing your online marketing strategy is successful and expanding. You want to give that worry to someone and spend time on the parts of your business that you enjoy. You want to tell other internet marketing experts, “thank you, but I already have an amazing internet marketing system in place that is bringing me all the business and money that I need.”

My name is Alison Elliott and I help small businesses succeed online. You can read more about me, my internet marketing system and how I use social media strategy and web marketing expertise to create, implement and manage your online marketing and presence, on my local internet marketing experts web site.

To help move you in a positive direction, I am offering you a free thirty minute consultation to see if my services are the right fit for you. If nothing else, you will leave the consultation with a clearer idea of what you are wanting and how to attain it.

Web Marketing Expert Advice

Alison — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 11:03:35 +0000

This may seem obvious, but it needs to be said: customers will not just flock to your site without any effort. I am always amazed at the mentality of business owners when it comes to marketing. For some reason (and I think it has to do with cash flow, budgeting and $$), many small business owners participate in the following pointless activities:

1. Spends money creating a web site but then won’t spend any money to work on the marketing of that site … so the site doesn’t make them any money or bring any significant leads

2. Spends money creating a web store and then complains that the store isn’t making any money, with no additional marketing money or time spent on the store or effort to drive traffic to the store.

3. Has a web site and store with no traffic but won’t spend the time or money to build traffic to the site.

These are not good web marketing strategies and I don’t recommend them. Before you decide to depend/hope/plan for your web site to bring you revenue, make sure you are budgeting the proper marketing dollars to make that happen, just like in any physical location. As a business owner, you either need to devote your time to marketing or devote your money to marketing. This is a non-negotiable condition for success.

About The Author

Local Internet Marketing

Alison — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 18:13:28 +0000

I had a situation recently where a client thought she wasn’t showing up online for her business. She has a local kids store, in a local town with no online store presence. In this instance, the only place online where she would want to show up is when someone is looking for a kids store, kids toys, kids clothing, etc. in the town where her store is located. This is called local internet marketing and is all you need if you are a local store without an online store presence.

When someone is searching for a product or service that is local, he/she will add the city or town to the search. For instance, if I was looking for kids shoes in Las Vegas, NV, I would go to Google and search “kids shoes Las Vegas NV” … that is local internet marketing and that is where I expect to find the store I will soon visit in Las Vegas.

So, my client’s name is fairly common and competitive so when you just type in her name she shows up around page three (which in SEO terms is excellent considering it is a small site and they incorporate no SEO updates or any of my SEO suggestions). However, when you add the town where they are located, they are the first five or six listings on page one. Not only are they on the first page multiple times for their name and city, but they also show up on the first page for at least a dozen different kids products in their city. That is local internet marketing – dominating the local search engine for your products and services.

If you need help with your local internet marketing strategy, I would start with a free thirty minute consultation to find out exactly what you are needing. Below is more information on me and my services.

About The Author

Branding … Blah Blah Blah … Is It Vital To Small Business Marketing? Yes

Alison — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 06:16:59 +0000

I love this article about the importance of branding. I feel like branding was an over used and not fully understood term tossed around the small business marketing world for a good part of the past decade. The problem is that many small business owners think that branding means expensive (and in some sense they are right). Branding is really saying “this is who I am” and then making sure that everything you print, everything you write, everything you say, everything you video and everything that you do reinforces this thing that you say you are.

Small businesses often mess this up when they change messages, cut corners to save money by designing their own flyers or marketing materials, self printing business cards or flyers, advertising in a magazine or on a site that is not in line with their brand or not understanding what their brand is actually saying to potential customers. Here is a great article that talks about just this issue.

My internet marketing advice for small business: Know Who You Are. Know Who You Are Selling To. Know Who Loves Your Products. Stick To Those Truths in All Your Endeavors:

Creating a strong brand is one of the key marketing methods to pursue business growth. And if you thought that branding is just for big businesses with mega advertising budgets, think again. Marketing experts note that a strong brand can help small companies stand out and grow.

“Consumers choose specific brands of cola, toothpaste and burgers, and this same approach can create loyal small business customers,” says David Wilton, director of small business banking at Scotiabank.

” Un f o r t u n at e l y, many entrepreneurs don’t put enough emphasis on their brand because they don’t realize how it can help them stand out from competitors.”

Mr. Wilton defines a brand as your value promise to customers, including the service, price and quality they will experience. You can likely identify your brand by going back to your business plan, in which you spelled out your unique offering and how you will serve prospective customers.

For example, you may pledge to be “the friendliest organic bakery that helps customers choose healthy alternatives.”

Small Business Internet Marketing Using PDFs

Alison — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 07:07:45 +0000

You can do some great SEO work for your web site by creating PDF’s to add to your site. You can add articles, add press releases, add a press or media kit, add your advertisements and promotions and more as PDF’s onto your site. Simply link the keyword to the PDF and upload it onto your site. This increases the size of your site and boosts your SEO.

Small Business Twitter Tools For ECommerce

Alison — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 08:01:36 +0000

Create a Promotional Coupon with TwtQpon

Small business ecommerce sites will find the Twitter coupon generator, TwtQpon, useful for promoting Web store deals on Twitter. You can also create special reward coupons for your own loyal Twitter followers.

When you visit the TwtQpon site, click on the “Create a Coupon” button and enter the following information in the Web form:

Your Twitter account name
The coupon title
The coupon details (in 140 characters or less)
Upload a 700 x 300 pixel image
Specify a coupon code (if blank the coupon will show “no code required” on it)
Add a redirect URL (your promotion landing page or ecommerce site URL)
The expiration date of the coupon

This information is all you need to create your free Twitter coupon. Your Twitter followers will see a Tweet, which is the text you enter in TwtQpon Web form. Customers who click the link are directed to the image-enabled version of the coupon page (on TwtQpon.com) and are then redirected to the URL you specified when they click to redeem. What we like about this Twitter tool is that you can create and publish your Twitter coupon in seconds.

You do have an upgrade option to add personal branding, which is shown on the image-enabled version hosted at TwtQpon.com. The website doesn’t specify a fixed price for the upgrade but suggests you enter a price at check-out based on what you think the upgrade is worth. On its website TwtQpon says that the branding service is a way of supporting hosting and development costs.

Schedule Tweets with FutureTweets

FutureTweets by SolidFlux or Twaitter is another useful tool for busy small business ecommerce sites. If you often forget to update your Twitter status or you have difficulties working in regular tweet time this is a good tool to use.

The Web-based service lets you schedule a number of tweets and specify the time you want the tweets to be published on Twitter. You could pick one or two days a week to add multiple tweets that you set to publish at different times. The scheduling aspect will not be noticed by your followers and it will appear as if you Tweet on a more regular basis.

To use FutureTweets you need to give permission for the application to access your Twitter account. Once the connection between Twitter and FutureTweets has been made, you’ll find yourself looking at a very simple form on the FutureTweets website.

All you need to do is type in your Twitter message and then select a publish date. You can enter the publish date manually in the form field (e.g. 2010-09-14 15:25) or you can choose the date on a calendar button and select the time by dragging the hands on the clock widget beside the message box on the form.

After scheduling your Tweets you’ll see a list of all scheduled tweets you have written with a star noting the ones that have been published. From this single Web page you can also edit or delete any Tweet you set using the tool.

What we liked best about FutureTweets is that it offers a simple interface with everything you need on one page so you can go in and schedule future tweets quickly.

HootSuite Social Media Dashboard

HootSuite is a social application that you can use to manage a number of social media tasks in an efficient way from one Web-based interface. The service supports a number of social platforms in addition to Twitter — like Facebook, WordPress and others.

HootSuite offers several tools that will help small business ecommerce site owners to better manage their Twitter and social media marketing tactics. Some of the tools let you schedule updates across one or more social media sites, and you can also collaborate and manage multiple social accounts that are spread amongst your marketing team.

Small business ecommerce site owners will also like two of the more business-focused tools in HootSuite. The first is the “Monitor Mentions” tool. This is used to track and gather mentions of your company or brand across multiple social sites. Another business tool in HootSuite is used to review statistics and reports on individual status messages tweets you publish.

HootSuite is a more professional Twitter tool with a focus on the needs of a business user. We like that it offers multiple tools for multiple social media sites in a single Web-based interface.

HootSuite offers a free ad-supported version that lets you monitor and post to five social networks, use 2 RSS feeds, and caps your statistics history to the first 30-days of use. The full unlimited version with all features and one team member for collaboration is $5.99 per month. Additional team members can be added for $10 per month per person.

Read full article here

Geographic Targeting Equals Local Internet Marketing Success For Small Business

Alison — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 06:55:29 +0000

With more and more businesses focusing on area specific customers and customers too relying more on local businesses, local SEO is gaining prominence. Equipped with geo-centric designs, content and domain name the websites can come up easily in local search listings.

Local search engine optimization or GEO targeting SEO is fast gaining popularity with more and more businesses targeting local customers as more customers are turning to local service providers for their needs. In this age of internet marketing the websites must be search engine optimized to draw in more traffic. But with the business websites growing in numbers along with the online users; to stay afloat in the competition, businesses are targeting region specific customers.

For increasing customer base and reaching out to a wider variety of consumers, local SEO is today a vital marketing strategy in the online business world. There are several businesses and service providers who find it more profitable to serve local clients and hence want to be found by local customers. For such businesses local search engine optimization is a must to make their websites get higher ranks in local searches. Especially for service providers like attorneys, physicians, or businesses like restaurants, movie halls, shopping centers, etc. the primary concern is to attract local customers and so they must focus on local search engine optimization for their websites. Some tips for geo-targeting SEO would be:

Geo-centric keyword research: Keyword research is a very important aspect of local search engine optimization. Consumers looking for local services or products conduct area or locality specific searches, for which they use geocentric keywords. So, for local SEO keyword research specific to the business’ area of operation should be conducted and the website’s content should target these geo-centric keywords.

Geo-targeting website content: The same search engine throws up different results in different countries. Whether you are using Google or Yahoo, if you search for ‘builders’ the search results in UK would be very different from those in US. To make your website come up in local listings its content should be of high quality and must be supported by geo-centric webpage links.

Geo-centric design: One of the basic requirements of local SEO is that the website must have a geo-centric design. Apart from the links included, the language used also matters a lot. The difference in spellings and use of language lends a local flavor to the website. That is why working closely with local designers of the region where you want your business to operate, can give your website a geo-centric design.

Geo-centric domain name: Multinational businesses targeting multiple regions usually have multiple versions of their website which have region specific domain names, contents in local languages as well as designs according to the style and trend prevalent in the local market. A very important aspect of local SEO, a geo-centric domain name helps the website show up easily in local searches.

Read Full Article Here

Internet Marketing For Coaches

Alison — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 07:50:25 +0000

I read this recently and now I can’t find the source, but I love this part of the article and find it very true even to my business, when I was just getting started as an Internet Marketing Coach/Strategist. So, I wanted to share it with you:

“If you have just started your online consulting business, I wouldn’t be surprised if you tell me that you are having difficulty getting people to sign up. You see, it’s not that buyers do not need your services but because the competition in this niche is stiffer than ever. Have you checked the number of people that you are going up against? But this does not mean that you should stop trying because there are actually effective ways to boost your consulting sales. Some of them are the following:

Start by building a website exclusively for your consulting services. As an information marketer, it is possible that you are also selling ebooks, audio products, DVDs, seminars, and coaching programs. But in order to boost your consulting sales, I recommend that you create a separate website for your consulting services so you can make your web content focused and targeted to your prospective buyers. Ensure that it’s professionally designed, appealing, and very informative. Remember, your visitors will gauge your expertise in your niche and will decide if they will do business with you in the future based on the appearance and content of your site. So, make sure that you leave a very strong impression.

Next step is to give your potential buyers valid reasons to trust you. Why would these people spend their money on your consulting services? Give them a reason to do business with you. Showcase your expertise in your niche and offer proofs that you have what it takes to improve their existing processes, to solve their pressing issues, and to provide the best answers to their burning questions. What I suggest is that you offer free consulting sessions, host your free teleseminars, and offer free but valuable information through article marketing, forum posting, blogging, and ezine publishing. It will also help if you strive to make all your customers happy. This is the first step to be known in the online arena as an ideal service provider. Buyers simply love doing business with marketers who have proven track records.

Make your marketing campaign more focused and more effective. Ensure that your marketing strategies are helping you reach out to those people who are most likely to do business with you. As much as possible, use all internet marketing tools to easily widen your reach. Personally, I would recommend article marketing and social media marketing as they’re very effective. You can also use blogging, PPC advertising, search engine marketing, email marketing, and ezine publishing. The more effort you put into your marketing campaign, the higher your chances of achieving your marketing goals.”

Alison Elliott is a Marketing Expert and Internet Marketing Strategist. She is founder of Corner Your Market Global Marketing and helps small businesses market themselves online by setting up social media and optimized blogs for small business owners and solopreneurs. She then trains small business owners to use their blogs and social media to drive traffic and increase interest in their business.

Do You Yelp? Small Business Marketing Tip

Alison — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 08:41:58 +0000

Yelp is a great resource to read reviews, which means it is also a great resource to gain testimonials and chatter about your business online. If you don’t Yelp, you should spend a little time on the site every once in a while, writing reviews of your favorite spots.

If you have a store front business, you should also set up a Yelp account so that people can rate your business and help direct more business to you. This falls into the geo-target marketing that is so effective for businesses with a local clientele. You can blow other small businesses away with this small business Internet marketing tip.

The Best Internet Marketing Campaigns Solidify Your Need For SEO

Alison — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 21:35:45 +0000

What are the best online marketing campaigns for making money? There are a number of things that separate the losing and winning marketers on the net.

However, there are a few tips that stand high above the rest. Here are five things you must do if you want your Internet business to take off:

#1) Master copy writing

Any great marketer will tell you that copy writing is the most important skill they ever learned. If you can get people to buy by the words you write, you can almost print money. Anytime you need a boost in income, just write a good sales letter.

#2) Focus on the headline

Even though this is technically a subset of copy writing, it deserves a separate mention because it is that important. It does not matter how great our sales letter is if the headline is not compelling. Make sure you spend a lot of time brainstorming and testing different headlines, because this will make or break your sales page.

#3) Build a mailing list

If you want to become profitable on the net, you must build yourself an email list. Without this, you will lose everyone who visits your site and does not buy from you the first time.

The stats say that it takes the average person needs four to seven contacts with you before they buy. In other words, if you are not collecting their contact info to continue marketing to them, you are losing the majority of your potential customers.

#4) Have a profitable back end

The truth is, the back end should be your biggest income source. Many top marketers actually lose money on the first sale, simply because they can make more money on the back end (everything that is sold to the customer after the initial sale).

The downfall of many business owners is their lack of a back end system. Once somebody buys form them, they simply ignore that customer and go out and try to find new customers. This is not the way to do business.

Instead, once somebody has bought from you, you should immediately them a more expensive product. This is because they are in a buying mode. If you forget everything else you read here, remember this point.

#5) Provide enormous value

Regardless of how great a marketer you are, you need a good product. If your product leaves people underwhelmed, they will still not buy from you again. You are compensated in direct proportion to how much you help people.

The bottom line: the best online marketing campaigns will combine these five elements in one way or another. Implement these tips and you will get rich from the Internet shortly.

Read Full Article Here.