To Succeed with Online Marketing, Know Thy Customer

Anyone that knows anything about business will tell you that understanding your customer is the key to successful marketing. Historically, we rely on customer surveys, demographic research, behavior patterns, and other qualitative and quantitative data to learn about our small business customers. This information allows us to determine what the customer is looking for so we can better design our marketing plan. These research methods will always have a place in market research, but with online marketing and social media, small businesses have a new way to learn about the customers needs and how they perceive our small businesses.

With online marketing, business websites, review sites, and social media, there is an abundance of data about our customers. The question is how to use this information to better formulate our online marketing plans and better serve the customers. We can use tools such as Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools to gather the quantitative data [the numbers], but we need to go a little further to gather the qualitative data [how they perceive us].

There are several forums we can use to begin to gather the information. The first and perhaps the most important is to have an open channel of communication for the customer to reach our businesses. I like to achieve this one of two ways. Either have email contact information on your website and in all online directories, or have a customer comment form on your webpage. For an example, you can check out Contact Innovative Ad Solutions LLC and view our form on the bottom of the page. These are great ways to let customers contact us directly, but there are many more opportunities to gather information on the internet.

When we blog, it is important to have a comment section so that customers and internet users can respond to what we have to say. It gives the customer an opportunity to put in their two sense. Often we receive basic comments such as "great post", but many times they go further and react to what we have to say. This offers an abundance of information. Make sure to read each and every one of these comments. They allow you to understand how the customer thinks. Make sure to take notes and respond to the comments and try to start conversations. The more in depth the conversation goes, the more opportunity we have to learn.

Social media is another source of qualitative data. Facebook offers analytics that shows who likes our comments, posts, and businesses. They also show who is talking about our business. Read what they have to say and again respond to it. Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, and Pinterest also give us information about what our customers think. When they post to our business pages, read what they have to say because not only is this information coming to our business, but it is going to all of our followers and their friends. Make sure to respond to any negative comments and talk about how you will fix these issues.

Online review sites also offer an abundance of information to us. Many of these sites such as Angie's List, Yelp, Google, Yahoo Business Listings, and Yellowbook.com are places that potential customers look before using our businesses for the first time. Past customers post about their experiences they have already had with our businesses and that is why it is so important to review these sites. Many times there are positive reviews where we can learn what we do right, why the customer is happy, and how they use our services. Other times there is negative information; this is the most important to understand. By seeing our past mistakes, we can learn from them in the future. Better yet, it shows the customers we care.

All of the qualitative data is more difficult to gather than quantitative because there is no formula we can use to gather the information. It takes time to sort through all of these comments, record them, analyze them, and then implement changes to our online marketing plans. It is well worth the effort. These comments offer us the opportunity to be inside our customer's head and learn how they think. Through analytics, we can learn why we have been successful and by finding out what our past customers were looking for and why we were successful, we have a better chance at converting new online users into customers. Additionally, their comments might show a new use for our product that we had not previously thought of.

The best part about this qualitative data online, is that it offers us the opportunity to engage in two way conversations with our customers. I have talked about this many times in the past. When customers feel they have a voice and that you take their comments seriously, they are more likely to stay with our businesses even if we make some mistakes. Use email, social media, review sites, and blog comments to start conversations. Through this mutual understanding and analyzing these comments, we can better gear our online marketing plans towards our key demographics. If you haven't been analyzing this data in the past, it is time to start. Not only will it help you to have a more efficient online marketing plan, but it will help you to understand your business in ways you never have. If you need help, Innovative Ad Solutions will offer all the advice and assistance you need.

Find Your Small Business a Place on Google Places

For those that don't know what it is, Google Places is basically a local business directory. When a person runs a search on Google, Google can identify the town they are in, and then provide relevant businesses that match up with their search based on their location. The service is free for small businesses to list on so definitely take advantage of it as part of your online marketing. They can provide information about their products and services, locations, hours, website, and more. To ensure only legitimate businesses are listed, Google will verify your listing by sending you a pin in the mail to the business address. You simply punch it in once you receive it and your page goes live on Google Places. Your small business will instantly see its SEO and Online Marketing improve with this free exposure.

Google Places is probably the best and quickest way to start turning up on the first page of Google search results for the areas that your business serves. If you are a brick and mortar business, then this is obviously going to be where your business has physical locations. However, if you are a service business you are often going to want to turn up in multiple towns so that you can have maximum exposure.

Google Places gives you two options when listing as part of your online marketing plan. You can select the town where you are located and then the radius which you serve around that town, or you can list all of the towns that you serve. We recommend that you list all of the towns that you serve, make a list of all zip codes where you will go and choose that option when creating your Google Places account. If you have multiple locations, you can and should create a Google Places page for each location as part of your online marketing.

As far as your small business description, you want to ensure you use the keywords you use as part of your online marketing plan. You can have a business description that is up to 200 characters. This is not a lot of room, so you are going to want to use the most important keywords. If you are in a highly competitive business, you may want to pick some niche keywords.

When you choose your actual categories (up to five) use broad categories to ensure you rank highly for more search terms. For example, Innovative Ad Solutions specializes in Social Media Marketing, but instead of that niche, we list ourselves as Internet Marketing Providers. This helps us to turn up higher for more search terms.

Once you create your Google Places page and verify your business, you should start seeing your sales increase as a direct result of your online marketing efforts. Google Places offers customers the option to review your business, so encourage them to do so. People love positive reviews and they are much more likely to visit your business if others have had positive experiences with you in the past. Online marketing revolves around brand advocates and referrals in an online setting. So, the more positive referrals you have, the more successful your online marketing efforts will be!

If the Social Media Bubble Pops, Will it Hurt Your Online Marketing Plan?

For those that follow the stock market, and even those that don't, you're probably aware that most social media companies have not been performing very well since their IPO. In fact, the only company that has performed well in my opinion is LinkedIn. The likes of Facebook, Zynga, Groupon, Pandora, and others have seen their stock prices run up, then drop drastically. Are they the next MySpace? Are they going to be around in five years?

One has to wonder if it is even worth learning how to use social media as part of online marketing for your small business. I've asked myself that very question. But the fact of the matter is, we are using social media to spread content on the internet. Our small business online marketing plans revolve around content and have the goal of converting new users into customers. So should we care how these companies are performing as a stock?

Well, if you invested in these companies then heck yea you care! But otherwise, if you are using them to market your small business and take your content viral, then no, you shouldn't care. Social media companies stock value and the value they bring to your small business's online marketing plan are two different things. The stock value is a result of the supply of the stock vs. its demand. There was a lot of hype running up to these companies going public, and for good reason. Social media is awesome. It has changed the way people communicate. As long as people have a use for it, social media will exist. Okay, okay, enough financial talk. The fact of the matter is that people expected too much of these companies too fast, They are in their infancy. They will learn to monetize their users as time goes on, but for now, as small business owners, we only need to worry about how social media allows us to engage in online marketing.

As we have discusssed before, if you get one customer to "like" you on Facebook, +1 you on Google+, or follow you on Twitter, your business is being exposed to all of their friends. Their friends are then more likely to come to your business or at least check it out online. This is so much more beneficial then traditional marketing. With traditional marketing your brochure, radio ad, commercial, or mailing stops at the end user. But, with online marketing, there is no end user. Your content continues on and on as long as there is one more person out there that has a need or want for your content.

So put the social media companies as stocks on the back burner, focus on what the social media companies themselves can do for your small business's online marketing plan. Take the time to learn how to use social media, start slow with one or two accounts, then if you have the time and expertise add some more. If you need help, as always, feel free to Contact Innovative Ad Solutions LLC with your questions.

Online Marketing Content is King, So Write Like a Fool!

Remember when we were all in grammar school and the kid in the class that had the smartest sounding book report always got the A? The kid would use long sentences and fancy words that nobody understood. We were all taught that was the correct way to write. Well I got news for you, we are in the real world now and the last thing a customer wants to read is a boring report. So throw the conceptual thinking out the window and make your content as simple as possible. The easier it is to read, the more people will want to read it.

Just to be clear, online marketing plans revolve around what you have to offer the user. It is what makes up your website, email marketing, press releases, blogs, comments, and social media posts. This shouldn't be a bunch of advertisements that nobody wants to read because they do nothing say how great your business is blahh blahhh blahhhh! Your content should be information, information the customer wants. Now part of your content should be promoting your business, but work it in as part of the information.

Let's talk about some tips to help write content that people want to read.



Write eciting online marketing content that is targeted to your defined customers

Be Concise

The first tip is to be concise. Longer is not better in the online marketing world. When people want information they want it as quick as possible. Be brief. Don't use three sentences when one will do just fine.

Use Proper Formatting
Make sure your content is easy on the eyes. Format the paragraphs properly. Don't write in wordy chunks. You can even use headings so that people can identify topics. Also make sure you use proper spelling and grammar. You want people to respect your online marketing plan and what you have to say.

Don't Use Sophisticated Industry Terms

Unless your online marketing content is aimed at only those that are industry experts, do not use industry terms nobody will understand. Remember that people reading your content are often trying to learn from you. Make it easy on them.

Use Pictures or Infographics

Infographics are pictures with words. You can use them to get your point across and make it exciting at the same time. People love learning visually, especially when it is an alternative to reading long posts. Also throw in a picture to online marketing as often as you can.

Please the Masses
Before you start writing online marketing content, put yourself in the shoes of the customer. What are they interested in? What information do they need? Don't just write about what you are interested in. If you aren't sure what the customer wants, ask them. Ask customers to fill out a short questionnaire or rank the topics they are most interested in.

Love What You Preach

People can tell if the writer is into a subject. Show that you are interested in what you do. I love online marketing and I try to always make sure my online marketing content shows that. If your writing shows you are excited, it will get the reader excited. They will be more likely to come back.

Writing content for your online marketing plan can be tricky. You need to keep it short and to the point, but with enough information to satisfy the customers need. You want to post often enough to always have fresh content, but not so often that the user can't keep up with it. Writing good content can take awhile to master, but next time you write be conscious of these tips. Remember, you don't have to be so serious! Have a little fun while you work.

If you need some help or have questions about online marketing Contact Innovative Ad Solutions LLC and we will be happy to help!

Syncing Social Media Accounts

This is one of the most popular discussions I come across and I have touched on it in previous blog posts, but I want to go into some more detail. Many social media accounts give you the option of feeding the thread from one social media account to another social media account. For example, you can setup your Facebook page to stream all of your Twitter posts. Should you take advantage of this option for your small business online marketing?

There are two sides to this discussion, those who think linking social media accounts is helpful to your online marketing and those that think it is hurtful to your online marketing plan. I'm going to present both sides of the discussion because I don't want to sway you one way or the other until the end.

Those that are in favor of linking the different accounts argue that it makes your online marketing and social media management much easier. Social media management is a very time consuming task. Streaming one account to the other cuts down on the time issue. Additionally, it ensures that your various accounts always have fresh content. If you aren't posting new, useful, interesting content people are going to find somebody who is. This side of the discussion also points out that not everyone is on every social media account. A Twitter follower may not be a fan of yours on Facebook. So by streaming and linking accounts, you can ensure that everyone is seeing everything that you have to say. This can also allow you to manage more social media accounts than you could if you were posting fresh content to each application.

Those that are against linking social media accounts argue that it duplicates content. They feel that if the customer can follow you on one social media account and see all the content you are offering as part of your online marketing plan, why should they bother following all of your accounts? This ends up hurting SEO and the ability to reach as many new customers as possible. This side of the discussion also brings up the point that each social media application may have a different type of audience. For example, you may not want to share the same content with your LinkedIn followers that you want to share with your Facebook followers. People also realize that you are streaming your pages and it may turn them away. Customers and users want to follow those that have something fresh to say, not people that are repetetive.

What's my position? Come on people, don't be lazy. Personally I feel that streaming one account to another as part of your online marketing is hurtful. This is not to say that when you post to your blog you shouldn't let people on Twitter know. Or if you update your webpage you can't share it on Facebook. This is also not to say that your profiles on social media shouldn't contain links to your other social media pages. However, I am a firm believer that streaming one account to another is more hurtful than it is helpful. Firstly, if your LinkedIn, Google+, or Facebook pages stream your Twitter posts (which are often more numerous than on other accounts) then it may annoy your friends or followers. They don't want all of those updates streaming across their pages and it may cause them not unlike your page. It's annoying, plain and simple. Secondly, if the content on all of your social media accounts is the same, people have no reason to follow you on more than one account. Remember, I am not telling you not to use your social media profiles to list links or usernames on other applications. Nor am I telling you to never post something from one social media account to another. I am just saying not to sync them and duplicate all the content.

Social media management is definitely not easy, and is absolutely time consuming, but you can start out slow. Start with one or two social media applications (I recommend Facebook and Twitter to start), then you can add more as you begin to master your system. If you are worried about the time aspect, use social media management tools such as HootSuite which allows you to schedule posts. This way you can sit down once a night and schedule posts for the next day. If you are overwhelmed and want to outsource, or if you just need some tips on how to master social media management, Contact Us.

Studying your Competition's Online Marketing

I teach my clients that online marketing is all about differentiating yourself from your competition. You want to give customers a reason to keep coming back to your website, to follow you on social media, and to subscribe to your email newsletters. However, this does not mean that you can't study what your competition is doing and learn from their successes and failures.

When formulating the online marketing plan for your small business, you want to brainstorm and make a list of your four closest competitors. Review their websites, their Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus, Foursquare, and blog. Try and identify the keywords that they are using, then search for these keywords on Google, Bing, and Yahoo. How are they ranked? This will then help you to decide if you want to use the same keywords, a variation of those keywords, or competely different keywords. Try out variations for the keywords using the Google Keyword Tool. Try and determine which keywords are best. Also identify how much competition there is. You may want to hit niche keywords if a broader category has too much competiton. For example, instead of using "restaurant" you may want to use "italian restaurant". Also, identify variations of the keywords that are searched more often. Do users search "NY" or "New York" more often? Take the keywords on the sites of your competitors, plug them into the keyword tool, and you can get tons of information.

This is not telling you to copy exactly what your competitors are doing, but anybody that is going to be successful in any walk of life has to understand their competiton. Think of sports as an example. We hear all the time about atheltes watching tape of the teams they are about to play. They are not doing this to copy the moves and run the same plays, but doing it so they can better compete with the people they are going up against. The same goes for small businesses and their online marketing plan. You have to understand what your competition is doing so that you can compete against them.

You can also learn a lot from the promotions they are using as part of their online marketing plans. Internet marketing has to draw customers to your pages. How are your competitors doing this? Do they offer discounts? Are they giving something away for free? Are there contests on their websites? Do they offer invaluable content? How up to date is their content? How many Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ Followers do they have? How many likes are they getting? These are all questions that can give you insight to the online marketing plans of your competition.

After gathering the facts you can then analyze what was successful and what was not successful. This information can be taken into account when implementing the next step of your small business online marketing plan.

With online marketing, nobody is an expert. I say this because the information is constantly changing. One of my favorite quotes is from a world renowned economist, John Maynard Keynes who said, "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?" This quote was meant in regards to investing, another industry that is constantly changing. However, it can also be applied to online marketing. With all of the technology we have, and with search engines constantly changing their search algorithims, we need to be able to adapt. We need to constantly be learning new things. Even in respect to your industry, if the content provided through your online marketing plan provides your customers with cutting edge information, you will have a leg up on the competition. If you don't, then you can bet they will find another business that is on the cutting edge.

Our "Small Business Online Marketing Starter Package" carefully studies what your competitors are doing, as well as provides a full online marketing plan for your small business. Check it out as it is very affordable and if you like the Facebook page for Innovative Ad Solutions LLC we will give you $50 off the already low price of $567! But even if you don't want to use our services right away, I urge you to check out our Free Online Marketing Tips for Small Businesses or Email Us with any questions you might have if you plan on doing this yourself. Innovative Ad Solutions LLC will be more than happy to provide you any assistance you may need, at no cost!

Creativity is Key to Online Marketing

There are so many people in the online marketing world. This means that your customers and followers have almost an infinite amount of websites they can go to for goods, services, and information. To ensure that your online marketing plans drives traffic to you instead of your competitors you have to stand out from the crowd.

There are plenty of creative ways to reach your current customers and get them engaged in online your social media accounts. The way this benefits your business is two fold. First, it establishes a better relationship with your current customers and allows them to engage in two way conversations. They can voice opinions, ask questions, and give feedback. The small business owner can then respond and the customer feels as if they have a voice. The second way creative online marketing benefits your business is if the customer engages in your social media online, every time they "like" you on Facebook, re-tweet a Tweet, or +1 you on Google+ their friends will see it. Your current customers can be advocates for your brand and their friends and followers will see they are recommending your business. They are then more likely to become customers.

To engage your current customers in your online marketing you need to get creative at your establishment. One great tip is to have a business card raffle. Leave a jar on the table and everyone that drops their business card into the jar has the opportunity to win the prize of the week or month. Make it a stipulation that they need to follow you on at least one social media account (Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, etc) to be eligible for the prize. Not only will you gain new followers on social media, but you now have an abundance of data about who your customers are and all of their contact information. Use this information to create a database. You can then offer them promotions based on their individual demographics. Another creative way to engage current customers is by offering them something for free or at a discount if they follow you on social media. For example, in a restaurant offer a free round of drinks if the customer likes you on Facebook. The final creative online marketing tip I will share is offering free advertisements to other businesses that follow you on social media accounts. There are a variety of ways to do this. One is to offer them a back link on your small business website. Another that would work for a restaurant is to offer them an ad on a place mat. Another way to offer an advertisement that will work for any business is to put up a television screen and run a power point slideshow. Your followers can submit one slide that includes their logo, website link, and contact information for their business. They only get a slide if they are a social media follower.

All of these ideas cost you very little and as we have shown in the Marketing Tips section of our website, where we talk about the Online Marketing EcoSystem, one follower on social media can exponentially reach new customers. The opportunities are endless so get creative and improve your small business online marketing presence. What has worked for other businesses that have tried creative ways to engage their customers in their online marketing plans? Share your success stories. Remember that there is no limit to the creativity and the more you set yourself apart from your competitors, the better chance you have at converting people into new customers.

If you need some ideas, send us an email to setup a FREE CONSULTATION. We can talk about your current online marketing plan. Even if you choose not to purchase our risk free Small Business Online Marketing Starter Package for only $567 we can still offer you some free advice and help you to brainstorm. We love talking about online marketing!

Don't Overdo Online Marketing on Social Media

One of the most frequently asked questions I get about online marketing is how much is too much? Usually this is in respect to the use of social media such as Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn because these are the parts of the online marketing plan that are most frequently updated.

There is no direct answer to this question, you just want to make sure that you are giving users a chance to benefit from all of the information you post on your social media platforms. Additionally, if they are bombarded with information, even if it is useful, it is likely they will stop following you. Nobody wants to  stream your Facebook posts to their page if you post too often. It will make it so your posts are the only thing appearing on their page and they want diversity. For Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn I think the general rule of thumb should be between 1 and 5 posts a day at the absolute most. With Twitter I think you should also try to stick within this range for your original posts, but that does not mean that you can't retweet and respond to comments. Remember that these ranges are for your original posts, it does not include comments on other people's posts or responding to questions, comments, or concerns from your users.

Everywhere you look you will probably find a different answer to this question because everyone has a different opinion. My answer is in respect to your small business online marketing plan. The whole idea of online marketing is to provide useful content to your customers so that they keep coming back and pass the information on to their friends through social media. As we have discussed, this can lead to exponential amounts of new customers. Some people will tell you that there is no such thing as too many posts, but I disagree. Posting too often will annoy your customers. Nobody will be able to stay on top of them all and they won't want to bother to sort through to find the ones they are interested in.

Sometimes you have a lot of good ideas in a day and you want to get it out and that is understandable. One suggestion is to use a social media management application, such as Hootsuite. You can use this application to schedule future posts. So if you hit your max for one day, schedule the post to hit the next day.

Additionally, I suggest that you do not stream one social media account over another as part of your online marketing. I have tried this and just feel that it is a waste. Firstly because it eats away at your daily post max for each application. Secondly because if the content from Twitter is available on Facebook, then nobody has any reason to follow you on Twitter. You want to make it so customers have a reason to follow you on each application that your small business uses as part of its online marketing. To do this the content on each has to be fresh and useful.

The final decision on how often to post on each social media application is up to you, but before you make the decision take all of these points into consideration. Put yourself in the shoes of your followers and think of what you would want if you were the customer. By doing this you are more likely to have a successful online marketing campaign.

Engaging Your EcoSystem in Online Marketing

Owners, employees, customers, creditors, and vendors are all part of the ecosystem of a small business. You rely on the relationships to build your business. The question is, how to get everyone to buy into your online marketing plan. For me, the most important groups that must engage in your online marketing plan are the customers and the employees. It is great to have your vendors and creditors involved on your website and social media accounts, however it is not imperative.

Offering good content to your current customers will result in them sharing the content on social media which will reach all of their friends. The friends will then view the content and can be converted to new customers. This cycle will continue to revolve and continuously provide access to new customers.

The customers are the most important group. Customers are the ones that can advocate for your business. By talking about you on social media and leaving positive reviews for your business they are helping to build you a positive online reputation. For example, if they like you on Facebook, all of their friends see that they liked your company. This will hopefully lead to their friends also considering doing business with you. Additionally, if they write a positive review for you on a site such as Yelp, or Tweet about your business, they are also helping to show potential customers that others have had a positive experience with you. For centuries businesses have built leads through referrals.

Now with the technology we have we can reach even more people. The question is how to ensure your customers are engaging with your business through social media. There are a variety of ways to do so, all of which will help online marketing. The first is through accessibility. Integrate social media applications into your business website. Ensure you have the social plugins for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and any other social media applications you have. Another way to get customers to engage in your online marketing plan is to offer them discounts. Offer a discount or a free item to any customer that likes you on Facebook, give an incentive for following your business on Twitter, offer them a chance to sign up for company newsletters. There are endless ways to get customers involved, share your thoughts with us as small business owners often have the best ideas.

Getting your employees involved with social media and online marketing is also key. They need to understand and follow what is being said about your small business online so they too can react to it, answer questions, and learn from criticism. I suggest that at least once a month small businesses should have a company meeting to discuss their online marketing campaign. During downtime, have your employees go online and post updates to Facebook, Google+, Twitter. Or you can even just have them browse your websites and social media accounts so they can answer questions about your content.

The more people you get involved, the better presence you will have, and the more beneficial this will be to your online marketing plan. Contact us for some more information and make sure to check back for weekly tips about online marketing.

Online Marketing with Google+

Last year Google released their own social media application, Google+, which they hoped would offer new competition to Facebook. It has been out now for about a year and in my opinion it has yet to really catch on. So this raises the question as to whether Google+ is a necessary part of a small business's online marketing plan.

The answer to this depends on your situation. Any time you can add more links to your business it is beneficial to your online marketing plan. Google+ is just another platform for small business owners to offer useful content to their audiences. If you are going to use Google+ make sure you give users a reason to check out your page. The content is what drives them to the site, and within the content you can "market" your small business. We have discussed this in prior posts such as embedding links and using keywords.

But is Google+ really worth your time. The answer to this is subjective to your situation. I do not think that Google+ should be any small business's #1 or #2 social media platform. Facebook has almost a billion users, Twitter has over 300 million users, and Google+ has only about 100 million users. The goal of any online marketing plan should be to reach as many potential customers as possible. When you think of it like this it is clear that Facebook and Twitter will be much more effective. However, if you have already mastered these other forms of social media, give Google+ a try. Check out the Google+ page for Innovative Ad Solutions LLC. If you like it, and you have the time, give it a shot. It hasn't really caught on as much as Google would like, but I still think it can be effective as part of your small business online marketing plan.

One part of Google+ that I like is the various circles that you can join. A circle is much like a group on Facebook. If there is a circle that is relevant to your industry this is even more of a reason to give Google+ a try. But remember we do not suggest you use it in place of other social media applications. use it in conjunction with them for an extra platform to offer content to your customers and embed more links and keywords. If you choose to try it out, make sure you have enough content to put on the site. Even if you just share links to blogs, tips, and news about your industry you will always have new content. A huge part of online marketing plans for small businesses is sharing information that others have put out there. This is a lot less time consuming and as long as you give the author credit it is okay!

If you want to know if Google+ is right for your small business's online marketing plan, Contact Innovative Ad Solutions LLC to talk more about it!

The Social Media Marketing Blog: From Social Sharing to Creative Collaboration

The Social Media Marketing Blog: From Social Sharing to Creative Collaboration    great discussion on how social media helps small businesses collaborate with others in their industry and their customers.

Press Releases for Small Biz

After reading the title of this blog post many small business owners may be hesitant to read on; thinking that press releases are only for big businesses. You may be asking yourself what your small business can possibly talk about in a press release. There was a time when I too had not thought of issuing press releases about Innovative Ad Solutions LLC, but the more I learn about them, the more excited I get.

Press releases are extremely beneficial to helping Search Engine Optimization and Online Marketing Plans for your Small Business. Before getting started with any of this, you need to find a press release topic that will be helpful to your online marketing plan. You can talk about new products your business is offering, about an event they are hosting or sponsoring, about a new location, or about how your small business is dealing with new industry trends. There is no limitation about what you can release, remember to be creative. The goal is to engage your audience.

A press release consists of three parts; title, summary, and body. The title should be descriptive, but short. Include your keywords in the title whenever possible. The summary must be very appealing. Again this should be brief, no more than two to three sentences. Most people won't waste their time reading the body if the summary isn't exciting. The last part is the body. This is where you provide the information you want to share about your business. If you want press releases to be helpful to your online marketing plan they can't just be about advertising your business. They need to offer exciting and interesting information. There are tools that can help you to write press releases. One that I found is www.press-release-writing.com. It offers tips and templates to help you get started. As far as issuing the press release, check out www.free-press-release.com or www.prweb.com. PRWeb charges for the release, but there are no restrictions as to what you can include in your copy. 

Remember, include your keywords and anchor text links in your press release! There are no restrictions to using your keywords, but as with any content writing, don't overdo it. The copy has to read well. Some of the free press release services do limit the ability to embed anchor links within the body. However, you can still include a few traditional links to your website. At the end of the body always include a few sentences that explain to the reader why they should contact or visit your business.

If you are having trouble getting started with press releases, contact us or comment on this article. Innovative Ad Solutions LLC loves talking about all forms of online marketing and press releases are a hot topic today. With the social media world being what it is, any small business owner's online marketing plan can benefit from their proper use!

Twitter as Part of Your Online Marketing Plan

Any business that is not using social media as part of their online marketing plan is missing out. Twitter is my personal favorite. Twitter is the best to engage and interact with your customers. Small business owners can post links to articles and news that are relevant to their industry. Using Twitter for this purpose will help your Search Engine Optimization. The personal interaction is when you engage in two way conversations with your customers. You can listen to their questions and comments and provide feedback. You are constantly linked with your customers. It is important to respond to the customers comments, questions, and concerns. While marketing your small business online and using Twitter you are bound to come across some negative comments. You are never going to be able to please everyone, but with Twitter you can react to the negative comments and find ways to fix what went wrong in the future. You want to show that you are open to suggestions and willing to work with the customer to provide them a better experience in the future. By doing this as part of your online marketing plan you are showing customers they have a voice. Customers are willing to give businesses a second chance if they are confident their issue will be resolved the next time around. You don't have to respond to every negative comment, but you should try to respond to as many as possible. Twitter is also a great way to direct customers to other platforms that your business engages in online. For example, embed links to your webpage and Facebook page. This plays into cross linking your webpage, as we discussed in previous posts. Marketing your business online can be a difficult task, one that many small business owners don't have the time or inclination to engage in. Small business owners should consider outsourcing their social media marketing plan. There are many companies out there that will provide social media management, Innovative Ad Solutions LLC being one of them. We service businesses in Putnam NY, Westchester NY, and Dutchess NY. Do your homework before contracting with anyone. Talk to a variety of businesses and then find out which is the best for your needs. Also, make sure that there is no conflict of interest. For example, Innovative Ad Solutions LLC will not provide services to two businesses in the same town that provide the same goods or services. Doing so would create a serious conflict of interest. This is definitely something you would want to ask social media managers that you are considering using. I encourage you to check out the About Us section of our website or contact us for a RISK FREE CONSULTATION. If we are not right for you, we will try and help answer your questions and point you in the right direction. A well used Twitter account is essential to your small business's online marketing plan. Create an account today, and remember to put a sign up in your establishment and embed the "Twitter" button on your webpage to encourage customers to follow you.

Cross Linking for Your Online Marketing Plan

In our last post we talked about anchor linking within your own webpage. Now once small business owners have that down, cross linking is the next step. Search engine algorithms love it when there are links to your website throughout the web. Cross linking is a lot more difficult than anchor linking because it involves more than just your own webpage. It will take much more time, but the effort is well worth it. You want links to your page on as many different websites as possible. Cross linking is an essential part of your small business's online marketing plan. There are ways that you can begin to cross link on your own. The first step is to list your website on all your social media applications including facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google +, Yelp, your blog, and in all directories. There is a section in the profile section where you can list a link to your small business's website. Additionally, when you comment on other people's posts on facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. you can include a link to your webpage. However when you do this you need to be careful and ensure your posts are more than just an "advertisement" for your own business. You need to contribute relevant information to the discussion. If your post is nothing but a link, search engines will not look fondly upon it and the authors can even block you from further posts. Another way to cross link is to to comment on blogs that are relevant to your industry. For example, I like to follow blogs online that relate to online marketing plans for small businesses and social media. Within the comment, I refer users to my own website where I provide more information about online marketing. This helps your rankings on search engines. It might take you a lot of time and probably a couple of months to start seeing results, but once you do you are sure to see your search rankings improve. Once you begin to be known in the online community you can also network with others in your industry to trade links. They put a link to your page on their website, you put one to their website on yours. You want to be careful though when you do this because if you have a link to a website that is not relevant to your industry, or that has poor rankings, then it will hurt you rather than help you. Contact Us to discuss this further or post here to let me know what you think!

Anchor Text Links for SEO

Link building is essential to Search Engine Optimization. There are two types of link building, anchor text links and cross linking. Here I want to focus on anchor text linking because it is the more basic of the two. Anchor text linking is linking one page of your website to another using embedded links. For example, if you review our webpage Innovative Ad Solutions LLC you will see that within our site content we have embedded links to drive users to other sections of our website. For example, if we mention our "free consultation" for an online marketing plan for small businesses we make it so users can click on "free consultation" and it will take them to that section of our website. Search engines love anchor linking because it creates more links to other pages on your site. You can optimize this even further by anchor linking your keywords. Going back to the above example, if we spoke about online marketing plans for small businesses on our homepage, we would create a link with the words "online marketing plans for small businesses" which when clicked on, would direct users to the section of our website where we discuss this topic. We get extra benefit because "online marketing plans for small businesses" includes our keywords. You can also take advantage of this when posting to other peoples blogs. Use your keywords, and embed links. However, you must be careful because if your post and content is nothing but a bunch of links nobody is going to want to read it. You need to find a happy median between using your anchor links and writing informative, useful content. For more information, check out our website, follow us on twitter @innovativeads1, or give us a call.

Ensure Your Website Can Be Found

SEO Marketing (Search Engine Optimization) is probably the most important part of an online marketing plan for small businesses. SEO marketing strategically uses keywords embedded on your website and within the content you offer on social media platforms to ensure that you are ranked highly on search engine results. It is important to choose the right keyword, which can be very difficult depending on your location and the industry you are in. If you pick keywords that are in high demand then you might have trouble competing against larger businesses and it will take a lot of time and effort to ensure your website is ranked highly. On the other hand, if your small business website uses keywords that aren't search a lot, the chances of people finding your page is also slim. To chose the correct keyword I always recommend using Google's Keyword Tool. It allows you to type in the keywords and then get data on how often they are searched overall and based on your location. You can then begin to zero in on the keyword that is best for you. You want it to be relevant to your industry, but with as little competition as possible. You also must ensure that Google can properly "crawl" your website. To do this first you must submit your sitemap to Google and other search engines. What makes this even more difficult is that search engines constantly change the algorithms they use to rank pages in the search results. Therefore a site that is ranked highly, may all of a sudden find themselves knocked off the top ranked sites for their keyword. This is why it is so important to have good online marketing consultants working with you. Obviously I think Innovative Ad Solutions is your best choice for SEO consulting, but you can also learn this on your own if you have the time and inclination. Feel free to post questions or contact me directly and I can give you tips.

Twitter and the Value of Your Content

Social media is a priceless tool for small businesses, but only if used correctly. There is an overwhelming amount of content on social media applications. Small businesses need to find a way to differentiate themselves from millions of other users on these sites and provide meaningful content. The key here is meaningful content. Put yourselves in the shoes of your customers. Before you post to Twitter, ask yourself what value the post will provide to your followers. If you post meaningless content just for the sake of posting, you are just creating noise and you will have trouble getting people to follow you. I recommend that you post everyday, but that you post no more than 3 posts. Any more then this and nobody will read them and you will have trouble coming up with valuable content. Time is precious, as a small business owner I am sure you can understand this. Twitter is great because your posts can be no more than 140 characters therefore they are brief and won't take up a lot of your follower's time. When I say no more than 3 posts, this does not mean that you can't respond and engage in conversation with your followers. It is extremely important to develop a two way relationship with your followers by answering questions and responding directly to their comments. The 3 post maximum is for new content. For example, if you are a landscaping business you could post a Tweet about how to minimize the growth of weeds in a garden. When your followers then respond with questions and comments, answer them and engage your followers in conversation. These follow-up Tweets do not count towards the daily max of 3. These guidelines are not set in stone, but I feel that any less than one Tweet a day runs the risk of being forgotten, and any more than 3 simply creates noise.

Know Your Customer!

Okay now the goal of any business is to maximize profit. I think we can all agree on that. Many people would say then that a business should target as wide of a demographic as possible. However, in my experience I have found this isn't the case. An online marketing plan can only be successful if a small business owner defines their customer. The marketing plan to reach a teenager would be much different then a marketing plan to reach a family. This is not to say that the business can't sell its product to all types of demographics, but it needs to design its marketing campaign around their key target audience. The small business will then be able to determine the different types of online marketing to focus on, and the content they should provide. For example, a local restaurant owner of a family friendly restaurant will obviously want its marketing plan to appeal to families. Perhaps they can use facebook to post pictures of restaurant activity, introduce new employees, and share new menu items. They can use Twitter to develop a two way relationship with the parents and engage them in conversation to find ways to improve their products. And they can use their business website to offer content, such as a "recipe of the week". On the other hand, a restaurant near a college campus would want to reach college age students. They can use social media to offer discounts for slower days of the week when they need to drive up business. Knowing your key demographic is essential to having a successful marketing campaign. If you need help defining your demographic email me or give me a call!

There are so many forms of social media that businesses can use to reach their customers. The biggest problem for small businesses when developing an online marketing plan is determining which content to post to which account. If you replicate the content, then there is no point of customers following all your accounts. For example, if a small business has a website, twitter account, email newsletter, and facebook page; why would a customer waste their time following all four if they can get all of the information in their weekly newsletter. But if the small business owner has unique content on each account, customers have a need to follow each account and this helps the small business go viral.

Our new blog

Welcome to our new thread where we will discuss the new era of marketing your small business online. Many small businesses don't know where to start when developing an online marketing plan. We can help. There is an abundance of information that we can share and hope to start informative discussions that will be beneficial for all small business owners.