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.