Archive for: November 2008

Most small businesses put a lot of time, thought, and marketing budget into creating a web site that not only gives users a great web experience, but also the necessary information to turn web visitors into new (or repeat) customers. With marketing budgets being tightened (or cut) for many businesses today, a business web site needs to work harder than ever to market the company and deliver results. But what if the site doesn’t get enough visitors? What if it’s not driving new traffic, or not showing up in the search engines, or if visitors click away from the site as soon as they land on it?

Unfortunately for many small businesses, it’s a common situation that’s not only frustrating, but can be costly as well. No one wants to invest in a great web site only to have it underperform once it’s live on the web! So to help you avoid this situation with your small business web site, here are some things you can do to promote your site, drive more traffic, improve search engine rankings, and help your web site work harder for your business!

• Search Engine Optimization – Of course, this is the best move you can make to get better results out of your web site. It’s critical that your site is correctly optimized for the search engines, because without it there’s little chance that your site will ever be found among the millions of sites that are already optimized and ranking well in the search results.
• Sitemaps & Robot Files – Robot files (robots.txt) are the first files that search engine spiders look for when they visit the root directory of your site. They act as an invitation to the places on your site that should be read and indexed, and identifies which places are off-limits. Sitemap files in both HTML and XML formats supply additional information to the search engine spiders by showing them the appropriate links to follow, and providing them with a clear path through all the pages of your web site.
• Link Building – Up to 75% of your site’s ranking in Google can be attributed to the inbound links that point to your site from other reliable sites on the web. Be careful, though – Google has been known to penalize sites for purchasing links (paid linking) or for being listed on link farms or spammy sites that are little more than page after page of links. Stick with quality sites that are relevant to yours and have reliable content and good page rank.
• Press Releases – In addition to publicizing your company’s news and events, press releases (especially the online type) are a great way to get inbound links to your site from other credible web sites. Just make sure you send out press releases that are formatted to current journalistic standards, are well written, and include links that lead back to your web site.
• Directory Submission – There are many good web directories available, both paid and free, that can provide extra exposure for your web site and also provide you with additional inbound links. Make sure you list your web site in the most relevant category possible, and stick with the well-known, reputable directories only.
• E-Marketing – Sending out e-campaigns to your subscriber list is another great way to spread the word about your web site. Add your URL to the header or footer area of all email pieces that you send, and also include a separate promo or “write-up” that encourages readers to visit the site. Make sure to keep adding new content to your site, and let subscribers know when you’ve added new information as well.
• Landing Pages – When promoting your site in marketing pieces or advertisements, don’t always send your visitors just to your home page. Instead, consider creating separate landing pages that are specifically written to match the content of each marketing piece. For instance, if you placed an ad for a Thanksgiving Sale, create a special Thanksgiving Sale page on your web site that corresponds to the ad content (but also includes links to explore the rest of your web site as well).

After spending so much time, effort, and money on creating or updating a web site for your small business, make sure you give it a fighting chance to deliver great results. By promoting your site you not only help build up a web presence, but you also help create some additional buzz about your company that can help boost your overall marketing results as well. Your web site is a major asset in your marketing efforts and in your business, so make sure it gets the traffic, the rankings, and the attention that it deserves!

Customer Loyalty programs have been around for many years, but recently it seems they have been experiencing a bit of a resurgence. Popular programs such as the Staples Reward Program and those CVS “Extra Bucks” give members extra benefits just for doing their everyday shopping. But if you’re looking for an innovative, fresh marketing strategy for your business, you can make things simple for customers and less costly for you by implementing a customer loyalty program with a twist – a Text Message Loyalty Program!

Popular customer loyalty programs often feature frequent shopper cards or programs that reward advance purchases, repeat visits, or include free merchandise or special bonuses. Rewards are typically offered to members via snail-mail, email campaigns, or placed in traditional print advertisements or in-store coupons. However, using text messages to broadcast these offers has several unique advantages, such as:

1. It’s immediate – you can send out a text message, and recipients typically read it within 15 minutes
2. It’s convenient – people are already dependent on their cell phones, and usually have their phones with them and turned on
3. There’s no need for users to remember to bring along their coupons or loyalty cards
4. It’s paperless and can be less expensive than using email or snail-mail delivery methods
5. Almost all U.S. cell phones and plans can accept text messages, and text message usage has moved into the mainstream for most users (it’s not just for teenagers anymore!)

A Text Message Loyalty Program also requires permission from your customers to send text messages to their cell phones, so be sure your customers “opt-in” to the program. Ask them if they would like to join your Bonus VIP Club (or whatever loyalty program you come up with). Explain to them that by providing their cell phone number, they will receive occasional offers or coupons delivered right to their phone. Then, follow up with a text coupon offering them a great deal on something.

For instance, right before a customer’s birthday, you could send a text message that offers him or her 20% off any purchase on that day, or offer a free “birthday bonus” item to go along with their purchase.

You could also use text messages to remind customers of an upcoming event (“Don’t forget that tomorrow is our Holiday Open House from 5-7 pm”), or that time is running out on a limited-time offer (“Reserve your seat for our upcoming seminar before Nov. 15 – seating is limited”).

If your business could benefit from an immediate response, text messaging can give you an instant promotion channel that leads directly to your customers. One example I read about recently involved an ice cream shop that was empty of customers one rainy afternoon. As an experiment, they sent out a text message to their VIP Club offering $1 off any purchase for the rest of the afternoon. Apparently, the text message resulted in 45 customers showing up within the first hour of sending out the message!

Getting Started

Before you jump in and start a Text Message Loyalty Program for your small business, there are a few things you can do to help ensure the program is successful and runs smoothly. Here are some tips:

• Invite your customers to join your Text Message Loyalty Program by direct mail (by sending an invitation or a postcard), or through an email marketing campaign sent directly to their inbox. Also mention the new program in your newsletter, advertisements, and other marketing efforts as well.
• Regularly monitor program results by tracking the number of sales from registered program members, and by measuring campaign responses.
• Remember to offer the program to your new customers, and also periodically remind non-participating customers about the benefits of the program as well.
• Plan ahead – have several “ready made” text message offers available, and set the target dates for sending the offers to program members (once a month, once a quarter, etc.).
• Create loyalty rewards that match the products and services that are most popular with your customers.

A Text Message Loyalty Program is an innovative marketing technique that not only captures the attention of your customers, but also rewards them for doing business with you. It’s a new twist on the tried-and-true marketing tactic of customer loyalty programs, with many new possibilities for you to be creative and relevant in communicating with your customers. Customer loyalty programs have been around for such a long time for a reason, and that’s because they work really well. So take advantage of the technology, try something new, and watch the results as you reward your loyal customers – with a mobile twist.

You may think that blogs and other social networking platforms are used mostly by teenagers who like to discuss their lives online with their friends, but it turns out that businesses are becoming part of the blogging trend as well, and finding big benefits along the way. Blogging has become a global phenomenon that is increasingly being used by businesses as a part of their overall marketing strategy, and the numbers are impressive.

According to Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere 2008 report, almost half of all companies in North America have a blog – almost half! If your company doesn’t have a blog, it means that up to half of North America’s businesses could already be ahead of you when it comes to reaching your target audience. So which half is your business in?

If you don’t yet have a business blog, it may be time to consider the benefits that this technology can bring to your business. Your customers and potential customers are already online, participating on blogs about the products and services that they’re interested in. And although you may be putting it off, your competition could be taking advantage of business blogging already – or at least thinking about it – as a way to communicate effectively with the same target audience that you would like to reach.

Business blogs are different from the stream-of-consciousness journaling previously associated with blogging (like the teenagers online with their friends!). So if you’re thinking about a business blog, here are some ideas for what that could include:

• Short articles – if your company puts out a newsletter, re-publish your articles on your blog, or write informative new articles that would be useful to your customers
• Industry news – keep your customers posted about new technology, upcoming events, additional products, or industry announcements
• Current News – comment on news stories that relate to your business, your customers, or both
• Tips & Suggestions – keep readers coming back by offering them something of value that they may not be able to get elsewhere on the web
• Upcoming Events – blogs are a great place to publicize your upcoming events and get some extra publicity for free

A blog can help your business in a number of ways. Practically speaking, a blog can make a huge difference in your search engine rankings. Adding a blog means new, fresh content is being added regularly, increased web traffic is being sent to your site, and new, valuable inbound links are being built all over the web as customers and other bloggers read your blog and begin linking to it – all of which helps boost your rankings in the major search engines.

Another useful purpose for your blog is cheap market research. It’s pretty common for small businesses to be limited by budget constraints when it comes to market research and customer response data. But a business blog can make it easy to get an up-to-the-minute snapshot of what’s on your customers’ minds. It can also be helpful in tracking the success of advertising campaigns or initiatives, especially if there’s a promotional tie-in with your blog or web site.

Perhaps one of the most attractive things for your customers, though, is that they can become part of the ongoing conversation about your business, with you and with others on the web. This not only provides you with added publicity, web exposure, and web traffic, but also brings increased customer interest and loyalty. Blogs give your customers more power over their consumer experience, and an added sense of how much your company truly values them.

So if your business could benefit from more customer engagement and participation, better search engine positions, and getting ahead of your competitors, it may be time to consider adding a blog for your business!

We all know how important the web has become in our daily lives; whether it’s for our work, home life, education, shopping, communication, or just about anything else. And as the web continues to evolve and become more useful everyday, there is a constant stream of new acronyms, abbreviations, and words that have been invented to describe the ever-changing applications and services available on the web today. Here is a list of some common terms that you may have seen lately, with a brief explanation of each:

• SEO: Search Engine Optimization — SEO is the process of modifying a web site to achieve better search engine rankings, and to influence the search engines’ judgment regarding the site’s relevance to important search terms and phrases.
• SERP: Search Engine Results Page — SERP is the listing of web page links that are returned in response to a user query on a search engine.
• BLOGS: Short for “Web Logs”, Blogs are a collection of articles or comments that are posted by using blog software. Blogs can accommodate a wide range of content types, including text, video, photos, podcasts, and are typically collaborative, allowing users to post information that is visible to all other users of the blog.
• SOCIAL MEDIA: Often referred to as Web 2.0, these are the interactive components of web sites that allow users to share video, photos, podcasts, and other applications that promote user participation. Blogs, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace are all examples of social media applications.
• CSS: Short for Cascading Style Sheets, CSS is a specific language used to define how a web page written HTML or XHTML should display in web browsers. CSS provides behind-the-scenes capability for coding web sites so they are more powerful, efficient, and also more search engine friendly.
• RSS: Really Simple Syndication — RSS is a way to syndicate content from web sites, news sites, social media sites, and blogs where the content is frequently updated. It uses a feed-based technology that “feeds” content from a site to an RSS reader, enabling users to track information and current news through the RSS feeds they have set up.
• PPC: Abbreviation for Pay-Per-Click, PPC is an advertising model that allows advertisers to pay their advertising fee only when users actually click on their advertisement (this is the model used in Google’s Adwords program, among others).
• PR: PageRank is a Google algorithm that measures the popularity of a web site on a scale of 1-10. PageRank is visible when the Google Toolbar is installed on a user’s browser, and indicates the value of a site compared with other sites on the web.