Now, NO excuse for not marketing your business online…
Those of you that know me may find this post strange coming from me. But that’s why I implore you to read this blog…
A Step –By-Step Guide for Complete Internet Marketing for Beginners.
Now I am obviously not an SEO or web buidling expert like some of the people we know. But this is what an absolute and complete internet marketing beginner has been able to achieve in 3 weeks.
If you want to skip to the summary bullet points of what I’ve learned and I’d like you to know about, then skip to the bottom where the list is headed: Are you an internet Marketing Beginner? .
<EO experts’, which was not really their fault in many ways.
p>But here’s the story so far…
I don’t know about you, but up until a few weeks ago, I would have called myself a complete beginner as far as internet marketing. But that has all now changed..
For the last few years I’ve been frustrated with not really getting what I needed from web designers and their ‘SInitially, I just thought all I needed and wanted was an ‘online brochure’. So they dutifully gave me that. Then I realised I needed to reach out to find new customers beyond those I or my contacts knew. So they tried to understand my business and what is special about it and then come up with ways to market it with SEO. Then the ongoing costs were going to be quiet high.
All along I wished I knew how to do this myself and how to really understand how to find out particular areas my target clients would be looking for on the web.
Then the craze for doing Newsletters came along and then doing video newsletters, but how do I embed video in emails or make newsletter and embed the video’s there.
I knew I needed to build a list and I’ve done that from lots of networking contacts and events and workshops I’ve run.
But I needed to be able to collect contacts from people who visited my websites and were interested in what I do.
A little knowledge can be dangerous… and can drive you even more crazy
I ended up knowing WHAT I needed to do, but still not HOW to do it. Perhaps this was even more frustrating than before. Does this sound familiar?
Then I very recently found some internet marketing training from an IM ’guru’ which for very little money and in the space of 3 weeks has helped me go from never even writing a Blog to launching 6 websites all targetted at doing different things, with embedded video and email capture and automatic autoresponder sequenced follow up emails! Oh this feels good.
Here’s a couple of the things I’ve learned:
Finding the right Keywords to target: Keywords need to find both short phrases that people are searching for (see the free Goolge Keyword tool– GKT) Becasue if you are ‘advertisinng beautifully’ on a ‘street that no one is looking down’ it’s pointless. Then this needs to be combined by looking for phrases that has a managable level of competition. Put the phrase you find in the GKT into Google with double quotation mark around the “phrase”. Then you need to do the search again for the same phrase and look at the searches that show up on the first page – the sites you are actually competing for. Then you have to know if you can actually compete against them to get onto the first page. Sites like Wikipedia and other ‘authority’ sites make this hard.
How to Create Free Video’s: You can make free video’s all online with no extra equipment and automativcally uplaod to YouTube from where you can easily get the emedding code to place and load onto your website. Go to Animoto.com
If you are interested in more of what and how I’ve learned these things and much more there is a summary below. But you can find out more at one of the sites I’ve set up and where I’ve got all my knowledge and skills to build 6 sites in under 3 weeks from a standing start:
Click here Complete Internet Marketing for Beginners
Are you an internet Marketing Beginner? Or have you ever wanted to know how to:
- Sell your own products or affiliate market amazon or other products on your own website?
- Market your own business in a ‘sharp shooter’ kind of way?
- Build a WordPress website before, or maybe you’ve tried and failed, thinking it’s too difficult? Be confused, as was I, by other appraoches taught with FTP, constant downloading and uploading of files and documents? (I’ve now build 6 sites in the last 3 weeks without doing any of this and only using the training tools highlighted in this training)
- Get the ‘right’ domain name and where from
- A great source for one price for unlimited domain names
- How to build annd set up your domain at an ISP other than where you bought a domain name
- Really understand how to identify the right keywords for your business that Google will find?
- And ones that are targetted at a ‘level of competition’ you can compete against?
- Plus where and how to place them on a website?
- Make your own marketing video’s without any other equipment other that what you already have plus an internet connection?
- Embed video into a webpage?
- Do email marketing with embedded video?
- Set up an autoresponder for contact detal capture with a follow up email campaign?
- Learn from one of the best internet marketers, who has made over £2Mn pounds selling his ‘how to training? AND know it is a simple, ligitimate, proven step-by-step training rather than one of the plethora of dubious, scam or incomplete offerings all to readily available on the internet.
If you’re still reading then to find out more…
Click here Complete Internet Marketing for Beginners
CSR – Make a BIG difference in a small business
Filed under: Business Networking, Member Offers, Members News
CSR – Corporate Social Responsibility
This phrase usually makes you think of the ‘corporate businesses’ with BIG budgets and people assume it doesn’t apply to them!
It applies to all businesses, whatever size – we are all socially responsible for the well being of our community, staff, customers and environment. This doens’t have to mean big money but what it can do is help you:
- Retain & win customers
- Have a happy / motivated team
- Keep your head in front of your competition
- Have something to talk about to PR, press, newsletters, blogs, twitter, facebook, smoke signals and pigeon!
- Save money
- Provide access to funding and investors
This is to mention just a few of the positive, proactive benefits.
So what’s involved? Your time initially, but not as much as you may think – Like any good planning you do need to invest some time in building your CSR policies, but it doesn’t take too long.
Here are some tips on what you can easily think about:
- Open up your business to work experience pupils.
- Volunteer time for causes for you or your staff – It doesn’t need to be a lot. An hour a week to help a local school with reading?
- Skills training – ie CV writing / mock interviews training to unemployed / students.
- SKYPE – Have a Skype account and advertise it on your email – It could help save travel time and petrol costs.
- Look at your utility usage – Get a monitor and see if you can save power by switching off computers and equipment at the plug. Use energy efficient light bulbs. Turn the thermostat down. Set hot water at 60 degrees. Turn off radiators. Turn off lights – It all mounts up! – you will be amazed at the savings you could make. Up to 20% in some cases.
- Set up Pay Roll giving – it’s easy.
- Speak to a financial advisor about charitable trusts – It could save a fortune on inheritance tax etc – Martin Capel Smith can help you.
- Flexible working hours as an option to staff.
- If you have space – Offer a free meeting room facility to local community groups.
- A staff benefit programme to help them save money.
- Look into bike and transport schemes ie car sharing
- Recycle – It’s easy – but do you do it? Paper? Ink Cartridges? Packaging?
- Support local suppliers
- Pay on time – It’s important to you, so it is to others.
- Purchase sustainable / Recycled products
- If you are getting a new car – get the most eco friendly one you can afford.
Other things to consider:
- Best practice in employment matters and total compliance with employment legislation;
- Effective Diversity policies covering employment, supply chain management and customer relations;
- Preparation of anti-bribery policy including external verification of effectiveness;
- Waste and Packaging regulatory compliance and company recycling policy effectiveness;
- Health & Safety compliance.
How do I do it?
ACTION is what is required!
A – Assess – Asses the needs of your business, your personal motivations and local requirement
C – Commit – To a statement of what being a responsible business means to you. Make it achievable and have short medium and long term goals.
T – Tell – Don’t be shy, tell your staff, customers, potential customers, friends, family and stake holders.
I – Integrate – Across your business, identify the issues that effect your bottom line.
O – Organise – Like any good plan organisation is the key for maximum benefit. If you have staff that are involved make time to recognise and Thank!
N – Nurture – Involved your clients, supply chain, staff etc. People are always keen to get involved with positive activities, nurture them along with your plan and you will be rewarded. Measure and report back – feedback for us all is always great especially when it is positive.
TELL PEOPLE!
Website, newsletters, on the bottom of your emails, PR, press – what ever you can think of… Don’t be shy of your CSR policy – It will help you in the long run.
I hope this helps you. If you would like further information you are welcome to contact me Sharon Cook – Sharon@mymatesrates.co.uk 07738 736 987
Local Online Marketing to Increase Enquiries
Courtesy of Benson Kua via Flikr
Marketing and Sales. They go together like, well, sand and jam for most small businesses.
At the Amersham Refer-On meeting last week we discussed how most business creators are technicians who’ve carved a bread and butter career with great skill, but find the sandwiching together of all of the elements of a successful business a serious challenge.
Suppose you want a slice of internet marketing. Well, it’s a big deli bar, an overwhelming choice of specialities from far and wide that promise to make you fat and content.
Of course, by the time you’ve taken a taste of everything continental you’ve lost your appetite, and your lunch money.
Googles Eyes
Look around and you’ll see that in the last three years there has been a huge shift in how people think and behave when looking for services. Now that everyone has a computer in their pocket to shrink the web and go anywhere, they choose to go just around the corner.
Over 20% of all Google searches are localised, i.e. they have a postcode, town or other local intent. Think of mobile search and that percentage rises to at least a third. Smartphones like iPhone, Android and Blackberry devices are outselling regular mobiles, and the numbers of mobiles selling are at least three times the number of PCs.
Google has been quietly altering the way they return results to match our desire for local information so in all searches, location is factored. For the bulk of Refer-On businesses, even in B2B sales, this is a big deal. Why? Because Google want to provide accessible results to searchers. Which means they will prefer local results, there’s no immunity from community.
Small businesses find the bulk of their income comes from local customers, and when businesses network, it’s usually at groups in their local vicinity. The truth is, most business, even global business, happens locally.
PlaceMe! reports let you know where you are and then we do something about it, because we’re interested in driving enquiries, and lifting you in the listings is just one little bit of the puzzle.
Local Markets
Here’s some other tasty morsels to stick in your sandwich:
- Mobile searches quadrupled in 2011.
- 79% of smartphone users use their phones to help with shopping.
- 71% of smartphone users who see TV, press or online ads search for more info.
- After looking up a local business on a smartphone, 61% of users call, 59% visit.
You know this. Look at your own family, friends and colleagues checking prices online to buy at the best price locally, or window shopping at the weekend to later buy online with free delivery, and we all know people who are online all the time, but never on their computer.
When a local search is done, the searcher is close to buying.
When a mobile search is done, the searcher is ready to buy.
People don’t behave like this all weekend, then start using Yellow Pages, Newspapers, etc., when they get to the office. They look for business services they need in the same way, with the same expectations. Now all businesses need local presence, just to be found, because Google is going to prefer those that do.
What’s in your lunchbox?
Of course, we’re now back at the deli bar, with not a lot of money, and my suggestion is whatever you do, make local internet marketing the thickest slice. You see, you haven’t much time before everyone realises buyers love local, and that maybe they should be paying attention to their (your) local market.
As Amersham Hub Manager for Refer-On I’ve given many presentations on tips and techniques for small businesses to improve the way they work and think, including how local really is where one’s head and heart should be.
But as a business coach, I also know it is really hard to follow up and follow through on advice. So for this one, critical part of a small business’ business a new service Place Me! has been developed that works on an exclusive basis, taking one type of business in one location and promoting them ahead of their competition. It’s a monthly service, to get the phone ringing with more local enquiries. If you’re not seen now in your local market, you’ll need to displace those that are.
A lunchtime offer for Refer-On members
Place Me! concentrates on increasing business enquiries from your local market. It should be obvious from this post that those enquiries are likely to be of quality, so we’ve added three benefits for Refer-On members and partner network members:
- First refusal. I’d rather members’ businesses be inside Place Me! than trying to compete from the outside.
- Set-Up discount. To make first refusal viable for smaller members, we’re discounting the set-up cost by over 50%.
- Competitive Report. We’ll build a report for you that confirms who your competition is, so you can decide what to do.
If you’d like more information about Place Me!, what it is, how it works, and how it can put the jam back in your sandwich, please just add your details. Then while you decide if you want to take advantage, we will have locked out your sector and location for you.
Philip Stanley
minutecoach.com
Amersham Hub Manager
New Year Gift Offer from Living Streams to all Refer-On Members
Filed under: Business Networking, Member Offers, Members News
When corporates want to test the layout of their webpages, they set up labs with volunteers and measure eye movement – called ‘eye tracking’. But for smaller companies, this is far too expensive. A good more cost effective alternative are heatmaps synthesised from a mass of eye-tracking lab results and one of the best of these is Feng Gui. To see what heatmaps are please visit this example (opens new window / tab).
I have bought 20 credits with Feng Gui and offer Refer-On members a set of reports for any page on their website: The home page or main landing page (maybe the same thing) would be a good choice. This offer is strictly on a first come first served basis and closes at 23 March if the credits are not all used before then. Two Refer-On members who have already taken advantage of my offer are Graham Penson and Helen Isacke – please contact them if you are in any doubt of the usefulness of these heatmaps.
This offer is going to be opened up to the 2,000 companies on my eNewsletter mailing list very shortly, so a quick response is recommended.
Why am I being so magnanimous? There must be a catch! You won’t find one because there isn’t one.
I’m making the offer to celebrate the fact that Google.co.uk now considers Living Streams to be a top 10 UK ‘internet consultancy’ and one of the top 20 UK ‘internet marketing companies’ – Google search either phrase and you’ll see. In addition, it now considers Targeted WSI Web Solutions (aka WSI Thames) to be in the top 3 WSI consultancies in the UK – just Google ‘WSI’ and see.
Join us on…
