Dec
Small Business Online Marketing on a Budget
This is a guest post by Steve Pronger, a Business Analyst for SEO Works.
Make your marketing dollars stretch further with these seven free small business online marketing strategies.
Small business online marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to promote a burgeoning company, build their brand image and boost sales. For a business that doesn’t have a bricks and mortar site, a website may be their main sales funnel and source of sales supplemented perhaps with telephone or email sales. So without further ado, here are five free ways you can improve your bottom line on a budget.
Search Engine Optimisation
When you run a Pay-Per-Click campaign, you are paying every time someone clicks through to your website but indexing your website on search engines is free. Hiring an SEO company should be seen as an asset to your business not a cost but if you feel you cannot afford to hire an online marketing consultant when you first launch your business, you can read marketing blogs, watch seminars and educate yourself on the SEO process.
Google Places Optimisation
Google Places is a free small business online marketing product ideal for companies that do not have a web presence. With the launch of Place Search late last year, Place Pages started to blend with organic listings in search results. Pages can be optimised by adding business details, hours of operation, a keyword-rich description, and so on. You can also add images and videos to your page, upload seasonal menus and sales brochures.
Social media networking
Social media marketing is another economical way to promote your business without a huge initial outlay. Creating accounts on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, is free and it’s an excellent source of pre-qualified leads for your website. The premise behind social networking is to value and give advice rather than openly promote your business. It’s best to get a dedicated person to monitor and update your accounts daily.
Off – page profile (link building and citations)
An essential component of Search Engine Optimisation is maintaining your off-page profile. When you have back links from quality and relevant websites to your site or you citations on quality and relevant websites, this is seen as a validation or ‘vote’ by Search Engines and can boost your ranking significantly. Put half an hour minimum aside per day to work on your citation or link building activities to reap the rewards of a higher ranking.
Online reputation marketing
Every small to medium business irrespective of what industry you are working in to be aware of what their clients and customers are saying about them in the virtual world. This is critical for companies in the tourism industry such as hotels, restaurants and bars. A small business should put together an ORM strategy together so there is a written company line and policy on how to respond to negative and positive reviews.
Website design
You may not be able to afford a new website design but you can make small changes to your website such as uploading high-quality images of your products and services. The saying that ‘an image says a thousand words’ applies well to small business online marketing. Look at elements such as your copywriting to see if it is current and relevant, test your call to actions and landing pages, add testimonials (see below) and so on.
Testimonials and reviews
People like to buy from businesses they think are credible and trustworthy and one of the ways you can earn trust is by adding testimonials and reviews to your website. It is best to have a dedicated landing page and add this to the navigation with a search-friendly URL. Testimonials are a very effective online marketing tool for small businesses – remember to get authorisation to use them on your site and campaigns.
A small to medium company may not have a lot of money to compete with the big boys and larger competitors in the offline world but the internet makes it a more level playing ground. By setting aside time and resources and thinking outside the box when it comes to small business online marketing campaigns, you can outrank, outperform and outwit your business rivals without making a huge dent in the advertising budget.
Steve Pronger is a Business Analyst for SEO Works, a leading Australian Search Engine Optimisation company.
Justin McGill is a web marketing professional and runs a successful Small Business SEO Firm. He is the founder and CEO of SEORCHERS (read: [surch-ers]) - a local web marketing firm specializing in organic search engine optimization (SEO) with a focus on converting visitors into clients. He is available for SEO Consulting and now you can connect with him on Google+!.Related posts:
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Hi, Steve and Justin.
I know this is kind of self serving as I am a graphic and web designer, but you are quite right when you mentioned website design as one of the best online marketing tactics for your small business even if you are on a shoestring budget. But, of course, they have to be tied in with SEO, social media marketing and I also believe that testimonials are among the best content you can have on your website. So, suffice it to say that I think your list is quite valuable.
With that, I’d like to wish you both the Happiest Holidays! Enjoy!
Wes Towers@Graphic Design Melbourne´s last [type] ..How to Find Good Print Based Graphic Designers
Thanks Steve. Regarding link building, an inexpensive way to build backlinks is through relevant blog commenting. We always include our system of commenting in our client seo plans – it gets them in the habit of contributing on other sites and building community and traffic.
Michael Stetina´s last [type] ..Google Keyword Ranking
One of the biggest advantage that internet has brought our generation is it allowed small businesses to compete with bigger names in the industry by using the search engine and social media in building brand and acquiring online presence.
Noel Addison@Web Design Ventura´s last [type] ..5 Things to Look for in a Web Dev Company
I’ve been doing these marketing trends for a long time now, and they’re really effective even if you have quite a budget for marketing online.
Maybe, I’ll do the testimonials, haven’t consider that. Thanks!
Website design, SEO, and maintaining the off-page profile are so important. The half-hour a day dedication to link-building is great advice.
Apart from all above points one can always start a CPC campaign using adwords. Its not that expensive. And you can also set minimum budget.
All the above ways that you have mentioned are important for promoting your online business. Out of these, Off page optimization and Website design are two very important aspects.
Nice contribution. I think every entrepreneur should have these seven strategies in mind. They can be vital for businesses that need to take off.
Someone above suggested CPC campaigns but they can be expensive for a small business and I think you need to really understand your target customers at first.
Japanese SEO´s last [type] ..Japanese directories – SEO building tactics
Well, if you’re not currently using pay per click campaigns, it is very important to understand them and have some strategy to optimize their performance. And, the large campaigns need to be well planned and handled. It may look simple, but it’s easy to waste thousands of dollars if the strategy was incorrect. The beauty of PPC advertising is the speed at which you can reach your target market and the high quality of sales leads that can be generated. However, its main downside is the price and the need for a perfect conversion to sales. For example, you can run through your ad budget quickly with $5.00 to $10.00 USD per click in many cases.
Monica@Loans Without Credit Check´s last [type] ..Payday Lenders No Credit Check – Online Money Providers
Regarding website, I want to add the importance of the content…
The contents are the most important thing to promote a website, both from the point of view of the search engines reward sites that create fresh content, both from the point of view of a greater flow of users. As images, videos are a strong point for a website. To optimize them, then you should make a transcription.
Daniela@Otoplastica´s last [type] ..Straordinari risultati con le cellule staminali
One of the biggest mistakes newbie marketers make is to think of internet marketing as a free medium. Although the platforms are free to access and use, at the end of the day it has a price, which can be either in the form of time you put in, your efforts or if you hire someone to do the SEO for you then money too. So the very first thing a marketer should do is to stop thinking of internet marketing as free. Its certainly cost effective but not free. But even if it costs something, if done right, the results can be magnificent at even shoe string budgets…
Raj@ Blog Writing Service´s last [type] ..Content Writing Service Vs Full-Time Writer
marketing online is now a trend for a business. a lot of people involve in business through website design or online services And you can also set a minimum budget, the important thing is the content of the article is very interesting and informative. great i really appreciate it.