The first has a site where the content hasn't changed since its date of launch back in 2008, and the second has a newer, but static site. One is paying a hefty monthly fee for listing in a local business directory: with little discernable result. Both recognize that they need to take action to improve their current results.
Growing your business with Internet Marketing is hard work. Being passive will not pay off. For the small business owner this means finding a budget to hire the expertise you need or learning how to do it yourself. More sweat equity, in other words, for many small business people.
I made six suggestions to both of them:
- Blog regularly about your industry, the local community, and anything that relates them
- Make sure your site's code is optimized for Google
- Buy search position with Google AdWords
- Make use of appropriate Social Media
- Make sure there's an obvious call to action on your pages
- Monitor and analyze your viewers' behaviour and tweak your site and messaging in response to it.
Your blogging voice
Corporate speak, marketing spin, awkwardly formal vocabulary ... those approaches seldom succeed in a blog. People read blogs because they're interesting and informative not because some one is overtly pounding the drum of a sales pitch. Be human; be yourself. Mitch Joel goes into this point in depth with this post at Six Pixels of Separation.You can't blog once or twice a year. Setting yourself a fixed day of the week to publish is probably the most effective way to guarantee that it gets done. It is work and needs to be scheduled just like any other business task.
Good code helps Google
Here's where you do have to hire someone. Your teenage nephew is probably not the person to do this job. While it's not rocket science, it does take expertise and experience to properly code a web site. Ask your colleagues and competitors about their web developer. You don't want to make a mistake here as the wrong methods can mean a site that's invisible to seacrh engines -- I'm looking at you Flash.SEO and SEM the plough horses of Internet Marketing
Paul Downs, in two posts in the New York Times last year, outlines his experience working Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing in tandem. He concludes convincingly to my ears that Google AdWords is essential to his online marketing efforts. I think they're well worth reading.My Grand Experiment: Turning Off AdWords
Debating the Use of Google AdWords
Google Analytics is Free!
Make sure your web developer hooks your site into Google Analytics too. It's free and gives you the tools to monitor what people do when they do reach your site. Be prepared to make changes based on what you learn. It also hooks into your AdWords campaign so you can track its effectiveness. In Downs' first article linked above, he goes into some depth with how he uses Analytics to monitor his site and his marketing.Build an online community
Social media is long term marketing. Finding and participating in your community of interest is the equivalent of joining the Rotary or Chamber of Commerce for my father's generation. Being a huckster in those places won't get you far; being a positive influence will.It will take some research to find the platform that's right for you. Just like traditional marketing knowing your target market's demographic and where they can be found is the key. For example, women 35 to 54 represent one of the largest groups on Facebook. If that's your audience then you need to be there. The reverse is true as well. if your audience isn't on Facebook, then don't fritter away your resources there.
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