In The Current Climate It Is More Important Than Ever For The Marketing Spend of Small and Medium Businesses To Produce Greater Returns. So Why Aren’t Design Agencies Leading Businesses Down This Path?

One of the biggest problems that small and medium sized businesses face when they come to us is something they never realised. Not only have they invested in a website presence, but they now need an even bigger wallet to set about marketing it. And without realising the opportunities available to them, they just accept this. Why should this be you? With a little forward planning you can see how by following a few simple steps it is possible to create a website that works hard at generating returns, so it pays for itself. And on top of this, there are lots of free and very low cost marketing opportunities out there that will enable you to sustain returns in the longer term.

So Why Isn’t Everyone Doing This?

The problem lies in that it takes people to live, breath and experience this from the perspective of a small and medium business, to really understand how your type of business operates and there aren’t many of those about. And this is something that makes us unique. So let me share some of our experiences with you. But before we do, I’d like to explain one more thing.

With all the best intentions, many design agencies do not understand the needs of creating a return on investment for small and medium businesses. Whilst they are often excellent at giving the right impression when your potential customers get to the site, they often leave it in your hands as to how you are going to get people there in the first place, what are you going to do with them when they get there? and how you will convert them into being loyal and enthusiastic customers?

For starters, here are a few useful tips to help you make more out of your website:

1. Twitter, Facebook and Linked can provide powerful ways for you to connect with your target market, build relationships and build word of mouth. Our Social Media for Small and Medium Businesses Series gives you some really useful tips.

2. Video acts as a really powerful way to engage with your audience and get your personality across. See how you can get up and running with video with these powerful video tips and introduction to YouTube Video Part 1 and introduction to YouTube Video Part 2.

3. When looking at how to get visitors to your website, it is important that you put your efforts into ‘qualified’ visitors. Here are 25 top tips for generating qualified visitors to your website.

For many small businesses, time is of the essense. If you would like to save time on a huge learning curve and commission a website that acts like a sales rep for your business in just 5 simple steps generating greater returns for your business, then you may be interested in Karl 5.

In the final video covering Twitter, Jamie Dobson of iNet insights covers how to build your Twitter followers and how to engage with your followers. He also uncovers what small businesses should be looking out for as well as the impact on their bottom line. And watch out for your videos on Linked In coming very soon. Visit social media marketing for small businesses introduction for all videos in the series.

View PDF Transcribe of Interview

< Back to the full social media series

Related Posts:

50 Power Twitter Tips

I did some videos recently around YouTube and how to utilise YouTube to market your business effectively. Kevin Lycett of CDS Studio, Leeds, West Yorkshire knows his stuff when it comes to YouTube and having run his own production company has a good idea about creating video. But you don’t have to be an expert. Just get on and do it, it’s fun and the more you do the better you become. Nothing beats practice (just like for me).

Watch the video series right here, with some further recommended articles below:

Using YouTube to promote your business effectively Part 1

Using YouTube to promote your business effectively Part 2

Further Related Posts:

Priceless Video Marketing Tips

By Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett is a very unique experience as a book. It is highly practical with tools and techniques for implementation from two experienced bloggers who share their insights and experiences with you. Darren and Chris also run the ProBlogger blog together,complimenting the book, sharing further insights in how to make money from blogging. This book is a must read for any business thinking about monetising a blog or if you want your blog to be working harder for you. You will also learn a thing or two from the book if you have or are seeking to incorporate a blog into your website to establish yourself as an expert within your industry.

Apologies for my funny voice. I’ve got a cold today too.

In this short Twitter video, Jamie Dobson of iNet insights gives you a brief insight into tips and tricks for getting to grips with Twitter.  Jamie talks about some of the third party tools available to your business such as hootsuite and Tweetdeck and how these are important for managing your Twitter account.  Visit social media marketing for small businesses introduction for all videos in the series.

View PDF Transcribe of Interview

< Back to the full series

When I had the pleasure of getting together with Jamie Dobson of iNet insights recently he shared his insights into how Twitter can benefit your business.  Pay close attention as Jamie describes how you can user Twitter to your advantage particularly if you are targeting a market based within a particular locality.  This is the second video in our series of Social Media for Small Businesses, but the first video on Twitter.  Visit the social media marketing for small businesses introduction for all videos in the series.  My questioning technique perhaps could be a bit more polished, but the essence of the message comes across perfectly.

View PDF Transcribe of Interview

< Back to the full series

The idea of getting involved in social media for small businesses can be quite daunting. Questions I am often asked are … should I jump on the bandwagon? which social media tools should I use? Or plain and simply it seems just too complicated…I just don’t get it!

Jamie Dobson of iNet Insights knows his stuff when it comes to social media and as he works extensively with small businesses we have delved into his expertise and put together a video series to help you get used to the idea of social media for your business if you are not already using it or give some pointers and direction if you are delving into the depths of social media but would like to know more.

Download PDF Transcribe

Watch your next video in the Series on Twitter. Coming to you very shortly.

Social Media Series Links:

Social Media for Small Business Series – Twitter Part 1 How Can Twitter Benefit Your Business

Social Media for Small Business Series – Twitter Part 2 The Trick To Getting To Grips With Twitter

1. Search Engine Optimisation - Create lots of pages of useful written content on your website that are rich in keywords that would attract your target audience.  With more pages of content, search engines will then have more content to work on and doing this regularly will help you push your way up the search engines natural listings.
2. Twitter – Send out exclusive offers to your Twitter followers, give them information for free.  Direct your followers back to your website.
   
3. Facebook fan page- If you have a Facebook Fan Page then you can promote an offer on your Facebook Fan Page and/or create a status update for your fans about an exclusive offer, or something that adds value to them.
4. Facebook status updates – If you create new content on you website, tell your friends what you are working on in your Facebook status updates.
5. Ask those in step 4 to spread the word with a link to your website
   
6. Linked In status updates – Tell your network about a particular offer or something of value they can receive from your website.
7. Ask those in step 6 to spread the word with a link to your website
   
8. Linked In groups - Engage in discussions in Linked In and direct where relevant to pages on your website of interest to the discussion.
9. Linked In questions and answers – Look for people who have questions, with answers that you can help them and include a link to your website only if it genuinely helps them.
   
10. YouTube – Create a YouTube video that adds value to your market, or solves a particular problem. Be sure to use your keywords in your description and a link back to your website at the top of your description. And don’t forget to include a link to your website in the video itself (just in case a visitor comes via the YouTube route).
11. Free business directory – Search for business directories with free listings and place a website link.
12. Press release offline - Create a news worthy article about your business and distribute to the media.  Ensure that your article adds value to your market and that you have a link back to your website (or at least you can be found on Google from the article).
13. Press relase online – Disseminate your press release to media online to get links back to your website.
    
14. Comment on other websites on related articles and create links back to your website (even if this is a link under your signature).
15. Create articles for other websites – If you have a passion and knowledge for a particular topic are feeling creative in writing, then why not write guest posts on other blogs with a link back to your website.  
    
16. Email marketing – Distribute a message to your existing contacts via email, including an offer or something of value to your audience to encourage them to open your email and click through.
17. Ask those in step 16 to spread the word with a link to your website.
18. Social media bookmarking – Include social media bookmarking on your website pages so that visitors can spread the word about you.
19. RSS feeds - Include an RSS feed on your website so that visitors who are interested in your website can read your latest website posts into their home page or news feed reader.
20. Build relationships with bloggers online who operate within a similar target market to you.  Ultimately they may be able to help to promote your website to their followers.
21. Build relationships with Linked In Group adminsitrators and encourage them to like you enough to spread the word about your website to their network.
22. Build relationships with Facebook Fan Page administrator and encourage them to like you enough to spread the word about your website to their fans.
23. Affiliate relationships with other businesses to refer to your products
24. Don’t forget every email to have an email signature including a link to your website
25. Contact companies with a similar market (but not competing product) and if it is possible offer a free sample to their customers or a special offer.  You could also approach e-commerce companies who may be willing to include special offers for their parcels out to customers.

Remember, it is important to embrace a giving and supportive mentality for your visitor, rather making a sale with every action when you attract visitors to your website.  Your visitors are more likely to engage with you if you give to them and don’t expect them to buy on the initial point of contact.  It is no use to attracting qualified visitors if they don’t engage with you when they arrive at your website.  You can give things away for free in the form of information, or ideally a sample product.

Lewis Howes brings you a great video on adding value to your visitors on is post Increase Blog Traffic, Subscribers, and Sales With Michael Dunlop. You can take aspects of this video and apply them directly to your website. It doesn’t have to be a blog.

The other important thing is that quite naturally with these strategies you are creating links to your website which search engines love.  This in itself will help with your search engine rankings.

Don’t try and do everything as it will become overwhelming.  These are things that you can pick and choose to try and see what works for your business.  If you do more things simultaneously then you will see a greater effect on your website visitors.

A final note is when doing any of the above to drive traffic to your website it is generally more effective to take visitors directly to a specific page or offer, rather than taking an overall approach of directing to your home page.

What other things can you do to drive qualified visitors to your website that are Free?  Please give your feedback, ideas and comments below.

If you found this useful, then you might also like 27 ways to increase conversion rates from your website visitors

If you are a small business owner and you were to catch me in a lift and ask me what Buzz Internet Marketing was about in the time it takes to get to the 3rd floor, you may be at risk of me knocking the alarm button getting the lift stuck and getting an enthusiastic rant about all about the excitement and challenges I have faced as a business owner over the last 10 years (now also raising a young family) and how this can translate to help your business. And you would probably come out again feeling weary….and with a big to do list.

But thank goodness that @problogger have saved this pain and have come to the rescue with their 31 Day summer challenge. Today I have been asked to create an elevator pitch for Buzz Internet Marketing and this gives me the pleasurable task of condensing this scary scenario into a few short words.

Short Pitch: Buzz Internet Marketing helps small businesses to own a website that works hard for their business and bottom line.

Longer Pitch: “If you own a small business then Buzz Internet Marketing can help you learn from successes and challenges in a hands on way”. Overall you get frank and honest advice to create an online presence to boost your bottom line profits.

Expanded longer pitch

You get

• Advice on how to do all the ‘difficult’ bits on your website that many design agencies avoid i.e. how to attract visitors, convert customers and bring customers back for more.
• Simplified online marketing insights which are relevant to small businesses.
• Practical implementation steps to help ensure positive improvements in your business.
• A translation between what you as a business owner truly needs your website to do to affect your bottom line and what a design agency creates.
• Lots of this away for free.

The result … you can realise your online marketing potential through focused action and you can save money by not falling into the same traps as  so many small business owners.

P.S. Now that I have read some other fantastic pitches I think this needs to change and condense.  Would love to have your feedback below.

“Ten years ago, your marketing effectiveness was a function of the width of your wallet.  Today, your marketing effectiveness is a function of the width of your brain.”

This is a quote taken directly from a page that opened automatically this morning from my next read – Inbound Markieting, Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah.

The point here is that as a small business owner, there is so much at your disposal now to market your business effectively without the need to spend lots of cash.  Register for my updates via Email, via the RSS feed, or follow me on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn and I’ll share my expertise in an easy to understand way for free.

Here’s an [affiliate] link to the book in case you would like to investigate it further: