Posts Tagged ‘marketing’

Good Business Ideas: Are You Focused Or Scattered?

November 17th, 2011

Good business ideas are a dime a dozen. Do you focus your energy on making one idea blossom or are you scattering your energy with each “new” discovery and secret?

Once you start looking for good business ideas, you will find them everywhere. There are seminars, workshops, webinars, video programs, and books all telling you how to:

• Build a down line quickly.

• Create a business from a business-in-a-box.

• Buy and sell real estate with zero money down.

• Invest in stocks.

• Learn Internet marketing for small business.

The problem is not the products or services that are being promoted. The problem is you and your ability to stick with one program; and see it through to successful completion. If you keep hopping around to all the profitable business ideas, you will not master any of them.

Each program requires a new set of skills; therefore, a new learning curve is involved. These learning curves are the roadblocks that stop about 85% of people from finishing a program. What do you do instead of persisting? You go out and begin searching for more profitable business ideas.

Have you been caught in this trap of starting and stopping? If you keep moving on to the next idea that comes along, you are setting yourself up for perpetual failure.

How can you break this habit?

The following three steps will help you develop the persistence required to successfully build a business.

1.) Beliefs – Remove all inner doubts. What are you thinking? Your actions will always support what you are thinking. Immerse yourself in motivational, inspirational books and programs. Take a daily dose of positive “medicine” and build on good business ideas.

2.) Blueprint – Gather factual, reliable information on a legitimate home business opportunity. Does it feel good? Do you enjoy working and learning the different skills?

3.) Business “Buddy” System – Find an accountability partner. Search for a like-minded person who will meet with you weekly. Human beings are social creatures. If you have a business buddy to check in with each week, then you will be sure to get more things accomplished. There are business forums on the web that make it quite easy to find an accountability partner.

Remember these 3 “Bs” (Beliefs, Blueprint and Buddy) as you develop your Internet marketing for small business.

If you are caught in the cycle of starting something, stopping, and searching again, then make a decision today to change. Psychologists tell us that when we begin something and do not finish it, we are forming the habit of failure.

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Free Local Business Advertising Ideas

June 19th, 2011

If you are looking for affordable small business marketing ideas, the internet has a great deal to offer. Even if people are not buying your products or services on line, most people now do their research there first, before going out to shop. This is especially true for more expensive items. There is also an increasing use of smartphones with map features when people are out and about. If you can make it easier for customers who are looking for what you have to offer to find your website, this can only be good for your business. Here are a few free local business advertising ideas that require only minimal technical know-how to implement.

Put your business on the map!
Often internet search results will include map results near the top of the listings. Google Places, Bing Local Listings or Yahoo Local are all useful in getting your business higher up your clients search results pages, and adding your business to these listings is effectively completely free local business advertising!

Is your website search locatable?
If you’re a local business providing a service for local customers, your physical address is a major part of what many potential customers are likely to be searching for. Your website needs to include your address, ideally on every page. You could include it in a footer for example. It is also worth including a paragraph on your website that lists nearby locations also served, so you’ll have a chance of appearing in those locations too. If you have a testimonials page, you could include the location of the customer in the testimonial heading too. This all helps the internet search engines bring people looking for exactly what you have to offer, directly to your website.

Can Facebook work for your business?
Small business marketing includes everything to do with engaging with your customers, and Facebook is now the largest social media site with over 500 Million users, that is one in every 13 people on earth! It is not just for youngsters anymore either, 30% of Facebook users are in the over 35 demographic, and this segment is growing! This is a place where a lot of your potential customers hang out, chat with their friends, and go to get news and information.

Having a Facebook page for your business is a great way for you to engage with customers and potential customers, and if your posts are interesting, funny, or both they are more likely to ‘like’ your business page in order to see more posts from you, and this will keep you in their minds. Your Facebook page should contain a summary of what’s great about your business, and a link through to your main website. Try to make the page interesting and personal, rather than focused on your sales pitch. Facebook is a place to be sociable, and if you think about the way you communicate on there as if you were in a real life social situation with all your potential customers you won’t go far wrong.

It is advisable to think carefully about how you use the site; people do not react well to overt selling on Facebook any more than they would react well if you walked up to them at a party and started selling straight away before they had got to know you at all. People are more likely to buy from you if they know, like and trust you. Mix in occasional posts about your business, offers etc. with a larger proportion of interesting and personal posts about yourself, and share snippets of your expertise relating to your business too. Try to be as open, transparent and honest as you can. The internet is a very public place and people will soon see through any attempt at deception.

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How Can I Get the Word Out Fast About My Small Business?

June 8th, 2011

What is the best way to advertise your business? As an entrepreneur, you want your product, service, or business idea to reach your target market as soon as possible.

The fastest way to market is to use the Internet. Online marketing reaches more people around the world quicker than traditional marketing campaigns. As a business owner, you can choose between paid or free marketing strategies that suit your budget. To get the word out about your business consider implementing some or all of these online marketing initiatives:

1. Get Found with Search Engine Optimization

- Get you business website on the first pages of search engine listings by optimizing for the search engines and web directories.
- Index your website for it to be found easily by search engines. Include text navigation and a sitemap for proper website indexing.
- Create useful content. People search online to get information. Give it to them with informative and relevant content.
- Build links from your website to other websites. Great content encourages linkage. Join the online communities of users and experts, such as forums and discussion boards.
- Optimize each webpage. Every page should have a relevant URL address and appropriate Meta tags. If there are images in the page, use Alt-tagging and write descriptive text attributes. Use title and header tags (h1, h2, h3) that describe the page accurately. All these SEO tactics are considered in search engine rankings.

2. Build a Business Blog

- Complement your website with a blog that delivers updates about your business, products and services regularly.
- Link your blog and your website for wider audience coverage for your business.
- Post interesting content in your blog, such as informative articles, current news and events, trends and studies. You can also interview experts and invite guest bloggers to write in your blog.
- Widen your blog’s coverage through social media networking. Link each blog post to the social media platforms you have joined, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Incorporate share links to allow blog readers to share your posts to their social media sites. Share services like Addthis.com makes make link share possible.
- Incorporate an email opt-in form in your blog to gather readers’ email addresses. You can then include these addresses in your email marketing campaigns.

3. Get the Message Out with Email

- Include your business logo, company slogan or email signature with every email message you send. You can also place your social media profile links. These provide your identity and contact details.
- Create a good quality email layout that you use every time you send out your message. The design should include your brand identity and social media links. Choose your theme, colors, fonts and graphics carefully to match your brand and that appeal to your subscribers.
- Utilize social media campaigns to increase your email subscriptions. For example, place an email sign-up feature with each free newsletter you post to Twitter or with each promotional contest on your Facebook fan page.

4. Build Business Connections at LinkedIn

- Establish your business profile at LinkedIn to network with other business professionals and share valuable information and ideas. Place as much information about your business in your profile to attract more clients.
- Create or join groups related to your business niche or industry. This gives more exposure to your business and provides you information on trends, customers and products of your fellow group members.
- Use the News section at LinkedIn to automatically broadcast from your blog RSS. This allows your LinkedIn contacts to get visibility of your blog.
- Explore new business opportunities by using LinkedIn’s search engine and research tools.

5. Engage Fans with a Facebook Page

- Tap into Facebooks’ big user database by creating a fan page for your business. Place unique and useful information into the fan page.
- Promote your fan page by sharing the page link to other social media sites and through email.
- Place fresh content in your fan page by writing on your fan page wall regularly. Setup an RSS feed from your blog to automatically deliver content to your page whenever your blog is updated.
- Encourage email subscriptions by setting up an email opt-in form in your fan page.
- Join industry groups or become a fan of industry pages. Share posts from these groups in your fan page. Comment on postings actively.
- Post your business’ promotional campaigns in your fan page. This encourages fans to share your page with their friends.

6. Launch Your Business Presence on Twitter

- Create your profile on Twitter, making sure to place complete information about your business.
- Follow people you know at Twitter by using the Twitter search engine or by using your email contacts.
- Tweet regularly and in a conversational tone, to engage followers.
- Link your blog to your Twitter account using tools like HootSuite or Twitterfeed to automatically tweet any updates in your blog.
- Search for your company using Twitter’s search engine and find out who talks about your business or products. Reply to tweets about your business and thank these tweeters for mentioning you.
- Organize your Twitter following by groups. Click on each group to get a pulse of their topics. Join conversations if you can.

7. Advertise with Pay Per Click (PPC)

- Research the different PPC search engines and decide on the one that suits you. Your choice can be based on the costs involved or your planned level of involvement in managing the PPC campaign.
- Choose relevant keywords for your PPC ad campaign. These keywords can come from your marketing campaigns, or the search terms that visitors use to find your website. Review your social networks and study how customers, fans and followers refer to your product or website. How they refer to you can be the relevant keywords for your PPC ad.
- Include attractive business offers in your ad copy, such as price discounts, free shipping or other similar promos.
- Test different keywords when conducting ad campaigns, to see which gets more performance benefits. Use your PPC provider’s tracking tools, such as Google AdWords’ Quality Score, to monitor the performance of your keywords.
- Optimize the landing pages of your website. Your keyword-driven PPC ads should link to the most appropriate land page URL of your website. Consider revising the landing pages if they are not matched with your ads.
- Use negative keywords in your ad to exclude target users that are not matched to your marketing strategy. For example, the negative keyword “-free” can be used to prevent users from seeing your ad, if they are searching for free products and your campaign is not giving out freebies.

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Cool Business Ideas for Teenagers

May 22nd, 2011

Most people stereotype teenagers as people who are happy go lucky however a good number of them would like to have their own business. According to a survey, 8 to 21 year olds are dreaming of becoming an entrepreneur one day. They think that becoming involved in business is preferable rather than pursuing a career. There are some organizations that are helping young people from low income communities to start their own business. Although young children lack the experience compared to older people, it is best to start early so they can acquire knowledge over a period of time. For teenagers, there are business ideas suitable to them.

They should stick with businesses that require little capital. The good news is that there are business ideas that require little start up cost. The internet is one of the places to do so. Lawn care can start with existing tools found in the home. In venturing in the internet business, it only takes less than $50 to do so. This would include domain registration and hosting charges. There are many affiliate programs that they could join or they could use their talent on writing or web designing. They could utilize amazon.com or ebay.com if they want to sell their own products.

Teenagers should start a business that focuses on their strength. There are some businesses wherein teenagers can be successful compared to adults. This actually includes services related to computer, gadgets and of course the internet. With the knowledge that they have, teenagers can actually think about new products and services. They can also think about things that target people in their age bracket. Because they knew the market very well, the insight is so valuable. The opportunities and the needs of their market are targeted which gives them leverage. Teenagers also have the ability to compete for price.

Since they are living with their parents, they don’t think about expenses. This can able them to charge very low. Still they can still profit from their business. For those young entrepreneurs out there, it is important to do research especially in creating business plan which is so essential. There are specific business ideas that are perfect for teenagers. Website development is something that can be learned by everyone. There are thousands of companies all over the world who are seeking to outsource this kind of work. People can make about hundred dollars an hour creating websites.

For young people who are social networking savvy, online marketing is something that they can venture into. It is easy to learn this kind of job and a lot of companies want their website to be optimized. The pay is good especially when there is a result from the marketing effort. There are adults who don’t know anything about computer. They can start a business that diagnoses computer problems. This is lucrative but with less start up cost. They can sell items ranging from books, clothes and other stuff. Other services like lawn mowing and baby sitting are common as well.

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