Business owners are resolving to use their advertising dollars more effectively in 2009. In our current economy, it makes sense to allocate our already thin marketing budget to the tactics that are going to bring us the greatest return on our investment. When you’re developing your advertising plan for the year ahead, think about new media and how it has impacted traditional advertising.
When is the last time you picked up your phone book to look up a business in the yellow pages? Personally, the phone book frustrates me, because I have a stack of about four different ones, all of which are formatted differently. For some strange reason, some don’t include business listings in the white pages, and other businesses are only listed in the white pages or are in some obscure category no one would ever think of. As a result, I seldom utilize the phone book when looking up a business, or a person, for that matter. I find it far more effective to bring up the trusty Google search bar and type in exactly what I’m looking for.
The trend in 2008 was that almost twice as many people said they use an internet search engine to look up a business address or phone number than those who said they still use the phone book. The really nice thing about those local listings that come up in a search engine search is that they appear in the hot spot where a web searcher’s eyes land first in the results. So how do you get listed in the local search results?
You can spend hours looking for search engines and web directories and inputting your contact information into every form yourself, or you can pay us to do it for you, at a cost that’s less than the cost of a simple yellow pages listing in the average print directory. Best of all, you can be listed across multiple categories and keywords, and we’ll update or enhance your listing once a month for free.
Visit our site for more information: http://www.stringfellowcreative.com/services/local_listings.htm
Article marketing is still one of the best ways to improve your search engine rankings and drive traffic to your site. The key to effective article marketing is to write your articles with search engine optimization in mind. Create meaningful and informative content that uses your keywords naturally. You don’t want to turn your readers away by creating content that reads like an advertisement or sounds odd because of overuse of keywords.
Be sure to come up with a compelling title that will entice browsers to click on and read your article, and use keyword link anchors to help improve your search engine rankings for those keywords. Submit your article to as many article directories as you can, because the links back to your site will also help your rankings.
If you don’t have time to write or submit your own articles, it’s still very affordable to outsource those tasks to a freelance writer or marketing consultant. Visit http://www.stringfellowcreative.com/services/articles.htm for the updated description of available packages and pricing for your article marketing campaign. We’re happy to create custom packages that meet your needs, and we try to combine article marketing with other services at lower prices for longer-term, ongoing projects. Let us help you keep driving sales in this unsteady economy!
Is your business generating passive income, or is it strictly fee-for-service, or fee-for-sale? Many business owners are passing up the opportunity to create automated cash flow without much effort on their part. Passive income is income that you do the work for once, but get paid for over and over again. A great example is rental income. Rental income is passive, and it’s not subject to self-employment tax. Most of us aren’t in the real estate business, but we can still create passive income that helps us maintain a steady cash flow during the peaks and valleys of income that can come with business ownership.
There are a couple easy ways most business owners can generate some passive income. If you have a business website, is it making you money? I don’t mean by getting you new clients, although it should certainly be doing that. You business website can be making you money through advertising revenue, affiliate products, or sales of your own information products.
Your website doesn’t have to turn into one of those outrageous sales pages in order to make you money. A few strategically placed ads can earn you some extra cash each month without affecting the integrity of the other content on your site. You can also promote one or two relevant affiliate products without your site turning into a full-fledged internet marketer’s paradise. By keeping your ads and your affiliate products relevant to your target audience, they won’t be intrusive and can actually be more successful than some of the more blatant affiliate marketing sites.
The other simple thing you can do to generate some passive income through your business website is to create and sell your own information products relevant to your business activity. If you’re not skilled at writing, you can hire an outside consultant to write your material in your name, also known as a ghostwriter. The targeted audience that is visiting your website already has an interest in your product or service, or at least in your general industry, and generally won’t be offended or turned off by your offering an additional resource at a minimal cost.
Our current economic crisis has most of us afraid for the future. Small business owners seem to be in the most delicate balance of the whole situation, and political campaigning has small business at the forefront. What can you do as a small business owner to remain prosperous during these difficult economic times?
The mistake most businesses make during a slow economy is that they immediately cut back on marketing. Now is the time when you need to focus more on your marketing efforts, because other businesses will be cutting back on their marketing budgets, which leaves an open opportunity for your business to be top-of-mind.
There are ways to increase your marketing efforts without spending more money. The internet is rich with opportunities to advertise your business free or for a very minimal cost. There are free directories that you can submit your website to, free article directories that allow you to publish articles showcasing your knowledge to your potential customers, discussion forums for you to participate in, social networking opportunities, and much more.
If the web atmosphere is unfamiliar territory for you, seek the advice of an internet marketing expert. Many marketing consultants, such as Stringfellow Creative, can teach you how to use the internet to run a successful, low-cost internet marketing campaign that will drive sales even during periods of economic crisis.
In the new online media landscape, new strategies have emerged that allow businesses to create viral marketing through what is essentially “word-of-mouth” advertising via the web. It’s a highly effective way to create buzz about your business without placing direct advertisements that could be ignored by your potential customers. It also enhances your web presence by providing backlinks to your website, which will generate higher page rankings in the search engines.
Web marketing consultants, like Stringfellow Creative, offer web publicity services that will generate interest in your business through forum postings, discussion groups, blogging and the use of social media and social networking. It’s not the right solution for every type of business, but for some it’s an incredibly effective strategy.
To do it right requires a lot of time and dedication, and some specialized knowledge and researching skills. It makes sense to hire an expert who knows where to find your target customers and how to communicate with them, saving you the time and energy it takes to launch an effective campaign. If you’re looking to increase your web traffic and generate more business, and your market is not geographically restricted, this strategy may be right for you. Send an email to info@stringfellowcreative.com for more information.
