It was my pleasure to present a brief guide to claiming a Google Places business listing the other day at my local Chamber of Commerce in Newport Beach California. Considering all the summer promotions that will be coming up it is just in time to allow new and existing businesses claim their listing, if they have not  done so ,and also make some plans to offer a coupon or a special.

One of the great features, which I did not have time to mention was the dash board that Google has added, which it modeled after it’s anaylitics service. This function lets business owners track how many people found them and what actions they took. It also shows where the searches are coming from. This can very very handy for restaurants and also businesses that are focused on tourism.

The Places listings are very easy to use and most people, if they can use email, will find it a simple task to do their own updates and to add videos, photos and coupons. It has taken some time to get all the variables right but now they seem to have most issues that early adopters were having  difficulties with solved.

If you are a new business this is the best free advertising you can get. With the added benefit that you are found in Google local search with all your information displayed including a special offer or coupon.

Technorati Tags: Google Places, local business, online marketing, small business

THE LAGUNA CANYON WINERY

RANDY BADER LAGUNA BEACH WOOD WORKING

The Videos above are almost always on the first page of Google’s search results for the main title. The Federal Trade Commission would like us to tell you that these results may not be typical. Can such a result be guaranteed? definitely not. One thing we know for sure is that the search engines love web video if it provides good content and if it is updated. Like news, if web video is always providing the latest information about a subject it gets rewarded by top positioning in search results.

Technorati Tags: web video ad, web video for small business

Social Media and Small Business Internet Marketing

Social media has proved to be the best platform for small business internet marketing. They help build long-lasting relationships through interactive networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter and create a buzz about your business at practically zero cost. Since small businesses are sustained by these long-lasting relationships between the marketer and the customers,  social media forms the ideal “mediator” whereby a salesmen sell their goods and services and consumers can search for goods and services their require.

An enduring and profitable relationship begins with proper communication. There are numerous social networking sites that allow you to publish or advertise your business. You can blog about your business, but if verbosity is not your style, you can use Twitter. Twitter is the latest micro-blogging platform that allows a user to “tweet” or “announce” what he or she is up to in less than 200 characters. It also has the option of  “following’” people or a group of people you think belong to a similar industry as yours.

But even before Twitter became the rage, it was Facebook that started popularizing marketing your business with its myriad user-friendly applications, its ability to bring together and find people of common interests and its multimedia friendly interface that allows you to post photos and videos.

Where normal modes of communication like the telephone, e-mail, advertising hoardings fail, social media makes it big by eliminating intermediary channels and allowing your message to reach directly to a large group of people. It catches on as each person at the receiving end of your message is simultaneously connected to hundreds of others!

Small business internet marketing has benefited a great deal from social media as it makes for a pleasant and fun way of doing business. No longer do you have to rely on creating expensive television and print ads for your business. A little bit of creativity and basic knowledge in web designing allows you to have your own custom designed website and advertisements. Effective copywriting for proper search engine optimization and attractive layout spells unlimited potential for small business internet marketing.

Technorati Tags: small business internet marketing, social media, using social media

Small business internet marketing, understanding how it all works.

Our company is often contacted by potential clients who take great pains to give us detailed lists of what they want their website to do for their business. In so doing,  they have over-looked the most important part of any small business internet marketing strategy:  their own product or service. They have the idea that by spending money on a website they will automatically increase sales. What we have to explain is that just like in the off-line world, they must look at their product or service first and develop a clear picture of their place in their own market as it relates to the internet. Only then can a web presence be developed that will return results.

Their misconception about spending money on a website in order to increase sales comes from the off-line world idea that when business is bad you spend more on advertising. This is partially true, with one qualification, the internet is not one big classified ad, but in fact it’s just the opposite. People use the internet not to look at advertisements,  but rather to find information about a product or service. When we say this sometimes the response we get is, “Well, then I’m doomed! How will I ever attract more business?’  Our explanation is that the internet offers small businesses a much better opportunity to compete than the off-line world does. Instead of an advertisement which is hit or miss and may cost lots of money and have limited exposure, you can communicate to a targeted group of people about your product or service and direct them right to your point of sale at considerably less cost to your company.

Where the disconnect arises is in the difference between selling and pre-selling.  Much of the off-line world is all about selling. Creating a sales pitch and then broadcasting it widely,  hoping for a sale. The internet, on the other hand,  is about providing the very best information about a product or service and making it easy for the person to interact with the providing company so that they can take the next step and buy that product or service. As we all know people buy from people they trust. The Internet lets small businesses build that bond of trust. The other factor which is so important to small business internet marketing is the low cost, or even  no-cost marketing methods which are now available. Email, blogging, video, audio, Twitter text messaging: these are extremely low cost and affordable tools. Even better, most of them have unlimited usage without increased fees.

Take a bit of time and find a good consultant to work with you on an internet marketing plan for your small business. The time spent will save you tons of money down the road.

Technorati Tags: small business advertising, small business internet marketing, small business internet marketing small business web marketing advertising business internet marketing, web marketing

Sometimes one of the most important aspects of  small business internet marketing is  over looked by a small business website owner. We say this because frequently people get caught up in the pretty design, the photos, the flash intros  and the music that can be added to the site and the most important part, what you want visitors to do when they get there,  is forgotten. You create a website or blog to promote your small business and to attract more clients or customers... but…once you have them there, what is it you want them to do? Do you have a newsletter you want them to subscribe to? do you have discount or special coupon for your product or service they can use?, do you have a survey they can fill out, providing  feedback on a specific product or service?  Whatever it is,  you must tell them what you want them to do. You must direct them to take action; otherwise they will  quickly move away to some other website.

If you have visitors land on your  home page , you have  about four seconds before they click away from your website to some other site. If you have them,  you want to capture their attention and encourage them to take action, whatever that might be. Music and flash intros are not visible to the search engine “spiders” that crawl the web and index or rank websites. Unless you are a band or an art gallery (or even if you are both!) you need written content to keep those search engine spiders happy that come visiting from Google, Yahoo and other search engines. So when you start to create a website or blog for your small business,  keep your number one goal in mind and do everything you can to get your visitors to take action and meet that goal.

Technorati Tags: small business advertising, small business internet marketing, small business internet marketing small business web marketing advertising business internet marketing

If you are a small business and have noticed that many of the old methods of promoting and advertising your products or services like The yellow pages, classified ads, print ads,fliers and even coupons are not working like they used to you are right.

The almost universal availability of high speed internet access in the United States and in most of the developed world has changed everything.

There were 100 billion internet searches done last month worldwide.

Today people use the internet to find products and services. That means your business has to be where your customers are. Creating a website that is  just an online brochure doesn’t work. People searching for a product or service want information not sales copy. Your business has to respond to that demand and go one step further and invite that potential customer to take the next step and contact your business.

Small business internet marketing today must include Social media, video and many other tools that are available and affordable for small businesses for the first time.There is no need to spend thousands of dollars to use these tools.We can provide a plan and a detailed strategy that will make these tools cost effective and results driven.

Our company  specializes in small business internet marketing and can create web video ads, interactive web sites and a cost efficient online marketing  plan for your business. All you have to do is contact us. If you look on the top right hand side of this page you will see a contact us button simply click on it and we can get started by developing a plan for you that will deliver more sales at less cost.

Technorati Tags: small business internet marketing small business web marketing advertising business internet marketing