You Don’t Need to Spend Big Bucks to Build Your Business
You Don’t Need to Spend Big Bucks to Build Your Business
There are plenty of programs and systems available to help you market your business. Many of them are excellent at driving traffic to your website. The problem for many small business owners is these things can be expensive – really expensive in some cases.
If you don’t have the budget or the desire to hire a service or purchase a program to push prospects toward your products or services, there are several things you can do to advertise and promote your business without costing you big bucks. In fact, they can be free – or nearly free.
One of these ways is through email marketing. If you learn how to write an effective email, you can parlay that talent into a list-building tool to grow your business quickly and inexpensively. The only expense involved will be for an autoresponder service (which can be found for about $20 a month) and your time. Once you have the techniques down, the time investment will be quite small.
Here are some tips to keep in mind when it comes time to start your own email marketing campaign.
• The first step in writing an effective email campaign is writing a powerful headline. In an email, the headline is what your reader sees in the subject line. Face it, if your customer is not intrigued by your headline, they won’t open your email. They will just hit delete and move on through their inbox.
A good headline must capture your reader’s attention. You want something intriguing, but try to avoid going completely over the top. A question is often a good hook. You can also try a teaser into the information included inside the email.
• Another thing guaranteed to catch your reader’s eye in an email subject line is their name. Most websites use an autoresponder to capture their prospects name and email address. The autoresponder form can usually be customized to gather as much or as little information from your readers as you choose. You’ll need their email address, of course, but consider adding a field asking their first name. You probably don’t need much more information than these two items, but these two are critical.
When you capture your prospects first name, you can then insert their name into your email headline. Instead of saying, “Hey, I want to tell you something” you can say, “Hey, Joe, I want to tell you something.” Which one do you think will result in more people opening your email? You’re right – the one personalized with the reader’s name.
• Here’s another tip to craft an effective email for marketing your business. Keep it simple. Stick to one message in your email. If you have several things to tell your prospect list, then the one message might be “Come to the site for lots of new information.”
If you want to highlight a new product or service your business is providing, then the message should be “Hey, here’s this new product and this is what it will do to make your life easier or better.”
The point is, don’t try to tell several stories in one email. It will wind up kicking in “information overload” and your prospect is likely to delete your message without taking any action due to overwhelm.
There are more things you can do to create an effective email message, but if you do just these three things consistently, you will build your business quickly and nearly effortlessly without the need for high costs.
You CAN Learn to Promote Your Business for Nothing!
You CAN Learn to Promote Your Business for Nothing!
When you run your own business, there are a lot of different things to get done. Odds are good you won’t be perfect at all of them. There will likely be plenty of things you don’t know how to do at all.
The problem for a lot of small business owners who serve as solo-preneurs is there isn’t enough time or money to do everything that needs to be accomplished. It may be most cost effective to outsource some of the things you don’t know. One thing you can learn to do is promote your business – and it doesn’t have to cost you any money.
One of the best ways to promote your business is to get your website listed higher in the search engine results pages so web surfers can find you. Here are some tips to help you do that without paying a high dollar SEO expert.
What is the Question Your Customer is Asking?
When people surf the Internet, they are looking for the answer to a question. Your marketing plan needs to be based on what that question is and how your business provides the answer for the customer.
Typically, when someone starts an Internet search, they type in a few words about their question or problem. For example, if they are searching for a new bed, they will probably type in “beds” or maybe “queen-sized beds.” They might type in ‘mattresses” or “mattress sets.”
Your job is to figure out which terms they are using and then line up your website and marketing materials with those words or phrases. This is known as “keyword research” a necessary component of Search Engine Optimization or SEO.
Keyword Research Tells You the Question
The Internet provides many different tools you can use to conduct keyword research. Many of them are free, including many webmaster’s favorite, Google Keyword Tool.
With a keyword tool, you type in the word or words identifying your industry, business or product, you will see how many times each particular word or phrase is searched for on a daily, monthly and annual basis.
You will also get something at least as valuable and maybe more. You will get a list of up to 100 related keywords. These related keywords will also show the statistics for how often they are used as search terms. You can then take some of these keywords and incorporate them into your web copy, blog posts and articles used in your marketing funnel.
It’s important to choose a limited number of these keywords. Don’t try to gear your copy to dozens of keywords or it will end up without enough focus to do you any good. Instead, choose just a couple for each piece you write.
Try to use keywords listed high in the daily search list, but keep in mind the competition for some of the most popular terms. Type your keyword into Google Search and take notice of how many hits show up on the upper right corner of the results page. If your most popular keyword results in several million hits, your best bet may be to move on to another keyword choice on the list.
Use Your Keywords Strategically It matters where you place your keywords in your copy. The title, page headers and the first paragraph of your copy are extremely important locations for your keywords. Don’t just stuff your keywords haphazardly throughout your copy, however. The number one way to gain rankings in the search engine results pages is by writing excellent copy that incorporates your keywords naturally.
These guidelines are just the tip of the SEO iceberg. You can learn to promote your business on the Internet for free and SEO techniques are one important strategy to help you do so successfully.
What’s Your Comment on Business Building With Your Blog?
What’s Your Comment on Business Building With Your Blog?
You started a business blog to advertise, promote and market your business. You post to your blog twice a week or more, but now you are wondering if people are reading your blog. If they are reading, do they like what you have to say? Blogging offers a distinct advantage over a traditional website because of the ability for your readers to comment.
Blogging is a big part of the social media trend that has all but taken over the Internet. Your business blog is a two-way communication tool. Social media is attractive because of the interaction between people from all over the world.
Blog Comments Allow Interaction
The social media aspect of a blog is through the comments feature. Blog comments are the way readers can offer their opinions and insights on a blog post. While a blogger can disable the comment feature, most bloggers not only accept comments, they encourage them. Comments are the evidence proving what you wrote resonated with someone and moved them to react. When you begin to get comments on your blog, treat them with the respect they deserve. A comment on a blog is equivalent to a reply in a conversation. The great majority of blog readers never take the time to comment, so when someone does, it is important to acknowledge the comment and reply to it. Once your blog begins receiving a large amount of comments, it may not be possible to reply to all of them. Your readers will certainly take notice if you interact with them – or if you don’t bother. Encouraging conversation through comments and replies on your blog is a great form of marketing.
Marketing your business on the Internet requires relationship building. Because your prospects and customers may never meet you face to face, building a relationship online is extremely important so they can get to know you and trust you.
Comment on Other Blogs to Increase Visibility
You can also promote your business through blog comments by commenting on other people’s blogs. Search the Internet for businesses complementary to your own. Find blogs that aren’t necessarily your competition, but are in a corresponding niche and add meaningful and helpful information in the comments.
For example, if you own a plumbing business, don’t just spend time commenting on blogs by other plumbers. Instead, look for DIY blogs or construction blogs so you can provide helpful information to a conversation without intruding on the blog owner’s business. People who are reading a blog for the DIY-er will appreciate your comments on the pros and cons of a dual-faucet versus a single-faucet, but another plumber has the knowledge to offer the same information to his readers.
While you can certainly add your opinion to a blog specializing in the same business you operate, you will get the most good will from contributing on a blog that works hand-in-hand with your line of work. Blog reader tend to feel a loyalty to the blogs they follow on a regular basis, so if you become a regular commenter, offering helpful information, they will see your loyalty as well, which speaks to your character and adds to your reputation as an expert in your field.
Do-Follow Links are Helpful
Many blogs enable a feature known as “do-follow” links. This means when you comment on them and leave the URL to your own blog or website, the search engines will follow the link to your site. This will add to your search engine rankings and help boost your position in the results pages, leading to more clicks on your website links. While it is useful to comment on blogs regardless of the search engines, blogs with a do-follow capability are especially helpful in building the traffic to your business website.
Encourage commenting on your business blog, reply to comments made by your readers and comment on other blogs related to your business. These tips will help you promote your business for no cost at all. Start enjoying the business building benefits of blog commenting today.
