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Archive for September, 2009

Marketing strategies with the help of referrals

September 23rd, 2009 | By Simon In Building Your Business, Traffic Generation | No Comments »

As I mentioned in my previous blog entry, I am going to reveal today some strategies about how it is possible for you to use the traditional offline marketing technique of referrals.

Referrals, particularly in the current economic climate where competition is fierce and businesses are falling by the wayside every week, are a crucial part of staying one step ahead of your competition.

The main benefits of referrals are that first of all, they are a very cheap (in many cases free) means of acquiring new clients to add to your business, but perhaps more importantly, there is the credibility factor to consider.

If the referral is coming from a business owner to another business owner, this can be hugely significant. Even if the referral is coming from a friend of the business owner, it still carries a lot of credibility and can help your cause no end.

So now you may be wondering how you can actually get referrals for your business. Referrals are mostly available from three sources; existing clients, your networking, associates and (as I’ve already mentioned) people that you know on a social basis like your family and friends.

As far as family and friends are concerned, you simply need to talk about the business that you have (if they are not already aware of it) and ask them if they know of any other businesses which may be interested in your services.

If they do, would they be able to mention your services to this business? You can also offer an ethical incentive for friends and family, such as a £50 gift for each converted referral.

You will often find that amongst all your family and friends, that most will know a business owner – and of course that business owner will then in turn know several more business owners – and so it goes on.

Provide optimum customer service

However in case of existing customers, you should use a slightly different approach. You have to aim at providing optimal service (as you want to any way) and if they’re happy (which they should be) they may refer your product or services to their acquaintances.

Or, you could always ask them. Based upon their experiences, you could say to a ‘happy customer’ “Well Mr. Business Owner, I would be more than happy to give the same quality service to other businesses in the area, could you please recommend any that you know/deal with?”

A referral from a fellow business owner, particularly one who is singing your praises, is hugely valuable in terms of your credibility.

Similarly, if you visit social networking sites (Linked In and Facebook to name a couple) on a regular basis, keep a lookout for business professionals and people who will benefit from your product and services. Tell them about your business and what you can offer, and they will not hesitate from referring you to others and even to use your services themselves.

Incentives to mention your services

A great strategy that you can use to get referrals is to offer some type of an incentive. These incentives may range from a referral fee for successful conversions to a small free gift or service – depending on the circumstances and the type of referral.

In terms of gifts, you often don’t need to send anything expensive, even a gift card or free sample of your products is more than enough. Just the thought that you remember them will make it obligatory for them to refer your product or services to someone they know.

So remember to strive to always offer high levels of customer service as this leads to happy customers which can eventually lead to a goldmine of referrals. It is such a powerful strategy with proven success that I encourage you to go out there today with the aim of getting referrals for your business.

Offline marketing strategies for online businesses

September 16th, 2009 | By Simon In Building Your Business, Viral Marketing | No Comments »

Though online marketing is the more popular form of marketing today, I do agree that you have to implement some offline marketing techniques to effectively market your bricks and mortar business.
Including your website and email address on business cards and any print marketing material you have is a great, and effective offline marketing technique. This may seem an obvious marketing technique to you, but this is something not every business person does. Failing to do this could deprive you of a considerable number of customers for your business.

Till receipts are an untapped marketing tool

You can also include your websites address, or an offer of some description, so for example 15% of your next order, on till receipts that you give to customers. This can increase the number of visits they’ll make to your business, and could also drive customer loyalty.

Your website is your friend, so use him effectively

I know I’ve banged on about this several times, but I make no apology for repeating myself ;)
Your website is truly a valuable asset to have, however I see too many businesses that simply have a website for the sake of having one.

A clear layout and a “call to action” on every page (this could be to call a phone number or sign up to a newsletter) are essential – and that’s just for starters. Flash, sound effects, creative graphics and the like may look nice and pretty, but it does not necessarily gain you customers, in fact in many cases it has the opposite effect.

Audio or video that is targeted to your customer, contains valuable information and again has a call to action at the end of it on the other hand is something that can work very well indeed, and should be considered.

Ultimately, the internet is just another means of advertising your business, albeit perhaps the fastest growing and most popular medium for advertising currently. But do not overlook the cornerstones of traditional offline marketing such as referrals and joint ventures, and I will discuss these at a future date, as they can work very well indeed if done correctly.

Online marketing techniques to build your online presence

September 9th, 2009 | By Simon In Building Your Business | No Comments »

After learning the importance of an updated website for online marketing, and how not to lose customers, I now have to mention a few additional strategies that you should follow for your successful online marketing.

Social networking is now becoming an essential part of online marketing that involves making use of what are called “web 2.0” communities, that are available today to market your website.

The most popular of these web 2.0 communities, which are used by more people on a regular basis today are Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, but you can also include sites like Digg and Propeller, and please do not underestimate the power of media sites like YouTube.

In fact that last point is so important, I am going to mention it again. Youtube is not only a great site because you can upload videos to it, but it gets as many if not more visitors each day than Google, so it is well worth considering having a presence on this site.

The advantage of joining these networks, and communicating with the communities and members found here will help you establish a strong foothold for your business. You never know when you will find new prospects and customers for your business in these sites. It is however, all about being low key – and not pushy or constantly self-promoting.

Article marketing is still a tried and tested strategy

Article marketing also helps with in building your online presence. Article marketing means writing and distributing articles to different online magazines and directories, while adding a valuable resource box to your articles, which is your chance to obtain valuable links back to your website for the keywords that you want to rank highly for.

This resource box should have a small bio or description about you and your business, and should link back to your website, so that if a visitor clicks on it, they arrive at your site.

As I’ve just mentioned, these links do prove to be very effective in getting your website noticed by search engines, and Google in particular sees links as key to ranking your site more highly than a competitor.

If you can add as much interesting and unique information in your articles as possible, you will be noticed as an expert in your field. Moreover, if you also have valuable information on your website, you reinforce the fact that you’re an expert in your field, plus the search engines will visit your site more often as and when it is updated.

The importance of having an updated website

September 2nd, 2009 | By Simon In Building Your Business | No Comments »

Now that you have an idea of what type of a website you need to propagate online and offline businesses, here are some strategies that will help your website convert from its inception.

You’ll have probably prepared a budget for the work that you want to be done to your website, and this may include getting some targeted pay-per-click ads – possibly targeting your local region for example. Being ranked highly in the search engines for “plumber in Bristol” for example, could provide you with a fair amount of traffic each month.

Your site should also have a “call to action” for your visitors, as well as be structured, optimized and marketed correctly such that your site turns up during various searches, as I previously touched on.
The money is in the list!

This is a phrase that you’ll hear regularly in internet marketing circles, but what exactly does it mean?
Well, when I mentioned having a call to action on your site, one option could be to giveaway a free newsletter or offer a discount of an initial order – and in return all the visitor to your site has to do is enter their name and email address on your site.

These details will then be kept in a database for your use in the future, and so you could send them an email in the future with details of a promotion, new product launch or up and coming sale, and they may well feel compelled to take action on that.

If you had a database of 500 prospects like this, you could have a potential goldmine available to you, and this is what “the money is in the list” means.

How you can lose customers

You must also remember that the an important goal of an offline or online business is to provide convenience to your customers no matter if they are doing business with you or if they just need some answers. So ensure your customers receive prompt service and replies when they contact you, for better prospects of return customers.

I have to mention something very important now. No matter how extensive your marketing campaign is, and no matter how experienced your SEO professional is, the traffic you generate to your website will be of no use at all if you don’t spend the time to update your website. The information must be up to date and relevant – thus adding further credibility to your business.

If you have visitors to your site and they find out that your special deals are outdated by six months, and that you don’t sell more than half of the items listed on your website, you can never expect these visitors to convert into customers. Instead, you will have to spend, or rather waste time answering phone calls from annoyed customers, and sometimes even smooth ruffled feathers.

You can easily and inexpensively have someone to update your website on a regular basis, so that its simply a case of letting them know what changes are to be made.

I’ll be continuing the theme of marketing your business with the help of an online presence, so stay tuned for more strategies in the coming days.