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How To Market Your
Business Online...
A Beginner’s Guide.
By Jim Fleck
An
Instant Profits Bonus Report
(due to the ever changing nature of
the Internet some of the links in this report may no longer be
valid)
How to
promote your local or regional business on the Web.
While
many if not most of our members operate national and even global
businesses, some of you just want to promote your business locally.
You might
have a retail store (like a hair salon), your services might be
location specific (like a plumber), or maybe you can’t do business
outside your licensed area (like some lawyers).
If this
relates to you, this Instant Profits Internet Lesson will be
valuable (if not, stay tuned for more Internet Lessons in the
future).
We’re
going to give you a quick seven step sequence to promote your local,
regional, or location specific business online, as culled from our
associates and work with our client/members.
Pay
attention though, if your business isn't location specific, you'll
still learn some inexpensive ways to generate traffic to your
site...ways you may not even have thought of. Simple...and Instant,
as in Instant Profits!
Before
you do anything...
The first
things we want you to consider before you even start marketing
online are:
ONE
Before defining your business as regional...can you do business
outside your region? A lot of companies can actually do business by
mail or even electronically, however, they are in a comfort zone
selling to a local market...or that’s all they’ve been taught. Is
this you? If so, let’s expand our thinking. That’s what this
membership is about after all. Think about your ideal target market.
The bigger it is after all, the easier it is to hit.
If
we’re going to target markets online, the hardest to find lists and
advertising methods are, after all, the geographic ones. In other
words, targeting by area or ZIP code. In fact, it’s so rare that
some companies will charge you triple just to pinpoint a local area.
That’s because very few have lists that are large enough to be
valuable and can be segmented by specific location. In fact most
site owners don't even collect ZIP codes.
TWO
Does your
business currently have an existing customer list? Just like your
current advertising offline, local online advertising must establish
relationships, you’re just forming them via e-mail and the Web. You
still must create trust and confidence that leads to the sale. If
you do have an existing customer list of e-mail addresses, you can
start right now. If you don’t, the biggest step and the first will
be to start getting them.
THREE
Why do
you want to market online? Is there a good reason or are doing it
because everyone else is?
Marketing
online is just another form of marketing. It has to be added to your
arsenal of offline marketing methods and compared to the
profitability of those methods also.
Now,
here’s the seven steps to consider when marketing your local
business online.
- Build an e-mail list of locals
- Yellow pages
- Offline marketing
- Trade links/advertising with local
sites
- Buy advertising on regional or
national portals
- Use payperclick engines like
http://overture.com and target
market
- Buy local advertising from e-mail
and ad networks
1. Build an
e-mail list of locals
Everywhere you market now, gather
email addresses and drive people to an opt-in list (which is a form
on your web site to gather email addresses).
Do it in your client newsletter,
gather email addresses at the register in your store, ask for them
over the phone, put a note on coupons telling them to go to the web
address opt-in page, or ask them to fill it in on a coupon before
using it. Gather the email address, every chance you get. Offer a
discount coupon or service if they give it to you. JUST GET IT!
2. Yellow pages
Add your email address or opt-in page
to your Yellow pages ad. You’re already paying a bundle, get more
out of it. Put an online ad up. Check out these companies:
These are just some of the places you
can check on.
3. Offline
marketing
Here is where you want to mention
your email and web site on every other promotion you do.
TV, Radio, Direct Mail, Flyers, Press
Releases, etc.
You can offer a bonus for sending an
email or going to the web site and signing up.
For instance some of our contractor
clients offer tips on their sites like “The 7 Mistakes People Make
When Hiring A Contractor in The Bartlett Area. Come to our site and
find out what other contractors don’t want you to find out” etc. Or
again, offer a coupon.
4. Trade
links/advertising with local sites
In many communities there are local
sites. Right here in my home town of Bartlett, IL there are:
http://www.usa-talk.com/talk/IL/Bartlett-IL.shtml
http://www.village.bartlett.il.us
And here’s a national site, with
local weather:
http://www.weather.com/weather/local/60103?y=0&x=0
So, check out these sites and do
searches online for your town and state and the surrounding areas
you service. You’ll find tons of sites you can try and advertise on.
I didn’t even list the real estate, RV, and other local businesses
that have websites that you could piggy back on their advertising.
In fact, you could pass this issue (or our website) along to them so
they could learn to market more effectively online which would
increase your traffic if you trade links with them.
5. Buy
advertising on regional
or national portals
You can buy local advertising from
some national sites like:
http://www.digitalcity.com/
http://www.citysearch.com/
And even sites like
Yahoo.com,
Lycos.com,
Excite.com and
other major search engines who’ll sell you targeted advertising AT
VERY HIGH PRICES.
Or better yet, some more local sites
to try are:
http://www.webguideyourcity.com/
http://www.webguidechicago.com/
http://www.vacationweb.com/
Or start a community site yourself
and charge other businesses to be on it.
6. Use
payperclick engines like Goto.com
and target market
Here you can go to what’s called a
pay per click search engine where you pay for traffic by keyword or
phrase.
For instance you might bid on pizza.
Now if someone in San Francisco searches on pizza and you’re in
Chicago you don’t want them coming to your site because you have to
pay for that click. So, you make sure in the message you post you
say something like:
Chicago Pizza for South Siders
And then go on to give them details.
Go to
goto.com and
search on Pizza and you’ll see what I mean.
There are a lot of other pay per
click search engines you can register with also. You can find them
at:
www.payperclicksearchengines.com
And finally our last step….
7. Buy local
advertising from
e-mail and ad networks
This can be expensive
and that's why its last. Here are companies you can get email lists
from:
postmasterdirect.com
yesmail.com
rocketmail.com
mypoints.com
And for ad networks:
doubleclick.com
You see, you can promote
any business online.
The nuts and bolts
really are to create a list and then nurture it, just as you should
do offline.
Get creative and keep us
informed.
I've seen enough...I want to
join "The Club" now, for more Instant Profits Lessons, Articles,
Bonuses and other membership benefits.
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