Revealed: Why Its Essential To Be Marketing For Small Business To Stay Afloat!

By Author: aldrin
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The term marketing is defined in the dictionary as the process by which companies create customer interest in goods or services.

In the current tough climate it can more accurately be defined as the key to not only staying afloat but also to thriving when your competitors are failing.

Marketing For Small Business meets the same needs as the big boys, just on a smaller scale but this does not mean less effective. Knowing how to provide effective Marketing For Small Business is key and your small size and closeness to your local market can give you big advantages over them.

There are various methods of marketing from big TV ads and sports sponsorship to co-ordinated radio, magazine and newspaper campaigns. Many of these are used by the big boys with great success but what if you are a small business and simply don't have the marketing budget that can scratch the surface of these marketing campaigns?

Plenty! There are many economical and yet highly effective ways for you to reach your potential customers by using a variety of different tactics. So if your marketing budget is only a fraction of that ...
... of a Dominos, Pizza Hut or McDonalds, then these methods are for you.

Marketing For Small Business - The Smart Way

Effective marketing relies on you being able to reach your prospects at their level, telling them the benefits of your goods or services in a way they easily understand. This means no technical jargon just plain easily understood language about how their lives will be better after they have enjoyed your pizza or you have designed their new garage conversion.
Being able to compete with the big boys on a smaller budget means that you need to use technology and the tools of the internet effectively to reach your customers and beat your competitors.

The biggest medium you need to use when Marketing For Small Business is the internet and here's why:-
Google logs more than 2 Billion searches per day
More than 30 million UK adults access the internet every day. That's 60% of the population.
There are more than 31 Million internet shoppers in the UK. That's 62% of the population.
More than 73% of households in the UK have an internet connection and with the rise of smartphones like the iPhone many people have mobile internet access.

With so many potential customers online its clear that you need to be targeting customers through this medium. If you are not and your competitors are you will be missing out on a lot of sales.
Some of the techniques and tools you need to become expert in to master the internet include:-

Get Listed on Local Listings

There is currently a revolution happening online where the major search engine companies are targeting local results when people search. If someone searches the internet for a Glasgow Architect then the results can be made to favour a local Glasgow based architect over a big national chain.

In order to use this you need to be setup and optimised on the big search engines local services. This can result in you can gaining hundreds of prospects a month from this one technique.

Get A Website

One of the best ways to utilize Marketing For Small Business and reach a lot of potential customer is by having a website. The internet is so much a part of our everyday lives now that it is expected that your business will have an online presence to display your goods and services, opening hours, contact details and location etc.

As a small business owner you should look at a website as an investment rather than an expense and always bear in mind that you get what you pay for. Shop around for a website supplier that you feel you can work with, get testimonials from their previous clients and make sure you know what you are getting for your investment.

A key point to bear in mind before you start your site is your objective for it. Is it merely an online version of your catalogue or menu that is just there to look good, or like the smart small business marketer you are, is it a vital part of your sales process, capturing leads, letting you communicate with your customers and feeding prospects into your sales funnel?

In order to achieve your Marketing For Small Business objective your website must be designed to achieve it. Having flashy graphics and funky music can look and sound great initially but if its not clear to your visitor how to contact you, place an order or sign up for your catalogue then you've wasted their time and your money. In short your website must be designed to convert!

Optimise Your Website

Once you are clear that your website will look how you want and will achieve its purpose, you must make sure it can be found. Most website designers are great at producing fabulous looking sites that are all singing and all dancing, with flashy graphics, but if no-one can find it what's the point?

Quite simply designers are not marketers and don't claim to be so having an online marketing consultant look over your site can really make your investment pay off.

Search Engine Optimisation is all about making your website attractive to search engines such as Google and Yahoo! When people search for things on the web the terms they type are know as ‘keywords'. When you optimise your site it needs to be targeted at these ‘keywords'.

As a result when a person types Edinburgh Pizza into Google if you have optimised your site for the keyword Edinburgh Pizza then your page will be shown on the first page of results and the person will click on it and come to your website to place their order.

By using a variety of different strategies your website can become one of the biggest and most cost effective ways your customers find you.

Make Your Website Important the Marketing For Small Business way

Websites seem important to search engines when lots of other web pages point to them (a term called back-links). This means that the more pages pointing to your website there are, the more important your website becomes in the eyes of Google etc.

To do this effectively takes time but it is worth the effort. Writing quality, keyword oriented articles and submitting them to hundreds of article directories is one great technique to get these back-links and make your website more important to the search engines.

If you don't have the time or the inclination to research keywords, write articles and submit them to hundreds of directories there are companies who will do this for you. Using their services should also be viewed as an investment and having a look at your ‘Return on Investment' can let you determine whether they are worthwhile for you and offer better value than conventional methods such as newspaper advertising.

Marketing For Small Business What Does All This Mean For Me?

All the Marketing For Small Business methods above are designed to put new customers at your door. Websites, keywords and back-links all comes down to one thing - they drive a stampede of customers to your door.

There's a revolution happening online now and you can be sure that if you aren't using these techniques your competitors are and you will be losing business to them while they grow.
To find out more about the techniques and tools you can use for Marketing For Small Business go to MFSB Driving Your Customer Stampede where you will find essential tools, articles and advice if you want to thrive in the current market.

Lorna Mclaren is an online marketing consultant for Marketing For Small Business who specialise in advice, support and tools that help small businesses compete with the big boys. Visit http://www.marketingforsmallbusiness.co.uk for more info.