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Some Ways Of How Small Businesses Can Build An Online Presence

By Seb on Monday, May 16th, 2011 | No Comments

Online Communities Are A Way In How Small Businesses Can Build An Online Presence

For any small business today in order to be successful it needs to have an online presence. As well as helping you to build up a customer base it provides you with an opportunity to establish credibility. In fact today you will find that most businesses (large and small) will have an online presence as they know that most customers are now turning to the internet to obtain what they want. One of the ways how small businesses can build an online presence is through them engaging in online communities.

As part of an online community you will not only be able to reach those people close to you but also many around the world. As well as allowing you to market your business much more easily it also allows you to do several other things that may be connected to your business. However when you are part of these online communities remember to share information with others within it they will find valuable. If you try to sell them something they are going to immediately turn away from you.

Through online communities you are offer chances to learn about new ways in which you can market your business through advice from other marketers. Wherever possible take advantage of any advice that these type of people who are members of the same community as you are giving and where it is appropriate put into practice what they recommend.

As you can see from above online communities can prove very effective as a way how small business can build an online presence. If you don’t believe me then give it a go.

FOURSQUARE FOR BUSINESS

By Seb on Wednesday, April 6th, 2011 | No Comments

Foursquare is part of the next generation of mobile applications. Described by the company that created it as “a friend-finder, a social city-guide, and a game that encourages users to explore their neighborhoods and rewards them for doing so,” Foursquare is an application that is designed to allow people to “check in,” or, in other words, indicate their whereabouts. People check in at a variety of different types of places, including their homes, parks, offices, restaurants, bars, cafés, and various businesses.

The idea is to allow friends to share their favorite spots in any new places that they may discover. In this way, Foursquare is very much so an application that is tantamount to viral marketing and it can be used to occur age word-of-mouth participation by your customers; here’s how:

Customer Loyalty:  first, consider using Foursquare to offer customer loyalty promotions, such as offering a complimentary appetizer to any customer that checks in three times in a given week or writes a positive review. Foursquare makes offering these types of so-called “Foursquare specials” easy by providing free tools to allow businesses automatically fulfill or unlock the Foursquare special (e.g. Foursquare says you have been here 3 times this week! That’s a free appetizer!; Foursquare users get 20% off their order every 10th check in!).

Points: Foursquare operates almost like a game as well, in users gain points for checking in, adding a new venue, repeat visits, etc. The points are assessed by venue, as well as a whole. Businesses can encourage customers to check in by providing value for the number of points accrue,  such as offering to donate a nickel per point to a charity or allowing users to earn discounts in relation to the number of points they have.

Mayors: the user that has the most points for a specific venue is designated as the “mayor” of that venue. Such, many businesses will choose to offer something of a larger value to the member who becomes the mayor of their venue, such as a gift certificate or a complimentary bottle of wine. Many Foursquare users are very competitive over the “mayor” status and this “battle” can translate into increased exposure, and accordingly profits, for a business.

To do lists: next, consider creating a “to-do” list for Foursquare users. A Foursquare to-do list operates very much like a contest or scavenger hunt. You would create a to-do list based on aspects of your business you would like to promote, such as your new line of cocktails or a new fitness class.When a user completes the to-do list, you could award him much the way you would award the “mayor” – by providing a complimentary item or service.

Everyone’s a winner: lastly, consider making everyone a winner by offering a free upgrade to anyone who checks in (and shows they did to the cashier) or by offering 10% off to everyone in the store when the analytics show that 100 people have checked in at your venue.

Without a doubt, participating in sites like FourSquare  can be a key part of growing your business presence in the eyes of  internet dependent local consumers.

An online marketing strategy includes being findable in multiple places when local consumers are looking for your product or service.   A Local Internet Marketing Consultant can help you strategize and implement your online marketing plan, including opportunities like FourSquare.

Mobile Marketing Strategy

By Seb on Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011 | No Comments

My name is Sebastian Jean Batiste I am a Marketing Coach and  London SEO Expert. This blog is aimed at small business owners who want to learn new On and Offline marketing strategies, from basic level without the jargon.

A Couple Of Great Suggestions To Use To Develop Your Mobile Marketing Strategy

On the subject of promoting and marketing your small business, consider putting together and then having a cell phone marketing campaign. It is not difficult and in fact is very easy to do.  In fact, it may be on the list of the least difficult and most cost-effective types of marketing for you to put into action today. However, it could be a complete and utter waste of time and resources unless you decide to use it to its fullest ability.

In this article are a variety of pointers that businesses can easily perform that can take their cell marketing and advertising plans to another level:

1. Games or Polls

Text message polls and contests ( often called “Text-to-Win”) have become increasingly popular with quite a few small business owners. This type of prize drawing calls for ways to get people to mail a message via their cellphone to a designated SMS (Short Message Service) code. By doing this, the person gets into your contest or drawing for a chance to win a prize. Once they do, you now have their cellular phone number so that you can keep marketing to these people.

Prize drawings deliver such great results for the reason that access is definitely rapid, instantaneous and the confirmations happen to be preety instant as well. Not only this, but they also increase shopper discussion and entertainment while helping to create your new customer database (or list) simultaneously so that you can market to all of them later on.

A majority of these special offers also deliver top results due to the fact many people help to bring other people directly into your business so they can buy your goods and services. They can be ideal for word of mouth marketing promotions and are particularly powerful when it comes to generating news along with anticipation with regards to your business.

Be sure that you provide an enticing prize so you get hold of many people that want to enter as possibly can. Remember that an excellent “attractive prize” doesn’t have to be an “expensive” prize… simply just some item which all of your subscribers will see some appeal using .

2. Mobile Social Groups

Text message Groups (often known as Mobile phone Clubs) are an easy way to establish client interaction along with developing your collaboration even more along with excellent promotions as well as marketing and sales communications. It usually is as easy as customers opting-in in order to get regular text notifications on their cellphone regarding new products, in-store sales along with cellular coupon codes intended for in-store redemption.

If you’re a brick and mortar business, Mobile Clubs could be a fantastic way to stay in touch with all your purchasers and be sure everybody is simply up to date regarding what is going on in your company.

At the time you start a Mobile Club, you are able to include text message notifications (also called SMS Notifications), which in turn allow for you to engage with clients with focused facts to keep your brand on top of their minds. SMS Notifications are usually fundamentally speedy textual content concerning beneficial newer services, a purchase you may well be having at the store, or maybe bursts of up-to-date information to maintain your opt-in list up to date for a unique topic of great interest.

This process will definitely continue to keep these people returning!

Give some thought to it… are there any aspects of your small business that might genuinely really benefit from a simple yet effective, real-time, conversation approach designed to develop customer commitment along with help the bank balance on promotion concurrently?

3. Text Polls and Voting

Do you need suggestions or perhaps ideas on your new product lines from your shoppers or maybe the general public on the whole? Textual content voting could possibly be your solution mainly because it means that you can engage with customers and find invaluable feedback on products and services or maybe the store experience.

The simplest way to supply customers what they want could be to ASK them what they really want. Cellular promotion makes it possible for you to complete this approach without difficulty in addition to efficiently by means of Text message Voting. Consumers lug around their mobile phones using them virtually 24 hours 7 days per week thus marketing to all of them on their cell device is actually not really difficult at all.

On top of that is the fact people like to provide their thoughts and supply recommendations on product or service which they pay for. By permitting these people to actually vote on particular components of your small business, you set about to generate a level of confidence with them that will take you a long way.

Not just that, then again text message voting helps to assemble your own list of clients since people that most likely are not at this time on your list are going to be incorporated when these people place their votes!

Mobile Marketing Trends

By Seb on Tuesday, March 15th, 2011 | No Comments

Mobile phone devices are definitely an option when thinking about communicating to your target market in the most relevant and interactive way. You can make use of just about any mobile network and device out there these days.

Your Smart mobile phones are readily available throughout the market place and currently are excellent breeding grounds with regards to mobile phone marketing. It will help you with economizing your time, energy and effort as well as your cash reserves.

People do not need to go to their home pc to be able to search for and purchase their favorite items from stores. This new consumer can carry out all sorts of transactions while resting in their easy chair. This new way to market is using text based messaging using consumers mobile phones. It makes use of mobile e-mail marketing and advertising, mobile phone text messaging, mobile phone as well as internet sites, location specific promotion along with mobile app advertising. The foreseeable future of advertising is definitely going to be mobile phone promotion. The massive amount and sheer size regarding the sales volume will be tremendous. It is rapidly approaching par with e-commerce.

Our modern society in which most people live comfortably right now has grown a lot more mobile. Most people currently carry a cellular phone along with him or her. The best way a person can be contacted by you is actually simply by way of a text message to them. This exact same tactic is now being implemented by local business using mobile marketing. The main target associated with mobile promoting is currently relating to:

* Typically the target might be about apps a smart phone uses or other interactive gadgets that are speeding up ideas and conversations
* Customer care for almost all sorts of things.
* Better video cameras for the end users as well as standardization regarding products and more sharing platforms for social interaction.
* Q-Codes, Short codes for discounts and freebies through real time mobile coupons.
* Soon even your Health care provider will offer their services through mobile devices making it easy to shedule and touch base for critical care needs.

A lot more local small businesses are beginning to choose to provide information regarding their particular expert services via mobile message texting. Their target customers then receive messages with regards to the hottest tv show, or movies or release of new clothing styles. These are all  announced via a simple sales message to let folks know about the particular release date.

The volume of traffic your web page receives by way of mobile phones is now being tracked by the major search engines in order to start ranking these mobile ready sites. Mobile phone marketing and advertising can save you a small fortune when compared with other styles of promotion or advertising.

How To Evaluate Your Social Media Campaign

By Seb on Thursday, February 3rd, 2011 | 1 Comment

My name is Sebastian Jean Batiste I am a Marketing Coach and  London SEO Expert. This blog is aimed at small business owners who want to learn new On and Offline marketing strategies, from basic level without the jargon.

“Frustration” – a word frequently used to describe companies new to social media and those who have been involved in social media but have yet to enjoy a return.

The problem is two-fold. First, establishing a social media presence takes time and continued effort. You have to be consistent in your involvement with the social media medium and remember that returns will not be overnight. Second, you have to make sure that you are using social media in a way that makes sense for your business.

If you are not sure, ask yourself these simple questions:
- Are you using the right platform?
First, remember that there are a variety of social media platforms for you to consider – most notably Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Further, within these platforms, there exist variations on the theme. For example, in Facebook, you can have a “Page,” a “Group,” or a “Community.” Each variation has its own set of tools, purposes, and capabilities. In addition, you may decide to participate in several social media platforms at the same time. For example, if you have a fitness center, you may want to use your YouTube channel to publish videos on how to perform certain exercises or tapings of classes you offer there while using Facebook to build a sense of community through candid photos, listings of hours, available classes, and upcoming events.

- Have you scrapped past attempts?
However, you also need to remember that whatever you take on has to be maintained and updated regularly. This can take up valuable time and people resources. While it can certainly be worth it in the long run, remember that consistency is key. If you do not think you will be able to maintain various platforms (or you have already started and stopped using a platform) be sure to erase or delete those accounts. Otherwise, you stand the risk of eroding your brand value when a customer (current or potential) stumbles across your forgotten Bebo account. Instead, make sure that what you have is the best it can be and do away with anything that you are not actively using.

- Are you providing the type of information and interaction that your audience wants?
Ask yourself what it is that your audience would want to read, not what you want to tell them. Providing discounts or having giveaways can be useful, but you have to have more substance than that. Consider posting facts about your company, the brand, or its products. Think of the tidbits of information you encounter everyday that make you stop and say, “Really?” Examples include fun facts about how long you have been in business, what happens “behind the scenes”, why your business operates as it does (e.g. why Yoga class was cancelled on Tuesdays, why you do not serve poppyseed bagels, why you buy local, why legal documents are presented in blue card stock), etc.

- Are you listening to your audience?
Likewise, are you listening to your audience? When they make a post, do you respond? Do you stay on top of when your company is mentioned on other sites, blogs, social media, etc., and make relevant comments to that affect (on that site and yours)? Remember that social media has developed because of the continued interaction it affords. Its purpose is not to simply broadcast, but rather give people a voice in things they would otherwise not be privy to.

- Do you allow them a voice?
Similarly, make sure that you give your audience a voice. Ask open-ended questions, run surveys and polls, include them in new product decisions, etc. – the more things like this you do, the more valued your audience will feel. Remember that interaction is a large part of a successful social media campaign. If miss out on this, you may already be out of the game.

Social Media can be a key part of growing your business and brand to attract local consumers.
Local Internet Marketing isn’t just about having a website, it includes being findable in multiple places when local consumers are looking for your product or service.   A Local Internet Marketing Consultant can help you determine the best route for your online marketing plan.

Why Do You Need to Have an ID With YouTube?

By Seb on Wednesday, November 10th, 2010 | No Comments

My name is Sebastian Jean Batiste I am a Marketing Coach and South London SEO Expert. This blog is aimed at small business owners who want to learn new On and Offline marketing strategies, from basic level without the jargon.

It is really quite exciting to be able to talk about the positives of such an extensively important website. YouTube, one of the largest viewed website today has actually opened up a completely new world for you. From videos to songs to the best of television episodes, you get to watch anything and everything under the sun in this one place and all it contents are free. While on the one hand, you can extensively visit the site whenever you want, only a registered member can enjoy a few added benefits. Let us explore the benefits and realize why actually you need an account.

The first benefit of having an account

Perhaps the most important and in fact the primary reason for you to get a YouTube account is that it comes free. When it comes to having an account in such an active website that is all free, what else can possibly stop you? Just a normal sign up form is all you need to fill out when you are planning to open  an account. What YouTube wants from you is a little bit of your personal details including your name, date of birth etc. you will have to provide a username and password that will help you to log in to the website each time.

The second benefit of having an account

YouTube is like a video forum, browse and search for videos after you have successfully logged in. then just keep watching videos and rating them and even at times leaving comments wherever you feel like. Also you will easily be able to add them to your favorites to keep getting updates on similar videos or the one from the same person. Also at the same time, you will know which videos have more ratings and demand making it easier for you to understand the current trends in your market. This will also let the other fellow users understand the trend as well.

The third benefit of having an account

The last but not least reason why actually you need a YouTube account is getting to upload videos of your own on the same platform. It can just be a simple video of you giving a demo of your product, or video of some form of customer testimonial with a link back to your product page.

Here is a free tip: when you upload your video and go to  name it enter the link to your site e.g your product page, and when a potential customer veiws your video they can click the video title and go straight through to your product page.

You can easily record and upload anything of your choice once you have registered  an account on YouTube. This is one such facility that you will never be able to enjoy free in any other way. Then there are no limits to what you actually upload and with what you shoot. You can easily do it from a very personal level using mobile or webcam or even do it in a professional way as well but is not essential many people have successfull video blogs using cheap home cameras or an ipod

The most exciting thing is from the past to the present, the serious videos to the light comedy ones. You can enjoy and upload anything and everything using this site. From music to entertainment, personal documentary to full-length films, anything can be uploaded and watched in this site. Moreover, all for free.  With over 2 billion video veiws daily Youtube is a massive search engine with tonnes of traffic that you can direct to your product or service. There are people on there right now searching for what you sell or what you know and the  only way to get in front of them and start uploading is to register an account.

What Will You Give More Importance To – The Product Or Mailing List?

By Seb on Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010 | No Comments

It is like encountering the question of what comes first the egg or the chicken. Very simple yet very complicated.  A question similar to this is what comes first the product or the mailing list? Many will argue and try to put the mailing list at a more important position rather than the product. They will certainly call the demand or the mailing list a priority for the business rather than the product. However, a different set of people will very clearly put the product in the limelight as for them without a good product demand or hype will not arise and that will surely result in a null mailing list.

What the marketers have to say?

It is indeed a very important question to be understood from the marketer’s point of view. We are dealing with the market. This is the place where products are sold and launched and simple economics is what we deal with every passing day when we consider the market, products and demands. The marketers say that it is the demand that gives rise to an urgent excess supply of product. If the need had not been high as per the mailing list then the product would never have had success of its own.

What will the sellers have to say?

Yes, considering from the seller’s point of view the same question would have meant something very different. The sellers are doing business here so what they will be more concerned with is the product. They really look forward to the success of having a steady mailing list to sell to. However, then also from their point of view it will always be the product receiving the primary importance and will be highlighted. They will always strive harder to make their product unique in the market.

Then what is the real point of resolution?

In my opinion a laser targeted, mailing list of high spending buyer contacts is what rules the market largely. Many internet marketers are today looking forward to grab contacts and increase and accelerate the mailing list before they concentrate on the product. It is actually that both needs each other badly and cannot possibly exist without the other. One begins and gives way to the other, whereas the other completes the first one.

Social networking is a great way to find contacts and start building your list. Establishing your mailing list and creating contacts and friends today is very important. It is like preparing the platform where you can tomorrow come and sell the product you want. Some times the mailing list might as well guide you as to what you will sell and what you will not sell, just by asking them questions from which you get product ideas. The product thus to some extent is molded based on the list – give the customer what they want.

How to Promote Your YouTube Videos and Its Advantages

By Seb on Tuesday, October 26th, 2010 | No Comments

My name is Sebastian Jean Batiste I am a Marketing Coach and South London SEO Expert. This blog is aimed at small business owners who want to learn new On and Offline marketing strategies, from basic level without the jargon.

Do you believe that you were born with a camera? Is recording snippets of happenings around you, your ultimate passion? Do posters of Spielberg or Cameron adorn your bedroom walls? Well maybe not, but you won’t believe what a simple posting of yours on YouTube can do. Just think about it; millions of people log on to YouTube every hour to search for videos on different subjects. Among those millions there are people looking for information that you know. If you put your expertise on YouTube e.g in the form of a how to video and do this regularly it won’t be to long before you start to build a following this following is filled with potential clients ready to spend money with you. In the following paragraphs, I have explained in brief how to promote your YouTube videos and start to build a following.

Personal Promotion

For obvious reasons the first ones we tell about our videos are our friends and family. Do not take this lightly, as this presents before you an enormous opportunity of word of mouth promotion. You tell your friends, they tell it to their friends, those friends tell it to their friends and so on. You would be surprised to know that a single piece of information does not take even days to spread between hundreds of people. Tell your acquaintances first hand, mail them the links or send them interesting mailers. Take whichever way you want, as promoting in your own group yields real good results.

Website and Blog Promotion

If you happen to own a blog or a website, it opens another opportunity to promote your favorite YouTube videos. Post the videos on these websites in such locations so that everyone who happens to visit your website should see that video you can even set it on auto play so as soon as someone comes to the site the video plays almost like an automated greeting. Try to give interesting headings to those videos. There is no better way to catch the attention than resorting to witty promotional lines. Try to think about lines that would intrigue people visiting your website or blog and make them click the play button. Also try to keep a sharing option on those videos, as there are people who like those videos and may want those videos to appear on their own websites. It is a good way to reach the maximum number of people.

Promoting Though Social Networking Sites

Presently the social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and Orkut have become an extremely popular medium for people to promote their YouTube videos. All these networking sites are accessed by millions on a round the clock basis. Just imagine the kind of popularity a video can get if promoted on such platforms. There are real life examples where a single video has been viewed by millions worldwide in a span of just a few hours, this is whats called going viral.

It is not just about one in a million chance of catching the eyeball of any big shot, promoting your YouTube videos effectively can bring real good revenues as well. Whenever you talk about maximum people visiting a website or a blog, you are talking about serious potential money. Wouldn’t it be great if you can follow your passion and at the same time earn from it?  Just click, post and promote, you never how popular you may become.

The New Generation of Blogging

By Seb on Thursday, October 14th, 2010 | 2 Comments
My name is Sebastian Jean Batiste I am a Marketing Coach and South London SEO Expert. This blog is aimed at small business owners who want to learn new On and Offline marketing strategies, from basic level without the jargon.
It seems it was just yesterday that something called blogging entered the paradigm of chatting and internet, to mark a new beginning. However, with time it started raising itself by several ways and attaining new heights in the world of communication and technology. It was just the beginning of blogging when with time entered a new aspect of blogs the video blogging. It is no more the words that will help you to write your memories or even share it with people. However, it is the video this time that you can share on your blog and reach out to people better because even though a lot of people like to read a lot of people are also very visual.

What it takes to start a video blog

With a video blog there will be very less required in terms of accessing and arranging things. Although you will need a camera, what is most primary is having good subject matter being natural and having a nice background. Once you upload your video to YouTube it is hosted there and you can then take the embed code and place your video anywhere. As always I would recommend WordPress as the platform for your blog and they have some great themes that support video blogging.

Purpose the blog serves

You can actually use this video blog as a way to interact with your customers and a way for them to interact and feel closer to you, this will only increase sales as people would prefer to buy from someone they feel they know and where they get a personalized experience instead of some faceless corporation who cares not for the little guy. In simplified terms a video will just act as if you yourself are talking and reaching out to each and every one of your potential customers. From putting up product, demonstrations to simple daily personal matters can be a part of your video blog. It always helps while selling when you can connect to the customers using written, audio and the video modes. This works better than just writing, as the people are being able to see exactly what you are up to.

How to do it all by yourself

When you are just gearing up to start selling your own product, or someone else’s, the video option is a good medium to go for. You could just use a simple webcam at your own place, or take the help of a friend and just capture a video, and put that up on the site for promotion. Make it simple yet very creative, a webcam and a good hard disk space is all you need to make video uploading easy and comfortable. You may need a microphone and some other lighting equipment.

Sometimes video blogging can create problems in terms of software and hardware. However, do not get romanticized by technology trying to decide what camera to use or what theme is best just choose one and start blogging. Also at the same time, you can just try to keep it even more innovative by working with text and still photos along with the videos of specific things.

Google likes blogs even if you have a traditional website it is worth while setting up a blog as a blog has a better chance of hitting Google pg 1 especially if you use a range of media on your blog to cater for everyone

Which One to Opt for – SEO Or PPC?

By Seb on Tuesday, October 12th, 2010 | No Comments

My name is Sebastian Jean Batiste I am a Marketing Coach and South London SEO Expert. This blog is aimed at small business owners who want to learn new On and Offline marketing strategies, from basic level without the jargon.

The internet has presented us with numerous challenges. Out of which putting up a business online and thereby using several means to generate success is the most important one. Internet today is the most interactive and active platform. People from all sorts of profession and spheres of life are clicking away on the internet every second. Putting up a website, advertisements and thereby generating success is an easy yet difficult job, when it comes to the internet visibility is what you actually want when starting a business online.

Which marketing way to take

One can adapt several marketing paths when it comes to doing business over the internet. The most important and significant ones are SEO and PPC. While you are deciding on the one that you can try in your case, try to evaluate the conditions of both and thereby opt for the one that is more affordable and even useful in your case. The one that is more advantageous and can earn you extremely well is the best one to utilize. Firstly, study and compare to understand which one can actually provide you with the best ROI and opportunities and then decide on it.

Knowing SEO better

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is one of the most sought after marketing tools today. In this type of search, you will not have to pay for the people who are clicking like the PPC mode. While then again this method has its own flaws as well. SEO takes time, and depending on the competition levels of the keywords you want to rank for can take anywhere from 1 month to a year to reach page 1 and until research is done on your market and keywords, do not believe any one who claims they can get you to Google page 1. However, expert help is needed to set up the website in such a ways that it can generate interest, you need customer targeted content displayed in a Google friendly manner.

Knowing PPC better

PPC or Pay Per Click is where you can actually bid on the words you want to advertise your website. You will have to bid for certain keywords and thereby if you are highest bidder than your search will appear top of the list on the right of the Google search results screen, the next rankers take consecutive positions. The money that you have bid for will have to be paid by you whenever some one clicks on the ad that you have put up. An excellent way to keep things simple, generate the much needed right people to the actual ad. Hence, you get to pay, for the probable customers only.

While you are deciding on the benefits of the marketing strategies try to read the negative more than the positives. This will help you decide for the best of the lot. While it is always, better to start with SEO when the online business is just laying the stepping stone as it is quite flexible and affordable. Slowly shifting towards economical PPC options is the best way to proceed. There are several Pay Per Click options that allow you to put up the ads for some stipulated time after which they are removed. Go for those if need be.

In some cases it is best to use a small budget on a short PPC campaign to get your website to Google page 1 immediately whilst waiting for the SEO efforts to kick in. This way you can start to make sales straight away. Alternatively you could run a banner ad on the content network which would be a lot cheaper and probably more effective than just the text ad, you could do this whilst waiting for generic SEO results.

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