Rather than repost the entire article. I would just prefer to link to it. You should definitely get as much visibility for you blog as possible and part of that is making sure the updates are on your main pages. While it does make sense to run your entire website off a CMS like wordpress you might opt for a different design or have a static site. This the tutorial posted below is an excellent tutorial I found at Vandelay Design on the topic. It uses Googles Feedburner platform to create a simple javascript widget that mimics the CSS of your website. Check it out.

Display Your Feed on a Static HTML Page Using FeedBurner’s BuzzBoost

Whats the difference between an entrepreneur and a successful entrepreneur?

Entrepreneurs are optimistic —> Successful entrepreneurs want to be optimistic, but act like pesimists

Cheers to the monetary scars of entrepreneurship

Not too long ago, Google Local Business center changed and became Google Places.”Google has decided to change the name of what was called the “Google Local Business Center” to “Google Places.” The rationale, according to the press release, is to better connect Google Place Pages with the place where local business information is claimed, entered and enhanced:

Why? Millions of people use Google every day to find places in the real world, and we want to better connect Place Pages – the way that businesses are being found today – with the tool that enables business owners to manage their presence on Google.”

Some are saying this was just a name change, but I do not think that was the case at all- this already powerful tool for local marketing has become even better with the addition of a couple of tweaks that really bring every thing together.

Check out the video:

It seems to me as though Google is really honing in on the local aspects of their game, and this is a good thing. It has never been a better time to work on your marketing plan involving Google Places, formerly known as Google Local Business. Even the name breathes confidence in local business- and in recent times, doing business locally has become more and more important. With more people patronizing locally rather than going outward for their products and services, having a good marketing plan involving this sort of thing is vital to the survival of your business. So, whether it is Google Local Business or Google Places- having this on your side and in your marketing arsenal is going to be even more important as time goes on.

How this works, is it all ties in with mobile marketing- more and more use their mobile devices to seek out those things they want and need. So, being as Google is the powerhouse of searches and continues to make more strides towards getting even better- you find that the offerings for local become even broader spectrum. Currently there is even a test going on to showcase the insides of businesses via the search engine giant and their Google Places offering. These test cities are Chicago, San Diego, Seattle, Boulder, San Francisco  but they are currently only testing the feature in San Jose and Houston. This used to be known as Enhanced Listing but is now “getting a tag for”.

Also in the press release was some important information about the statistics of Google currently.

Almost 2 million listings have been claimed in the United States, there are currently fifty million Google Places pages already in use, approximately twenty percent of all searches run on the engine are related to location, and the Google Places pages are viewed millions of times a day- just to name a few. As the search giant continues to grow and focus on local business you can bet there has never been a better time to get your local on and market to those who looking for products and services…where you are.

So, you have a really great story about your company- perhaps you have a great new product that is going to change the way that people do something. You have a CEO who is attending several charity functions, or you have something about your company that you want to get noticed. You know already by now how to get your press released noticed, but if you want the vast visibility that an online press release can bring- you’re going to need to optimize it properly.

The first thing is the keywords- this is the most important aspect of any optimization task- putting them in the title, summary and somewhere towards the end of the body is good, but you have to make sure that they are natural and flow with the rest of the release. Random keywords out of nowhere are spammy and well, let’s face it that does not make any sense. I’m writing a blog about press releases and if I suddenly throw in a word about catfood, it’s going to be obvious. When I say that though, notice, in the context of this sentence, putting the word there was appropriate- what I mean, and I think we have all seen it- are the random keywords just thrown in here and there that are completely out of context.

So you have the keywords, now you have to work with your anchor text links- that is, if the site you’re distributing from allows them. Ideally, they do- but not all sites are going to give you this so be sure that you have various press releases written, tailored to the sites you are using. You have been through the keywords- and you have those three important ones in the body- so now what? You take them, and use them to link to the target web page using the keywords.

Now I have mentioned the tailor made press releases for the various places you distribute them- but what if you submit the wrong release to the wrong site? No one will ever see it, it likely won’t make it through. You really have to pay careful attention to the sites that you are using for distribution. Editors will want releases that are not only relevant, but present them with the least amount of work for their time. Format correctly, and this should be a given- but run your spell check on it, correct any grammar errors, and be sure that all of your links are appropriate and not broken.

When shopping around for distribution or submission sites, make sure that they are indexed by Google news, and that the sites themselves are already very search engine friendly. If they turn the title of your press release into the URL- and your summary becomes a Meta description, this will work out much better. As I mentioned above- if you want to have more impact, be sure that you are submitting to sites that allow for the anchor text links. You can still submit to the sites that don’t, but this will take your releases and improve your visibility.

Few restaurants have fully grasped the importance of cultivating a system for increasing the number of positive reviews a restaurant receives on third party review websites such as Google Places or Urban Spoon. The trouble with that is that it can bring in an enormous amount of business. Word of mouth marketing leaves the biggest impression on prospective restaurant customers out of all types of marketing. If your restaurant does not have a system in place for getting those precious referrals by the dozens and hundreds, it needs to immediately.

They key to getting more reviews for your restaurant from happy customers is by systematically eliminating all the reasons why people do not leave reviews in the first place. By having a concrete process in place, your restaurant can easily dominate its local market place in all of the important business driving review websites.  This process should address the following issues:

• Lack of awareness by restaurant patrons that the restaurant would like them to leave a review
• Identification by restaurant staff of extremely satisfied customers to request a review
• Defining the perfect target audience for requesting reviews (tech savvy, smart phone wielding, food and wine enthusiasts)
• How to incentivize action on the part of the restaurant patron
• How to incentivize (or penalize) lack of review generation from wait staff
• Educating the restaurant on how positive reviews can benefit them directly
• Allow them to leave a review while at the restaurant if possible, or leaving a takeaway to remind them later on

When done properly, a properly implemented strategy can sky rocket the number of reviews generated, and can result in wait staff being requested by name on a regular occasion. Your customers have stronger vested interest in your restaurant because they have put their name on the line by saying it is good. They will often times want to prove they are right and bring friends back with them. Actually writing a review solidifies this fact in their heads.

There are additional reasons why this is so important. Many of the review websites give more visibility to higher rated restaurants and restaurants with more ratings. In Google Local Listings, businesses with more reviews have a much higher chance of showing up for business generating terms. On other review sites, being more visible means that the people that use these sites (People Who Review Restaurants) will also visit your restaurant and leave a review. Investing in this type of marketing begins a never ending circle of more business.

Below is an example of a simple yet incredibly effective system that any restaurant can implement to improve online visibility and get a huge increase in traffic without spending a dime on marketing.

Create a manual to educate wait staff on the importance of reviews, how to identify people to request reviews from, and how to request a review properly. Let the wait staff know that for every positive review that is left with your name on it they will be given $5 in dining credit in addition to any discount they may receive as an employee. You may also wish to have a contest each month and give the winning server a $100 gift card.

An example of a scripted review request:

Have you enjoyed everything this evening? Excellent, I noticed you have an iphone. Would you be interested in receiving a complimentary cocktail in return for leaving a review of you experience with us this evening on any one of these review websites while we are fixing your drink? (Label which require an account and which do not). If they say yes the server would then say “Would you mind mentioning that {Your Servers Name} was you server this evening in you review? It helps us take pride in the level of service that we provide.

The above script has everything that you would need to motivate both the server, and the restaurant patron to take action. The server has identified that they are using an Iphone which means they have the capability to leave a review immediately. The server has the ability to incentivize the patron to leave the review, as well as incentivize the server. The odds are that when someone reads reviews about the restaurant and they say “ask for Antonio he was great”, the server will have the ability to have a packed seating even when the restaurant is not full.

If You Would Like To Book A Professional Consultation To See How InBusiness Can Improve Your Restaurants Marketing Contact Us Today At 321-281-8353 or Email Us At restaurant@inbis.us

Ever wonder how Justia and Lexblog market attorney websites and get their clients high Google Rankings? Why is it worth it to pay $1,000 or more a month to have them do your law firms internet marketing? This article will give you a quick explanation of the process, its benefits, and its limits.

Both Justia and LexBlog has a very extensive network of legal practices that have created blogs to market their practices. The power of these to networks comes from the fact the single most important factor in how Google and other search engines rank websites is the number quality websites that link to your website. Since Justia and LexBlog both have large networks of quality websites as their clients, they link them together using a blog-roll (This is list of related blogs) and this builds back links to your legal website.

The benefit of using these systems is many of the links that are obtained would be very difficult to achieve without the system. We are advocates of lawyers using systems like Justia because it can give them a great jumpstart in getting quality links to their websites. Here is where the benefits start to get outweighed by the negatives.

Unfortunately the blog roll rarely changes. That means you are getting links back to your website (the most important factor in ranking well) each month on all the pages being published by the other Justia clients with your website on their blog-roll, but you are not getting any new websites that are linking to you. Many studies have been done by respectable members of the SEO community to show that the value of getting additional links on a website that already links to you is much lower than getting additional sites to that do not link to you to do so. This means that most value you are going to get out of using Justia for your legal marketing is really almost right out of the gate.

The second main issue with these companies as your sole internet marketing solution is that they market numerous law firms in the same city for the same services. Do you expect Justia to allow you to outrank their own client that has been paying the same monthly fee as you for over 3 or 4 years? You shouldn’t because it isn’t going to happen.   This is where a firm like InBusiness Internet Marketing can help your firm get over the hump and get those additional needed links to dominate your market.

We go outside of the networks that justia and lexblog create to get as many quality legal websites as possible to link to you. This can provide a huge advantage over other Justia and LexBlog clients, and give you the edge you need to take the top spot in your field. Want proof? Contact us today and we can explain the processes we will use to help your business steal the digital spotlight.

Once you have written a stellar press release the next step is to distribute the release to media outlets.  A large portion of this should be done offline to local media outlets such as television, radio, and newspapers.  You should aim to distribute at National level media outlets that are specific to your industry.

Another option that should not be overlooked is the online media outlets.  This can be accomplished by submitting your press release to several distribution services to maximize your efforts and impact.  The list below consists of a mixture of free options and paid services, both of which are worth looking into.

Paid Options:
1.Business Wire- Business Wire is a paid service that offers varying formatting and distribution service options.
2.Express Press Release- Express Press Release is a paid service that distributes your press releases to state-specific sites, industry-specific sites, blogs and a PR forum.
3.PR Leap- PR Leap is a paid service that distributes to the major search engines, websites and newswire providers.
4.PR Newswire- PR Newswire is another paid service that submits your release to many different places including newsrooms, financial portals, websites, social media networks, bloggers, and search engines.
5.PRBuzz.com- A paid service that provides distribution to online news sites and blogs.
6.PRWeb- Another paid service that distributes your release to many sites, the benefit here is that you can track and analyze the results of your campaign.
7.SBWire- A paid service that lets you target geographical and industry specific categories.  They also have an RSS feed that releases to many third party sites.

Sites that offer Free Services

1.1888PressRelease.com- This site offers both free and paid services including distribution outlets, visibility and tracking services.
2.24-7 Press Release- This site offers both free and paid services with multiple formatting and distribution options.
3.i-Newswire- A totally free service that allows you to submit a single release each week to their global audience.
4.Media Syndicate- Perfect for small to medium sized businesses, this service focuses on those sized businesses’ press release distribution
5.PR Urgent News- Another site that offers both free and paid services.  It allows up to three live links, targeted keywords, and a thumbnail image with each release.
6.PR.com- Free and paid service that allows a full company profile in addition to distributing your press release.
7.PRLog- A totally free service that allows you to include HTML links in the press release body, created a .pdf version of your release and allows submission to specific categories.
8.The Open Press- Another good free and paid option that distributes press releases to multiple websites, blogs and RSS feeds.

It is not recommended that you submit your release to each of these sites.  Instead browse through them and pick out one or two that best fit your needs.  Pay careful attention to the formatting requirements of each site and track your results carefully to find the best option for your business.

Over the past few months I have had over a dozen  small and medium size businesses contact me that were curious about other options they may have than Reach Local to reach local customers online. Like your company, they had been using Reach local and were relatively unimpressed with the results. The marketing materials their sales rep showed looked amazing, they had a slick interface, and tons of bells and whistles like call tracking and recording. They signed the three month contract and  waited to see the results. Unfortunately the results they received left them unsatisfied, and wanting more.

What Is The Problem?

The problem stems from how reach local operates. Its entire business model focuses on high commission sales that mean most of the money you spending never actually goes towards your marketing. Most people don’t realize that Reach Local is effectively a middleman between Google Adwords and your business.

About 90% of business a company would generate from using reach local comes from google Adwords and other Pay Per Click Marketing  Reach Local buys. That would not be a bad thing if you couldn’t get access to Google Adwords directly for free.  So where is the benefit in using a company like reach local?

The benefit should be in how knowledgeable they are about marketing your business using the Google Adwords system. That way they could achieve a better return using Google Adwords than if you used it yourself. Unfortunately that is not usually the case. This is the main reason why Google Adwords is not mentioned in the reach local sales pitch. Neither are the words Pay Per Click. In fact, because Reach Local has so many clients (Over 10,000) they use an algorithm that determines how a campaign should be run.

A Better Mouse Trap For Small Business Paid Advertising?

So is there a better solution for getting great results using paid advertising on Google than Reach Local? A solution where you don’t have to be an expert to get results? Absolutely! Google Adwords, like most things in life is a tool that can be used effectively, and ineffectively. The key is getting an extremely knowledgeable Internet Marketing Consultant that manages you campaigns directly from the Google Adwords interface.

At InBusiness, Inc. we don’t stand in between the client and Google Adwords, we stand to the side and let our clients see everything. We pull the curtain back and show you exactly what we see. No smoke and mirrors. See if your Reach Local rep will allow you to see the keyword click reports directly from Google on your advertising campaign. They won’t because you would be very upset.

We are not here to say the Reach Local is a bad company, just that there are better alternatives for companies who have the budget that they are spending with reach local. InBusiness offers a free trial period to current reach local clients so that they can compare the results and see for themselves. We don’t make anything until after you are convinced that we would be a better solution. To give an offer like, you better believe that if could not get results, we would be out of business. Are you ready to get 50% to 400% more leads from the same marketing budget you are currently using with reach local? Contact us today and we will explain why there is such a big difference. Reference will also be provided from previous reach local clients on the impact the change has had on their business.

Obviously the goal of any business is to please their customers.  You work hard to build relationships, grow loyalty and improve your reputation in your given industry.  You focus on this by providing excellent service to your customers, being available to your customers, staying on top of your industry’s changes, and working hard each day to grow your business.

Unfortunately, despite your hard work there may well come a time when you face negative publicity.  As humans, our initial reaction to someone saying something negative or harmful to our business is to get angry or defensive.  Before you respond to any negative feedback you receive you need to step back and look at the situation carefully.  Ask yourself the following questions while you take a deep breath:

-Is the comment true?
-If I put myself in the other person’s shoes, can I understand why they feel this way?
-Could something I have done have been misunderstood?
-Am I in the wrong?
-Could I have provided better service in this situation?
-What are my options for rectifying the situation?
-Is the comment publicly accessible, and what type of damage can this do to my business if left alone?

Negative publicity can happen for many reasons.  A misunderstanding, a simple error, differing opinions, a less than ethical competitor, along with many other possibilities can result in negative feedback.  Often times the situation is easily rectified, but the person leaving the feedback did not give you that opportunity before complaining publicly.

When you look at the situation you are dealing with, first consider the source and look at where the comments were left.  You need to analyze how damaging the comments really are to your business and then decide how to respond.  You may decide the best course of action is to simply ignore it all together.  Often times you can go to the source directly and resolve the problem.  This can be ideal as not only are you likely to have the negative feedback removed you may be able to come out of the situation on top, showing that you care about your customers concerns and will go out of the way to fix your errors.

If the situation cannot be resolved offline with the source and you feel the negativity is too important to ignore, you need to carefully formulate a response.  Again, keeping your emotions in check is imperative, or you could end up harming your reputation more with your own actions than the initial feedback would have done if left alone.

Regardless of how you choose to handle the problem, there is one positive result of negative feedback should you look at it in the right light.  Negative publicity, like anything else you encounter in business, is a learning opportunity.  It will give you a chance to rethink your business practices and fine-tune your policies to prevent such a situation from happening again.  In the end, one negative comment is unlikely to destroy your business.  The best thing you can do is respond appropriately and work extra hard to make sure your next customers leave rave reviews.

The task of writing an effective press release is not rocket science.  Perhaps a better comparison would be watching water boil.  It takes not only an excellent piece of written news, but also a lot of patience to see any results.  This is not meant to discourage you, but rather to express that in reality the press release is just one part of an effective media campaign.  It is the first part of the campaign though, and without a strong press release your campaign will be dead in the water.

Before you begin the actual writing of your press release, take the time to make a list of contacts you plan to send the release to once its written.  Writing a press release that has interesting content geared toward the audience you are targeting is of utmost importance.  Plus, having this list set up ahead of time will give your a sense of accomplishment, as once you are done writing you can simply send it off rather than sitting on it for days while you accumulate leads to send it to.

First, take a peek at your competition.  See what other companies like yours are doing and see what press releases they have done are effective and what is not.  There is no point in repeating the mistakes of others.  Read their releases like you were the target audience, and see what you like and dislike about what you read.

Setting an obtainable and realistic goal is the second step.  Understand that it takes time to create an effective publicity campaign.  As a small business your goal with your campaign should be to promote awareness of your business.  Press releases that seem like sales pitches however will generate no response.  Think of interesting things to write about.  New clients, new capabilities, new employees, upcoming events and the like will generate more positive results than press releases that do not announce anything new.

The format of your press release is also important.  Your headline should be attention grabbing without being over the top.  The beginning of your press release should say “For Immediate Release” followed by your subject.  Grab your reader’s attention by putting the most important bits of information in the first paragraph.  The first paragraph should start with the date of the release and the location your business resides in. The second paragraph should include more details.  Your third paragraph should have a quote from you.  If possible, the fourth paragraph should include a quote from someone else, such as a client or industry expert about your business or news event.  Be sure you have this person’s permission before using their quote! Finish your press release with a small paragraph about your company and be sure to include contact information for further details.

Remember, the media you send your press release to is under no obligation whatsoever to publish or even acknowledge your email or fax.  It is in very poor taste to bother them to see if it was received, or hound them in any way to publish it.  If they have an interest and need more information they will contact you.

Regardless of your profession you can find yourself the subject of bad publicity.  This is especially true if you conduct business online.  The internet makes giving feedback on your real life experiences such a simple task that if one person is unhappy in their dealings with you they can easily do major damage to your reputation by broadcasting online.  Sadly, more people feel the need to vent their frustrations than to sing praises for a job well done, so it is likely that you may encounter this situation at some time in your online business dealings.

If you find yourself on the receiving end of less than stellar feedback or bad publicity you will have to choose whether to simply ignore it or act upon it.  That decision will depend upon where the negative feedback has been left and how accessible that information is to the general public, as well as the source.

The best practice in dealing with negativity online is to avoid it.  That can be accomplished by having a Online Reputation Management, or ORM, in place before it happens.  The negative comments may not even be your own fault.  Consider a bidding war between you and a competitor.  You both make bids on a project and you are awarded the job.  The losing party goes online, poses as a customer, and bad mouths your business.  It can, and does, happen.  What’s worse is that without a solid ORM in place, it could be weeks or longer before you are even aware that the negative publicity exists, and there is no way to measure how much business you lost as a result.

There are several services that you can sign up for that will do the leg work for you and keep you from having to spend countless hours monitoring online social networks for bad news.  Blog monitoring is available through BackType Blog Comments Monitoring, Blog Pulse, Technorati, and Google Blog Search.  These services will allow you to track key words (such as your name or business name) and will alert you anytime someone mentions those terms.

Twitter is a popular social media service that allows people around the world to instantly update what they are doing in real-time.  Monitter, Tweet Later, Tweet Beep, and Twitter Search are services much like the blog alert services.  They allow you to quickly and easily see who is talking about you online.

Generally speaking, anytime someone airs negative commentary about you or your business, they will include a link to your website so that others can beware.  Link monitoring is available through several service providers including BackTweets and WhoLinkstoMe.  You can also use services like Google Alerts, Board Tracker, MonitorThis, Naymz, Purewire Trust, and Yasni to keep up to date and be alerted when someone uses your name, links, or business name online.

While it may take a little extra time to set up these services, once the sign up process is complete you will have little to worry about.  Updates will be emailed to you and a quick glance through the emails will provide the insurance that you need to protect your reputation online.

Marketing your business, regardless of what type of service you provide, is essential to growth in even the best economical climate.  This is especially true in an economy like we are facing today.  Now more than ever you have to go out and find new clients.  Below are a few suggestions on how to do just that, without breaking the bank with high priced advertising campaigns.

Networking and referrals go hand in hand and are some of the most effective ways to meet prospective new clients.  Networking functions are available for nearly every type of business, and it’s beneficial for you to attend as many of these as possible.  A word to the wise, however, try not to treat networking functions like speed dating events.  Many people make the mistake of trying to hand as many people their card as they possibly can in a short span of time.  The end result is a stack of cards that gather dust on someone’s desk.  Instead, meet people, strike up conversation, ask about their business and share a little about yours.  When someone can put a face to a name on a card they are far more likely to remember you.  Even if they have no need for your services, they likely will know someone who does.

Cold calling are the two words most dreaded by business people.  No one really enjoys doing cold calls.  But cold calling has been proven time and time again.  It is the fastest way to source many potential leads in a short period of time.  Be sure to do a little research on effective cold calling and open your dialogue with an interesting and friendly question.  Jumping right into selling yourself and your services is poor etiquette and likely to get you nowhere fast.

In today’s information age, people love to learn.  Put your expertise to good use and promote yourself at the same time.  Trade magazines, informational websites and blogs all need content.  Gather a list of as many of these types of media outlets as you can find.  Make an effort to write at least one eight hundred word article on your area of expertise each month, and send that article to each place on your list.  When your content is used it will give a link to your site, which will drive traffic your way.

Set up a newsletter, and make signing up for it easy to find on y our website.  That way when people come to your site they can join, and send those monthly articles to your list.  Providing reliable information will help build trust and confidence in your abilities, making your name come to mind first when they need services you provide.

Marketing your business in today’s economy does not require much more than some creative thinking.  The way people shop for services is changing, and the pool of funds being spent is smaller than in the past.  While the days of clients finding you may be past, a little effort can go a long way insuring your business stays on top of its game.

If you do a quick web search for internet marketing tips, you are likely to see a bunch of hype. It’s almost like the old pyramid scheme infomercials- “do this and get rich!”  Anyone who has really dove into internet marketing knows there is no exact one size fits all formula to successful marketing on the internet, and that most of what you read is really just myth.

The bigger problem is that the majority of what you find online in regards to helpful internet marketing is geared toward those individuals promoting a tangible product that can be sold directly from the internet.  If you are a service provider of any type, as in the face-to-face person-to-person type of service you will find internet marketing all the more challenging.  If you follow the advice and plans that are geared towards selling a product, you are likely to find disastrous results. The goal of this article is to dispel some of those myths so that you can figure out what works for you, without all of the hype.

The most common myth is that your website is everything.  If you build a fancy website you will be successful, right?  Wrong.  The truth of the matter is, it is far more important to detail clearly what services you provide.  The content of your website is far more important than the design itself.  While a professional looking site is important, the best looking site in the world will not generate clients if the potential clients have no clue what it is you can do for them.

Most how-to articles on internet marketing go on and on about traffic.  More traffic equals more sales, right?  Wrong.  When it comes to promoting a service, it is much better to know exactly who your target is and focus your advertising on drawing in your market over gobbling up bandwidth by driving droves of people who likely will never need your area of expertise to your website.  

While there is no “get rich quick” guaranteed formula to successful internet marketing, the same basic principles you use in your traditional marketing apply on line.  When you make cold calls, write letters, and do presentations for potential clients in the non-virtual world apply online.  The goal of your blog, ads, and website should be to instill trust and build credibility.  Presenting a professional image of yourself and your services is the first step to building trust in your abilities.  Once your potential clients see you as someone they can trust to handle their business needs, you can start the relationship building process just as you would in person.

It may be helpful to have a colleague or well-established client take a look at your website.  Ask them if the website is easy to understand and if it conveys an accurate representation of the services you provide.  Include client testimonies, make your content relative and interesting and uphold your professional image and you will be much more likely to have successful online marketing experiences.

Anyone who has any experience in running their own business understands how important word of mouth advertising can be in regards to growing your business.  What better way to prove your worth as an independent service provider than if one of your current clients recommends you to others in their industry?  Referrals do not have to just come from your current clients, however.  There are many other opportunities for referrals that can be quite easy to reach with a little time and effort on your part.

The first step to building a referral network is to identify your target market.  This seems like an obvious step, but it’s often over looked.  If your target market is new start up businesses, think like a new business owner.  You are ready to take your big idea and turn it (hopefully) into a successful business.  What do you need?  Where will you go for help?

Identify ten different sources the new business owner would need to get their business off the ground.  They would need a bank to process payments.  They would need a business license.  They might join the local chamber of commerce.  They will need computer equipment.  They have to order office supplies.  The list goes on and on.

Once you’ve identified ten sources the new business owner is going to rely on, do a little investigative research.  Find ten people in your target market that provide these services.  Then one by one make the effort to know these people.  Visit your local office supply store and introduce yourself to the manager.  Join the local Chamber of Commerce.  You would be surprised at how often the new business owner will ask these sources if they know of anyone who provides the very service you provide.  And even if they don’t ask, if you are friends with the local bank teller, what’s to say they would not just mention your name when they find a new business owner in front of them that might benefit from your services?

Do not let your relationship with these people be one sided.  Find out details about the services they provide, and refer them to your clients as well.  A good give and take relationship can be beneficial for both parties.  You should be able to get a good idea fairly quickly as to whether your new contact will refer people to you.  If they do not fit the bill, remove them from your list and approach another in that field.  When you get ten solid referral partners- again it’s a partner because its give and take- then you have suddenly built your referral bubble to include 100 solid professionals.

With a little work and some creative thinking you can quickly build your network, and do so much faster than you could have built a lasting relationship with 100 clients that will refer you to their colleagues.

In today’s economic climate companies are paying very close attention to their bottom line.  Budget cuts are being made across the board, and marketing budgets are no exception.  The nature of marketing can be compared to gambling in some regards, especially when you consider traditional means of advertising such as television, radio and print ads.  The stakes are high, and its really luck of the draw as to the results you see, depending on many factors.  Because traditional advertising has no concrete means of evaluation coupled with the ever growing popularity of non-traditional ways people gather information today many companies are putting their bets on marketing online.

One of the big advantages to online marketing is that you can track your results in real-time.  Online analytics allow companies to monitor their marketing campaigns and see details as to where traffic is sourcing from and see how that traffic converts to bottom line profits.  While there are ways to track traditional marketing, none of those options are real time and they generally give only a vague overview of the results after the campaign has been running for a period of time.  If the campaign is unsuccessful, the funding for that campaign is a loss with little hope of turning it around again.

The great thing about this is that it allows the flexibility to make changes to a campaign if the results are not favorable.  With real time results available, a company can monitor and analyze at each step of the campaign.  If the results at any point are unsatisfactory changes to keywords, advertising outlets and the like can be made at a moments notice.  Likewise if the campaign yields no results in the early stages, the entire campaign can be stopped and a new approach taken with little financial loss.

Another asset to online marketing is the ability to target the exact demographic you want to see your campaign.  Thanks to the vast variety available online, you can easily find ways to reach specific age groups, genders, income levels, education levels and occupations.

The types of advertising you can accomplish online is all encompassing. Commercial like videos, blogs, audio, email, social media and newsletters can all be accomplished for a fraction of the price it would take to get those same messages out over radio, television and print.

The best aspect of online marketing is the ability to have instant conversion.  In the traditional forms of advertising a potential customer would have to see or hear your advertisement and remember to look you up when they had time.  More often than not, unless you were advertising something the consumer just could not live without the idea to look you up was quickly forgotten.  With online marketing the consumer has the ability to instantly click for more details, and often will turn into a customer on the spot by making a purchase.

All in all, when marketing funding is limited, it is a much safer bet to place your money where your next customer is sure to be found.  Online marketing provides a much faster impact to your bottom line than any form of traditional advertising can offer.