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In this issue:
Food For Thought
On-line Marketing Tips For Your Small Business
Business Books
Should Your Business Be Online?
Time is our most valuable asset, yet we tend to waste it, kill it, and spend it rather than invest it.
Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money, but you can't get more time.
Goals. There's no telling what you can do when you get inspired by them. There's no telling what you can do when you believe in them. There's no telling what will happen when you act upon them.
This is the second in a series of articles on Small Business Marketing Strategies. Ideas for marketing your business on a shoestring budget. Thanks to Terri Gray with Gray's Internet Consulting for this article.
There are a number of ways to help create more traffic to your website. Here we are going to concentrate on some of the more popular "low cost/no cost" methods.
#1 Your website location is very important. The Internet is huge and you don't want your website to be a small deserted island in the middle of an ocean.
If you have a small business or a small website, you may want to consider locating in an area that helps bring in traffic. This can be a mall, or a website that provides additional marketing services for related businesses. For examples of the latter option, visit: http://www.HomeImages.com or http://www.OSWeb.com. Both of these sites are new "cooperative marketing websites".
HomeImages.com is building an information library targeted to Homeowners. OSWeb.com is building an information library geared towards Outdoor Sports Enthusiasts. By the site creating content that will be continually changing and the fact that all the businesses listed there will link to other areas of the site, it creates additional traffic for a small business that they might not have gotten other wise.
By hosting with a larger site like that, you are getting a lot of additional advantages for a very nominal cost - For example: it's a larger target for the search engines, all the businesses listed there will be promoting the site, the site will be providing additional promotion, frequent content changes will keep prospects coming back, inexpensive marketing tool, links to your site will be provided from a number of related areas on the main site menu.
#2 Use newsgroups and mailing lists as a way to show your expertise in your area and to generate leads. While it is generally not appropriate to post ads to newsgroups or mailing lists, it is ok to use a signature, which describes your business and points to your website. By participating in newsgroups and mailing lists, you get your name and URL distributed to a great number of people interested in your field. For more information on using Newsgroups, visit: http://www.danger.com/advo.html - Advertising on Usenet - How to do it & how not to do it.
#3 Make use of message boards. Do a search on the Internet for websites that provide information and message boards/bulletin boards that are of interest to your target market. Review the posts and see if there are any questions you can answer or helpful information you can provide. Again, do not post ads, but do leave your e-mail address and URL with your response and/or tips.
#4 List your business with as many search engines and directories as you can find. Start with: Broadcaster at http://www.broadcaster.co.uk/ You should personally list your site with Yahoo.
#5 You do not always want to provide all of the information on your Web site that a potential customer might be interested in. If you require a visitor to contact you (or an autoresponder) to get certain information, you can collect the e-mail addresses of people who have a serious level of interest. You can use these e-mail addresses to create a mailing list and then send out notices to these prospects of new information added to the site or current special offers. (You can e-mail us at: grays@homeimages.com for more information on autoresponders.)
#6 Utilize E-zines, or publications which are available electronically. You can use these e-zines in several ways to help your marketing. Go to http://www.meer.net/~johnl/e-zine-list/. Locate e-zines relevant to your business by browsing through the keywords.
Find specific e-zines, looking for information helpful to your industry. Also search for publications that your target market may be interested in. If you find any e-zines which provide valuable information, subscribe to them.
Consider contributing articles any of the e-zine which accept contributions. Make sure your topic will be of interest to their readers and that you will be given credit for your contribution.
#7 Trade links with other related businesses. And post your URL in any guestbooks or free link sites that you run in to on the Internet.
#8 Place FREE classified ads any where you can. Visit: http://www.exposureusa.com for a list of over 100 sites with free or low cost advertising.
#9 Provide interesting content at your website and change it continually to keep people coming back. Also consider contributing your articles to other sites that market to your same target market. Be sure to include a link to your website and other contact inforamtion in it.
#10 Offer something FREE at your website. Everyone on the Internet is looking for something free. If you have a product or service that you can provide a trial or sample for free then do it. It is similar to the shareware concept. Don't give them all the benefits or services, just a sample with the full featured product/service provided after payment.
For our FREE report on "The Seven Day Guide to Promoting Your Website" , e-mail our autoresponder at: specials@homeimages.com and enter the phrase - get specials - in the body of your message. Also, visit our website at: http://www.homeimages.com/gray for a FREE monthly Marketing Newsletter, Tips and other FREE reports.
Terri Gray is an Internet and Small Business Consultant. She provides Web Design Hosting, Promotion and Internet Training Services. She may be contacted at: grays@homeimages.com or (512) 339-0648 You can also visit her website at: http://www.homeimages.com/gray
This report may be freely distributed, provided all information remains completely intact and is reproduced in its entirety.
Visit the NEW Small Business Bookstore - You'll find great information for starting your home-based business, plus marketing tips, motivational and self-improvement books and information on how to write effective sales letters. Check out the some of the tools available to help you succeed!
Go To: Should Your Company Be Online?
Next Issue: More Small Business Marketing Strategies On Shoestring Budgets!! Plus writing ads that pull.
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