When someone searches for a keyword phrase that’s related to your business, for example “auto mechanics in New York” the first page of results on Google shows only 10 results. There are usually hundreds or even thousands of pages of results for any given keyword. Anyone can show up on the top page of Google, by paying a hefty fee PER click to be there. This can cost a fortune and cause a lot of headaches if you don’t know what you’re doing. SEO on the other hand is usually referred to as “Organic SEO” or “Organic Search Engine Optimization.” This means that you are making it so that your website shows up in the natural search results that are on the left side of the page when you do a Google search (the paid ads show up on the right side).

By landing your website a few organic search engine listings (on the first page or not), you are doing your business a GREAT service. This is perhaps one of the most valuable long term assets your business can have, because you will have a flow of traffic to your website, of people that are actually searching for what it is that you offer. And that is precisely why companies are paying thousands of dollars a month to search engine optimization specialists.

On the local level however, SEO services tend to be much cheaper than at the international corporate level, so they are affordable.

By having that organic listing, you will have “targeted” traffic coming to your site (people who are searching for your specific niche) and you will NOT be paying for every time someone clicks on your search engine listing! Your business will have more exposure on the internet, have a chance of competing with the rest and will survive well into the future… With your rankings going up every year hopefully!

Let’s assume you have a website. Did you know that if you’re not harvesting your visitor’s email addresses on the homepage, you can be missing out on thousands and thousands of dollars each year? By having a mechanism set up where your visitors enter their first name and email address in a little form on your homepage, you can harvest their email addresses with a simple autoresponder program. Over time, you will have thousands of subscribers on your list, and you can send them ALL an email at the same time whenever you’re having a sale or a promotion of any kind.

Internet marketers constantly say, “The money is in the list” and it couldn’t be any more true. By building a database of your customers’ email addresses, you can build a relationship with your clients, build customer loyalty, and best of all — keep in touch with them about upcoming sales, launches, promotions, etc. and everytime you send an email to your entire list you are likely to get a satisfactory response. Statistics show about a 2% conversion rate on average, meaning for every 100 people you email, you will make 2 sales, or 2 people will take advantage of your offer.

There is more than likely a person in your area who specializes in setting up autoresponders as well as other internet marketing services that can help take your business to the next level, or just get you more exposure online. Either way… Are you taking advantage of your biggest asset?

SEO is the process of optimizing your business’s website for the search engines, such as Google, Yahoo and MSN Search. Although it is said that you are optimizing it for the search engines… What you’re really doing is optimizing your site for the people who want to find it. Basically, when someone searches Google for a keyword related to your business, for example “restaurant in New York City” — You will want to show up within the first couple of pages of the search results, otherwise your competitors will be there and beat you to the punch!

There are two ways to show up within the first few pages of the search results, one way is to set up a PPC campaign, where you have to pay for each click that you get to your website — but this method can cost a fortune. Then, there is the increasingly popular “Organic SEO” method, where an SEO specialist uses the power of keywords, link building and other factors to optimize your website so that it shows up in the natural, “organic” search results. This is when your website gets indexed on Google for keyword related to your niche, only you aren’t paying for each click or for your position.

People strive to show up in the organic search results which are located on the left side of any search on Google, Yahoo, etc. The right side dsplays the “sponsored links” which are paid for, by running a Pay-Per-Click campaign with the search engine itself and paying hefty fees “per click” to show up on the first or second page.

This is extremely important for any business, being that having a long term listing on the top search engines can bring a significant amount of traffic and therefore potential customers every single day of the year. If you can, try to get a hold of a local SEO expert in your area and see if they can give you a basic consultation or recommendation as to what you should/could do with your website to make it more search engine friendly… It will pay off, trust me!

To take your business online, all you need is a simple website with a homepage, some information about your business and what separates you from your competitors. Once you have a simple, but professional looking website up and running you will also need to promote it.

There are several ways to promote your website and the most important and popular thing to focus on is your search engine rankings. What that means is how well your site ranks on the search engine results when people search for keywords that are related to your market. This process is called SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and it’s one of the most important methods of advertising and exposing your business on the internet.

You can also get involved with article marketing, social networking, link swapping, link building, on site optimization, pay per click advertising, or any one of the many internet marketing methods out there. By doing this your business will be exposed to hundreds if not THOUSANDS of new potential leads on a daily or monthly basis which can rocket launch your business into the next level of success.

Is your business online?

As a business owner, you most likely do not have the time to learn how to create websites, write and understand computer code, optimize your website for the search engines, get involved in social networking (MySpace, Facebook, etc.), utilize article marketing, set up a Pay Per Click campaign or do anything related to internet marketing! This stuff can be completely confusing, like Chinese to you, but it still needs to be done. It really can’t be ignored.

If you want your business to thrive in modern times, it is crucial that you look into getting an individual or a company to handle your internet marketing campaign, or at very least give you a consultation on as to what you need to do to get more exposure on the internet. It will not only make a substantial difference in your profits, but it will secure the future of your business.

A typical pattern I see in many business owners is that they fail to realize that once they acquire a new customer, or someone has expressed an interest in their company, how important it is to strengthen that relationship. And the common way you can strengthen this relationship is by simply following up with them. Following-up is equally important to both new and existing customers (and doing it right) can help you boost your bottom line very quickly.

Follow Up With Prospective Customers

Most of my clients find that it is not easy to close a sale on the very first attempt. In fact, even the statistics in direct mail marketing show that response rates increase dramatically the more direct mail pieces you send to them.

Although your customer may not buy into your salesperson’s first attempt to close them, this does not mean that the prospective client is not interested in buying your product or service. Could it be that they just require more time in order to make the purchasing decision? Could it be that they just require more time and/or just have some more questions regarding your product or service? In fact, I feel definitely recommend that you contact them after your initial meeting because it will show that you are genuinely interested in serving their interests and satisfying their needs (and not just wanting to gain access to their pocket book).

During the follow-up process, you can take advantage of the opportunity and explain to your customers in depth how your product or service can prove to be beneficial to them. An effective follow-up strategy provides you with a second opportunity to make the sale.

Follow Up With Existing Customers

I remember one time I was talking to a business owner and I asked him this simple question: “what marketing are you doing to your past and loyal customers?” And I’ll never get the look he gave me. “What do you mean marketing to my existing customers”, he said. You see, most businesses do not have a system in place to market to their existing clientele.

Acquiring a new customer is definitely more difficult than retaining existing ones. Think about it…..an existing customer has already said (by their actions) that they want and like your product. So when it comes to your current customers, you should definitely treat them as pure gold and put a strong emphasis on marketing to them. In fact, I would recommend you start a VIP Status to some of your long time customers. This will definitely show that you care and value their consistent business. The hard truth is that if you don’t value your existing customers and do what’s necessary to keep them, your competitors will be only too happy to relieve you of the responsibility.

By following up with your past customers, it only proves to them that their business is important to you. Let me ask you another question: Do you like when people take the time out of their day to recognize and appreciate you for the things you have done for them? If you are like the average person….the answer to this is “of course you do”. When following up with your customers, make sure that they know that you want them to be satisfied with the service that they are receiving from your business. By doing this, you not only increase your chances of retaining them, but the probability that they will refer your business to others (in the future) also increases as well.

Reasons prospects or customers may not buy from you:

1. They may not be ready to make a decision.
2. They may have more pressing things on their minds.
3. They may have more questions about your product/service.
4. Two or three of your competitors are actively trying to sway your customer to purchase from them.

By following up repeatedly, you will have a “dramatic advantage” over your competitors, since few of them will follow up more than once. When your prospects are ready to buy, which could be one week from now, or nine months from now, you will have a better chance of getting the sale if you are uppermost in their minds. You can only do that by consistently following up.

One of the best ways I have found to automate your marketing is through the use of auto-responders. An auto-responder is a system that automatically sends out “preset email messages and promotions” to your client list who has bought from you in the past, current customers, or opted in to your email list to get something for FREE.

These emails can be text based in nature or short little videos which ad more of an entertainment experience.

Just imagine pre-typing a well thought out email campaign (specifically for your customers) that was designed to educate and give back to your customers by giving them “special subscriber discounts”.  One of the many questions I get asked is….”Tony…do you mean to tell me I can “pre-program” my promotions and communications (to my customers) over a year in advance….and its all on autopilot?

To be honest…this is one of the true joys I personally get in consulting when I see my client’s eyes light up like Christmas Trees when they picture how they can implement this marketing strategy in their business. The next question is usually “Tony, can I implement this in my business”.  I always respond with an astounding “yes”… just let me know and when you want to get started.

If you’re doubting the legitimacy of email marketing’s current and future power, let me share some cutting-edge marketing stats that some research firms have found:

1. “More than one-third said they checked throughout the day.” - AOL/Beta Research Corporation (June 2008)
2. “More than seven out of 10 employed respondents also said they checked their personal email at work – and nearly one-third said they did so more than three times a day. - AOL/Beta Research Corp.(June 2008)
3. “Nearly 70% of respondents said they had multiple email accounts. – AOL/Beta Research Corporation(June 2008)
4. “75.8% said they are using more email than three years ago.” – Direct Marketing Association (2008)
5. “66% of those surveyed said they had made a purchase because of a marketing message received through email.” – ExactTarget, 2008 Channel Preference Survey (2008)
6. “ 2/3’s of US Internet users surveyed said email was their preferred channel for written communications between friends. – ExactTarget, 2008 Channel Preference Survey (2008)
7. “67% of respondents prefer email as a communications channel over other online vehicles and 65 percent believe this will continue to be the case in five years. “- Habeas (2008)

Can you start to see how you can gain an advantage against your completion? Do you think they even know this technology is even available…not unless they meet someone like me of course.

Can you see how this technology can make your business a lot of money by sending them promotions all on auto-pilot?

However, just like a diet program, you can exercise all you want but if you don’t have the right diet to go along with the exercise— losing weight is extremely difficult. Making money with your marketing is no different…. you need a right balance between Offline & Online Marketing — otherwise you will plateau with your business profits. In when I was in the real estate industry. Most of your good real estate guru’s have a great balance between selling their programs offline (in seminars) as well as online (in teleseminars and website shopping carts).

In case you didn’t know, online marketing purchase behavior is continuing to increase at a rapid rate around the world. Here are some startling statistics by some major research companies:

Nearly half (49%) of shoppers intend to do their holiday gift buying online (versus in-store), and 72% are planning to research products online prior to purchasing (vs. 65% in 2007). (“Mindset of the Multi-Channel Shopper Holiday Survey,” e-tailing group, October 2008).

According to eBit, for this year, it is expected that Brazilian online consumers will spend about BRL 8.5 billion (US $5.9 billion). The numbers focus only on B2C (Business-to-Consuner).

Online marketing research firm comScore just released new numbers that reveal U.S. online spending during the 2007 holiday season (Nov. and Dec.) exceeded $29 billion, a 19.1 percent increase over 2006’s holiday sales (1/10/08).

Overall, eCommerce sales in Asia will grow at about a 23.4 percent annual rate, reaching over $168 billion in less than three years from now, according to eMarketer (1/16/08).

Are you starting to get just a “glimpse” of the future of the internet? Do you think your competition maybe strategizing how to strategically get some of your local clients to come to their establishment instead of yours? And in my opinion most local small business owners haven’t even begun to tap into the wealth of marketing their business online.

That as a foundation, I’ve also witnessed this behavioral pattern in a lot of my small business owner clientele.  They get into trouble “doing” the wrong marketing activities.  Specifically, marketing activities that were programmed into them since birth.  Most people think…well we need to market the business so let’s put $1,000 per month into Radio, Yellow Pages, or Newspaper Advertising (like most do) and they see if it generates any results.  Now don’t get me wrong, I’m all for testing to see if different marketing may work.  However, the majority of business owners (I run into) follow the pattern of just seeing what marketing sticks in traditional popular marketing channels.  But that sad thing that I see is this type of business owner does not have any concrete basis (or statistics) for it.  If you want to “do” the right marketing activities the right way, you must start with a good marketing plan.

Definition of a marketing plan is as follows:

A marketing plan is a written document that is an organized set of activities that is designed to promote your product, service and/or company.  A marketing plan is designed to increase customers and company profits and usually “planned out” between one and five years in the future.

CAUTION ALERT: Solid marketing strategy is “the foundation” of a well-written marketing plan.

While a marketing plan contains a list of actions, a marketing plan ( without a sound strategic foundation) is of very little use to businesses.

Elements of a good marketing plan

Wisdom: “focus your efforts on a few BIG things”

1. Conduct quality research as the foundation to build your marketing plan
2. Business & Marketing Mission Statements (they should be different but connected)
3. Determine specific goals and time frames to reach these goals
4. Determine what your effective “marketing channels” are
5. Determine your marketing budget (do steps 1-3 first)
6. Delegate responsibility to carry out each segment of your plan
7. Measure the effectiveness of your marketing campaign and re-valuate