Small Business Marketing Focus is Online

November 26, 2008

By Greg Magnus

When times get tough, the tough get smart. A recent article from the “Independent Street” section of the Wall Street Journal pointed out the trends – online marketing is no longer a second thought for small business owners.

According to the article, hard economic times are forcing more small businesses to become smarter marketers. Is it time to evaluate your marketing strategy and budget for online marketing? Marketing online is no longer a stale and static website, which are dinosaurs in today’s competitive environment. To compete for business, consider the trends and your competitions use of high ROI online tactics.

Kelsey Group, a Princeton, N.J., local search and directory research firm, estimates that the percentage of small and midsize home- and trade-services businesses with websites will increase to 60% by 2010, up from just 33% today.

When the housing market was red-hot there was no incentive for home-services businesses, such as painters, home-repair shops and landscapers, to worry about marketing online; the phone was ringing off the hook. But now many are struggling and need to be more strategic, which means a budget for the use of cost-effective online marketing tools readily available today.

For a complete list of online marketing tools small business owners should consider, please contact us and we’ll point you in the right direction. To name a few:

  • Use a content management system to run your website, as opposed to a static website that is nothing more than a glorified brochure;
  • Focus on local search engine optimization strategies (local SEO);
  • Get your company in the online directory listings (start with the free listings),
  • Consider email marketing as well as online invoicing, and related high ROI strategies.

Small business owners also benefit from paying attention to social networks (LinkedIn, Plaxo, Facebook, etc.) as well as reviews on consumer referral sites (Angie’s List, ServiceMagic and a host of others). Certain sites can result in a regular stream of referrals, which are qualified leads coming directly from business colleagues, friends and family members.

[Hat tip to the Greater Richmond Chamber Business Intelligence Report for pointing it out the WSJ article in their current business newsletter.]

Posted by Greg Magnus | Filed Under AIM Custom Media news 

Comments

4 Responses to “Small Business Marketing Focus is Online”

  1. Rolv Heggenhougen on November 26th, 2008 3:09 pm

    Companies seem to ignore the single largest online branding/advertising venue available: their own regular external emails. Why not use these emails to market the senders company?

    You have a website.
    You send emails.

    Why not multiply your sales-staff by “wrapping” the regular email in an interactive letterhead?

    No other marketing or advertising medium is as targeted as an email between people that know each other (as opposed to mass emails). These emails are always read and typically kept.

  2. admin on November 28th, 2008 11:03 am

    Rolv,

    Although your comment is border-line SPAM for your company, I agree with the concept and I approved the comment (without the obvious promotional link).

    We do agree, however, that all emails sent to business colleagues and customers should include the appropriate signature lines and company info. If you “wrap” or enhance the email template with branded messages all the better. And, we encourage our clients to take advantage of the branding opportunity for their business.

    Also, we promote our clients in our email signature lines here at AIM Custom Media (ie., current projects with a link to their websites as well as the standard links to our company website). We succeed when our clients succeed.

  3. JD on December 20th, 2008 6:45 pm

    Shouldn’t an article like this be more careful to make the distinction between referral networks like Angie’s List and Service Magic? In my experience, the better ROI is from qualified leads who contact my company directly, which is what I get from the former since the consumers pay for membership and are usually ready to make a purchase decision. With Service Magic I’m paying $20-50 each for unqualified leads and I’m still forced to make sales calls and compete with other companies in what amounts to a bidding war. If I don’t get the contract I’m still paying for as many leads as they send to my mailbox.

  4. Greg Magnus on December 22nd, 2008 10:22 am

    Great point JD – thanks for the comment.
    To determine what referral network is best for your business, track the results and pay attention to your ROI – you are absolutely right.

    We recommend investing in your “own” referral network before investing in the service providers. There are several online tactics that generate leads from people you know. The best “qualified” leads generally do come from business colleagues, customers/clients, vendors, social networks, etc.


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