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Archive for January 2011

Choosing Local Online Marketing Consultants

January 30th, 2011 by bstoller

Choosing Local Online Marketing Consultants – Key Questions

Local online marketing consultants are quickly becoming vitally important for small business owners.  Company owners and marketing managers are scrambling to figure out what they need to do as the shift goes from traditional Google Places for Local Businessadvertising methods to those that offer a tremendous exposure for a much smaller amount of investment.

What should you look for when trying to decide who to use as your local online marketing consultant?

Here are some key areas that you want to know about your potential consultant:

1) Have they actually owned a business or businesses?

Business owners all know the difficulties of owning and running a business.  Whether you have 1 store or 10 locations, there are things that most people just don’t understand unless they have actually had experience as an owner.

2) Is your potential consultant really out to help you or simply sell you their services?

Facebook for BusinessWhile this may seem like a difficult question to get an answer, check out to see if the person has any testimonials posted on their website.   You can ask for referrals as well.  There are many “quick buck” consultants who want you to simply sign up for their directory and will offer very little help with your marketing strategy.  That’s ok if you simply want to be seen on a directory, but there may be better methods for your particular business.

3) Will your potential consultant provide ongoing consulting and strategy sessions?

Part of a good marketing plan is to have someone to bounce ideas off and to help stimulate ideas.   If you are simply hiring someone to set up a website and call that marketing, you are not doing your business or you any justice.  A good consultant will either participate in your strategy sessions and provide recommendations at least quarterly.   This is important because a good marketing plan must be able to adjust to an ever changing business environment.   A good marketing consultant will be able to keep you on track and is worth far more than the fees that they will charge.

4) Do you feel a “connection” – will you be able to communicate with your potential consultant?

This may seem obvious, but don’t underestimate the importance of being able to communicate with the person who is going to help you formulate an extremely important part of your business – marketing.

5) Will your consultant provide means to track your marketing efforts?Mobile Marketing

A good local online marketing consultant will set up and provide traffic reports, normally on a monthly basis, so results can be reviews and strategies modified when necessary.   This is important, as one of online marketing’s advantage is to be able to actually see results.

Choosing a local online marketing consultant is confusing because not very many business owners or advertising managers actually understand how the internet and social media works.   I hope that this will help you to understand that you don’t have to know everything – you just need to be able to choose someone who does.

Call us today at 866-856-5828 or visit us at www.DiscoveringProfits.com  if you want to discuss your business – we’re always happy to help.   One thing that we guarantee is that you WILL learn at least one good idea from our conversation.

Categories : Marketing Strategies
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Low Cost Marketing Idea for Small Business – Facebook

January 23rd, 2011 by bstoller

Need a marketing idea for small business?

Look no farther than Facebook. If your business is on a budget, then you should consider making either a fan page or a group for your business on Facebook. You may have heard of other businesses having success with a Facebook page and you want to experience this same success. There are many benefits to having your business on Facebook, but there are also some things you’ll need to avoid so you don’t experience any disadvantages.

Doing it Right Makes All the Difference

A poor Facebook page for your business is worse than not having one at all. So if you are thinking of making a Facebook page, make sure you do it right. Don’t just spend a few minutes on it by creating it, and then leaving it alone. You need to tend to it for at least a few days, and make sure that it provides a good experience to the user. If your business has a blog, you’ll want to set it up so that your blog posts go right to your Facebook page’s wall so that there will always be some new information for people to read. Update as much information as you can, including your business hours so that people know you’re a real entity and not some scammer with a Facebook page.

Facebook Business Page

If you notice in the picture above, it shows one of Nine Irish Brothers fans posting a “thank you” on their business page.   This is the ultimate and shows other customers that the business works very hard to keep their customers happy.  Engagement with the customers is key.

Getting to Know Your Customers is Critical

If you cater mostly to baby boomers they aren’t going to care too much that your business has its own Facebook page. It’s not going to make them want to do business with you any more or any less than they already do. They’ll likely find your site through other means than through Facebook. If you cater to pre-teens, teens, and twenty and thirty somethings you definitely need to have some presence on Facebook. If you don’t, you run the risk of looking out of touch with your core market.  While this trend is changing, if you cater to a target market over 60, you may not be as successful using Facebook – at least for now.

Encourage People to Visit Your Website

If you have a main website that you want be to use, you may find that they never make it there because they’re getting all of the information they need from your Facebook page. If you spent a lot of time and money to make your website, and you want people to use it and appreciate it, then you might want to limit how much you put on your Facebook page and just use it as a teaser to get people to click through to your website. Either way, it’s still one extra step they have to take to get to your website, and many people might not bother to click through.   One way to get people to your website from Facebook is to provide a link to your site that is attached to your posts or pictures.   If you have an interesting post and it links to your website, you have effectively used Facebook to drive traffic to your website.

There’s not too many disadvantages to having a Facebook page, as long as you follow the advice given here and do it the right way. The only thing it can do is potentially give you more visitors, and it provides another avenue for people to get to know more about you and your business.

If you are like most business owners – you don’t necessarily have the time to devote to gaining this knowledge or you may not have the time to do posts and respond to questions and comments.   Feel free to call us and we’ll be glad to either help train you or be your outsourcing to handle your social media for you.

Categories : Marketing Strategies
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Marketing Idea for Small Business

January 20th, 2011 by bstoller

Need a marketing idea for small business?

Look no farther than Facebook. If your business is on a budget, then you should consider making either a fan page or a group for your business on Facebook. You may have heard of other businesses having success with a Facebook page and you want to experience this same success. There are many benefits to having your business on Facebook, but there are also some things you’ll need to avoid so you don’t experience any disadvantages.

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Do It Right – Or Else marketing plan

A poor Facebook page for your business is worse than not having one at all. So if you are thinking of making a Facebook page, make sure you do it right. Don’t just spend a few minutes on it by creating it, and then leaving it alone. You need to tend to it for at least a few days, and make sure that it provides a good experience to the user. If you business has a blog, you’ll want to set it up so that your blog posts go right to your Facebook page’s wall so that there will always be some new information for people to read. Update as much information as you can, including your business hours so that people know you’re a real entity and not some scammer with a Facebook page.

Know Your Target Customers

If you cater mostly to baby boomers they aren’t going to care too much that your business has its own Facebook page. It’s not going to make them want to do business with you any more or any less than they already do. They’ll likely find your site through other means than through Facebook. If you cater to pre-teens, teens, and twenty and thirty somethings you definitely need to have some presence on Facebook. If you don’t, you run the risk of looking out of touch with your core market.

Encourage People to Visit Your Website

If you have a main website that you want be to use, you may find that they never make it there because they’re getting all of the information they need from your Facebook page. If you spent a lot of time and money to make your website, and you want people to use it and appreciate it, then you might want to limit how much you put on your Facebook page and just use it as a teaser to get people to click through to your website. Either way, it’s still one extra step they have to take to get to your website, and many people might not bother to click through.

There’s not too many disadvantages to having a Facebook page, as long as you follow the advice given here and do it the right way. The only thing it can do is potentially give you more visitors, and it provides another avenue for people to get to know more about you and your business.

Categories : Marketing Strategies
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Social Media Marketing for Small Business – Stumble Upon

January 10th, 2011 by bstoller

Business Now Have Another Tool to Keep in Mind for Social Media Marketing for Their Small Business – Stumble Upon

Stumble Upon isn’t as famous as their Giant friend, Facebook.   However, statistics show that if you are going to use social media to help your business grow, you may want to consider utilizing StumbleUpon.

Here’s a great article that we found that gives you some statistics that may surprise you!!!

Facebook For Social Media Traffic Generation

I’ve blogged about StumbleUpon before, and here they are again making another splash by passing up Facebook as the top Social Media Traffic Generator again.  I know it can be somewhat un-targeted traffic, but in this quantity, it’s worth noting.

How can a site with 12 million users send more traffic than a site with 600 million users? When your site is specifically designed to do nothing but send traffic. StumbleUpon may be small compared to sites like Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace, but it sends the most social media traffic around the web according to the latest numbers by StatCounter.

StumbleUpon CEO Garrett Camp is excited about it, announcing it to the world via Twitter at 1am EST this morning:

StumbleUpon is one of the only companies that is designed to keep you away from their own website. By its very nature, StumbleUpon takes you everywhere else based upon your interests, stumbling habits, friends, and what’s hot in the Internet. Using an installed Toolbar or a browser frame, users “stumble” websites, stories, videos, and pictures, not knowing where they’ll be going next.

Categories : Social Media Marketing
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Marketing Fundamentals for Small Businesses – Your Competitive Advantage

January 10th, 2011 by bstoller

Marketing fundamentals for a small business is no different than a fortune 500 company

One of the most critical parts of any marketing plan is to determine your company’s competitive advantage.   Many small business owners simply take the approach of running an ad in the newspaper, radio, or television that merely tells of an upcoming sale or what they have to offer.   This is one of the main reasons that most marketing campaigns simply are a waste of your money with very little results.

If you are going to advertise you really need to know where you stand in relation to your competitors.   If one of your competitors is selling cars much cheaper than you are, you are not going to be very successful advertising that you are the cheapest in town!    Your customers will discover that you are not the cheapest and will probably become more loyal to your competition.

On the other hand, if your competitor sells the same product (cars) cheaper, but makes people “special order” to get the car they want, you now have a competitive advantage.    Your dealership has a much larger selection and you carry the various colors that someone can actually drive one home that day without having to wait a week to get the car in.   Your people are much better trained and are much more professional than the other guy.

So the real question is, “Why would you advertise price when your competitive advantages revolve around the knowledgeable staff and your wide variety of inventory?”

The business should be advertising their strengths in relation to their competitor.    Consumers are not dumb.   In fact, consumers are now using much more information to make purchasing decisions than ever before.   They may know more about the car that they want than the salesperson!

Another reason to advertise what you are good at is that consumers today are making reviews on everything.   For example, if your dealership advertises that they are the lowest price anywhere but your competitor is always $50/month cheaper on the same vehicles, you are probably going to have some reviews that state customers’ dissatisfaction with your promise to them.    On the other hand, if you advertise that you have the most professional, knowledgeable helpers with the best selection of vehicles (and it’s true), you will probably receive some good reviews from satisfied customers.

With the explosion of Facebook, more and more people are making comments on everything.    You simply must know where you stand in the marketplace and advertise your strengths.   If you advertise your competitive advantage, you may actually start getting some help from all the Facebook users who will be telling their friends how happy they are!

So to summarize – do some digging.   Ask some people what comes to mind when they think of your business.   Ask some current customers and also ask your employees.   You may be surprised what you find out.   Once you find your competitive advantage, make sure you key your advertising/marketing message around it – you will certainly be more successful!

If you want a free guide to help you with this process, simply click here.

Categories : marketing fundamentals
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Facebook Marketing for Small Business – Are You Being Left Behind?

January 6th, 2011 by bstoller

Facebook marketing for most small business is extremely intimidating.   There’s a lot of reasons, but it mainly comes down to a couple

1)   Fear of taking a lot of time

2)  Don’t understand how the process works

In the “good old days” a business simply ran a few newspaper display ads, maybe did some radio spots, and if they really wanted to go crazy, they would do a local television commercial.    While many are still options, most small businesses simply don’t have the cash flow they once had.   It’s becoming increasingly difficult to get the word out and be able to afford it.

Facebook has Changed the Rules

Facebook now has over 500 million (yes million) users and is those users are joining 10 million pages EACH DAY!   People are now asking their “friends” for suggestions on automobiles, restaurants, jewelry, golf – the list goes on and on.   People no longer get the majority of their news from tv, radio and newspaper – the news comes to them via Facebook and other sources such as Twitter.

For those business wanting to embrace this new phenomenon, great reward await.   There is an old say that “People Hate to be Sold, but they Love to Buy!”.    Social media is perfect.   If a business engages with current and potential customers and builds a one on one relationship, those people will build up a trust and loyalty.   Those people will then help spread the word about your business (viral) and in a little bit of time your business sales start to increase.

How Can Your Business Not Get Left Behind?

A few years ago, top marketers suggested that every business have a blog.   While this is still a given, Facebook operates similar to a blog – on steroids!

Each Facebook user has an average of 138 friends (that number continues to climb).   When someone joins your business fan page, you now reach into their friend network.   All their friends will see that they have joined and your word spreads like fire.  When all those “friends” see that your new fan has joined your site, it’s like and endorsement and free advertising.  What’s even better is that your link gets posted directly their info tab in their profile.

Blogs are still a very important part of business marketing, but they simply can’t match the muscle that Facebook has.  Blogs don’t have any possibility of the viral nature unless you link it to Facebook and Twitter (which we recommend you do).

Make sure you stop back often to get more tips on Facebook and learn “how to” use Facebook for your business.   Better yet – go to our Facebook page and you’ll see what we mean.    Information on how to join our Facebook community is just to the right or click on the link below.

Click here to go to Discovering Profits Fan Page and become a Fan!!!

Categories : Facebook Marketing
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Marketing Strategies for Small Business – Make Me Feel Important

January 4th, 2011 by bstoller

Marketing strategies for small business isn’t always about how much advertising you do or how much budget you have to work with. It’s all about the attitude you take when communicating to your customers and potential customers.Smiling Girl

Read this phrase and remember it.

“Make Me Feel Important”

One of the basic principles of winning customers away from your competition is to make them feel important, needed, and appreciated.  Every time you see a customer or potential customer, think of them having a sign around their neck that reads that magical phrase – “Make Me Feel Important”.

John, a business owner with a local pizza store, understands this principle very well.   One of the techniques that he uses to create employee loyalty is to put each team member on a pedestal.   He understands what each one is good at and he “brags” about each worker in front of his customers telling them how good his manager is, for example.

John also makes his customers feel important by giving them special attention when they are in his restaurant.   He continually spends a little time getting to know each customer as they come to his store.   By spending this time with them, they feel that John has a genuine concern about them personally and they reward him be visiting his restaurant frequently and often bring their friends, who they normally will introduce to John.

Making customers feel important is a simple, no cost, marketing strategy for all small businesses.   Whether this comes from the owner, manager or all those employees (who also feel important), it is a strategy that costs nothing and gives back tremendously in the form of additional business and customer loyalty.



Categories : No Cost Marketing Ideas
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