In today's economy, small businesses everywhere are looking at ways to cut costs. Unfortunately, budgets are often the first to get slashed. For many that means cutting programs, cutting spending, cutting staff in order to make it through the economic downturn. But marketing in a downturned economy isn't about marketing LESS, it's about marketing smarter. Lets take a look at some techniques for marketing more efficiently and effectively, particularly on a tight budget.
Are you advertising in the Yellow Pages? Are you proud of that beautiful half page ad that you've probably spent upwards of $20,000.00 on for the year? Congratulations, you're keeping Sensis (here in Australia) alive.
Now ask yourself, when was the last time you went to the yellow pages to look something up? For me, I know that the last two times we've had them delivered they just sit in the plastic wrapping. Maybe 'll find a use for them someday.
Personally, when I need to look something up I "Google It". Goggle has the largest share of the search market so much so that the term "Google It" is commonplace. This is a great opportunity for small businesses to be found locally for free.
Free Advertising and Marketing:
Free is good, especially in advertising and marketing. Here's a couple things that you can do today to help save money and increase your business exposure. In the coming weeks I'll be adding how to's for each of these topics.
List Your Small Business in Google Local
This is a no brainer. You can list your business and it will show up in search results and also in the local/maps section. You can do this today, even if you don't have a website.
Get Free Listings with Organic Search Results
When you perform a search in Google or any other search engine you receive two types of results. Free and Paid. The advertisements on the very top of the page and in the right hand column are sponsored or paid results. The ones in the middle are pages that Google considers relevant to your search.
How do you get your small business to show in the Google Results?
The process is called Search Engine Optimisation or SEO. Basically, you are making your website relevant to what your potential customer is searching for.
There is no guarantee that your site will show up in the first position all the time for every word related to your business. But there is a process that you can start today to help get your Google ranks up.
- Develop a keyword strategy to target the right searchers
- Build a well-structured web site
- Create good content and perform basic “on page” optimisation
- Promote your site to get links from the rest of the web (Note: You should not buy links)
In the coming weeks we'll provide how to's and hints and tips to improve your natural or organic search listings.