Friday, April 15, 2011

business online; video on attracting customers



The catch phrase nowadays seems to be take your business online. Why all the hype about doing business online? Surely my website is sufficient to have a presence for my business online?
Well, yes and no! A website alone is like a business card - you'll have to give someone the physical address to find your business online. However by optimising your website so that search engines such as Google can find your business online, anyone across the Globe will find you...
Imagine people visiting your business online: instantly be accessed by 100 Mio visitors! What's even better with the correct optimisation you can easily have hundreds of qualified visitors everyday - visitors that are walking through the doors of your business online; picking up your product and wanting to make a purchase.
This is what you can expect when you take your business online! Attracting qualified buyers to visit your business online. It's not expensive and the Return On Investment for your marketing can be tracked. So no flyers for your online business profile... you only spend money on people that actually do want your product or service.
The secret to taking your business online is to satisfy a need; whether it be a service or a product. Hard selling doesn't work when you do business online. People want to be entertained while you satisfy their needs at the same time.
When creating your online business remember that you have an incredibly powerful tool to market your business online - you can reach your customers everyday; a few times a day if you choose! Imagine how quickly you could grow your online business with a few hundred people following you everyday? How much would you spend on an advertisement, which you couldn't change everyday?
Your online business is best viewed as an extension of your bricks and mortar establishment. You can use your online business to reach a much greater number of qualified buyers.
By communicating what's happening in you bricks and mortar business through your online business your customers get to trust you. Your regular communication through your online business builds trust and establishes you as an authority: Someone whose opinion can be relied upon - like the corner grocer of old!
One point here - when we talk of taking your business online, it no longer confines the business to Google searches and traditional websites: No now to really get your business cracking online you Have to use social media. A survey of small business report that 68% report having made one or more sales directly from Facebook traffic.
So in summary: To best promote your business you need to harness all your resources. Offline advertising needs to drive traffic to your site, while your online presence needs to harnees your website, Blog, Social media and forums to bolster your business online.
In the video you have some tips on how to get visitors to your online business on a daily basis. You don't need to be an expert in the field to take your business online, in actual fact to really optimise your business online takes a lot of experience and time.
That's where I can help you. I've paid the school fees; spent the 18hour days learning the techniques. I can either tain you and mentor you to take your business online, or I can do it for you. I can also take your business online and teach you how to do the daily update tasks that really will make your business flourish online.
Give me a ring on +27 (0) 83 304 2007 and we can discuss the best possible way to take your business online. Or you can mail me from the "email me" box on the left. Feel free to leave a comment or question on taking your business online.
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Tuesday, April 5, 2011

small business plan research

Correct small business plan research is vital to the long-term survival of any small business. The more comprehensive the small business plan research, the more accurate the decision making will be.
Does this mean you need to pay someone to do your small business plan research? Well that depends on the complexity involved in the small business plan research. I suggest you do your own initial research for your small business plan. With a bit of research into the topic you can probably come up with a very comprehensive small business plan. At least this research will give you a good understanding as to what information you need to research, should you have to pay someone to research your small business plan.
Crucial to any small business plan is market research. I'm going to show you a free yet innovative method to determine your market potential for your small business.
In order to use this method to research your small business plan, you first need to sign up for a Gmail account. Once you have this Google “Adwords signup”. Get yourself an Adwords account.
Once you've signed up go to Adwords/ reporting and tools/Keyword tool. If you want the less powerful version, just Google “Google keyword tool” and start to use - both are free.
Now under “Find keywords” type in the word or phrase you want for your small business plan research. If you intend to make party chocolates in your small business, type in the phrase. Next part of the research is to select your country under the “advanced options”. Hit search and Google will tell you how many times people have searched on this term (As well as suggesting other searches). This is excellent information for your small business plan research, as it will give you an indication of how many times people are likely to search the web for your small business.
If you're happy that there seems to be enough business in this niche, the next step in you small business plan research is to see how big a need you're satisfying. Go to Google and search on the same term you entered previously but add "forums" to this. Now your small business plan research will take you to various forums where people are discussing this product or service. You may have to do a bit of research to find a good forum on your small business. Read the forums and see what questions are being asked. The research you're doing for your small business plan here, is to see if you can identify a need that you can satisfy.
Another tool you could use to do your small business plan market research, is to Google the keyword you think people would use. Have a look to see which companies appear on the first page. Have a look at their websites to gauge your small business compared to what they're offering.
All the time you're doing this small business plan research, bear in mind you're looking to differentiate your small business.
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