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Posts Tagged ‘Market’

In this article we want to go over local business advertising and using the search engines to get traffic to your company website. Marketing a small business on the Internet does not have to be difficult to do if you practice a few basic search engine optimization strategies.

1. First of all you need to know what keywords people are searching for your business online with. People are replacing the yellow pages with Internet searches to find specific things that they need.

For example, if you have an air conditioning company in Denver it is reasonable to expect that people will be searching keyword phrases such as “Denver air conditioning company”, “buy an air conditioner in Denver, Colorado”, “Denver air conditioning service”, and so on.

Chances are you already know what these words are if you are doing any type of pay per click advertising. The difference now is instead of purchasing it you are going to try to rank on the search engines for free traffic.

2. You want to create backlinks to your website for these targeted keyword phrases. One quick way to do that is to use article marketing.

You write articles offering useful information about things your prospects would be interested in. Then in the resource box of the article you hyperlink your targeted keyword phrase back to your website.

This is known as search engine bait and will help you rank on the organic searches for those targeted phrases. Once you know what keyword phrases people are searching for relating to your business this is very easy to do.

3. Whenever you have something newsworthy send out a press release. Again target your primary keyword phrases in that press release.

The key is to not make this sound like a sales letter. That is why you want to submit a press release when you have something new in your company to announce.

4. Video marketing is a big part of doing local business advertising. Because people now get information from videos online you want to show up for your targeted keyword phrases using as many videos as possible.

You Tube is owned by Google so it’s important that you have videos on their website. Article Video Robot is a good way to create videos from articles and place online.

You can also create videos of your own and it doesn’t take a real expensive camera to do that. Again provide useful information that people would be searching for using the simple strategy of targeting keyword phrases.

In summary these are 4 ways you can combine targeted keyword phrases and search engine optimization to promote your business online. This is a long term local business advertising tactic. It really can pay off as you start to rank high on search engines for the words people are searching for relating to your small business.

Is there demand for my product or service? Are my customers satisfied with our service? How can I generate more sales volume from my existing customers? How can I improve the quality of my product or service? If there is something that you would like to know about your business and industry, marketing research is the way to start researching for some answers. Marketing research comprises one of the most important and fascinating facets of marketing. We are going to focus on sharing some Internet resources that can help you to conduct online marketing research. “Marketing research is defined as the systematic and objective identification, collection, analysis, dissemination, and use of information for the purpose of assisting management in decision making related to the identification and solution of problems (and opportunities) in marketing.”(Malhotra, 2004)

There are many ways in which the Internet can be useful to marketing researchers. It can be used as a source of marketing research providers, a source of secondary data, a source for marketing research software, and a source for data gathering via focus groups, surveys, etc.”(Malhotra, 2004)

Why do Market Research?

-    It helps to understand current industry and market trends.
-    Provides information about target customers.
-    Identifies market and sales potential.
-    Keeps researchers objectives.
-    Becomes a framework for creating a marketing strategy.
-    Helps business owners to examine customer satisfaction.
-    Gives a close look at their competitors strengths and weaknesses.
-    Helps marketing managers create benchmarks for future improvement.

There is perhaps no single best way to search the Web, but we recommend the following steps:

1. Pre-Searching Analysis: Think about the topic or subject you want to explore on the Web. Ask yourself some of the following questions, what unique keywords are associated with the topic or subject? Are there any organizations or associations that might have information on the subject through their web sites?

In order to identify trends for your topic or subject, you are going to have to put together a key word set to run in the search engines.

2. Run your key word set in any of the search engines.

Recommended Search Engines

-    Google: http://www.google.com
-    Yahoo: http://www.yahoo.com
-    MSN: http://www.msn.com
-    Ask:  http://www.ask.com

For example, let’s supposed that you are searching for a Hispanic Business Directory where you can promote your business. “Hispanic Business Directory” is your key word set. You are going to open any of the search engines available in the market to find what you are researching for. Use the following variations to get better results:

“Hispanic Business Directory” – Specific search for what you are researching for.

“Hispanic Business Directory*” – Add the star symbol to research for every variation of the word.

“Hispanic Small Business Directory” – You can be as specific as you need to.

“Hispanic Business Directory*” and result* – Helps to find case studies if there are available in your topic or subject. 

Recommended Keyword Search Tools

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/

http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/search.html

http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/

3. Learn as you go and be open to vary your approach with everything that you are learning from your earlier findings. Follow leads that can take to what exactly you are researching for. If you need official data, we recommend you to visit the official web site of the USA government.

Government Sources

Visit http://www.firstgov.gov. This USA official site provides a gateway to all government sites. You can also visit the official sites for your county or city. They provide very relevant information, especially when you are trying to find demographic data.

4. Usually, the most relevant information is within the first three to five pages of Google or any of the other Search Engines. If you can’t find anything interesting within the first 3-5 pages of results, you need to improve the quality of your key word set in order to get more relevant results.

The following are a list of Online tools that you can use during your online marketing research:

On-line Market Research Sites, Services and Tools

- Questionpro: Offers survey great design templates and hosting, visit http://www.questionpro.com.

- Zoomerang: A great site to develop your own online survey, http://www.zoomerang.com.

- Vovici: Create professional-quality surveys with a comprehensive, wizard-driven process, http://www.vovici.com.

- Surveybuilder: Customizes online surveys and respondent retrieval, http://www.surveybuilder.com.

- Surveysystem: Sells the research tools or will host your online survey, http://www.surveysystem.com.

- Add-A-Form: Create a survey form or use an existing form, http://www.addaform.com.

- Quantcast: It’s a new media measurement service that enables advertisers to view audience reports for millions of sites and services to build their brands with confidence, http://www.quantcast.com.

- Busreslab: Online employee and customer satisfaction surveys, http://www.busreslab.com.

- Frost and Sullivan: Excellent industry specific market research reports, http://www.frost.com.

- GuideStar Research: Freebees and assistance with online surveys, http://www.guidestarco.com.

- ResearchInfo: Great source of information for market researchers, http://www.researchinfo.com.

Email list sources

- Emailresults: Permission based email providers, http://www.emailresults.com.

-    L-I-S-T: L.I.S.T. Inc. is a leading provider of B2B email lists, B2B mailing lists and B2B telemarketing lists, http://www.l-i-s-t.com.

If you need help from experts in the topic, we recommend you to visit:

Marketing Research Associations Online

AAPOR: American Association for Public Opinion Research (www.aapor.org)
AMA: American Marketing Association (www.marketingpower.com)
ARF: The Advertising Research Foundation (www.arfsite.org)
CASRO: The Council of American Survey Research Organizations (www.casro.org)
MRA: Marketing Research Association (www.mra-net.org)
QRCA: Qualitative Research Consultants Association (www.qrca.org)
RIC: Research Industry Coalition (www.researchindustry.org)
CMOR: Council for Marketing and Opinion Research (www.cmor.org)

Developing your Internet research skills is one of the skills that a lot of business owners should develop due to the important role that plays to understand your competitors and the market in general.

I hope you find some of these information useful.

Cheers to your success,

Jose Aburto

Blogging is an online local marketing promotion tool that can work for everyone even for those managing a local business and should be part of your small business internet marketing plans.

While blogging is the perfect medium for someone in a creative role, at first sight, it may be hard to imagine how a blog can help a local bricks and mortar business. Or why such a business would want to invest the time to create and keep posting to create a popular blog?

The answer is that a blog is such a powerful promotional tool.  Google loves blogs as it loves fresh content and a good blog delivers it each and every time you post a message or someone adds a comment. The best blogging platform is the hosted WordPress blog which uses free software to “ping” or spread your new post around online directories and pull the search engine spiders to index your new content.

Blog posts needn’t be long, think of them as complete thoughts rather then the snippets that fly around Twitter.

While some will use a blog to create a unique relationship with their prospects and customers others wouldn’t even consider this – but they could easily set up an autoposting blog that would gather leads for them on auto pilot.

I want you to think about a blog purely as a promotional tool and link it to Twitter so both pull in leads for you no matter what business you are in.  Your blog should always have a sign up form so that you can capture all names and addresses in return for some freebie that solves your customer’s problems.

Then use the blog to post case studies past and present.  When work is quiet, or you’re involved in a long task then look back at previous ones. Focus solely on the challenges you faced and what you provided. In that way you can remain positive and avoid any confidentially issues should your work be sensitive.

Finally, ask past customers for testimonials and you’ll be amazed both by how many agree and how highly they regard you.  This is the way the famous “word of mouth” marketing can work online.

What sort of blogging should your business be doing?

Creative – anything from designers or artists, florists to picture framers

Since you can use images and videos you should use your blog to immerse your customers past and future in your work and make them feel part of it.

Any business in which you give quotes – but need info from the customer to give an accurate quote.

Questions like “I want my fence replaced” or “How much to redecorate my living room”or “how quickly can you create a prototype” must drive businesses mad, Now a blog could provide the answer. Through case studies you can gradually educate your customers of the information that you need to supply a meaningful quote making your life much easier.

Financial and legal businesses that are regulated.

Some businesses are controlled by regulation and have to submit promotional copy for review. Don’t let this put you off and fill your blog with articles that show how you can solve your customer’s problems and get them approved in batches so you always have fresh content.

Retail and shop owners

A blog can be used to keep people up to date with new stock which is particularly important if you make some of the stock you sell. This will allow you to create a unique bond with your customers making them eager to snap up your new stock as soon as it arrives.

Bars and restaurants

Running a successful bar or restaurant is all about the atmosphere or ambiance that is created and enjoyed by your customers. The blog will help you to do that and allow your customers to add their comments and add to the feeling of community.

This will make them even more open to special offers and events.

Tradesmen from plumbers to electricians

A blog not seem an obvious promotion method for a plumber and other tradesmen but I would recommend that you set up an autoblog to have an ongoing presence and then add testimonials and case studies to it. These are important when you will be working in your customer’s home where this internet-age word of mouth advertising could be very effective.  The result will be customer’s comments praising your work which will certainly boost your business.

Injection moulders and other industrial and technical businesses.

The same mix of autoblogging to keep it current with case studies can help even the most technical or industrial applications.  Whether you create moulded components in a variety of materials or develop high end software applications this autoblog approach will send you leads. It won’t happen overnight but each lead could be worth thousands of dollars of work you wouldn’t otherwise have had.

Services from hairdressers to tutors and even car hire and repair.

When you provide a service you need to show that you’re the best choice as trust is an important factor. Case studies and testimonials will help but so will you offering the opportunity for potential customers to post questions to you and your answers to them. This is worth the time investment as every question you answer will be read by dozens of others.

When you want to find an online market that specializes in products from China you will need to do a category search that will list the websites that are now selling products from China. These websites purchase from China in order to offer their products all over the world. Multinational purchasing is on the rise because of the global sourcing these websites do. When the particular websites purchase from China they get the products wholesale. They are able to offer a discount around the world on the products but they still have enough mark up that will increase their income.

Using a category search can allow you to find even the hard to find products that you have been trying to locate but were unsuccessful. Because these products were hard to find, you may want to consider contacting the website and see if you can buy the product wholesale and sell it in your store. Sometimes if you are having a hard time finding a product there are several people out there looking for the same thing. When you purchase from China you are selling products that are built to last and won’t let the consumers down. Wholesale products are available for those who want to sell a large quantity of one product. Global sourcing is the number one way to attract more people to your site to sell this hard to find product. You can offer multinational purchasing around the world so everyone can enjoy your product. Those looking for your online market can do a category search to find your products that you purchase from China.

When you start building your name and reputation in the online market customers will be able to find you easily using a category search. Multinational purchasing will increase and you will need to purchase from China wholesale so you can sell the same product to your devoted customers for years to come. Finding a great wholesale online market that keeps the same products in stock most of the time will let your customers know that you are dependable and they can count on you so there is never a need to do another category search to find another online market like yours.