Choosing an Internet Marketing Service

Internet marketing services are beneficial to those who want to increase their appearance on various search engines and enhance the visual presentation of their website. 

Use these tips as a guide when choosing Internet marketing services or hiring a marketing consultant:

Ask for Referrals.  Ask friends, family members and colleagues who have had success with Internet marketing services or a consultant for suggestions. Check out businesses through bbb.org to make read reviews and complaints.  

Understand Your Audience.  In order to hire marketing services that best suit your needs, you first need to understand the audience you are trying to reach. Awareness of your specific audience will condense your search to businesses that have experience targeting your potential clients.

Be Informed.  Before choosing services or a consultant it is important to do your research on current marketing strategies. This preparation will allow you to have a better grasp on the marketing concepts the consultant is discussing. Researching will also allow you to better avoid frauds. Inform yourself on topics such as, search engine marketing (SEM) and search engine optimization (SEO). 

Ask for References.  Ask the business for a list of references with a similar target audience and contact a few of the previous consumers. Ask about their experience with the business, if they met their needs, and if they have seen improvements. Keep in mind just because the business works for one consumer doesn’t mean they will automatically be right for you. Ask if the business will provide a proposal detailing how they plan to bring you success. 

Get All the Pricing Details.  Be sure to have the business lay out all the costs and fees associated with the marketing services. It is important not to invest too much money at one time. Ask the business if you can pay a portion of the price upfront and wait until you see results before making the final payment.  

Avoid These Marketing Pitfalls

When developing your marketing strategy, mistakes can be made on even then most elementary level. Here are some common mistakes that are often overlooked:

Mistake #1: Failure to be consistent in your marketing strategy. If you say one thing and do another, fail to keep a consistent marketing message, or have little follow through, you run the risk of losing trust in building relationships with your customers. 

Mistake #2: Not setting yourself apart from your competitors. Why would anyone want to buy from you if you don't offer anything different from your competitors? Whether it's price or increased value (even if it's only perceived value), if you don't individualize your brand, you may as well work for the competitor!

Mistake #3: Underestimating the power of unhappy customers. Some business owners are more concerned about bringing in new customers than keeping their current ones happy. This method of doing business is more costly, not to mention detrimental to one's image.

Mistake #4: Failing to create trust in the marketplace. Having trust in a particular business, product or service goes a long way when a consumer makes a buying decision.

Is Your Digital Marketing Outdated?

Businesses worry about keeping their computers up-to-the-minute. But what about your digital marketing strategies? Are they older than Windows 07? 

Here are 5 quick tips to keep in mind:

Dos:
1. Do your homework. Know that people only skim digital marketing, moving their eyes in an “E” or “F” pattern—not the older “Z” reading formation. 
2. Do give the reader visual stepping stones: subheads guiding the eyes to points of relevance in descending order. 
3. Do use sidebars, quotes, or graphics to break up large chunks of text. 
4. Do keep in mind that your website needs to reflect what your customers want to learn—not what you want to say. 
5. Do link to something your visitors will find valuable.

Don'ts:
1. Don’t assume email is the same as direct mail or that people are itching to read it.
2. Don’t treat your website like a brochure, with long sentences, long paragraphs, and no subheads. 
3. Don’t fill your company blog with irrelevant personal anecdotes and lofty pontifications. 
4. Don’t build the top of your marketing page around a pretty, generic image that has little to do with your business or your customers. 
5. Don’t clutter the top of your website by cramming too many elements into it.

What other tips do you have?

Five Steps to Building an E-Commerce Site for Your Small Business

Expanding your business into the world of e-commerce is a huge step. It can be expensive, time consuming, frustrating and at the same time, the most rewarding adventure you’ll ever take!

Here are five steps to help build an e-commerce site:

1. Start with a plan: Have a 3-year business plan before you get started, and update the plan as your business changes and grows. Local organizations and online webinars are available to assist small business owners with the development of a business plan.

2. Name your site: Creating a website is a primary goal for any e-commerce business. Before you get that far, you need to name and register your website. Choosing a name can be hard; it has to be unique, reflective of who you are and what you are offering, while being catchy and memorable.

3. Assemble your pages: You’ll need pictures and descriptions of your products and services to display on your site. There are copyright laws for pictures and content on the Internet, so be very careful when using anything without permission; fines can be very costly.

4. Setup Payment Processing: Once your web site is active, you need to be able to accept payments for your products or services. Before you start taking credit card payments, you need to make sure you are Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliant. This means you are able to protect your customers’ credit card information. Online merchants are prime targets for data thieves. If data is stolen and it is your fault, you can incur fines or penalties and may even lose your right to accept credit card payments. Most processing companies take care of this for you, but research ahead of time to avoid issues.

5. Start marketing: The most important part of the e-commerce puzzle is being found. There are many ways to help customers find your site, but most of them involve paying for advertising. Over time, your site will show up naturally in search engines, but the top positions can be purchased (known as pay-per-click). Writing articles and blogs with links to your products is also a free way to increase your relevance online. Lack of a good marketing strategy is the biggest pitfall to an e-commerce site. Spending money that doesn't turn into sales can sink a business. Constant testing of ads and writing information that readers are interested in will continue to build strong foundations for a successful e-commerce sites.

How To Avoid Six Common Advertising Offenses

Small business owners often have to add the title of Advertising and Marketing Director to their long list of duties and may not be aware of the various laws regarding common advertising claims. Creating an effective advertising strategy isn't just about where and when ads are placed, but also what claims are being made. 

The following are six examples of commonly used phrases and tactics in advertising that are often misleading when not used properly:

“Free”

The word “free” may be used in advertising whenever the advertiser is offering an unconditional gift. If the shopper has to purchase an item in order to receive the free gift, the advertiser must clearly and conspicuously disclose the conditions. Also, an advertiser may not increase the price of the purchased item, nor decrease quantity or quality in conjunction with the free offer. Additionally, free offers should not be advertised when the item to be sold is customarily a negotiated-priced item such as an automobile or home.

“Save up to…”

Price reduction claims that cover a range of products or services should state both the minimum and maximum savings without a misleading emphasis on the maximum savings. Also, the number of items available at the maximum savings should comprise typically 10 percent of the items being sold unless local or state law requires otherwise.

“Lowest price in town…,” “Our prices can’t be beat…,” etc.

Prices for products and services fluctuate regularly and it can be extremely difficult for an advertiser to claim with certainty that their prices are lower than their competitors. Such claims should be avoided unless the advertiser can provide substantiation.

“Best,” “Most,” “Tops,” and other superlative claims.

Superlative claims can be objective, based on fact, or subjective, based on opinion. Objective claims relate to tangible qualities and performance which can be measured against accepted standards. When making objective claims, an advertiser must be able to substantiate all claims.

Obvious use of puffery, such as an advertiser stating they think they offer the best customer service in town, may not be subject to truth-in-advertising standards. However, advertising is all about trust from the consumer’s perspective and businesses should be vigilant against making subjective superlative claims that are misleading.

“Factory direct,” “Wholesale prices,” “Direct from the maker,” etc.

Claims such as these imply significant savings from the actual price being offered by retailers. These claims should not be made unless the implied savings can be substantiated. Furthermore, claims such as “factory to you” or “factory direct” should not be used unless the advertiser actually manufactures the merchandise or owns the factory where the advertised products are made. Similarly, an advertiser cannot falsely claim to be a wholesaler, nor can an advertiser claim to offer “wholesale prices” or items “at cost” unless the items are being sold at the same price as would be purchased by a retailer for resale.

*Use of Asterisks

Asterisks can be used in advertising if they offer additional information about a word or term that is not inherently deceptive. However, an asterisk or similar reference symbol cannot be used as a means to contradict or substantially change the meaning of the statement. The information referenced by the asterisk should also be clearly and prominently disclosed.

Baby Boom Your Branding Strategy

When looking to create or update the branding strategy foryour business, it’s always important to take every demographic intoconsideration. According to the International Council of Active Aging (ICAA), the majority of adults over the age of 55 feel that advertising does notreflect their current lifestyle, and they are turned off by marketing messages targeted to them. Better Business Bureau is reminding business owners toinclude aging baby boomers in their branding and marketing.

Creating ads that work is one of the top goals for allbusinesses. And while many boomers are much more apt to rely on referrals thanthe younger generation, 90 percent of adults 50 and older also rely on andcomfortably use email, according to ICAA. Forrester Research found that 49 percent of consumers who are 66 or older rely on personal emails to direct themto sites, compared to 28 percent of non-seniors.

One of the problems in today’s marketing world is the fact that many businesses don’t even have a viable strategy for targeting thenation’s 77 million baby boomers, ICAA notes. When creating or sprucing up yourbranding strategy, the best way to make sure that it doesn’t neglect the agingpopulation is to get input from them directly.

BBB and ICAA recommend the following four steps tobusinesses that are looking to make their branding strategy more baby boomerfriendly:

• Create ads that work. Don’t assume that you’ll reach the aging population by default. Actively design ads to portray babyboomers in a positive, uplifting light. Don’t use negative stereotypes of older adults to humor younger audiences.
• Deliver the message effectively. Tell a storyinstead of lecturing. Let your ad arouse emotions and tug at the heart stringsof your audience. Help your audience understand the message by breaking uplengthy facts into short snippets.
• Use terms that work. The key to tugging at thehearts and minds of older adults is to speak their language. Make every wordcount. Business owners should focus their advertising using language thatimplies health, well-being and productivity.
• Focus your ad photos using realistic images. Accordingto a recent study by AARP, researchers discovered that images showing exercisethat looks like too much work turns off older adults. Grimacing, sweaty, straining models won’t entice many 50-plus adults to become engaged. Make sureyour business branding strategy uses images that are both realistic and fun.Baby boomers are more likely to engage with your brand if they feel accuratelyrepresented.

For more information on engaging the aging population visit theInternational Council of Active Aging, www.icaa.cc.

Guest Blog: A Cost Effective Way To Advertise Online

If you have a website for your local business and would like to attract more customers to your store front or if you sell a service to local people in surrounding towns and would like to get more leads, adding your business to Google Maps is a cost effective way to get these customers and leads. 

1. If you haven't already claimed your local Google Places/Map listing, do that now. Just do a search on Google for "Google Business Directory" or click this link: www.google.com/placesforbusiness/ and list your business. 
2. You want to find all the searches that result in Google showing their local business directory. Google's local listings don't appear for all searches, so you need to do some research to find out which keywords or phrase make them show up. Example: If your a plumber try a search for plumber, or plumbers. If there isn't a local result for that, try adding your town like: "Boston Plumbers" or Plumbers in Boston MA". Find all the keyword phrases that produce a Google Maps result for your industry, include other town names in your service area.
3. Create one page for each phrase or keyword that Google shows their local directory listings for on your website. The best way to do this is to incorporate a blog on your website. If you do not have a blog, this is an easy addition. Write one new blog post a week about the keywords and phrases you found trigger the local maps listings. You could write a post about a job you did in that town, include reviews and testimonials from people you serviced in the town, include pictures of the job, whether or not you pulled a permit, what traffic was like in the area, etc. Make sure each page is about the single phrase or keyword. It should be the first words in the title of the page, include it in the "alt" text of an image on the page, and you page content should be somehow relevant to the phrase. 

PRO TIP* Start by writing about towns that are recession proof, neighborhoods where the median income is above average, and where you aren't likely to have many DIY types. 

A Google places listing is free, advertising does not get any more cost effective than that. Free is Good! showing up for searches by locals in your home town will certainly get you some leads every year. But, showing up in 10-20 local towns will get you enough work to stay busy every week.

Michael Kern is the Founder of Inform Local, a BBB Accredited Business since 2012.

BBB Study Shows Radical Change In Advertising In Cyber Age

Cyberspace is changing the advertising scene radically, both in terms of where consumers look for ads and what businesses say is their most effective advertising medium, according to a study done by our BBB counterpart in St. Louis, Mo.

The study, “Believe It or Not: A BBB Study of the Perceptions of Advertising by Consumers and Business,” is based largely on surveys of 1,360 consumers and 442 businesses.

Consumers were asked what the most and least trusted media were for advertising. The two results were combined to create a “trust factor.” With a rating of a positive 17 percent, they ranked company websites well ahead of such common media as mainline newspapers, television and radio.

Businesses were asked to indicate their most effective medium for advertising. A third of respondents said their own websites were the most effective, and company websites led the list of where businesses spend their most advertising dollars.

Businesses also ranked search engine optimization (SEO) high in both dollars spent and effectiveness. The study recommends “that businesses that have not done so explore the opportunities available through search engine optimization and search engine marketing.”

Eight-five percent of consumers responding to the survey said they use an Internet search engine to find a company with which to do business, according to the study.

To view the complete study please go to http://stlouis.bbb.org/Storage/142/Documents/ADStudy.pdf.

Does Your Small Business Text?

These days it seems like everyone is texting, surfing the Internet and playing games on their smartphone. Long gone are the days when someone actually called you on the phone. In a personal setting this might not be so bad, such as sending a quick text to your family or friends, but with this new age technology, what does this mean for your business?

Web.com announced the results of it’s Small Business Mobile Survey, which indicated that 69 percent of small businesses will consider mobile marketing as key to their growth in the next five years.  Mobile marketing includes strategies like text messaging, smartphone applications, mobile web marketing and many more.

Of those mobile marketing approaches, texting is the most prominent. Open Forum explained that texting excels as a marketing tool for two important reasons:

1. Texting is instant. According to Mobile Squared, 90 percent of texts are read within three minutes of being received. That’s an astonishingly high open rate.

2. Sending texts adds a personal approach to your business. You can communicate with customers one-on-one, customize messages and provide the same great customer service. 

For more information visit http://www.openforum.com/articles/why-more-businesses-are-texting/.

Baby Boom Your Business’ Branding Strategy

 When looking to create or update the branding strategy for your business, it’s always important to take every demographic into consideration. According to theInternational Council of Active Aging (ICAA), the majority of adults over the age of 55 feel that advertising does not reflect their current lifestyle, and they are turned off by marketing messages targeted to them. BBB is remindingbusiness owners to include our nation’s aging population in their branding and marketing.

For more information visit bbb.org.