Blog: Tips

For some reason many people seem to discount Social Media. They think it is only for kids and has no real business value to it. This is both untrue and great news for you! This means that many of your competitors do not use Social Media in their marketing mix.

The truth about Social Media is that yes, SOME of it is geared more towards the young. Myspace is generally used by a younger crowd than Facebook and LinkedIn. However, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are all very viable avenues for marketing and networking. Over 41% of all Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn users have a household income over $75,000. 38% of LinkedIn's users make over $100,000 a year. These are the people you want to reach.

Here are 4 steps to get you started with Social Media.

1. Ask your friends/family/customers/colleagues to add you.

Send out an email to everyone you know and ask them to follow you on Twitter, or to become your friend on Facebook. This will be the easiest way to get a network of Socail Media friends at the beginning. The best part is now that you are connect to them, you are also connected to their friends and followers.

2. Interact with other local businesses and organizations.

Start conversations with other local business owners, clubs, organizations, etc. on your Social Networks. Think of it as a networking event, except it is online. You are there to meet new people and to build relationships. Some of these people may become future clients, and some of them may become future partners. Either way, it helps you to spread your name and business to a group of people who are influential in your community.

3. Join other peoples conversations.

The great thing about Social Media is a lot of times you can join in a conversation without ever being invited. If you were at an event and just jumped into a random conversation with your opinion people might think you were weird. However, online this is very normal. If you see an interesting conversation on Twitter, go ahead and tweet in your opinion. You can do the same thing with Facebook. Chances are they will respond to you and you can start building that relationship. Aside from that, now their Social Media friends will see the conversation and they might join in as well.

4. Keep in touch.

Just like in your personal life, if you do not keep in touch people will start to forget about you. If you have a few people or businesses you think would be a good match for you, keep in touch with them. Every couple weeks just drop them a message asking how things are, telling them about something interesting, or just commenting on something they have written online. If you keep the conversation going they are much more likely to remember you, and even start to consider you a friend.

Social Media can be an extremely powerful networking tool when used correctly and consistently. Despite what you hear about MySpace, do not discount Social Media all together, it really can bring you in a lot of business.

Email Marketing is one of the most cost effective forms of marketing available to a business, large or small. It allows you an avenue to inform your clients and customers about anything you want them to know. Sales, new products, special events, whatever you want. Here are a few tips to help you get started when it comes to Email Marketing.

1. Collect emails like they are dollars.

Emails are actually very easy for you to collect from your customers and they can mean a lot of money to you. Make sure you or your employees ask everyone who comes into your business for their email. It is worth it to offer them an incentive to join, maybe a small discount or do free giveaways or specials only for people on your email list. Put up a small sign by your register letting them know about your list and why they should join. Many will join simply for the fact that they love your service or products and want to be a part of it.

2. Find a reason to email your list.

Email your list when you have a good reason, and if you don't have a good reason, find one! You want to email your list once every other week, or once a month. In any case, just be consistent. Here are some reasons you could email your list, you won an award, you are having a sale, you have new products/services to offer, an article was written about you, you are having a special event, you are changing locations(Big reason!), you are giving seminar, etc. etc. If you really look, there are many reasons to email your list that will be interesting to them.

3. Send a monthly newsletter.

A newsletter is a great way to keep in contact with your list and they generally get very high open rates. "Company Name - October Newsletter" seems to work very well. In your newsletter you can write about anything and everything you feel like about your business. Sales, products, discounts whatever you want. It is a great way to keep in contact and to keep them interested. Just be sure to keep them fairly short. Three solid topics and maybe a little extra is good. If it starts getting over 700 words you might want to think about cutting some of it out and sending it a couple weeks later.

Building an email list is one of my favorite ways to help promote a business. It keeps your current customers coming back for more and makes sure your past customers do not forget about you. For the price, you really can't beat it.

If you want help setting up an email campaign, give Steps Marketing a call. We're here to help your Steps toward success.

A while ago Google introduced a "geographic box" at the top of its search results. This is tied in to its mapping feature, and, when it was first introduced, the engine would display three results at the top of its search results whenever somebody entered a geographic modifier into the search box ("Atlanta widgets," for example). The Google algorithm then has the intelligence to determine whether the query calls for results that are primarily local in scope

Since that initial trial, Google has obviously found that its users appreciate the feature. The engine now displays ten local search results at the top of the listings for certain queries, provided that they have a geographic modifier attached. For example, if you type in "Palo Alto Pizza" in Google, you will see ten results alongside a map that shows the location of ten Pizza places in Palo Alto CA.

It should be noted that you will not see local search results for all queries that contain a local modifier. In certain instances, it almost seems as if Google somehow "knows" when a geographic modifier really means that you only offer services in a particular area. Yeah, those guys are pretty good.

So how do you get your business's website on Google Local Search?

3 Steps...

1. Call Steps Marketing (we can help you with all that, but if you want to do it yourself...read on)

2. Sign up for Google Business Center (www.google.com/local/add) and make sure that your business profile is thorough and complete

3. Be sure that your website has a clear contact form with your name address and phone numbers all in text format, NO IMAGES!

There are many resources on the Internet to turn to if you are looking for local search engine optimization for your regional website, like Steps Marketing!

You'll find that many customers prefer to deal with people that are local, even if the business is national, or even global. A businessperson that is looking for, say, marketing consulting, may be inclined to work with someone with an address in close proximity found through local search. It just feels more comfortable - if something goes wrong, he or she can request a meeting, rather than calling an 800 number.

E-Commerce is a great way to start your own business and not have to pay large expenses like rent, utilities, insurance, employees and maintenance. You can start your own business selling anything from clothing to digital products and have your store up and running in weeks instead of months with a traditional brick and mortar store. It is also much cheaper to get your store running as you do not have to worry about decoration, painting, carpet, safety codes and a million other details which will drive your costs through the roof.

Here are just a few of the advantages to starting your own E-Commerce store.

1. You do not have to steal little Johnnys college fund to start your new business.

That's right, little Johnny can still go to college after you start your new business. While starting a traditional brick and mortar store will cost you more than a brand new Mercedes, an E-Commerce store will cost you closer to a 1995 Honda Civic (but it looks better, I swear!).

You do not have to buy paint for the walls, pay to bring the building up to code, pay for cash registers, shelving, cabinets, or anything like this. All you pay for is a website and you are ready to roll!

2. A fraction of the monthly expenses.

That's right, you will be paying next to nothing compared to the monthly costs of running a traditional brick and mortar store. Not only are you able to avoid the crazy costs of employees (not to mention the crazy employees themselves) you also get to eliminate your rent, utilities, insurance and maintenance costs. These are major costs associated with running a business that you don't have to worry about.

3. A fraction of the work!

This might be even more important to you than the monthly expenses you can save. With an a E-Commerce business you do not have to tear out the old carpet and put it in new, or paint the building, or clean trash out from the previous occupants, or install cabinets and shelving, or follow safety regulations, or, or, or! There is so much LESS work that needs to be done you won't have to drag your sleeping bag down to the shop and live there for the next 4 to 6 weeks. We handle all of the "work" for you and you can spend those 4 to 6 weeks doing important things like deciding if blue M&Ms really do taste better than the red ones.

Why does Steps Marketing make such awesome E-Commerce websites?

This is because we have been doing it since before Joanie loved Chachi. Well, maybe not that long but you get the point. We can create full E-Commerce solutions with the ability to list unlimited products, create user accounts, run online promotions and gift cards and about 937 other features for you to play with. We also use Google Analytics so you can track visitor information to your new store and learn where they are coming from, how often they come to your site, how long they stay, which products they look at the most, how long they look at products, which pages they are most likely to exit from and a whole host of other statistical information.

Your new store can also be integrated with all of your Social Media applications such as Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, etc. We can also help you collect your customers email address to send out newsletters, special promotions, information on new products and just about anything else you would like your clients to know.

Be sure to check out our Social Media Guide to learn more about how we can help you promote your new online store.

Twitter is the latest in the social media craze, and for good reason. Twitter allows you to connect and network with thousands of people. You can keep in contact with your current customers, become friend with you customers friends, network with other businesses in your area, and you can even network with people in your same industry in other parts of the world.

Here are a few ways Twitter can help your business.

1. Network with other businesses.

You can use Twitter to meet and network with other business owners who you may be able to share business with. Do you own a hair salon? Maybe a local day spa will want to work with you and refer clientele back and forth.

2. Meet your clients friends.

You can look at your current clients profiles and start conversations with their friends. If one of your clients is having an interesting conversation on his Twitter page you are more than welcome to add your thoughts. This is the great thing about Twitter, people are not excluded. It is not weird for you to share your thoughts on someone else's conversations. This will then lead to others talking to you and you being able to get your business name out there even more.

3. Keep your clients updated.

Just like your blog, Twitter is another great place to update your clients. As a matter a fact, you can even integrate Twitter with your blog so every time you post a new blog it will show up on Twitter and vice a versa. If you are having a special or a sale or have a new product Twitter is another great place to let people know.

4. Share ideas and problems with others in your industry.

This is probably my single favorite use of Twitter. Say you own a Sushi restaurant in San Diego. Maybe you are having problems with your Saki distributor or you’re marketing campaigns are just not doing as well as you would like. Well with Twitter you could ask your network of 37 other Sushi restaurant owners all across the US and get their advice and opinions. Maybe an owner up in Carlsbad has a great Saki distributor and he will give you their number. Or maybe an owner over in Chicago just created a new marketing campaign and would be happy to share his thoughts on what works and what doesn't.

I am sure you have a million questions you would love to ask other owners about but are unable to ask the ones you know because they are your direct competitors. Well now with Twitter you can ask other owners all around the county or even the world.

These are just a handful of the ways Twitter can help your business. Integrating Twitter with your website, blog and other social media is a surefire way to drive traffic to your website, and ultimately your business.