Grow Your Online Presence

When it comes to building your Online Presence you can find packages everywhere. I think if you really hand an unlimited budget you could just about find the limit pretty quick.

But you don’t have an unlimited budget do you? Instead you are forced to think about how to spend the budget you do have. You’ll quickly find your mind coming up with questions like:

• Where do I start?
• Is just having a website enough?
• Do these methods even work?
• How do I get customers?

And that last one is the most important one isn’t it? You don’t want to just be throwing money at the monkey in the room called Marketing. You need your dollars to count. You need results for your efforts. It’s not enough anymore to just advertise, it’s important to do it right.

Why the Economy Doesn’t Matter as Much as You Think.

This is just my opinion but here goes. The economy hits a peak, everything is gold. Starting a business is wonderful because customers are everywhere just falling over themselves to spend money.

And then it pops.

The economy takes a downward turn. Customers aren’t as plentiful as they used to be. Businesses struggle, some even close their doors.

Here’s the thing most people forget “Customers aren’t as plentiful as they used to be.” Notice I didn’t say that customers are gone. I didn’t say customers aren’t spending money.  They just aren’t as plentiful as they used to be. Some customers might just be spending less even, but still spending.

The Businesses that succeed through rougher times in the Economy are the ones that know how to attract customers. They know how to engage them. Businesses that attract customers, that know how to let the community know they are still there will find the revenue they need to stay in business and sometime even thrive.

How Do You Thrive in Today’s Online World?

Well number one, you need to be online.

The days of Yellow Pages, Billboards, Mailers, Newspaper Ads, are diminishing quickly. Old methods of advertising just don’t work like they used to.

Did you know that in March of 2011 nearly 3 Billion searches out of all 14 Billion searches on Google were related to location? People searching for businesses, services, products, in their area. And the numbers keep growing.

95% of all traffic for those searches goes to the businesses on the first page. Where are you in the results?

Step 1: You need to build a solid foundation. There are tons of resources out there to list your business. You need to have at least a basic website that speaks in terms of how you serve your customers.

Step 2: You build on that foundation. Spread the word, gain reviews and citations linking your business profiles together.

Step 3: You captivate and engage. Reach out and speak with customers in their terms, on their ground. The possibilities here are endless and should be cultivated specifically for each business.

Step 4: Maintain. Most businesses forget this step. You need to stay on the ball. Manage your reputation, stay up to date with the latest opportunities. Keep your technologies up to date and running strong.