Top 3 Tips for Marketing Your Business in 2010

Things are changes. Consumers buying habits are too. If you want to compete in todays business economy you have to adapt to change or be forgotten. Below are the 3 tips to help you get your business more exposure for 2010. Enjoy!

Invest More of Your Marketing Budget in Online Marketing

You’d be amazed by how many businesses still believe in the old adage of “build it and they will come” in regards to their website. In this day in age, that no longer exist. You have to do a lot more with your website than build it and put your domain name on your business cards and letterheads.

The average consumer is a lot more information savvy compared to years past. And with Internet-enabled phones at their finger tips, they’ve decided to ditch the Yellow Pages and newspapers to find local businesses that they know exist. Instead, they prefer search engines like Google to research companies, compare prices, and find a local businesses contact information and directions.

So if you’re struggling with your website and online presence, and can’t figure out how to make it work for you, instead of against you, try something new for 2010. If you have the time, there’s plenty of free information online for you to figure out what step one needs to be, and if you don’t, try working with a online marketing consultant. Their expertise is well-worth it.

Develop an Online Presence

As I stated earlier, consumers have ditched the Yellow Pages and newspapers to research and locate local businesses. It’s to inconvenient for them to use those mediums. They’ve been replaced with Internet-enabled phones like Apple’s iPhone and Motorola’s Droid.

These devices give consumers the information they need when they need it. Any and everything is just a click away. Regardless of your business size, if you are expecting to compete in this radical economy, you need an online presence. And if you don’t have one or plan on developing one, understand that you’re losing customers to competition who already has a strong online presence.

If it isn’t in your budget this quarter to develop a website, that’s OK. There are still tons of other thing you can do to establish your online presence, such as submit your business information to online directories like Yelp.

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to do this stuff. You just have to have the will and desire to succeed by any means necessary. And if you need help, just ask. There’s tons of free information available on the topic, but if you don’t have the time to sort through it all, your best bet is to hire someone else to do it for you.

Implement an E-Mail Marketing Campaign to Your Existing Customers

There are 4 proven ways to grow your business, one being to increase repeat sales from existing customers.

This may seem like a very overwhelming task, but it doesn’t have to be. In years past, if you wanted to keep your customers up to date on your latest deals and special offers you had to invest in flyers, postcards, or print advertising.

While these methods may have provided a good enough response for you to make your money back, they are very ineffective because it’s difficult to track and very costly.

Today, we have technologies like blogs, and e-mail autoresponders that enable you to keep your customers up to date on what’s happening in your business. For example, lets say you had a surplus of goods you needed to get rid of. No need to worry. All you would have to do is prepare an offer and blast it out to your e-maill and blog RSS list. It’s that simple.

Not only do you get to send deals and special offers out at the speed of light, but you also get to track metrics that will give you a better idea on how to optimize and improve your offers in the future.

In this day in age, there’s no need to work harder than you need to. And whether you believe it or not, depending on your available resources, it might be cheaper to work with someone else and let them handle your online presence for you.

The strategies and tools are out there. Your competition is benefiting from them everyday and so can you. All you have to do is stay focused and get started. The rest will take care of itself.

Tagged as:  business tips · marketing tips · Online Marketing · small business owners