One of the key ingredients for the success of a business is a strong marketing strategy. Unfortunately, in today’s world, marketing is a lot more difficult than it used to be. Many companies may realize that after a while, traditional marketing strategies are not effective for their business. These companies may want to consider unconventional marketing strategies. Following these few unconventional marketing tips could potentially jumpstart your business.

1. Get listings in business directories on the Web. This may seem obscure, but business directories on the web can help direct consumers to many businesses. Additionally, web sites are listed in categories and therefore associated with other businesses in the same category. Association with other sites in a niche can help draw visitors. These business directories can also help a web sites search ranking (because of the links to the business site). The higher a site is ranked, the more potential customers will visit.

2. Publicity stunts are great. “Publicity stunt” has been given a bad image by some, but this marketing technique can do wonders. Doing something that no one has ever done before and using the platform to market a business or product is ingenious. Publicity stunts can be very effective when they are creative enough and draw large crowds. Naturally, be careful that it is not too obvious of a publicity stunt, because it can backfire.

3. Make t-shirts for anyone and everyone! Making a cool t-shirt with the company logo is very effective advertising. When people see a t-shirt with a new company on it, or a word they have never seen before, they are likely to investigate further. Designing an interesting t-shirt is a must for this marketing strategy to work. Sell or give the t-shirt to your friends, family, and anyone else who wants them. People wearing the t-shirt become walking, talking billboards. That’s high quality advertising for a low price.

4. Door-hangers on doorknobs are great for specific areas. New restaurants often generate a large amount of traffic from putting ads on doorknobs. Most people look at their doorknobs and will subsequently notice your business. It is a great way to generate word of mouth in a new community that you are targeting.

5. Purchase word-of-mouth advertising. While a door-hanger can generate word-of-mouth, one way to guarantee discussion is to pay someone to walk around town talking about a specific business or product. This person is lively and will tell everyone about a new business. It may seem odd to think of some guy standing in an elevator saying “Have you been to the new store on Main Street?” but the results are very real. Word-of-mouth is how many companies grow, so why not jump start word-of-mouth about your business?

About the Author

Jerry Hasson writes about a variety of marketing topics. He recommends http://www.uksearcher.com/ if you’re looking for a business directory.

Are You Getting The Most Out Of Your Keywords?

We talk at length about how important social media can be for a small business. We talk about it so much that sometimes I worry that we talk about it too much. While there are certainly opportunities to capture new leads and gain exposure, small business owners can’t get caught up in what’s simply shiny. We still have to focus on the technical stuff that has been proven to produce traffic and conversions. And that means focusing on search engine optimizationRead More

From Small Business Trends

Are You Getting The Most Out Of Your Keywords?

We talk at length about how important social media can be for a small business. We talk about it so much that sometimes I worry that we talk about it too much. While there are certainly opportunities to capture new leads and gain exposure, small business owners can’t get caught up in what’s simply shiny. We still have to focus on the technical stuff that has been proven to produce traffic and conversions. And that means focusing on search engine optimization and using keywords effectively.

While I was traveling last week, I stumbled across an important article in InformationWeek that talked about how search terms mean big business for SMBs. The article cautioned that by focusing too much on branded terms and ignoring generic keywords, SMBs may lose out ‘on a significant amount of online traffic’. Because it is these generic terms that most people search for.

According to the article, users aren’t searching for ‘Round Table pizza’ or ‘Nike running shoes’. They’re simply searching for ‘pizza’ and ‘running shoes’. With more and more marketers shifting money online, it’s important that they allocate money to the right areas. If you haven’t taken time to tune up your keywords and tighten their placement into your site, then now’s a very good time to do that. Otherwise, you’re missing out on huge search opportunities, the ones rooted in the basics of online marketing.

I’ve written before about how to pick winning keywords. The tools outlined in that article still stand and provide excellent resources for business owners looking to understand what terms will bring the most traffic to their sites. But that’s only the first step.

Once you KNOW the terms, WHERE do you plug them in? How do you know you’re getting the most out of those keywords?

Title Tag: The Title tag is one of the most important places to put your keywords. It appears as the top line of your search results and acts as the title of the page once a user clicks through. Users want to click on the page that most resembles what they searched for, so if they’re looking for a page about [Los Angeles Chiropractors] and your Title Tag mentions Los Angeles chiropractors, they’re going to take that as a good indication that you’re relevant to them. And then they’re going to click through. This is just one of the many reasons why your Title tag should  contain the most important terms for your page.

Meta Description Tags: The Meta description is the 200 or so characters that appear under the Title tag in the search results. This is another great place to use keywords to help the search engines and users understand what your page is about and, in the case of users, to get them to click through. The search engines will also highlight the terms that a user inputs that match the ones listed in your Meta Description. SEO Darren Slatten has a Google SERP Snippet Optimization Tool that can you help perfect your Title and Descriptions so they are the correct lengths and optimized for the terms you’re after. I highly recommend it.

Navigation: Unless your home page is about “homes”, you should not be using that word in your navigation. It doesn’t tell people anything about your site or its pages. Use keywords in your navigation that actually tell people what the page is about. It sounds like common sense but many small business owners try and get ‘clever’ and use silly words to link throughout the site. All you’re doing is confusing people. Use keywords when applicable to take advantage of search traffic.

URLs: When naming site pages, blog posts or anything else related to your site, try to insert 2-3 keywords in the URL where appropriate. DO NOT go overboard and start stuffing your URLs with keywords totally unrelated to the content, however, you’ll notice that the URL for this post ends with ‘how-to-use-keywords’. This helps to take advantage of the natural search traffic for that phrase.

ALT text: If you have images on your site, then you need text to describe those images, per Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. This is another prime place to put keywords. Local search expert Patrick Sexton recently released an Image SEO Tool to help business owners see how well their alt tags are written. It’s not fancy, but it does get the job done and help business owners check their image titles. Another great (and free) tool.

Internal anchor text: The way that you link inside your Web site is incredibly important. Avoid using anchor text such as “click here”, “read more” or “next” and instead use keywords that explain what the next page is going to be about. The search engines use these links for relevance the same way they look at the external anchor text pointing to your site. You can’t always control how people link to you, so make sure you’re at least controlling how you link within your own site.

Your content: I know, I know, you already know this, but look over your pages and see how you’re using your terms. Are they spread out evenly on the page? Are you using them early enough to grab reader attention? Are you using them enough times on the page or diluting them? While there’s no magic number for how many times you should use a keyword in order to rank for it, by reading your copy over you should be able to identify what “feels right” for you and your industry.

Other people’s content: Are you writing a guest post for another blogger? Submitting an article to a local online magazine? Speaking at an industry event? Chances are you’ll be linking back to your site in the bio section or even inside the article itself. When you do, be smart about the keywords you’re using. Don’t spam other people’s blog, but do look for natural opportunities to benefit from keywords.

Above are just a small handful of ways you should be using keywords to improve rankings and traffic coming into your site. It’s really important that you be aware of the power that keywords can have not only in social media or your Google Local Business Listing, but on your own Web site as well.

From Small Business Trends

Profit from Facebook! High-Impact, Low-Cost Social Marketing That Works!   With more than 80,000,000 affluent, savvy members, Facebook is today’s fastest-growing marketing opportunity! But traditional marketing methods won’t work here. In Facebook Marketing, best-selling author Steven Holzner reveals new social marketing techniques that do work, and shows you exactly how to make the most of them. Using true case studies, Holzner introduces powerful new techniques from to (more…)

2010 is a promising year for entrepreneurs and business owners. With a seemingly improving economy, prudent business owners will be analyzing ways to ensure profitability in the New Year. Here is a list of 4 things that you can do to help your bottom line for 2010.

Network (Online & In Person)

Networking is the fundamental base to grow your business. If you are not networking, either through social media or as part of a physical group, your business base cannot grow. By meeting new individuals each and everyday, you are exponentially increasing your base. Remember it is not necessarily who you meet but who that person knows. As your base increases, your potential for sales increases.

Marketing

Savvy business owners know that when times are tough, it’s time to start marketing. Your marketing efforts must be strategic. You must be able to analyze the performance of your marketing efforts. Advertising techniques and methods have been and are continuing to evolve. The old half page color print in the local newspaper or magazine is just not going to cut it. Online advertising is booming and there are companies out there that can help you ensure you are on the right track. Take some of your marketing budget, or as many are doing now take all of it and allocate it to online advertising.

Outsource

Small business owners need to learn the value of outsourcing. First, it will free up more time for you as an owner to be involved in the aspects of your business that you enjoy and thrive on. Second, it will reduce your payroll taxes, your health care costs, and physical resources you have to provide. There are numerous services that can be outsourced. Look around your business, analyze your daily activities, and then determine where you could utilize the services of someone other than yourself or an employee.

Know Your Ledger

Everyday you do business your general ledger changes. What are those changes telling you about the health and growth of your business? Do you have enough cash to fund daily operations? Are you collecting on your receivables? Are your sales on track to meet your first quarter budget? If you do not know the answers to these questions, then you do not know your general ledger. Develop for yourself daily and weekly reports that you can review each day and each week. These reports should answer the critical questions you have about your business performance. Then when you have questions as to why the numbers are what they are, you can dig deep into your general ledger and find the answers. Once you know why, you can make adjustments as needed.

I look forward to 2010 with anticipation that for many of us it will be the year that things get back on track. Hopefully you will be able to apply a few of the above suggestions in your efforts to make 2010 a year to remember.

By: Charles D. McKenrick – CDM Accounting & Bookkeeping – www.CDMAccounting.com

Sometimes people ask us how to stand out in a crowd at work, a conference or a networking meeting.  Here’s what we suggest:

• Take up an unusual hobby – but not too unusual.

Fiscal Networking is an association which brings together like-minded people interested in growing their business through referrals, while establishing trust, building relationships and growing personally.

That is what Fiscal Networking is about and it’s one of the things we teach our members – distill the essence of your business to share in one or two sentences.  Some people call it an elevator pitch.  Others call it a unique selling proposition.  We call it a 60 second commercial and we’ll teach you how to do it.