How Small Businesses can Market online more effectively
If you are a small business it is important that you leverage the internet to better market your company and if implemented now could help holiday sales.
Taking charge about what is said about your business online is a great and inexpensive place to start. Unbenownst to you their may be many unflattering things being said about your business that you need to refute or correct.
Consumers use the the internet and search engines to do their shopping research and if your company does not come up near the top of those searches on sites like Google or worse, has bad reviews associated with it then you could be losing out on new sales.
To get your company up to date and ready for this holiday shopping season here are some resources you should look into right away to help you with your marketing and search engine results that cost little or nothing and require nothing more then some time on your part.
Undoubtedly, no single thing matters as much for increasing sales and engendering loyalty as building a great customer service brand. It’s more important than ever for small business owners to join the conversation online and help to manage their company’s reputation.
So how can you be proactive about managing your reputation online?
Increase the number of online reviews about your company. You can begin this process by asking your top customers to post a review about your business on customer review sites such as Yelp.com and usacomplaints.com.By asking your top customers to post reviews, you’ll likely generate a number of complimentary reviews quickly and easily. These reviews will help to offset any existing negative reviews, help to increase your visibility on search engines, and help to attract potential customers who are searching for your products or services online.
When you come across a complimentary review about your business, you should add a quick “Thank You” in response, and mention that you appreciate the support of your customers.
Respond to negative online reviews about your company. Spend an hour each week searching the Internet for unflattering reviews about your company.
When there’s a comment field available in a review, the staff member should respond with some helpful and constructive content that shows that you care about providing good customer service.in addition, they should state that they are an employee of the company. The respondent should never pretend to be a consumer, because that deception will likely be discovered, and will likely produce even more uncomplimentary content.
The employee should also include a link to your website in the response, which can help to drive traffic back to your website.
Some other cheap or Free tools for a small business to help with online marketing:
Get a Facebook page for your business. Its free. Go to www.Facebook.com
Contact Groupon and see if advertising with them makes sense for your business. Www.Groupon.com
Claim your free business page at MeasuredUp and help your customer service and online reputation. Usacomplaints.com
If you have a website, buy some keywords for your marketing at Google. It costs some money but you only pay for consumers clicks. Www.Adwords. Google.com
Write a review about your business on Yelp. Www.Yelp.com
Create a twitter page for your business. Www.Twitter.com
These are just a few easy and effective marketing suggestions. Start with these and then give some others a try.
More online tools and resources then ever exist to help you with your business marketing. They are easy to use and most are free. You have no excuse not to use these tools and if you dont you can be sure your competitors are.
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