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If you are a grow your business onlinesmall or medium business owner with a quality product or service but your sales are looking a little sad, chances are you have a marketing problem rather than a business problem. If you are not effectively communicating to your existing and potential customer base, then you are leaving money on the table.

Perhaps you have considered using the internet to market your business but have been unsure how to proceed. This article lists seven strategies you can adopt today to grow your business using the internet, regardless of what industry you are in.

Often when I speak with small business owners they reveal to me that although they know internet marketing exists, they aren’t sure if it really suits their line of business. For example, my local Land Rover mechanic is a specialist in his field and a fantastic mechanic. Despite this his business still has room to grow and prosper. If he could increase his business through internet marketing, then he and his girlfriend would have a lot more cash to spend on their horses, which is their out of hours passion. Although his girlfriend (and business partner) wants him to build a website, he’s not so convinced they need one. After all, most of his business is gained through word of mouth to local Land Rover drivers, so what could he possibly gain from spending additional money on a website and online marketing? Right? Wrong!

Having a website and implementing effective internet marketing can not only massively grow your traditional business, it can provide you with additional ways of generating income that don’t rely on you working more hours, freeing up your time! As a business owner it’s easy to spend an enormous amount of your time married to your job. Wouldn’t you like to be able to generate many extra sales without having to personally put in extra hours to make those sales?? Of course you would and building your online presence can achieve this for you.

How? I hear you ask, when your traditional business relies on you exchanging time for money, by being physically present, just like my mechanic’s does. You may be wondering how you can earn more dollars without needing to be there. Well this is one of the great upsides of internet marketing, it can earn money for you 24/7 while you are busy doing other things.

You see business is all about networking, building relationships and providing your customers with what they need. If you own a traditional store front, you are endorsing products simply by having them in your shop, be they yours or someone else’s. Even if your business is service based your product recommendations are still important. Just say you own a hair dressing salon;  you provide a service which is cutting hair, however your customers still value your product recommendations and buy hair products that you stock because they see you as an expert. Likewise with my mechanic; if he recommended one brand of car wax to me over another one, I would take his advice because I trust him and I consider him to be an expert in all things car related.

Well it’s exactly the same on the internet. Imagine for a moment that my mechanic does have website and on his website he has a list of recommended products, and an option for his customers to buy those products from his site. By having a small online store on your site you can generate extra income, without putting in extra hours, and yours customers will be thrilled by the value added service yours recommendations provide. They can buy what you recommend online while you are doing other things. This is just one of the many ways the internet can help you grow your business and leverage your time.

This leads me to my list of seven strategies to grow any small business using the internet, starting with:

1. Create a Personally Branded Website as the ‘nerve centre ‘ of your online marketing presence to which you drive internet traffic.

As a small business owner you should already have a concept of what your ‘brand’ is. If not, your personal business brand (or public image) is a combination of things that define your business and separate you from your competition. Your brand includes the products you endorse and the services you provide. It should reflect the core beliefs and values of your business. It encompasses your mission statement and your objectives. It identifies you in the market place. Your website presents your business brand to the world and it should be the heart and brain of your online marketing efforts, from where all efforts begin and to where all efforts and traffic ultimately return.

2. Use your website to not only promote your business but to also promote , recommend and sell other products or services that compliment your business brand.

Integrate an online store into your website offering retail, wholesale or affiliated products and services. This enables your site to generate extra sales for you 24/7 without you needing to put in extra hours. Select products or services that will benefit your customers and are in line with your business brand.

build online business partnerships
3. Create strategic alliances with complimentary (not competitve) businesses – support and promote each other.

One way you can do this is by providing links to each others sites (the more links, both incoming and outgoing that your site has the better it will rank in search engines). For example my mechanic could arrange to promote the local 4×4 or Land Rover association on his website in exchange for their promotion of his services. Alternatively you might also like to consider selling advertising space to complimentary businesses in your area. For example my mechanic could sell advertising banner space on his website to the local crash repairer or the guy around the corner who fits new tyres and offers wheel balance and alignments.

4. Give your customers a reason to return to your website on a regular basis by creating valuable content.

Update your website on a regular basis with information and content your  customers will find valuable. Having a blog is the easiest and best way to do this. A blog enables you to create regular posts (like the one you’re reading now) filled with information your customers will be eager to digest. Content can be in the form of articles, images, videos, audios or  slide presentations. As a hairdresser you could provide customers with hair styling tips and ‘how to’s’ or product reviews. As a mechanic you could write tips on taking better care of your vehicle and update customers on latest Land Rover news.

5. Provide customers with rewards, discounts or prizes for their loyalty.

Consider providing your customers with loyalty bonuses such as two for one offers or discounts on services. This is a technique commonly used in the food industry, restaurants provide dinner gift vouchers or discount meals on special occasions such as valentines day. Be creative, this type of reward for loyalty can be used in any business. After all it is easier and cheaper to retain an existing customer than it is to gain a new one.

6. Use newsletters, RSS and email to build a relationship with your customer and stay in the forefront of their mind.

Set up an auto responder such as Aweber so you can stay in regular contact with your customers. Provide an opt in box where your customers can enter their email to subscribe to your monthly newsletter or be notified when you post a new article on your blog. Provide customers with an incentive to sign up such as a free ebook or a free report. Receiving a weekly email with great offers or incredibly valuable content keeps you fresh in your customers mind and gives them incentive to visit your site.

7. Drive traffic to your website

Without traffic, you may as well not have a website. It’s absolutely necessary to know how to drive traffic to your business site in order to grow. There are many ways to drive traffic to your site such as article marketing, forum posting, press releases and paid advertising such as pay per click advertising. However social media is free, growing exponentially and when applied correctly is a powerful and cost effective medium through which to generate buzz and traffic, attracting eager customers to your site. It is also a powerful way to increase your brand exposure and solidify your business brand recognition by having your business presence on multiple media platforms.  Social media tools such as facebook, twitter, linkedin, squidoo all provide you with ways to connect with your target market at a micro-niche level. This way you can guarantee that your website traffic will be laser targeted and comprised only of people a who are interested in what you have to offer.

The point of this article is to impress upon you the power of internet marketing for growing your business and leveraging your time and your brand to increase your income. This is true for any small or medium business owner even if you thought your business was not suited to internet marketing.

So how do you do all this?

Do you pay some marketing expert thousands of dollars to build an online marketing campaign for you? Maybe, but it’s not necessary. Besides no-one cares more about your business than you do.

Do you spend the next couple of years toiling away in front of your computer at night, trying to learn how to do all this on your own? Only if you are into self torture.

What if you could be shown by experts the best marketing techniques in the industry?

What if you could fast track your learning by accessing the most cutting edge marketing education available to small business owners on the planet?

What if you had the option to outsource only the aspects of your marketing that you really need to?

What if you had expert support and guidance available to you at all times to assist you in setting up your own online marketing machine?

What if you could be a member of a community filled with other small business owners and entrepreneurs just like you?

Would you take a look  to see what it could do for you and the growth of your business?

Discover exactly how you can have all of this so you can make the most of your marketing budget and be empowered with the knowledge and the tools to grow your own business using the internet today.

Click here now to learn how you can grow your business today using the power of the internet.


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Filed under: Branding • Entrepreneurs • Income • Internet Marketing • List Building • Online Marketing • Social Media • Twitter

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