A first step that anyone can do to dramatically increase the exposure of their business website is to take the time to list it in various directories.

Below is a comprehensive list of directories. Showing up in web searches means your website must first be found!

Make it easy for the search engines to find you by listing your business information.

***Psssttt - Nearly ALL are free to list your business!***

Thanks to:
Emarketing Matador

Email Marketing

Businesses are abandoning paper-based direct mail in favor of email, according to new research from Borrell Associates.

One key advantage of email over direct mail is more metrics can be measured. When an email marketing message is sent, the sender can determine (roughly) how many people opened the email, what links were clicked on and how often, and even if the message was forwarded.

With direct mail you can track calls received, but then again, that’s as long as you and your staff make the effort to note the origin of each received call. For a small business that can be a tall order! On the other hand, tracking email metrics is vastly easier.

For these reasons (and more) many businesses are switching to email marketing according to Borrell Associates. In the study published May 2009, Borrell Associates reports direct mail efforts will decline nearly 40% over the next five years from an annual spend of $49.7 billion in 2008 to $29.8 billion by the end of 2013.

Borrell Associates also found more coupons and catalogs are being distributed digitally which will continue to spur local email advertising.

How much of your marketing budget is spent on direct mail? It’s always better to start building your email list now rather than later.

From CNN Money (increases are compared to a year ago):

1. 1. Auto Repairs  2. Home Repairs -  2.4% increase
2. People are not buying new, and instead are fixing what they already own.
4. 3. Supermarkets – 6.7% increase
   You gotta eat! Consumers are cutting back on eating out, and instead, are cooking in.
6. 4. Trade Schools – 9.1 % increase
   Many are going back to school to learn new skills.
8. 5. Personal Care – 4.5% increase
   Since the big indulgences are on hold, many are hanging on, and even increasing, personal grooming at nail salons, spas, and manicure salons.
10. 6. Accounting – 10.2% increase
    Now, more than ever in the depths of the recession,  people are consulting with their accountants.

7. Dentists – 6.9% increase
Healthcare is very recession resistant.

Full article here

Ed is out of work. Ed’s friend, Todd, created this marketing piece to help Ed’s collection efforts. According to Ed, he enjoyed an 800% increase in gross income when he used this sign.

What creative marketing are you doing ? The internet allows a local business owner many opportunities to market their business in both creative and inexpensive ways.

Summary Thought:: “Internet marketing” is just a fancy expression that means “promoting your business online”. The best part is you don’t have to spend a bunch of money on internet marketing to see real results with your brick and mortar business.

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More info on Ed here.

by Beny Shlevich

As a local business owner in Austin, Texas you know deep down in your gut that this internet thingy is not going away, and in fact, you can see it’s getting more important everyday. Yet you don’t know how to jump in. You get the calls from the companies promising to put your on the first page of Google. You know they are probably scams.

And while you may have a website, you’re not getting any business from it. The point of this post is to help you dip your toe into the internet marketing pool.

The foundation of showing up high in the search engine results is choosing the right keywords. When you type search terms into Google you are typing keywords. A keyword can be a single word, or it can be a phrase of two or more words.

Long keyword phrases that are specific but not used as often in searches are often referred to as “long tail keywords”.  Chris Anderson popularized the  term “long tail” when he published the book, The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More.

General keywords will bring a rather wide spectrum of people, but you’re not looking for every Tom, Dick, and Harry across the globe. Ideally, you want local customers who live in the Austin, Texas area.

Let’s say you’re an Austin attorney that specializes in drunk driving cases. What do you think is a better keyword to optimize on your website: “dwi” or “dwi austin texas”?

Let’s look at the Google results.

Over 13 million pages have the keyword “dwi”.

Only 404,000 pages have “dwi austin texas”

Which keywords are more likely to bring you real business?

The second keyword would mean less competition to rank on the first or second page of Google AND you’ll get better quality web traffic. Interested in doing keyword research yourself?

Here’s a link to a free quality resource to get started.

http://tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/seobook/

by jmilles

Everyone is Twittering these days, or so it seems to me. Even people you wouldn’t expect to Twitter are jumping on board this social phenomenon.

Yesterday I was doing some work out of my home, took a five minute break and flipped on the TV. Scrolling through the channels I landed on Jerry Springer just as Jerry is asking his TV audience to follow him on Twitter. Wow. Jerry Springer tweets (or more likely, someone tweets on Jerry’s behalf). It looks like tweeting is heading towards mass acceptance much like what has occurred with voice mail, email, and the internet previously.

Initially, I didn’t get Twitter..at all.  Why would I be interested in your tweet on what you ate for lunch? But I’ve also found some useful case studies of effectively using Twitter.

Here’s my challenge to myself.  I will find useful applications of Twitter and post the best of these applications here on my website.  No need to present frivolous uses of Twitter. Already too many to list.  Keep an eye out for my updates by visiting again, or you can always sign up for email  or RSS updates at the top right of my website.