Category: Marketing

Marketing As a New Business Marketing

Geo-Marketing (or Geographic Marketing) is a new method of marketing a business and its website through web searches, mobile searches and social media. As you can see, the geo-marketing tools being used are digital and through the Internet or Mobile devices.

While geo-marketing’s definition is the association of data and maps in the traditional sense, the added convergence of local business listings, mobile marketing, and social media makes this method of marketing more powerful than ever before. This marketing tool is no longer just a large business marketing tool, but is available to small and medium size businesses too.

We should define what we mean by local business. A local business is any sized business dependent on the local consumer for its revenue. This means you could be a national company like Home Depot, U-Haul, or Best Buy or you could be a local florist or independent store only known to your local geography.

From a technical standpoint an Internet user’s IP address is tied to GPS data, like longitudes and latitudes, which are mapped with technology to geographies around the world down to the city and street level. While all this data may seem overwhelming, the good news is that most businesses do not need to concern themselves with this part of geo-marketing. Many of the tools already have all of this information built into their software or hardware technology so we can stay focused on how we will use geo-marketing tools.

The difficulty with any new marketing tool is a business’s inability to adopt the methodology early. When it comes to technologies and the Internet, in the past, by the time most businesses are ready to adopt a marketing tool, the industry has already moved on to something new. Being an early or at least an earlier adopter of marketing methods on the Internet and through digital devices can only benefit the business.

We have seen many signs over the past two years regarding the evolution of geographic marketing. When companies like Google, Apple, and the investment community of Wall Street start to put $100 million and more behind a technology it will become part of our daily lives whether a business wants it or not. Consumers have and will be using more of these geo-marketing tools to find businesses, services or products near them.

Let’s take a look at the three main tools that consumers are using to find businesses, products or services close to their geography.

1. Web searches are the first and most obvious, however, these are web searches in which a map displays with targets the businesses that match the search criteria. Unlike the traditional yellow pages, these geo-listings (a.k.a. Local Business Listings) can be claimed and updated with your business marketing information in order to meet these search criteria.

While this may sound relatively easy, geo-listings also include: consumer reviews that need to be managed; the clean-up of duplicate listings; coupons; offers; discounts; videos; photos; citations; QR bar codes; and, hyper local websites. Understanding what to start with and how to strategically use these components can be done by a professional marketing firm that specializes in this area. You can read more about these components in one of our previous articles on our blog.

2. Mobile Marketing is the next most significant geo-marketing tool in which SMS Texting, Mobile Applications, Mobile version of your website, and Mobile advertising are your key components. The starting point in this process will be with SMS Texting to get your alerts out to customers that subscribe to your short bursts of information. The reason why this is your starting point is that it will take time to build your list of subscribers.

3. Social Media Marketing continues to evolve and is, also, geographic in its targeting ability. Consumers are using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Wiki sites, Four Square, Instant Messaging and other social community tools on their mobile devices. While they use it mostly to find businesses, products and services, in the social communities they are seeking recommendations from their friends (near and far). They are, also, using these social communities to post their experiences with a business, product or service. For this reason you have to monitor the social communities in order to embrace any potential problem situations and work with them.

These three geo-marketing components are important to any business size – large or small – and each have their own sub-components that need to be well understood in order to succeed. Understanding the strategy amongst them; the acceptance and embracing them early; and, finally planning on a 3-year return will put you on the right path of geo-marketing.

Certainly your time resources are limited and Geo-Marketing Services are provided by SmartFinds Internet Marketing. You will find this to be of great benefit to your time resources and the low cost service may eliminate your yellow page ad costs. Let the experts of over 16 years Internet marketing experience help you use this local business marketing tool properly and prevent brand security issues from occurring.

Multi-Level Marketing And Network Marketing

believe anything) to get rich. That is where the multi level marketing and networking schemes come into play. The two main types of schemes out here are the pyramid schemes and the Ponzi schemes. A Ponzi scheme is, of course, a fraudulent investment operation. Pretty much it involves paying very high prices to investors out of the money they get from other investors.

Of course, the Ponzi scheme is just another pyramid scheme. A pyramid scheme is pretty much where you pay high dollar for the rights to sell a product that is not worth the money. Then you get people under you to sell that product as well. These schemes fall apart as people run out of people to market their fake product to.

So how do you avoid these scams? How do you know what is a real opportunity, and what is just an illegal scheme? A good way to be able to tell a pyramid scheme when you see one is to look at its business model. A lot of time these schemes have a non sustainable business model. That is because these models sometimes call for more people than there are in the world. So that would be impossible to have that many people selling the product. It’s important to keep in mind that these schemes are illegal in most countries.

Another way that you know if it’s a pyramid scheme is if you are not actually selling a product. A lot of times these schemes take either a very cheap made product or a product that does not even exist, and they market it to people. The only way that the scheme stays alive is if the people that they market to, markets the product to other people as well. The only people that really make any money off these schemes are the people at the very top of the pyramid. So if you never actually get to see the product you are marketing or trying to enroll people in, then it’s more than likely a scam. Remember, these pyramid schemes only work, because you enroll other people that are willing to give you money to start selling what you are selling (which is really nothing).

There are some legit ways to make money out there, but these pyramid schemes are not one of them. So be sure to research anything you are thinking about joining first. Make sure that it’s legit before you get involved. The last thing that you want to do is get involved with an illegal pyramid scheme.

I often do get asked how to start a profitable internet business. I would say that the best way to make money online if by finding a niche and develop a product or service around that niche. That way, at least, you are sure to have someone interested about whatever you are selling.

Local Business Marketing

Do you want your local business to rank highly in the search engines so that you can get more business? Most small businesses have a website, but very few of them know how to draw traffic to their websites. Without traffic a website is nothing but a fancy and very expensive brochure. So how do you get traffic to your site and convert that traffic into customers at your place of business. Here are three simple ideas to get you started.

The first think you need to do is start a blog. Blogs rank very highly in the search engines. Every time you post to a blog it gives you a ranking for the keywords that you use. I recommend a WordPress blog, just because it is the easiest to maintain and the one that Google seems to like the most.

Create an opt-in page where people give you their name and email address. From a page like this you are able to begin building a list of customers that you can send offers to. A list is a very powerful way to market yourself as a small business. The bigger your list the more business you can drum up just by marketing a special offer to it.

Get active on social media. Facebook and Twitter are an absolute must for small business today. Now by this I don’t mean the Facebook page you have for your family and friends. I mean one dedicated to your business, preferably what they call a fan page because it allows you unlimited followers (regular FB accounts cut you off at 5000).

When you start marketing yourself online it can be a bit of an uphill battle. Take your time and do it correctly and it will pay off in the end. Many businesses have used their online presence as a way to double their profits. You can be one of those businesses!