ZedProMarketing – Business Marketing Strategies

Are you marketing your business on the interWeb?

Do you even know where to start?

Ok – here it is – simple as I can get it.

Option 1 – Basic – no website – Just get your business listed on the Internet.
Do this for sure – to at the bare minimum get your contact on the internet so that people (aka – your customers) can find you when they search online.

- Business directory listing. Go to Google and type in your town name and the word ‘directory’ or possibly ‘business directory’. Look at the first few listings and see if any are business directories. Click on them, check how to add a listing and submit your business. Many online business directories have free listings, or very low cost listings. And they come up very high in the search engines. So now at least your customers can find your business name, address and other contact data.
Add your business to as many business directories as you feel is relevant. There are often many local town directories, sometimes divided by types of business, or industry.
A couple that I am familiar with are:

www.canadianbusinessdirectory.ca
www.weblocal.ca
www.ibegin.com
www.hotfrog.ca
Yahoo Local Listings
Google Local Listings
www.vendorland.ca
www.freebizads.ca
www.canadaone.com

- Chamber of Commerce – if you belong to the local chamber of commerce they usually have a business listing or their own business directory. Be sure your information is on that listing and that all the information is correct.
- Town / City website. Some towns and cities also have their own business listings. Check if yours does, and if so be sure to add your business to that listing.

Option 2 – Free business website.
There are a number of places on the internet that allow you to create a free business website. This is really not a true website – rather it is just a page on their website that you get to put all your business information. You don’t own the website, they just let you put up your information, but they also get to put some of their info (logo, link, etc).
This is not a bad alternative, and in fact can be a good long term strategy to use for advanced online marketing. It is a great place to start.
First choose your online free service that you would like to place your business.
Here are a few to choose from:

http://hubpages.com

http://business.blinkweb.com

http://sites.google.com

www.squidoo.com
www.webs.com
www.homestead.com
www.moogo.com
www.yola.com

Most of these come with some type of built in way to create your page and add a number of creative functions, designs, themes and other ideas. Check them out to see which works for you.
Another alternative is to use Facebook. Yes you heard me – you can create a business page on Facebook. First you need a personal Facebook account. Once signed up (and add all your friend remember – them make good customers) you have to look hard to find the business pages. Down at the bottom there is a link that says ‘Advertise’. When you click on it you then get the option to create a ‘Page’. On the page you can add all your business information like contact data, services and products, etc.

Option 3 – by far the best – Get yourself a real website.
This is not really that hard to do.
First you have to register your domain – which is the name of your website – www.yourbusinessname.com. Go to www.zeddomains.com and type in your business name. If it is available then purchase that domain. Be sure you are getting the ‘.com’ extension on the end. For a regular business I do not see the point in getting any other extension. If you are in Canada – you could get the ‘.ca’ but I would also get the ‘com’ so that nobody else takes it and ‘cybersquats’ on your domain name.
Next you must get a place to host your website. Hosting is where the information is stored that is on your website (pictures, text, etc). You can’t keep it on your computer since your computer is not connected directly to the internet. Go to www.zedwebhosting.com to purchase a hosting package.
Finally you have to build your website. I would suggest you hire a professional to build your site. A very basic website that has 3-10 pages showing off your products and services as well as all the basic contact information should cost your under $1000. Well worth the money to get it done right.

So whether you choose option 1 – 2 or 3 – at least you will start to be found on the InterWeb . .. Just like Corner Gas!

The one problem area in communication that still gives me the heebie jeebies is email.
I use it every day – tons!!!

But . ..
it is so easy to make a mistake, say the wrong thing, convey the wrong meaning.

**  ** Catch this post in Video ** **

The problem is there is not tonality – you can’t hear inflection that defines so much meaning in what people say.  Sure we can add those little variations of smiley faces – but do they really do the job.

I see it in my coworkers as well – some jump in with both feet, let the water droplets land where they may – getting everyone wet!

And they often end up all wet themselves.

But sometimes they come through communicating crystal clean.

Others cautiously stick only a toe in – seeking the security of not getting wet – thinking that way they will be safe.

Either way – not sure which is best.

My bad habit is to be too straight forward – I speak my mind too much in a direct way.   Not nearly enough ‘may i’ and ‘please’ and too much ‘how about we try this’.

But hey – I am like that in real life.  Just gotta tone it down a bit – mind my pints and quarts (wouldn’t want to spill a drop of that stuff – lol) and be a little more considerate to those whose mind does not travel at warp speed.  Not that mine does – it just jumps from idea to idea – maybe ‘warped’ is a better analogy.

What is a Leader?

Many experts will tell you that Leadership is one of the most important things for business success.  So leadership and the traits and characteristics of a leader is something we should study and learn. Correct?

Leadership is a matter of intelligence, trustworthiness, humaneness, courage, and sternness . . .    When one has all five virtues together then one can be a leader
Sun Tzu – The Art of War

Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.
Peter F. Drucker

Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.
George S. Patton

Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.
Dwight Eisenhower

A leader is a dealer in hope.
Napoleon Bonaparte

I must follow the people. Am I not their leader?
Benjamin Disraeli

The leadership instinct you are born with is the backbone. You develop the funny bone and the wishbone that go with it.
Elaine Agather

Delegating work works, provided the one delegating works, too.
Robert Half

Only one man in a thousand is a leader of men — the other 999 follow women.
Groucho Marx

The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can’t blow an uncertain trumpet.
Theodore M. Hesburgh

The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.
Theodore Roosevelt

Many thoughts and ideas on leadership by some great people – possibly some great leaders.

My model of a leader is someone who has the ability to work with people.  They have emotional intelligence along with high moral standards, a good work ethic and knowledge of the practical side of the business.

A good leader is not the one that talks the loudest – sometimes true leadership is not talking at all.  A leader must show by example, be open to change, communicate with all the people at every level of the business.

A good leader looks ahead, has a vision and steers his business towards that vision like a captain of a ship.  A good leader does not have to make abrupt changes, for he knows this will only upset the order of things, and not bring about true change.

A good leader understands the culture of his organization, understands his customer, has a solid relationship with all of his publics (suppliers, intermediaires and interested stakeholders).  A good leader takes the pulse of his business at many times and in many ways.

A good leader listens!

A great leader responds to what he hears at the correct time, in the correct way, with the correct amount of force, using the correct tools.

A great leader has patience and perseverance.

A great leader loves what he does, day in and day out.

I want to let you know about my marketing beliefs. Share with you some of the basics, some principles that I know work, so that we can move forward together.

ABC – Always Be Closing – an old sales axiom – and one that I have heard often.  I agree to a certain extent – but I like to change it to ABS – Always Be Selling.  In every facet of your business you need to be aware that you are selling.  That is crucial.  And with that goes the idea that everyone in your organization is a salesperson for your company – at some level.

Relationships are key!  People buy from who they know and trust. You must work hard to be the person they know, and you have to give them reasons to trust you.

Timing is everything.  People will not buy from you all the time.  But at the right time, they will buy anything from you.  They have to be in the ‘buying time zone’.

It takes more than one offer to make a sale.  By that I mean you have to stay in touch, repeat the offer, whether that means multiple ads, mailings, flyers, emails, or plain old asking for the sale directly.

Hard work is the most important factor in any marketing campaign.  It is not usually the most creative, nor the most glitzy or spectacular  marketing, not even the best copywriting (althought copy is extremely important) that in the long run gives the best results.  What does give results is consistent long term action.  Get your message out there, again, and again, and again. — And then again.

Testing is vital.  This is the most under utilized tool that any marketer has, and one that can have the greatest impact in any marketing campaign.  And it is not hard, it just takes a little know-how and some diligence – but the pay-off is well worth it.

Many of these ideas you have heard before.  In the coming days I will give you strategies that will incorporate many of these principles.  We will also take time to delve deeper into these principles to learn why they work, and how you can make them work better for your business.

I have built many a website in a variety of ways – from hand coding html, wysiwyg (What you See is what you Get), DreamWeaver (still my favorite), Joomla and many WordPress blogs and websites.

WordPress websites?  What do you mean?  IS not WordPress a blogging software / platform?

Well yes, WordPress was originally set up to create blogs – and does a remarkable job.  It is easy to set up and maintain, easy to update, add new posts, have comments, etc.  It has a multitude of themes and plugins so you can modify and customize it any way you feel like it.

So with all these great features – it also can be used to create a regular website.  And business owners may make an excellent decision to use WordPress to create their business website.

You see WordPress added the static page feature – allows you to create pages that are static (yes you can update them, but they stay the same once updated – not like a blog – always changing).  And WordPress allows you to use a static page as your main page – your front door to the world.

So now you can install WordPress (with a simple click if you have cpanel and Fantastico), then create a few static pages.  Declare which is your front page.  And Voilla – you are done your website – simple as that.

And the advantage is you can edit it any time you like, from anywhere in the world.  And you can assign various people to edit the website and create new content – all very easy to do.  It is super easy to add new pages.  You can sub-link pages down as far as you want.  You can change the look by changing the them – and all your pages are changed immediately.  What a brilliant and easy way to create a business website.

But there are drawbacks – like any good thing. (even icecream has a few drawbacks – like the fact that it melts).

First off is that it is not quite a flexible as a static html website.  Every page has to be the same theme.  If for some reason you want customized pages that suit your unique content – then it is tough to do with WordPress.

Second is that if you want to create it and forget it.  (not advisable for any website, but many business just need a ‘placeholder’ website for location, hours, etc) then WordPress is not as good.  As it is a php coded site, it has updates coming out all the time, and also hackers love to try to crack in to sites.  So you must continually keep the code updated, as well as any themes, plugins etc.

Finally, even though WordPress does allow links and sub-links to pages – they don’t allow fully customizable linking structure.  So for example you have a product that you create a page for.  And you want it linked under 4 or 5 different product categories.  Well WordPress just doesn’t handle that type of thing very well.

So – in summary – if you are building a Business Website – my advice is to take a good look at WordPress – if it will work for your situation then go ahead with it – I am sure you will be very happy.  But if you need a customized html site – then that is still an alternative (be sure to shop around and get a good deal – basic sites should not be overly expensive).