When I moved back to South Florida last year, I began to notice a tendency regarding small business Internet marketing in West Palm Beach. There were several good companies in town to serve high-end clients, but most weren’t really interested in working with the little guy.
Futhermore, it seems that everybody is eager to build you a fancy website, or get you on the hook for a long, expensive Pay Per Click (PPC) campaign. But often there’s no follow up, no “connecting the dots,” and no personalized attention.
Let’s be honest, it’s just more profitable to build a $10,000 website and then hand it off to the client than it is to walk someone slowly through the process, and help them understand “why” they need a credible social media presence and an email list to compliment a nice website.
So that’s where I’m finding my “niche,” if you can call it that, within the space of small business Internet marketing in West Palm Beach. I’m helping local business owners and online entrepreneurs see the big picture and put all the pieces in place for a smooth, efficient marketing plan that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.
My Plan for Small Business Internet Marketing in West Palm Beach
Fine, then what does a simple, cost-effective plan look like?
[thrive_custom_box title=”” style=”light” type=”color” color=”#1bbaaf” border=”#2133d1″]There’s no such thing as “one size fits all,” but if you start with a template of proven fundamentals, the final blueprint can be easily customized to fit individual needs.[/thrive_custom_box]
A core strategy should contain three main components that just about every business model can utilize. Then as your brand grows and you become even more efficient with your time, one or two supplemental platforms can be added down the road. (However, that might not even be necessary for many companies.)
1) A Website/Blog
First, everyone needs a nice, simple WordPress website that is optimized for engagement. What do I mean by that? Well, understand that a website isn’t just about looking pretty and showing off your goods or services. A more defined goal of a website is to capture solid leads that will generate revenues down the road.
This is accomplished by creating value for your website viewers – identifying their needs, connecting with them, building trust by serving them, and then ultimately transitioning that connection, that trust, to make a sale. In sum, an effective website can be your best salesperson if it’s designed and managed properly.
I always incorporate a blog into a website, as I think it’s important to have some fresh content for readers to explore once they find you. Whether or not to make blogging a regular thing is up to the individual, but at the very least it’s necessary to publish some initial posts just to keep people poking around your site and getting to know you, which goes towards building trust.
2) Email Service with Autoresponder
As already suggested, one the primary functions of a website is to collect email addresses of potential clients. This can be done passively by just placing a sign-up form on the page, or more aggressively through opt-in offers.
Why is it so important to get their email address? Because no matter how great your content is, people won’t remember to visit your website or social media profiles every day…but they WILL check their email at least once a day. So with email, you can reach out to them at just the right time, instead of waiting (hoping) that they’ll come and find you online. We’d all like to believe that “fate will lead them to us,” but how many more people can we reach if we give fate a helping hand? The best way to accomplish this is with an autoresponder.
A typical autoresponder series usually sends out an email once every week or two; a short message with some tips or one quick “win” for the reader—and an opportunity for you, the sender, to solidify the relationship and build your authority.
The beauty of this system is that it is automated. The little messages are written once, and then they are repeatedly sent out to people on a fixed schedule according to when they signed up.
Now you might be saying to yourself, “Great, but where do all these people come from? Do they just magically find their way to my website and sign up for my email newsletter?”
That’s a great question, because as you may have guessed, the magic only happens once you have enough people on your email list to make all of this worthwhile.
What’s more, you’d want these subscribers to be “pre-interested” in your business or brand. You only want to attract people who fit the demographics of your ideal/typical customer. But again, where do find them online?
Eventually, these targeted customers might be directed to your webpages or blog posts via Google or other search engines. However, that can take months, or more likely, years.
So what do you do in the meantime?
That’s where part three of our loop of engagement comes into play.
3) Facebook Fan Page and Facebook Ads
Since 2006, Facebook has been a wildly popular social media site for staying connected to friends and family all over the world. We share our photos, join group discussions, and post funny jokes in our status updates.
As an advertising tool, however, Facebook is no joking matter. Facebook provides the best opportunity to reach a highly targeted audience of potential customers on the web. Period.
Furthermore, it’s an incredible value for the price. An article on the Moz Blog made this powerful observation:
[thrive_custom_box title=”” style=”light” type=”color” color=”#1bbaaf” border=”#2133d1″]“If you just spend $1 per day on Facebook ads, you will get in front of 4,000 people that wouldn’t have seen you otherwise. If you are doing that and your competitors aren’t, you win the awareness game in your niche.”[/thrive_custom_box]
Regarding small business internet marketing in West Palm Beach, Facebook has over 760,000 registered users within 25 miles of the metropolitan area. Can YOUR business use that kind of exposure?
Like your website, you need to make sure that your Facebook Page looks good to anybody who lands on it. It’s beyond the scope of this post to talk about ways to optimize your Page, but you can consult an article on my blog entitled, “Optimizing Your Facebook Fan Page.”
As for other social platforms, you merely need to do the minimum at first: claim the branded name, and set up complete profiles so they look professional. Then you can connect them all to your website/blog so it’s easy for readers to share your content across platforms. You can worry about expanding them later, if necessary. And it may not even be necessary in your niche.
Conclusion
Well, I’ve just laid out a quick outline of my basic philosophy. But obviously it’s more nuanced than that. It’s not complicated, but you have to set it up correctly for it to be effective.
However, if I just set up this system for you and sent you off to handle it on your own, you might get a bit off track, or at least you’d be spending a lot of time and effort with little to show for it.
That’s why the key final ingredient in my plan is education; one-on-one training. I NEVER deliver a service without making sure that you know how to use it.
I’m a small business, too, and I know how it feels to compete against the big guys without anyone in your corner. But your success is my success, and I’ll do whatever I can to make sure that you achieve your business goals.
Contact me and let me give you a quick overview of what I do for YOUR business.
