Moe Tamani's Internet Marketing and SEO Blog, Articles and Search Engine Optimization Tips » Marketing

4 Reasons You Need Marketing Help

admin — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 00:59:46 +0000

4 Reasons You Need Marketing Help

internet marketing Articles from Moe Tamani, the SEO Services Consultant.

You are a small business owner with a vision and a passion. You are engaging and motivating to others and you know exactly how to use social networking sites to engage potential customers and increase the likelihood that you will make a sale. But admit it, you’re not the world’s greatest writer, and you’re not winning any awards for website design. And that’s where the trouble lies. Your website shows the world exactly what kind of professional you are. If it’s sloppy, poorly written, or disorganized, then potential customers will assume that you are sloppy and disorganized. Yes, doing your own internet marketing can feel like quite an accomplishment, but you haven’t accomplished much if visitors to your site leave as quickly as they came. Here are 4 reasons you need professional help.

Your Website. While websites are relatively easy to build, great websites are created by professional designers who have years of experience. And to build a great website you need great design, great copy, outstanding search engine optimization, and a stellar marketing professional. Once that’s in place, your website will do much of your work for you because it will be an aesthetically pleasing place to visit where potential customers can get relevant information and motivation to purchase your product or service.
Tests. The primary reason websites fail is because website owners don’t test the effectiveness of their online marketing strategies. You may think you know all there is to know about your audience and what they’re looking for in a product, but you simply can’t assume that your marketing efforts are all paying off without testing them. You need to test every marketing strategy you use, including how and where you attempt the sale, and whether your giveaways are making a difference.
Updating. When you test, of course, you have to make changes based on the outcomes of your tests. When you’ve figured out where a shortcoming lies, fix it and then test again. There’s no sense in testing if you’re not going to use the results to make improvements. You should have reports that tell you where your traffic comes from, where it goes, how and when you get unique visitors, and how long your visitors stay on your pages. If you need help figuring out how to interpret this pertinent data, get help from an internet marketing professional.
Get the Right People. Sure, you’ll probably eventually be able to figure out how to do your internet marketing yourself. But it will be a long process of trial and error, and even in the end you probably won’t be optimizing all the tools your have at your disposal. Wouldn’t you rather see results faster by utilizing professionals who have years of experience doing the same thing you’re trying to do by yourself? You have very specific gifts as on online business owner, but if your gifts don’t include optimizing internet marketing opportunities, then find the people who can do it on your behalf.

Maybe you’re looking for a sense of accomplishment that you feel will only come from having successfully completed every necessary small business task yourself, including internet marketing. But realize from the very beginning that there’s absolutely no shame in asking for help from professionals. In fact, since internet marketing means the difference between a successful online business and a failing online business, you owe it to yourself and your vision to get the help you need to make your business thrive. Do what you can do on your own, and then turn to the services of an internet marketing professional to help you realize your dream. You’ll be glad you did when you become the owner of a successful online business!

8 Keys to a Designing Great Website

admin — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 11:25:22 +0000

8 Keys to a Designing Great Website

internet marketing Articles from Moe Tamani, the SEO Services Consultant.

If you’re a small business owner, you probably can’t imagine running your business without a website. And if you want to be a successful business owner, you need to have a really great website. This means that before you do anything else, you need to determine your target audience, the website’s purpose, your budget, your design, your navigation, and your content. Just making all of this up as you go along will result in a mediocre website that doesn’t work effectively for you. Follow these 8 keys as you create a great website that becomes the difference between success and failure for your business.

Know Your Purpose. Before you do anything else, you must determine the purpose of your website. The purpose is the basis of everything else, including content, navigation, and design. Is the purpose of your website to educate? To generate leads? To entertain? To make sales? If you neglect to define your purpose at the very beginning, then the rest of your effort is wasted.
Know Your Budget. Be clear about exactly what you can do with the budget you have and then make the most of exactly what you can afford.
Know How to Design. Pretty pictures are wonderful, but most search engines give preferential treatment to websites that go easy on graphics and focus instead on text. Minimalism is the way to go when creating your website.
Know Your Audience. Who are you hoping to attract to your site? Take this information and design a website that will be attractive to that audience.
Know How to Create Good Navigation. If your website is difficult to navigate or is cluttered with irrelevant graphics and text, your visitors will leave as quickly as they arrived. If your website doesn’t make sense to a visitor, if there are too many or too few links, or if it’s just too hard to get around your site, you will lost visitors right and left. A great rule of thumb is that is shouldn’t take a visitor any more than three clicks to get anywhere on your website.
Know Your Content. Your website must contain a good deal of keyword-rich text in order to get high search engine rankings. But your content mustn’t give the impression that you’ve been sitting in front of your computer all day trying to figure out how to cram in just a few more keywords. It must still be relevant, clear, and well-written in order to appeal to the humans who visit your site.
Know How to Build It. Who’s going to build your website? Are you going to do it yourself or are you going to hire a professional to do it for you? Your budget will go a long way towards answering this question, but remember that you get what you pay for. Find a happy medium between what you can afford and what you really need in a website.
Know How to Market. Believe it or not, people aren’t just going to show up at your website once it’s up. In fact, your website should be just one part of your overall marketing strategy that includes print information about your company (be sure to include your web address on all of your print material), television ads, and radio spots. If you’re not sure how to go about marketing your business, call upon the expertise of an internet marketing professional who can help you figure out where to go once your website is up and running.

A well-designed, relevant website is key to a successful business, but unless you’ve put a lot of thought, energy, creativity into creating your website, you won’t see any results. Follow these 8 keys as you prepare your website and you’ll see what an enormous difference a little planning can make.

8 Strategies for Pricing Your Products

admin — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 21:56:17 +0000

8 Strategies for Pricing Your Products

internet marketing Articles from Moe Tamani, the SEO Services Consultant.

As a small business owner, you know how difficult it can be to determine appropriate prices for your goods and services. Ask too much and you’ll turn customers off to your business. Ask too little and you’ll be shortchanging yourself. The key to pricing all lies within the psychology of the consumer. Here are 8 strategies for playing into consumer psychology and coming out on top of the pricing game.

Promoting Satisfaction. If you haven’t done this yourself then you probably at least know someone who has…joining a gym that offers a one-time fee, going for the first few months, and then quitting only a few months after joining, even after paying for a full year! When consumers pay for a service regularly, say once a month, they perceive that service as having more value than a service they pay for only once. And when they perceive that it has value, they will continue to use it. Keep your customers satisfied by implementing monthly charges rather than one-time flat fees.
Use Nines. Consumers connect the number 0 to quality and the number 9 to value. So stop focusing on having the lowest price and start pricing your products and services according to this inherent rule. Have you ever noticed how many items are assigned a price of $X.99? That’s because people automatically associate products with lots of nines with high value.
Utilize Anchor Pricing. If a consumer is becoming familiar with a product for the first time, she will look to the model with the highest price to help her determine what to purchase for herself. This high price is called the anchor price. Grocery stores use this to their advantage by placing their generic brands next to name brands. Customers use the name brand prices as anchors and then quickly note that the generic brands run roughly 15% less than the name brands.
Let Prestige Pricing Work for You. People automatically assume that a higher-priced product is a higher-quality product. Many people are willing to drive out of their way and pay more for a cup of coffee at Starbucks than a cup of coffee at McDonalds, simply because they perceive Starbucks coffee to be of higher value. You can take advantage of prestige pricing by enhancing the packaging and delivery of your products and then charging more.
Suggest Prices. When you package several items or services together and then suggest an appropriate price, you increase the chances that customers will buy all of those items together. “Value meals” at fast food restaurants are a great example of this. Consider packaging your products together in a complementary way and then pricing them accordingly.
Play Up Small Losses. How many times have you seen commercials offering products that you can pay for in “just three easy installments of $19.99”? People find a price of $19.99 much more attractive and easy to manage than a one-time price of $59.97. And, as mentioned above, they will perceive the product to have greater value if they pay for it over a longer period of time.
Stuff the Bundle. If you’ve seen those commercials mentioned in the point above, you also know how popular it is to continue adding other products to the original offer. “If you act now, we’ll also include…” they say. The more products you add while keeping the original price the same, the more your customers will perceive that they’re getting a bargain.
Play up the Bargain. Everyone loves to feel like they’re getting a good deal, and nothing screams “good deal” like a big old banner reading “Sale” or “Discount.” Always let your customers know how your product compares to the rest of the market, especially if your products are comparable and your prices are lower.

Let these pricing strategies work for you and see how well your business grows!

5 Free Ways to Build Your Brand

admin — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 18:05:22 +0000

5 Free Ways to Build Your Brand

internet marketing Articles from Moe Tamani, the SEO Services Consultant.

If you own a small business, you may have already given up on the notion of branding yourself. After all, that’s something that only big companies with big budgets can afford, right? Not so fast. Here are 5 ways to brand yourself for free, and maybe even make a little bit of money in the process:

1. Develop for Display. If you can create visual brand that stands out from the crowd and looks hip and edgy, you can actually get people to pay you for the privilege of displaying it. Extreme sports companies like surfing, skating, and snowboarding companies have been doing this for years. The challenge is in creating something striking enough that people not only want to buy it, but also want to display it so that others will see it as well. You’ll find that people will gladly display something that looks cool, and that others will even pay you a small fee to display your brand for you.

2. Label Everything. Add your logo to the things that your customers already buy from you. If you’re a café owner and you provide boxes for patrons who want to take food home with them, brand the packaging in which they’ll be carrying their items. Include contact information on the brand. Add logos to everything you can think of. People carrying your items will be doing your advertising for you all day long!

3. Wear It! People will pay to wear a T-shirt with a cool logo. Just look at the souvenir stands after any concert and see how much money people are willing to part with just so they can wear their favorite band’s logo. But don’t be fooled into thinking that you have to charge an arm and a leg for a T-shirt or pair of shorts with your logo. Charge just a little more than cost. The real profit comes from the publicity you get as your loyal customers advertise you on their clothing.

4. Use Everyday Items. Think about the number of reusable shopping bags you see every day. Conscientious consumers are willing to pay a small price to do the right thing, including using a shopping bag that has information about the business that sold them the bag all over it. People feel good about acting responsibly, in this case by cutting down on plastic bags, and they’ll pay you for the opportunity to do so.

5. Give Away A Little to Make a Lot. This is the idea of giving away a free sample, although it can also apply to those who are selling services as well as products. If you own a massage studio, offer free five-minute massages in a public, highly-trafficked area. If you own an inflatables company, set up your wares in a place where children will be present and invite them to play for free for several minutes. While you’re giving away your “free sample,” let potential customers know more about your business and what you can do for them.

It all boils down to two major questions that you need to ask yourself: Can you turn your logo into something that people would be willing display or even be willing to pay you to display? And can you offer a sample of your product or service for a small fee in a high-traffic area? These two questions are the basis of a great brand-building campaign that is not only free for you, but could also be the source of a small profit.

Let’s face it, you’re not a multinational company with an endless marketing budget, but you do have plenty of opportunities to make yourself known on a local level, and that’s really where it counts. And if your business is mostly online, you can focus on your own little niche.

Top 3 Reasons to Embrace Word-of-Mouth Marketing

admin — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 17:42:05 +0000

Top 3 Reasons to Embrace Word-of-Mouth Marketing

internet marketing Articles from Moe Tamani, the SEO Services Consultant.

If you are the owner of a small business, it’s not news to you that you simply can’t put the same amount of money in your marketing budget as can large, multinational corporations. The good news is, however, that you can level the marketing playing field by embracing word-of-mouth marketing. Word-of-mouth marketing works to your advantage because nothing is more compelling to a potential customer that hearing rave reviews from a current customer. Social networking has taught us that most people make their buying decisions based on what they’ve heard from people they trust.

When you embrace a word-of-mouth strategy for marketing your product, you’re investing in everything it takes to get a gut-level, emotional reaction from potential customers and from your employees. When you start with your employees, you’ll find that they are more creative and productive. And when your employees improve their performance, your business benefits with increased cash flow. Here’s how word-of-mouth marketing translates into increased profits.

1. Fewer Advertising Expenses. Turning your customers and employees into your own advertising agency saves an enormous amount of money. But you have to remember that this is a long-term strategy. Your goal is to build a following of satisfied, loyal customers who will not only continue to patronize your business but who will be so enamored with your product or service that they will be compelled to tell others about it. Think of it as creating a community of people who have been positively affected by what you have to offer.

2. Less Time Invested. As more and more potential customers hear about what you have to offer from your current customers and employees, you’ll notice a shorter sales cycle. If a potential customer has already heard glowing reviews of your product or service, it will take far less time for her to choose your product than if she had never before heard of your business.

3. Repeat Customers. People who have had a positive experience with you one time are much more likely to turn to you again for future needs.

If you are able to make a meaningful connection with employees and customers, they will perceive that they have no choice but to tell others about their experiences with you. They tell others, those others decide to do business with you and become your new customers, and then those customers tell others about their experiences. It’s a perpetual motion enterprise that does nothing but benefit you in the end.

But the key to making this word is making your customer happy. Many consumers, burned by poor customer service experiences, are looking for reasons to be unhappy about their interactions with businesses. So when they finally have a positive experience, they can’t help but tell others. Same goes for employees. Our society is entrenched in an attitude that work is simply a way to put food on the table. But if your employees have a positive experience with you, if they feel like their work adds value, and if they feel truly engaged with you and their employees, they’re going to have wonderful things to say about your business.

But it all starts with you. You have to give your employees a great experience. Their great experience will inspire them to help your customers have a great experience. Your customers inspire their circles of friends, and you find yourself inspired once again. And that’s when you see that it’s possible to compete with huge companies and their gigantic marketing budgets. Those big companies simply can’t create the kind of community loyalty that you can create through word-of-mouth marketing. No budget of any size can inspire people and make them want to come back for more, simply because they made a meaningful connection of integrity and honesty.

So embrace word-of-mouth marketing and see what a difference it can make for your business!

5 Ways to Make Social Media Work for Your Business

admin — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 13:45:28 +0000

5 Ways to Make Social Media Work for Your Business

internet marketing Articles from Moe Tamani, the SEO Services Consultant.

Owning your own business is difficult enough without having to worry about finding the perfect balance of marketing strategies. Stick solely to traditional marketing strategies and you’ll find yourself potentially missing an enormous demographic. Try to milk the internet for all it’s worth and you’ll find yourself completely overwhelmed by the number of tools and application available for internet marketing. But what if you used social networking sites as a happy medium between traditional and hard-core internet marketing strategies? Using this one tool could make a huge difference in your business without overwhelming you altogether. Here are 5 ways to get started using social media in your marketing strategy.

1. Create a Strategy. Your competitors have already created a strategy for using social media, so chances are you’re already behind. This means thinking intentionally about how to use social media instead of randomly opening an account here and joining a group there. Spend some time determining the kinds of sites available and evaluating what role they might have in your marketing strategy. Then make a plan to use them consistently and effectively. If you just “go with the flow” you’ll be wasting your time and effort.

2. Brand Building. Social media marketing is like having one enormous billboard advertising your company. Everything you post, every tweet you write, and every comment you make should be treated as a chance to show your audience what your business is all about, what you value, and what you stand for.

The first step to consider is creating a business blog. Chances are you have employees who are already involved in social media in one way or another, so ask them to post some articles to the blog. Be sure your blog includes your logo, a picture of yourself, and any other tools that will help you promote your brand. Use your company’s colors as background on your blog and as wallpaper on your Twitter profile.

3. Choose Wisely. Don’t feel like you need to use every single social media site available. Stick with a few and spend time using them to your advantage. Choose sites that help you connect with your target demographic, that help you show off the components of your business that interest potential customers, and that will be most helpful in connecting potential customers to your business.

4. Find the Right Balance. Social media is so popular that it might initially be difficult to find the right balance between it and traditional marketing strategies. In the end, they should all work together to serve your business effectively. Start with LinkedIn and create a business profile where you can post testimonials and make connections with your customers. Then create a Facebook group tied to your industry or product.

Finally, use Twitter to create a village of those with interest in your industry. Connect traditional strategies with online strategies by printing your Twitter ID on business card and make a place on your website that shows visitors where they can connect with you using social media.

5. Mobility. Many platforms allow you to communicate in real time by downloading applications to your phone. Imagine what you could do as a business owner attending a conference. Sharing with your readers what you’re learning, as you learn it, is a great way to build rapport with and interest in your customers.

Overwhelming or not, young people are exchanging information and making decisions based on social media sites. If you’re interested in connecting with them as they age, procure more discretionary income, and spend money on things that interest them, then you need to find a way to connect with them now. And you need to make sure you’re defining your business online rather than waiting for others to define you in your stead. Get connected online and let the world know who you are.

5 Brand-Building Secrets Through Blogging

admin — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 14:17:17 +0000

5 Brand-Building Secrets Through Blogging

internet marketing Articles from Moe Tamani, the SEO Services Consultant.

Technorati.com recently completed its 2008 State of the Blogosphere report, which contains some interesting information about the correlation between blogs and brand building. The report shows that bloggers are interested in talking about brands. So if you’re looking for ways to build your brand, make friends with some bloggers!

Blogging is, at its heart, a place for people to share information about themselves and about their lives. If people have good experiences, they blog about them. If they have bad experiences, they blog about those, too. This includes experiences with businesses both online and in real life. If bloggers encounter a product or service that they find phenomenal, they’ll blog about it. Same goes for products or services that they find abysmal. In fact, nearly 80% of bloggers talk about brands and/or products that they love or hate, and 37% of them do so on a frequent basis. Many businesses have taken advantage of this publicity. In fact, one-third of all bloggers have been asked to act as brand advocates.

This may seem silly given that anyone can maintain a blog. Why should internet users trust a blog over any other source of information? Why are bloggers any more credible that anyone else? The truth is that bloggers primarily look to blogs for information rather than to other sources. In fact, 49% of bloggers believe that blogs are just as reliable as mainstream media for getting information.

The point here is that blogs are a great resource to explore when you’re trying to build your brand. Here are 5 things to keep in mind regarding blogs and brand-building.

1. Blogs are Credible. Some marketers are concerned about the possibility of having their brand show up on a blog because they’re afraid that the blog might not be credible. Rest assured that, although they are often informal, blogs are often seen as legitimate sources of good information. In fact, many large corporations include blog-mentions among the press included on their websites.

2. Blog Discussions are Natural. If a brand or product makes an impact on a blogger, he or she will probably mention it on a blog. Some companies even ask bloggers to review products and introduce new products. Many bloggers already include ads on their blogs, so they will probably be happy to include information about your product or service as well, given that they find it worth mentioning.

3. Bloggers are Bright. As a whole, bloggers are both educated and affluent. In fact, 75% of bloggers also graduated from college and 42% have attended at least some graduate school. More than half of them are part of a household than brings in over $75,000. These are good people to know from a marketing standpoint. They’re savvy and they have a lot of money to spend. These are people you want on your team.

4. Bloggers Read Other Blogs. Bloggers get most of their information from other bloggers; so if you want to get noticed, you need to make sure that you become visible on a blog. Keep in mind that, not only do bloggers read other blogs regularly, bloggers also use blogs as their primary source of information about brands and products. This is obviously a great way to make yourself visible and to attract the attention of potential customers.

5. Your Competitors are Doing It! Since so many companies are already asking bloggers to act as brand advocates, chances are that your competitors are already among those taking advantage of blogs as brand builders. Do yourself a favor and start using blogs to build your brand or you could find yourself out in the cold!

If your image of a blogger is a pimply-faced teenager sitting in his basement writing about his latest conspiracy theory, you need to update your perceptions. Bloggers are a bright group who look to each for information. Use them in your brand-building efforts and you’ll see results!

6 Reasons to Keep Marketing, Even During A Recession

admin — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:33:08 +0000

6 Reasons to Keep Marketing, Even During A Recession

internet marketing Articles from Moe Tamani, the SEO Services Consultant.

You can’t go anywhere right now without hearing about the economy. Food and gas prices are increasing, and although most of us aren’t running huge banks or trying to balance the federal budget, the stress of the current economic downturn is certainly trickling down to the point that we can feel it. But one of the last things that we want to do in the middle of a rotten economy is slam on the brakes of our own businesses, you know, just in case things get worse. Instead, one of the best things we can do, for our business, for our own sanity, and for the economy, is to step on the gas. Continue your inbound marketing efforts, publish articles that others will find relevant and helpful, and keep networking. Here are 6 reasons why you shouldn’t let the current economy keep you from focusing on your inbound marketing efforts.

1. Time Over Money. The good thing about inbound marketing is that it requires you to invest far more time than money. So take the time to work on your inbound marketing strategy and you won’t have to spend a dime.

2. Let People Find You. When you’re focusing on inbound marketing, you’re trying to make yourself visible to potential customers who will be interested in what you have to offer. You want people to come to you, so the first thing you need to do is to find out where they are. What forums do they frequent? Which blogs do they comment on? What social media sites do they use? When you answer these questions effectively, you can show up where the people are and motivate them to look at what you have to offer. As mentioned previously, this is a time-consuming effort rather than a money-consuming effort. What do you have to lose?

3. Look At Your Competitors. Marketing experts say that, during this recession, businesses will be spending more on online marketing than on traditional marketing. If your competitors are investing their time and efforts into inbound marketing, you can’t afford not to do the same.

4. Measure Everything. Successful inbound marketing is easy to measure. You can quickly tell where your leads came from, where your customers found you, and the efforts you made to which they responded. This kind of information is invaluable. Use it to help you figure out what’s working and what isn’t. Do more of what works. Do less of what doesn’t.

5. Always Improve. The information you receive from analyzing your marketing efforts should show you exactly where you need to improve. If you’re not using this information to improve your efforts, then you’re wasting your time.

6. Look Toward the Future. Marketing experts have proven time and time again that the best way to ensure a successful future is to continue investing in your business during tough times. You may not have much money to spend right, now, but that doesn’t mean your marketing efforts should come to a grinding halt. Be persistent. Keep plugging along. When things start looking up again, you’ll be ahead of the game.

When the money’s tight, our natural instinct is to stop spending, of course. Resist the temptation to sit on your hands. Years of research shows that cutting back on marketing when things are looking grim puts companies at a distinct disadvantage when things start looking more positive again. Take your cue from Rupert Murdoch, who continues to invest even when everyone else has thrown in the towel and decided that there’s nothing else to do but wait it out. And even if you don’t have piles of money sitting around, you can still invest a great deal of time in your marketing efforts. Find out where your potential customers are hanging out and engage them where they are. Spend some time figuring out where your efforts give you the greatest return on investment and make whatever improvements are appropriate. You’ll be glad you did in the long run.

7 Top Tips for Writing Blog Articles

admin — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 18:12:22 +0000

7 Top Tips for Writing Blog Articles

internet marketing Articles from Moe Tamani, the SEO Services Consultant.

SEO experts know that one of the best ways to promote your business is to blog. Unfortunately, many business owners are under the impression that blogging takes a lot of time, or they have seen too many bloggers who start out with gusto only to abandon their blogs two or three months later. While both concerns are legitimate, there’s no reason to let them keep you from starting your own blog. After all, business blogging is a great way to build a following and shorten the sales process.

Rare is the sales blogger who settles in a quiet room with a pencil and a pad of paper to write down his most profound ideas. Instead, most bloggers spend their time reading other blogs and interacting with others within their market niche. All this interaction makes it easier, not harder, to blog. Once you’re in tune with what everyone else is thinking and writing, coming up with your own material is a breeze.

Here are 7 ways to quickly generate your own content.

1. Interviews. Find an expert in your market niche and see if she is willing to be interviewed via email. Read other interviews to glean interesting and timely questions, and then ask her those. Most experts are willing to be interviewed because they get some exposure out of the deal, too. And the whole process only takes about 15 minutes.

2. Guest Bloggers. Hunt down an expert in your field who has expertise in an area you lack and ask him to write an article for your blog. Not only will you increase your following by attracting your guest blogger’s base, but you’ll end up ranking higher for keywords that wouldn’t normally generate a lot of traffic for you.

3. Rewrite. Read some of your old blog posts and find one whose lesson remains applicable to your situation today. You probably have additional insight now, so share that with your readers. Link to the old post and add your new insights. Thirty minutes later you have a new article!

4. Have a Contest. This provides a bonus post because you not only have to post information about the contest, but you also have to tell everyone who the winner was.

5. Ask a Good Question. A good question can ignite great conversation. Use Twitter to help build a following for your blog if you don’t already have one. The great conversation generated by your question will ensure that your readers will stick around. Everyone likes to be asked for their opinion. Let your readers share theirs.

6. Use Lists. Lists are great article-writing tools because people are automatically attracted to bulleted or numbered content. Because it’s easier to read and digest, readers are more likely to slow down for listed material than they are for material that’s written in multiple paragraphs. If you’ve found a list that you like on someone else’s blog, repost it on your blog using only the bulleted phrases and add a link to the original. Change the title of your post, of course, but always link back to the source.

7. Aggregator Blogging. Scan blogs within your market niche to find articles that you think would interest your readers. Publish one or two paragraphs from each article, link to the original, and add a sentence or two of your own to tell readers what you did or didn’t find helpful about the article. This is also a great way to start good conversations and build networks with other bloggers.

Don’t forgo the opportunity to build links, network, and shorten the time it takes to make a sale simply because you think that business blogging is too time-consuming. Use what’s already around you to make the process quick and painless, and you’ll see what a difference it will make for your business.

9 Ways to Keep the Cash Flowing

admin — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 11:49:49 +0000

9 Ways to Keep the Cash Flowing

internet marketing Articles from Moe Tamani, the SEO Services Consultant.

Times are tight in the US economy, and no one is more aware of this fact than small business owners. But don’t despair! Here are 9 expert-tested ways to keep the cash flowing even in an economic downturn.

1. Raise Prices. This is a no-brainer, right? If you need more money then just charge more for your product or service. The ideal result of an increase in prices is that nothing happens. Your customers keep purchasing what you have to offer and you don’t hear anything about it. The less ideal scenario is that some customers may go elsewhere, but don’t let that stop you. Increasing your prices by 5% or 10% provides more profit and an increase in cash flow.

2. Find Old Customers and Invite them Back. Once you’ve gotten contact information on your customers, contact them regularly. Invite them to do business with you again, and give them incentives for doing so. Make an offer they can’t refuse, request their presence at a private sale, send a newsletter, or call them and let them know that they’ll receive a free gift simply for returning the call.

3. Pay Slowly. The key to a slow payout is maintaining a good relationship with your suppliers, so find out what time frame is acceptable for them. If you’re currently paying on a 30-day basis, ask your suppliers if they would accept payment on a 45-day or 60-day basis. If so, you’ve just gotten 15 to 30 extra days to use the money you have!

4. Sales Checklists. If you have salespeople working for you, instruct them to ask every customer to “add on” to their purchase. To make it easier, give every salesperson a checklist of things to offer customers.

5. Payment Checklists. Provide your administrators with a list of each customer and when that customer’s payment is due. Have your administrators set up email reminders for each customer, letting them know that their payment is due.

6. Change Your Terms. The key to positive cash flow is getting money in as quickly as possible and paying it out as slowly as possible. Consider modifying your trading terms so that you get income quickly. If it’s currently 30 days, try changing to 7 days or 14 days.

7. Be Picky About Your Customers. Only deal with customers who will cooperate with the trading terms that are most beneficial for your business. Sure, it may be uncomfortable to cut off relationships with slow customers, but you’ll notice a huge difference if all of your customers are fast-paying customers.

8. Get Endorsements. Find another business owner within your market niche who has a database full of customers that would potentially be interested in what you have to offer. Work out a deal with that business owner that’s mutually beneficial and that gives him the opportunity to endorse you to his customers.

9. Evaluate Your Marketing. Analyze each one of your marketing campaigns to determine whether or not it is ultimately profitable. Eliminate any campaign that results in a loss and use only those that are profitable. If you don’t currently have a marketing campaign, pick a tactic or two and see how they work out for you. You might start with flyers and emails. Your ultimate goal is a profitable offer within a profitable advertisement. Test everything, no matter how time-consuming it is. You’ll see a huge difference when you eliminate things that aren’t working and put more time and effort into the things that are.

An increase in cash flow means an increase in the growth of your business. Start off with one or two ideas and see how they work for you before moving on to others. You’ll find that you get results within minimal tweaking of your business strategy, and you’ll love the results!