New Forum of Private Business survey also reveals the UK’s best and worst locations for doing business effectively.

fpb.org – Latest news articles from the FPB

Marketing Deja Vu Getting You Down?

At some time or another we have all experienced that eerie sense of familiarity where we’ve “been there” or “done that” before.  Whether it is an actual memory or simply a “brain fart”, deja vu is an interesting experience.

Let’s assume for a second that deja vu is real.  If you found yourself in a situation you knew for certain you had experienced before that had ended badly would you have the tools necessary to change your course of action?  Many organizations have faced and continue to deal with “marketing deja vu” or ending up in the same situations over and over again.  What can you do to avoid making the same marketing mistakes more than once?

*Speaking of deja vu: If you are looking for additional tips on improving your marketing strategy be sure to reference the posts from the TopRankBlog archive that appear in this post.

4 Tips For Avoiding Marketing Deja Vu

#1 – Learn From Your Previous Marketing Mistakes

The best way to avoid repeating mistakes?  By learning from each experience.  Do not expect that you will have different set of outcomes from the same actions.  We must remember that marketing mistakes can mean a decrease in current customer base, as well as the loss of potential new customers.

3 Tips for Learning From Your Marketing Mistakes:

• Mistakes happen, the worst thing you can do is avoid dealing with the problem
• Move on but don’t forget the lesson you learned
• Don’t let frustration get the best of you

We All Make Mistakes:  20 Social Media Marketing Do’s & Dont’s

#2 – Create A Structured Marketing Process

Errors can in large part be attributed to lack of process.  A structured process provides a framework and guideline for accomplishing your marketing goals.  Marketing process improves your ability to:

• Plan effectively for future marketing needs
• Implement & Scale your marketing plan
• Test, implement, and refine marketing tactics

Implement A Process: Practical Tips to Make Your Blog More Useful & Interactive

#3 – Don’t Rationalize Bad Marketing Decisions

One of the biggest mistakes we can make as marketers is to rationalize bad decisions.  It is important that we accept and face the fact that we didn’t make the best choice.  Once we’ve overcome the hurdle of admitting fault it’s time to take action:

• Focus on why a particular marketing tactic didn’t work
• Determine how your team can improve going forward
• Debrief other team members so they can avoid making the same mistakes

To Be Avoided: 4 B2B Social Media & SEO Blunders to Avoid

#4 – Ask for Help & Advice to Improve Your Marketing Plan

Pride should never get in the way of improving your marketing strategy.  Some of the best ideas come from where you least expect. Suggesting collaboration with other team members and influentials can:

• Help you come to a conclusion for next steps faster
• Remind you of mistakes they may have made in the past that you will want to avoid
• Provide a fresh set of eyes that may have a different perspective

Get the Help You Need: 4 Tips for Becoming A Better Influencer

Take Action

You may have heard some or all of the tips listed above prior to reading this post.  However, I want you to ask yourself:  How many of these tips has my team actually implemented and stuck with?  A good starting point to get on the right track to avoiding ‘marketing deja vu’ is to ask yourself and your team a few simple discovery questions:

• What are 3 instances in where your marketing team has made the same mistake more than once?
• Did you expect different outcomes each time the mistake was made?
• What were those expected outcomes?
• What have you done to rectify these mistakes, or adapt your process to avoid them in the future?

Remember, if you can’t answer these questions on your own perhaps you should try asking other team members.  Or you may want to consider or contacting an agency like TopRank Online Marketing to learn how you can attract and engage current and prospective customers by avoiding common marketing mistakes.

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2012. |
It’s Like Deja Vu All Over Again: 4 Tips for Improving Marketing for Small Business | http://www.toprankblog.com

Online Marketing Blog

Small Business Big Money – Search Engine and Social Media Optimization

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Search Engine Optimisation – The Most Powerful Marketing Tool For a Small Business

SEO is an effective and proven method to market a small business. A small business has budgetary constraints in marketing hence search engine optimisation is particularly beneficial. It has lower costs than traditional advertising mediums and as such can be used effectively by small businesses. It offers a cost effective method for small businesses to make their website known to a vast audience. Search engine optimisation commonly known as SEO has become crucial in the success of small businesses today. Many marketing studies have shown that online marketing is replacing traditional mediums as the primary source for customers to obtain information on a company’s products and services.  Recent changes in consumer behaviour have made E-Commerce more important than traditional high street retail in many industries.

Search engine marketing has a special significance for small businesses as it allows a business to reduce its marketing and operating costs.  The cost benefits and return on investment is significant compared to traditional methods of marketing such as TV, radio or print mediums.  Search engine marketing also has a wider reach and can be equally effective whether you wish to market to a local or international customer base.

Search engines provide small businesses with an opportunity to compete with established businesses and they are not limited by a smaller bricks and mortar presence. Small businesses with an effective online marketing strategy have continued to grow and gain competitive advantage over others in their industry. This would not be possible using traditional marketing mediums which have much higher costs associated with it.

The ultimate goal of Search Engine Optimisation or SEO is to drive targeted traffic form search engines to the company’s website. Websites that receive a high rank on search engines are able to grow and expand due to increased sales and leads achieved as a direct result of increased visibility on search results. A majority of the internet users use search engines to find products and services. Websites that rank high on search engines are able to receive highly targeted traffic from potential customers.

There is tough competition to rank high on search engines as only 10 websites can appear on the first page for a given search phrase.  Research shows that if a Web site does not rank on the first page of a search result, chances of generating any traffic to the website is reduced manifold. Therefore it is important for a business to have an ongoing strategy that can help it achieve a first page rank on major search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN.

Here are some search engine optimisation tips that a small business or company can use to improve its rank on search engines

A search engine friendly Web site. A website that has been designed with search engines in mind tends to rank higher on search engines. A search engine friendly website can get indexed by search engines with ease and as such it promotes better ranking of its pages. A professional web designer will always ensure that the website is designed with search engine guidelines. A number of techniques can ensure this. Any professional web designer should take these factors into account.

Well Organised structure of the website. The information on the website should be organised properly. Information should be categorised meaningfully and content should be appropriately categorised into different sub pages of the website. If users fail to find what they want immediately, they are likely to go to another site.

Positioning of keywords.  One of the first steps of an effective SEO campaign is to identify the right keywords.  Once this is done the keywords should be positioned strategically within the content of the website. The main keywords should be in the title, description and within the body, ideally once in the first sentence.

Strategic distribution of keywords on the website. This is a basic SEO technique. Position keywords or key phrases at the start and the end of the document as the beginning and end of a page are given more weight by search engines while searching.

Keyword relevancy and density within the web page content. It is important that the website relevancy to keywords is good. The overall website should be related to the main keywords the site is targeting. Keyword density refers to the number of times the keyword appears in the content of a particular web page. E.g. a density of around 2-5% is considered appropriate.

Keywords in anchor text of links.  Including your main keywords in anchor text of links is a very effective search engine optimisation technique.  Keywords should form a part of the link text where possible. Link text is the clickable word that is used to get to a page. Instead of using “Click here for more info” as your link text, use the main keywords instead. This improves the chances of the destination page ranking high for the keyword.

The Website design and marketing ebook discusses additional techniques that a website owner can use to market their website on the internet.

San Francisco, California (PRWEB) September 28, 2011

Social media use may be on the rise, but 54 percent of small businesses still list their company website as their number-one online marketing tactic. With this in mind, vFlyer, the premier online marketing service, today announced the integration of JavaScript and HTML application modules into the framework of vSites, its website creation and management service for small and medium-sized business. The new capabilities will give vSites users access to a full suite of services aimed at making their websites even more dynamic and engaging for potential and current customers.

Small businesses rely on their websites to be the hub of all marketing and business activity, and vSites enables these businesses, including independent service providers, apartment communities and real estate agents, to easily build and manage full-service, professional websites. Since its August launch, more than 1,000 small business owners and independent service providers have created websites using vSites.

vSites provides small businesses with a powerful, easy to use platform that allows them to build credibility and win more customers at a low cost. There are thousands of free JavaScript modules across the Web that vSites users can now incorporate into their sites, including:

Advertising revenue Google AdSense allows users to generate revenue from their website traffic through advertisements

E-commerce Provides simplified online payment, product search and donation processing with popular services like Google Checkout, PayPal, WePay, and the Amazon Search Widget

Custom Forms Captures content and customers with online forms from leading form services like WuFoo

Scheduling Creates online appointment booking with services like Schedulicity

Weather Widgets Integrates weather content from popular sites like Weather.com

Photo Sharing Widgets Allows users to share their Flickr and Picasa photo albums to keep customers in the loop on the latest events and happenings

Polling Widgets Provides integration with polling sites like PollDaddy, so users can survey their current and potential customers quickly and easily

Blogroll Integrates users Blogroll, giving visitors access to their favorite blogs and content

Live Chat Allows businesses to enable click-to-chat for website visitors through services like Alive Chat

Help Desk Services like Zendesk enable users to add a support tab to their websites, giving site visitors an easy way to get help

The small business owners and independent service providers who have used vSites so far have been very impressed with the capabilities our service offers, said Aaron Sperling, CEO and president of vFlyer, Inc. These new JavaScript and HTML applications will help take their websites to the next level, giving them access to services like e-commerce, live chat and scheduling that are widely used by their current and potential customers and that encourage website visitors to engage with the site and the business.

I’ve been up and down the web marketing offerings out there; having spent the last eight years administrating an entire RE/MAX office of agents as Marketing Director, says Doug Parry, Marketing Consultant. Nothing comes close to the elegance and simplicity of vFlyer. Period. The addition of JavaScript… now opens it up for those that want to go much deeper. Being able to integrate instant chat, live page monitoring of visitors, and e-commerce makes vFlyers vSites service an easy choice!

About vFlyer

Based in San Francisco, Calif., vFlyer, is an award-winning online marketing company that is dedicated to providing cost-effective and efficient marketing tools for small to mid-size businesses. Created for sellers looking to generate income and maximize exposure, vFlyers marketing solutions include online classified ad and content creation, management and syndication (vMarketing) as well as an incredibly powerful, affordable and easy-to-use website creation and management service (vSites). The suite of services offer the perfect choice for small business owners who want to build credibility and win customers by having a great-looking, highly functional, and easily updatable website and marketing materials. For more information, please visit http://www.vflyer.com.

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