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What is the best way to Market small business?

I operate a small web design business. What would be the best way to market for potential clients?

My target audience is small businesses, home-based businesses and independents, what is the best way to target these groups?

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3 Responses to “What is the best way to Market small business?”

  1. tcoyc said :

    Start with businesses you know locally, get a few clients and ask them for a testimonial. You could also look on craigslist and see if any businesses in your area are looking for web design work.

  2. nightowlmktg said :

    Depending on your time and skill. You could do some quick makeovers to a select few small business owners that you would like to work with.

    Contact them via snail mail sending them a photo of their revamped homepage and tell them to contact you for more information. Wait a few days then contact them

    Note don’t makeover sites that already look great. Start with the duds. The ones that look like a 3rd grader put together

    When you get a few appointments have them sign a contract with a clause near the end that they initial stating that if you do a great job that they will introduce you to 3 other colleagues.

    Explain to them that’s how you maintain your business and that you only expect them to tell their colleagues if you’ve done a great job for them.

    You of course will do a great job then ask them for those references.

    Another idea might be offer free hosting for 1,2,etc… years depending on how much you charge for a design. Sign up to a hosting reseller account or get your own dedicated server and host your new clients websites.

    This eliminates a monthly charge for them or at very least the annual hosting bill that some companies are now offering.

    Stress to them the savings of the cost of hosting

    Give talks at business owners assoc. or chamber of commerce, etc. stressing the need for a quality website to project a professional image and inform their potential customers of what they have to offer.

    Always get testimonials as already suggested and make sure your own site is up to par. If you could create a testimonial binder to bring to your appointments this is best

    In the binder you would have before and after shots from the websites you’ve created as well as copies of testimonials from the owners.

    As well you would have this on your own site. Before/After/Testimonials

    I will leave you with a brainstorming session.

    Think of who is in front of your potential customers on a regular basis. Then strike up a deal with them or have them suggest your design company

    ex.) small business owners are going to the printers a lot strike a deal with the major printers in your area to host their sites free

    You’ll have the reseller/dedicated server account anyways as per suggested above.

    In exchange for inserting a flyer into every print job going out. Or better yet announcing a ‘Printer Bob’s Customer only’ web design workshop put on by you or even still better a mailing to their in house list of small business owners

    The workshop would hit some of the major hot selling points to your target market for having a quality designed website

    Or even on a most basic level on your site you have recommendations for the other companies you suggest and work with in exchange for their endorsement of your service

    Give it a shot

    Sincerely,
    Scottie Logan
    Night Owl Marketing
    http://www.trafficconversionmadeeasy.com

  3. VicSEO said :

    It is very important to promote one’s website by first publishing one’s domain named website on these major search directories. For example, to publish your website’s domain name for FREE at Google’s search directory, visit “http://google.com/addurl/?continue=/addu… and fill-in the form. In another way, Google, Yahoo or MSN provide a Yellow Pages kind of advertisement for every website according to a set of ranking protocols. And there’s where web designers and search engine optimizers play an critical role in marketing websites which in turn, display goods and services to be discovered [via search directories] by the rest of the world. The greater the appearance or presence that one’s website can generate on search directories, the greater number of customers will accordingly visitor one’s website.

    As for the cost to market one’s website via the Internet and more particularly — search directories, will depend initially with the proper design of webpages and the proper placement of metatags which are: , <description> and <keywords>.</p> <p>A searchable <title> would be “[name of the goods/services – a generic domain name is okay unless you own a well-know brand], [city], [state – postal abbreviation]” — up to 65 characters and spaces. The <description> would be up to 20 words comprising a complete readable sentence which promotes interest in your business, i.e., “We sell quality _____ at a reasonable price, etc.” And <keywords> would consist of 12-15 compound plural words separated by commas, i.e., “cars, planes, transportation, etc.”</p> <p>In conclusion, webpages can either be rather straightforward using only HTML text or be crafted totally as a graphic Flash configuration. Either way, care should be taken to complete the Properties entries for Title, Description and Keywords so that there is something that search robots can index. The more one is educated in crafting effective webpages along with metatag placement, the less will be spent to hire third-party consultants to assist you in this matter.</p> <p>To demonstrate how search engines/directories work, go to Yahoo.com and type in the following search query: “pizza downtown los angeles.” [Note: do not include the quotes (“).] Again, this is a very generic query which means you want to order a “pizza” from “downtown” and in what city — “Los Angeles.” Sounds fairly simple and then hit Enter. In a moment or two, there will appear some 1.3 million search results and among the top Five rankings will be a business called “Pizza Next Door, etc.” The significance of this demonstration is to illustrate that most Interest shoppers will discover “Pizza Next Door,” forthright because of its high web presence and ranking within the Top Five. So these shoppers are more or less likely to patronize this pizza establishment and hopefully in the long term; validate the owner and his family as having a profitable Internet enterprise.</p> <p>Good luck!</keywords></description>




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