Ideas for Business

Small business branding is really a simple matter. You may not need to spend thousands of dollars on a huge marketing plan. In fact, spend too much and it will cut into your budget too hard, leaving little room for profit. That’s why many companies opt not to bother with marketing at all. But marketing doesn’t have to be expensive, even for small businesses.

Branding can be as simple as putting your logo on your letterhead. For a rather reasonable fee you can have a graphic artist design you a logo and that’s a one-time fee that allows you to use the same artwork over and over again for the life of your business. That logo will speak volumes about what your business stands for and you want it to be something that will be memorable and recognizable for many years to come. Once you brand yourself in the minds of the people you want to do business with in your local area, it will be difficult for them to forget you. And that’s when you know you’ve done a successful job at branding you business.

Other small business branding practices include simple things like a slogan or tag line that appears on all of your marketing copy, a color that can be associated with your business, a particular style that can be associated with your business and sets you apart from your competition, or anything that establishes you as unique and professional in your niche.

Branding is really all about putting yourself in the minds of your customers so that they remember you even when they aren’t trying to. I’m sure you picture the logos of McDonalds, Coca-Cola, Proctor & Gamble, Abercrombie & Fitch, Exxon-Mobile, and a couple dozen other large corporations without much effort. You can do the same thing for your small business with just a little branding effort and the people you want to remember you will, just when they least expect it.

When it comes to marketing your small business website, there is no one right way or a single wrong way. There are effective and ineffective ways. What we try to do here on the Small Business Mavericks blog is to give you an overview of the online marketing options available to you and let you choose the ones that will be most effective for your business. Since every business, and every small business website, is different, they all require different marketing strategies to maintain an effective online marketing campaign.

For many small businesses, a simple strategy of blogging and article marketing can be very effective. For others, you might be better off with an intensive PPC campaign. Or you may require a strong social media marketing effort. But almost all online marketing should begin with a well-optimized website and move out from there.

Even after building your small business website, you can probably benefit from all of the above marketing strategies. But your budget may stand in the way of performing some of the tasks you want to accomplish. That happens. The important thing to keep in mind for any small business is to work within your budget to design the most effective online marketing strategy for you. If you need help with this, we’re here to be your guide.

When it comes to online marketing do you know what your most important online tool is? The one for your small business?

Is it your newsletter? Twitter? Facebook, LinkedIn? Google? Nope. None of the above.

The most important small business online marketing tool is a well optimized website. This is particularly true of small businesses that operate in a small geographical area. You are competing against other local businesses - online and off line. Your website is the best tool for reaching prospects online, through the search engines, and through other online marketing vehicles.

Your small business website is your hub, your base of operations for doing business online. Through your hub everything about you should flow, maybe not as a direct conduit, but in some kind of manner. Your social media campaigns should drive traffic to your website. Your website should receive search engine traffic. It should also receive your word of mouth traffic. Your networking traffic. All of your online marketing efforts should drive traffic to your small business website. And that’s why it’s the most important online tool you have. It’s your best sales tool.

Chris Crum has a useful article at WebProNews on sponsored Twittering. It seems that popular entertainment blogger Perez Hilton makes a pretty good buck selling sponsored tweets. Of course, most of us aren’t Perez Hilton or enjoy his level of influence. That’s a different matter.

Today’s question is, Should you charge for sponsored tweets?

I’m leaning against it for small business owners. Here’s why:

• You want your Twitter account to be about your relationship with your followers, not your relationship with your sponsors.
• You could get a reputation as a sponsor hound if you do it too often or choose the wrong sponsors.
• Your small business will likely suffer by accepting a few dollars for a sponsorship when you really want people to buy your products and services.
• Since paid tweeting is often paid by CPC, cost per click, unless you have a lot of followers - like more than 100,000 - you probably won’t make much on sponsored tweeting.

You have to decide when you set up your Twitter account just want you want Twitter to do for you. If you joined Twitter to promote your business then you shouldn’t use sponsored tweets. The only time I’d say you should accept sponsored tweets is when what you are tweeting about will interest your followers, then you should do it for that reason and not for the money. But be open about your sponsorship. If people find out that you are accepting sponsors and you haven’t been transparent then you could have some credibility issues.

If you have a local retail shop you could increase your business simply by offering coupons - online. An article in WebProNews explains how consumers respond better to online coupons than they do print coupons. It’s a really good read.

But how do you do it?

Well, there are a number of ways that you can create coupons actually. The most popular way is through e-mail marketing. You can send out coupons as stand-alone e-mails or include them in your newsletter. Services like Constant Contact allow you to include a coupon in your newsletter and have a space for it in your template.

While newsletters and other e-mail marketing tactics work like a charm, those aren’t your only options. Some companies have made good use of Twitter as a means of delivering coupons. It’s real simple. You build a list of followers and upload a downloadable or printable coupon on your website and send the link through Twitter to your followers. They see it, download it and print it (or print it directly off your website) , and bring it to you. It’s a good way to increase your business and attract new customers.

Local businesses can leverage the power of the Internet and coupons simultaneously for better business. Why not?