How Do I Market My Small Business Online
By Joel Black on 08/30/2013
I have been running a web design company for nine years and the question of how do I market my small business online is one that is continually evolving. As small-business owners we wear a lot of hats, we work long hours and we have to prioritize our tasks. When it comes the marketing strategy and execution, it usually gets put in the important but not urgent quadrant.
Importance Quadrant
There are many books you could read, but who has time for that. We are already trying to juggle working on the business, working in the business, family life, kids, social activities and networking. If I’m going to read book, you’re going to have to keep up and read it to me!
But if you stop and think about it for a few minutes, what would having time to plan your marketing strategy and how to execute it mean to your business and the future growth? Just maybe you would bring in more leads close more deals and generate more revenue! That would mean you could hire more people, take the load off you and even find somebody that knew how to do marketing strategy a little better. Maybe you wouldn’t have to work so much, spend more times with the kids and build better relationships with your friends! I already know what you’re thinking, is easier said than done.
Here’s one of the secrets that I’ve learned, you’ve got to step out of the boat. It’s never going to get any better unless you put one foot in front of the other. It’s just like going to the gym, you get off work, you’re tired, you go home and you don’t want to go to the gym. Day after day it’s the same thing tired, go home, don’t want to go to the gym. But then one day you pick up the keys and just go out and sit in the car. Then what happens? You back out of the driveway and put it in drive. Then guess what, you’re on your way to the gym. You get there and start working out. Next thing you know you’re there for an hour and sweating. Then you feel great, you’re exhilarated, excited and can’t wait to come back tomorrow. It’s always the first step, one small obstacle and one small victory at a time, and then all at once.
Over the next few weeks I’m going to outline seven first steps you can take to marketing your small business online, yourself.
I’m going to outline simple things that you can start for each new marketing effort, if you’ll take that first step it could pay off big. Things such as when you first start your business, what is the first step to letting people know that you’re in their local area. Or when you have a new website and it’s not indexed by any search engines so you show up nowhere, what is the first step to being found online. One thing I think you’re really love, what is the first step to building a sales and growth plan? And I wouldn’t leave out a couple really hot ones in our marketing age, what are the first steps to getting on social media and what are the first steps to optimizing my website
So I hope you’ll follow along in the series and give me feedback, I would love to use it in one of the seven first steps.
