As I’ve stated before, marketing and advertising are generally items in small business which are not noted as holding high priority. Small business owners often simply throw money at this endeavor. Think of the aspects of your business which you pride yourself on. It is highly likely that those which flourish are the ones which have been carefully planned and thought out as an integral part of business strategy. When it comes to marketing, the same principles apply. Here are just a few techniques which small businesses can employ in order to optimize their advertising strategies:

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) - Search engine optimization is something which is rarely considered in the realm of online marketing, and it is easily the most important. Do not be discouraged. Most small business owners do not incorporate these strategies because the techniques and knowledge are not of the common variety, and hence, are not freely handed out. In fact, most do not even realize that there is a system to ranking on the major search engines. Common beliefs are that you need money to be at the top, or that sites are published on search engines based upon when they were created, and so on. Know that this is not the case. Developing a strong SEO campaign could be the difference between marketing success and failure. Keep in mind that most web surfers will not venture beyond the first page of their search results, so it is of utter importance that you get yourself to that first page!

Social Networking - The popularity of social networking techniques has created a global surge in marketing capabilities. With over 20 million unique visitors per month, social networking is an asset which no small business can afford to pass up! And do not make the mistake of thinking that this tool is only for those marketing their products and services worldwide. These sites have specifically incorporated means of targeting LOCAL people in order to drive targeted traffic to you, and to your website. Social networking is a revolution in advertising capability.

Email Marketing - In all of the research that I’ve conducted concerning small business advertising and marketing, there is one thing which drives me up a wall like nothing else. This is the fact that MOST small business, once receiving paying customers through their doors, do not do what it takes in order to ensure that these customers repeat that business! If you are not doing anything to keep your business in the front of their minds, then what is to stop them from simply pulling out the phone book again the next time they require similar services or products? Email marketing is the solution to this issue. With email marketing, you give yourself a cost effective way of STAYING in touch with your customers and offering them that extra professional touch which other business are not! Always be building your relationship with your customers.

Search Engine Optimization strategies are constantly changing and evolving to suit the needs of the internet. This is a chaotic process and it demands that you remain up to date on the practices to ensure that you are receiving the best possible results from your site. Here are just a few techniques which should rank very high on your SEO priority list.

Key Term Research

This is where the majority of time is spent on any SEO campaign…or at least it should be. Knowing your key terms and what to target are the most important ingredients to your success. Everything else which you do in your SEO campaign will be directly derived from what you unveil here. Choose your terms wisely, and ensure that you are utilizing them properly in your efforts.

Quality Links

Many companies waste time aggressively attacking any and every available link source. However, if the time is spent acquiring quality links to your site, not only will you be more successful on the major search engines, but you will also provide your customers with a higher overall quality, especially if you are also linking back to these sites (which is often the trade when negotiating links).

Meta Description Tags

Choose your description tags carefully. Research has shown that a vast majority of search engine users do not simply click on the first link on the first page following a search. In fact, most searchers base their click investment on the information offered to them through the meta description, otherwise known as the information below the link itself. If you are offering a promotion, ensure that this information is provided in the description. This will greatly improve your chances of acquiring the search traffic.

First, let’s answer the question which many of you may be asking. What is SEO? To put it in short, it is Search Engine Optimization. What this means to you is that these are the methods used to increase your search engine rankings thus driving more traffic to your site, increasing leads, and increasing sales.

Because sales is the single most important aspect of any business, it is important that you use every tool available to you in order to ensure that you’re utilizing the most efficient business plan. First, you must incorporate a website. However, do not make the same mistake that so many small business owners do, and that is thinking that simply having a website IS online marketing. Nothing could be further from the truth. SEO practices are involved in every aspect from the initial design of your website and on from there into the regular maintenance and content updates of your website.

Small businesses often make the mistake of utilizing free services such as Website Tonight and so on. The problem with this is that these generic templates are not optimized for SEO, and they lack the full capacity of control needed to incorporate these strategies. In addition, when it comes to overall look of your site, you WILL get what you pay for.

Be sure that you are using only the best tools for your business, as well as for your SEO campaign. This will ensure that you receive only the highest quality results and you can rest assured that a sound strategy will be worth every penny. The market is still open, especially for local small businesses, when it comes to incorporating online marketing campaigns. In addition, the competition is still very minimal. Take advantage of marketing strategies online while it’s still on the ground floor, and ensure a spot for the future success of your company.

Do you currently have your email address on your website? It is set up to where anyone can click on it and have your email address ready to send you an email? If so, you are leaving yourself open to email spambots.

I know, can you believe their are people in this world that will take all the effort to create spam and send it to you.  And even though their is the  CAN Spam Law we still keep fighting to eliminate it from our lives.

So, how do you fight back spam and receive only those emails you want to receive? Here are a few options that have worked for us.

The one service I think every business should seriously consider is Spam Arrest. I was introduce to this service a number of years ago, but I felt that my email spam filter would do the job. However, even with the improve spam blocker system my email provider was offering, the spam seem to get by. I decided to take my friends recommendation, and I wish I would have taken his advice when he first mentioned it to me.

What Spam Arrest does is anytime someone sends you an email, they are sent an email requiring the sender to enter a captcha to make sure it is a real person sending you the email and not some spam trying to get through.  Once they have completed this process, then their email will be delivered to you. This means that you will only receive emails from a real person who actually goes through the process that Spam Arrest has set up.

You can also easily add and approve your contacts so they don’t have to go through the process. Once someone goes through the process the first time, they would not be required to do so every time they send you an email.

If you are tired of getting spam, you should take a serious look at this service. It will save you a lot of time going through all your spam and deleting it.

Another service we use which is cheap and effective is My Contact Station.  This has a more Web 2.0 feel and their is no process that someone has to go through to send you an email. You can check out My Contact Station in action at here on our contact page. Click on the “Email Us” link and there you can check it out. While you’re there, send us an email and say, hi!

If you are still dealing with spam, don’t be like me and put it off. If I were to add up all the time I put in to going through deleting all the spam I ever received, it think it would be pushing a half of years time.