SCORE

[kodydog]

3 weeks ago Rose and I went to a marketing seminar sponsored by SCORE. The speaker was good, obviously a salesman. There were about 10 people in attendance. We quickly learned the discussion was aimed mostly at people just starting a small business but Rose and I enjoyed it anyway.

The first thing the speaker pointed out was unless you have a large budget, newspaper, phone book and local magazine ads are a waist of money. He said radio and TV ads were too expensive. He said for the biggest bang for the buck internet advertising is the way to go .

He then asked,  if he brought a paying customers to our business what percentage of the sale would we be willing to pay him. He went around the room for answers. The highest was a medical supply sales women who said 20% The rest were between 0% and 10%. His point was why wouldn't you spend this much on advertising to bring in more customers?

He then spent the next two hours explaining how internet sales work. His first tool, of course, is a web site and figuring out how to get it on page one.

Next he talked about Facebook. He really pushed spending a little money on your business page, $10-$15 would give you tremendous returns.

His third favorite is Linkedin. This business website was created to generate leads. But I think it has turned more into a social network.

And of course he said you must have a page on Google My Business.

I think I have my website figured out. We are on page one when you google upholsterers in Gainesville Fl. But it would be nice to be closer to the top of that page.
I've never tried boosting a post on Facebook and was wondering if this is worth while. Can you boost a post to reach just your local area?
Does anyone here have a Linkedin account? I don't, but I soon will.

[MinUph]

I have all those accounts Linked in, FB, google, so many I forget them. The only ones I worry about it my site, FB and a little Linked in. I have boosted ads on FB and I only spend about 7 bucks at a time. It reaches a lot of people. Not sure of any response directly from them as I dont take the time to ask. But for the $$ it is cheap advertizing. As for your site. As long as your on page 1 your doing well. There are other search terms you should try to see how you fair with other terms. I would never recommend paying for hits on a website. I've done that before and it a waist of money. Just get the site to do it on its own. Good content is key.

[65Buick]

I have 'boosted' posts on fb. I think it is fairly cheap advertising. It does reach a lot people and I have some even inquire further.

Score is a very helpful seminar.

I will also say I've been told that instagram is the thing now. People don't care about words. They want to see pics. If they see something they like, they'll investigate.

[sofadoc]

I would never recommend paying for hits on a website. I've done that before and it a waist of money.

I agree. They have a lot of little dirty tricks that only get you "empty hits".

For example, have you ever started to click on an interesting "teaser" story only to have the screen jump just as you started to click, so you end up clicking on an ad instead of the story? So then you immediately X out of the ad. Some poor sap is getting charged for that click that did them no good.

And of course nobody can prove it, but it's highly suspected that sites like Google have spambots clicking on your website just so they can charge you for them.

[Mojo]

We do no print advertising with the exception in programs at events we are attending. We spend no money on print or media advertising. All of our advertising has been referrals from customers. We do have a program we use with select customers but I cannot get into it as one of our major competitors now follows us here on this forum. The only thing I will say is there are select customers we will " work " with on advertising ventures and the returns can be astounding. It is very dicey and you have to work with a trusted customer.

In regards to Facebook my wife just started handling our account. She is doing some testing and research after she pays to boost certain posts. The response has been great and overwhelming but she is in the first phase of her investigation which is mainly " who are these people and is Facebook pulling a fast one on us with phantom people and likes ? " If in fact this all is real then I have to credit her for selecting the proper category for boosting the posts we make. She hit a category that has a massive following. I will say we have seen a slight uptick in facebook customers who are actually ordering.

In regards to internet marketing, search ratings, etc. we rely on a consultant in Vancouver, BC who is an expert on search engines such as google. She tells us how to structure our website so it is more search friendly and what key words to use which Googles algorithms like. We also rely on my son who is knee deep in the internet business world and knows when Google changes up their algo's.

One other part of or online marketing plan is Twitter. We tweet occasionally and I considered Twitter to be a waste of time. But something I did not know was that Twitter tweets actually plays into google searches some how or another. As our consultant explained, online presence is done as a package so one plays off the other. 

I remember receiving awards for marketing and PR and was once voted one of the top 10 marketing consultants in motorsports. This was all back in the 90's. Today I struggle with marketing plans simply because I have a bitch of a time wrapping all this social media and internet BS into standard marketing plans that I used several years ago. I guess my age has caught up with me and this high tech marketing left me in the dust.

I still believe that marketing for small businesses has to be looked at like a battle field. You have to outflank your competition and align your troops from all directions. In other words, marketing a small business is not just one or two things but a group of things that all play off one another with a central goal in mind.

Chris

[kodydog]

Thanks everyone. Lots of good information here.

Mojo, you say your wife is boosting certain posts. I'm guessing these posts are ones that have already done good on your facebook page.

When you say structuring your website are you saying make it mobile friendly? That's something I need to do.

The whole Key Words thing is a mystery to me. I know it has something to do with which words are likely to be used in a google search. But how do you find these words. Is there a list or something?

[Mojo]

I built our two websites using Wordpress. Most of the themes are already setup for mobile devices so you do not have to do anything with that.

Here is what I suggest:

1.) Use inmotion.com for your webhosting company. Their customer service is awesome and they have boatloads of tutorials. We have two accounts with them and they host both of our websites. They have an amazing reliability factor. I have used their tech support numerous times. We used to be with GoDaddy and bailed on them. Inmotion is awesome and cheap.

2.) Use wordpress and a friendly theme to build your website and make sure you use Boldgrid when building it. That add on ( its free BTW ) makes building a website much easier. Wordpress has a great deal of free themes. The nice thing about wordpress and boldgrid is you can stage your website while your building it and then go live with a click of the button. If you do not like the one you posted you can start building a second one in staging and then go live ( active ) with that one.

3.) Once you get your website set up install jetpack. This will prevent attacks and help lock down your site. YOu can do more research on jetpack by googling it. We were getting hit with bots that tried to hack into our website. Jetpack shuts these down.

Once you get your website setup I can help you with a few other things such as what online contact form to use, etc.

Our websites are due for overhauls as I do not like them but you can get an idea by going to them.

www.talinrv.com

www.stonevos.com

Chris

[Mojo]

I forgot to mention Keywords. Sorry. Keywords are based on an analysis that is run telling you which keywords to use.

Once you get your website up and running then let me know and I will see if our consultant will give me the keywords to use.

In regards to structuring, what I meant is how to place certain tags in certain areas. Each page needs to be tagged differently.

This is why we use a consultant because it is so damn complex.

Chris