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Finding new customers is the #1 goal
that
ALL small business owners
have in common,
regardless
of the type of business!
Without customers you actually
don't even have a business, so learning
how to find new customers for your business is vital for
the existence of your company!
In the year 2011 and
beyond, the internet is proving to be the most cost
effective way of reaching countless numbers of potential
customers in very little time. We will focus on finding
new customers by utilizing the vast reach of the
internet!
Many “brick and mortar”
businesses have absolutely NO presence on the internet.
Many business owners or marketing department personnel
would think to themselves: “we do have an internet
presence, because we have a
website!”
Unfortunately, creating a website
is step number one in developing an internet presence
that will convert to more sales for your business.
Contrary to the belief of countless people that will
"guarantee you the first page in Google", an increased
internet presence doesn’t guarantee that your business
will get more customers.
A increased internet presence can
guarantee however; that your business is found out of
the “virtual sea” (millions) of domain names,that
compete for page views daily. Factors such as: the
product (or services) offered on your website and the
interest of prospects to purchase what you sell, your
website’s ability to keep visitors engaged in relevant
content - so that they actually
spend time on the page (average time on page) and many
other factors.
Let's take a look
at several ways of finding new customers:
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Local Directory
Listings
One VERY important step to take
in order to largely increase your company’s internet
presence and get more customers, is to submit your
company’s URL to local directory listings.In order of
importance, a business should be listed in Google Local
Directory (Google Places), Yahoo Local Directory (this
is not free) and Bing Local Directory
(free).
Google currently has the majority
of search related market share (60% plus) so listing on
Google local will DEFINITELY increase the presence of
your business online. Bing also brings traffic and Yahoo
is one of the highest ranking sites on the planet; which
will help boost your company’s site in the “eyes” of the
search engines. If your business doesn’t have a local
directory listing, you are literally passing up
money!
Fun Fact: You don’t NEED a
website in order to benefit immediately from local
directories!
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Creating & Maintaining A
Blog
A big tool for finding new
business, that is overlooked by many businesses is a
blog ! Finding new customers is not
hard to do, when you create a blog that possible
customers of your business might be interested in
following.
Another good reason to have a
blog, is that if you can create posts and articles that
are “keyword rich” with the keywords that relate to your
business or product, you can get TOTALLY FREE traffic
from the search engines and your business can possibly
explode! No, that is not an
exaggeration!
For instance, you create a
product called: “The Tree Grabbing Tool.” After a
keyword search and market/competition analysis, you
realize that there are about 1,000 people searching
for
Tree Grabbing Tools every month! That’s a total
of 1,000 possible customers that you would have
otherwise not found had you not created an article with
those keywords, that you placed on your blog and had
optimized for traffic!
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Third Party
Endorsements
Third party endorsements from
trusted websites can work wonders for your business, and
are considered by many prospective customers, to be
mandatory in their buying decisions. Customers that look
online for products and services, have a mouse under
their hand instead of a car on the road, and are
entering your “store” (website) by viewing their monitor
instead of burning energy visiting a physical
store.
What do those things mean for
YOUR business? Well, the majority of internet shoppers
have become savvy enough to learn to look for
testimonials regarding a business, before they make a
decision to purchase anything. Having testimonials by
customers on websites such as: Google local, Yahoo
local, Bing, Yelp , etc; will go a long way in
establishing credibility for your business, that will
encourage people to buy from YOUR
company!
Also, having other websites
mention your company or product, is considered a third
party endorsement, and not only helps in giving
customers and idea of how your business operates and
pleases customers, but counts in how your website is
ranked by Google. Higher Google rankings (among other
factors) will definitely help bring more traffic to your
business which equals more sales!
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Capturing Data Of
Visitors
Do you know how many visitors
view your website daily? Weekly? Monthly? Quarterly?
Yearly? Are you aware of how long a visitor spends on
each page? Do you know which pages of your company’s
website are visited most often? These are some of the
questions among many, that you will need to ask before
starting a campaign to gather data of your
visitors.
Next, you will need to know where
the visitors originated, how they found out about your
company, what their interests are in relation to your
products/services, are they visiting to buy or just to
gather free information, and more.
Once you know the answer to
these, you can begin to create ways to capture your
website visitors’ information such as email address,
name, phone number, etc. Having a list is crucial
because you now have “internet equity” in the form of a
list of (hopefully) interested prospects, who might
eventually purchase your wares!
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A website that
'ranks' for targeted keywords
This is one of THE most important
tips to remember, if nothing else in this guide. Having
a website that can ONLY be found when a person types
either the name of your business into a search engine,
or the exact URL of your website in their address bar,
is TRAGIC for your business’s online
presence.
The
reason is, MOST customers will not know the name of your
business-specifically, to type it into the search
engines. Also, most customers will not magically gather
the name of your business when they never heard of it
before, and type your web address into their address
bar. MOST customers or prospective customers, type what
they are looking for specifically, into the search
engine.
For instance, your product
“The Tree Grabbing Tool” is for some reason
being searched for much more recently, than it has
before. Now the searches are up to 2,000, from 1,000 per
month – a few months ago. Since your company doesn’t
appear when someone types into Google or Yahoo: “tree
grabbing tools for a low price”, or “tree grabbing tools
to buy”, etc; you are missing out on unbelievable
amounts of money and....
Your
ideal customers may never, ever find
you.
Those dollars being spent
will most likely never find
your company’s bank account.
Ensuring your company’s website appears when a customer
types various search queries to find what they desire,
is THE most important thing that you can begin to do
today, for the sake of your
business.
If you would like to know
how we can help your business achieve all of the results
listed in this guide and more , contact us today
!
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Jarvis Edwards - TekTime IT
Consulting
Email Us By Clicking
Here
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