Stop Before You Hire an SEO company
Hiring a Freelancer
Anyone who has lurked on the Flying Solo forums, realises the amazing breadth and depth of talent hidden in back bedrooms around Australia. For others hard at work in traditional servicing businesses, they are weighing the odds between having the perceived safety of using an agency or company that employs staff and talks the language of the corporates... or realising that their marketing/IT needs can be filled best by 2-3 trustworthy freelancers.
One advantage is that small businesses on a budget can order up a small project of low-cost, like Adwords management, that their staff might flounder with, to gain better results. Similarly, if the freelancer knows about SEO they can educate the business owner of the benefits and work it into a web makeover or content writing job... without expecting them to pay $2,000 upfront for SEO without knowing the return. Conservative business managers tend to believe it only when they see the numbers and the results. Inch by inch, it’s a cinch!
Back to Basics for Small Business Websites
The boys over at FutureNow Inc have more tools, webinars, and reports than the average marketer, and they also don’t mind giving them away. One great tool I’ve found is the ‘We We tool’ - it interprets how many we’s you are using compared to how many you’s. Is your spiel all about yourself, or is it client/customer focussed?
Try it out here… if you dare.Another fascinating read to help cut the crud from your SEO and marketing is
Copyblogger.com. The latest blog is ‘How to Write Copy for Short Attention Spans‘. You will notice several different writers’ advice on copyblogger, all of excellent quality… hence their popularity.But What About Social Media — the New Phenomenon?
At every second turn someone is promoting an event to help businesses learn social media networking. Just here in Brisbane we have had two lately, and another on 27 May with Interactive Minds about Using Twitter. Then there is the Social Media Success Summit (all online), which kicks off 26 May.You might have considered using Twitter yourself. Find out if it is really valuable in
this article. Some very localised businesses would not suit that style of marketing, especially one where you do everything yourself! Remember, you can only do so much. And with that advice, off I go to enjoy the rest of my day as a Mum instead of a SEO copywriter with ADD.
Which Types of Marketing are Effective for Small/Micro Business?
In a 2008 Micro Business survey by Flying Solo, 44% of participants said the biggest challenge they faced was finding enough clients/customers. Wouldn’t it be good if that was made a little easier and less expensive? Business people need marketing that gets results, and that is what I have been studying for years.
While 85% of respondents found clients through word-of-mouth, 31.9% found customers through their website, 32.8% through other business partnerships, and 27.4% through social networking and forums. Cold calling ranked way down at 15%… eye-opening figures for sure. Perhaps we should not be afraid to try new marketing mediums, especially low cost ones.
Many advertising salespeople out there are getting desperate… because things are changing. Businesses of all sizes are taking some budget away from traditional print, radio, and TV, and focussing more online, with the aim of creating ‘touch-points’ with customers. This means the organisation is visible and even interacts with the customer where they are having fun, sharing and communicating – like in a virtual community or social network.
Most of us know how important it is to make our websites search engine optimised. Amazingly, only 18% of the 1411 participants had their website SEO working satisfactorily, with a large proportion having done no SEO at all. Search Engine Optimisation is one of those things that can be done with zero budget if you have the right knowledge, and I explain how in my new guide. It is befuddling to me that something that can attract customers naturally is not even being done by the majority.
How hard is it to be exceptional on the internet in 2009? It’s not hard, if you have a roadmap.
In the
Small Business/Entrepreneur’s Guide to Digital Marketing on a Shoestring, you will be given the knowledge to market and test it all yourself, or get the help should you need it, all online.