Five Online Marketing Tips and Tools for Small Business Owners

The Challenge of Getting Found Online

Business owners face many challenges as they try to juggle finances, long work hours, marketing, and their personal lives. Business owners often have to wear many hats as try to grow their businesses into successful companies. One of the vital components to being successful is having a good marketing presence both off and online. Here are a few bits of advice for marketeers looking to increase their online presence. This is just a basic list to help you get the ball rolling as you look to expand your business.

1. Get listed in local directories: There are no reasons why your business should not be listed in free directories like Google Places and DMOZ (business directory). There are literally hundreds of local business directories to help out your business. Not all directories are equal, but check out the website, GetListed.org, to help you get started in seeing what directories you should appear at.
2. Start a blog: It seems like every marketing guru is pushing this one, but blogs can help your website in many ways. First, it can help you connect with customers by providing quality content that they can share via social bookmarks and Twitter. Secondly, if the blog is hosted on your site, you can gain quality content, which assists in building your website's search engine optimization. If you host your blog on another site, make sure you link posts to your website to help get found online.
3. Experiment with Google AdWords: Google offers a great service with their cost-per-click advertising. It is good for owners who have a website, but are not appearing in SERPs. Before using AdWords, make sure you read up on it, so you can carefully track your return on investment.
4. Use social media: There are tons of available resource on websites like Mashable that inform you how to use social media for your business. Not all forms of social media are right for your industry, so do your homework to see what is best for your company. The most popular sites are Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. These tools allow you to effectively engage with your customers.
5. Monitor Feedback: Make sure you LISTEN to what your customers are saying. Ask questions, conduct polls, monitor website statistics (Google Analytics is free.). See how you can add value to your customers, and they will return the favor. Listening to customer's needs and acting on that knowledge is perhaps one of the most important things for a healthy business.

These are just a few thoughts to get you started on the right path for you business. There are tons of other free tools and services that business owners should use, so go ahead and explore. Also, talk to your IT solutions provider to see how they can help you set up a blog on your site.