11 Things You Should Do to Build an Awesome Local Presence

Local is all the rage these days as more and more businesses realise the importance of nearby audiences for more opportunities. Here are some steps you can take to make sure that your website is taking advantage of the best options for local prospects.

1. Optimise your website content

To attract a local audience, you need to look trustworthy and professional. Start by making sure that your website content is fully optimised. Include concise and relevant information, such as your locations, contact numbers and email, as well as an interactive map showing where you can be found. Showcase customer stories, FAQs and a blog to have a more personal approach.

2. Go mobile

According to Google and Nielsen, 75% of mobile searches for local stores and services lead to a store visit, a purchase, more research, or a call. This undeniable opportunity cannot be missed by local SME's. Make sure to incorporate mobile response into your game.

3. Get found in listings and directories

Why Is Building An Email List So Important?

An email list is the bread and butter of an online business. It's a collected list of email addresses of customers and prospects that have filled out a form to receive your messages. These email addresses are collected into a database that allows you to easily send out messages both immediately and automated to all the people on your list, or specific ones that you choose.

So why is building an email list so important?

1. You Get Permission

When you get someone to join your email list, you are basically getting permission to communicate and continue marketing to them via email. By subscribing, they are telling you that they want to hear from you and what you have to offer.

2. You Own Your Email List

Let Customers Do Your Marketing For You

You know about testimonials - those little blurbs from customers that tell prospects how great a product or service is.

But did you also know that over 70% of customers look at product reviews before buying? And 90% of participants in a Zendesk survey say they were influenced in their buying decisions by positive reviews.

According to research firm McKinsey, customers that come in through the advocacy of other customers actually stay longer and pay you more over time.

And it gets even better, because according to Influitive, customers who advocate for you will actually stay longer and pay you more.

Talk about a win-win-win, with YOU coming out as the biggest winner of all.

Small Business Advice: Build A Winning Business Model

Whether your company is a start-up or several decades old, the business model is the hub around which all activities revolve. The business model is the blueprint that shows company leaders how to create value and build a money-making enterprise. It is the engine that drives revenue and generates profits.

Fail to devise a winning business model and you will not build a business that succeeds over the long-term. Creation of a profitable business model is a multi-disciplinary exercise that encompasses marketing, sales, strategy, operations and finance.

Identify the primary customers (Marketing)

10 Best Small Biz Tips Sites To Follow

Do you need help on how to run your small business? Are you looking to bring in more clients or customers? Or do you need advice on how to start a business because that has been a desire of yours for years? If you answered yes to any of these questions then this small biz tips article is for you.

I have put together a list in no special order for you of the best 10 business sites to follow in 2016. As I am writing this article it is almost the end of 2016 so I would say that these 10 biz sites also apply to 2017 too.

1. Succeed As Your Own Boss - by Melinda Emerson. This small business site is all about starting a business and becoming your own boss. Melinda talks about how to start a business, how to grow a business, leveraging social media. Marketing your business, finance and accounting and small biz chat. This site is geared towards anyone just starting a business to anyone who is already in business and needs help.

Small Business Sales: Using Content Marketing to Sell Online

Blog content (as a matter of fact, all content) has a very specific purpose. That purpose is to educate and inform your readers/target audience) about your products/services and to put them in a position of knowing a little more after they read your content than before they read it.

Using content marketing to help you sell online 

First of all, when it comes to your content, you need to consistently deliver top-quality, valuable content to your readers. It is your content that enables you to build a relationship with the other person, which means that eventually, that person will trust you enough to want to buy what you are selling. This is where content marketing comes into it.

Content marketing is an amazing tool to help you sell your product(s) online. If you do it correctly, your content marketing materials will reach the other person in such a way that he or she will only consider you and your business to be the one from whom to buy.

The truth is that your ability to sell anything online stems from the content that you share with other people. If not for your content, you would not have any way of letting your online connections know about what you are selling and why it stands above the products and/or services of your competitors. 

Of course, as far as selling is concerned, it is much more difficult to sell a service than to sell a product.

7 Creative Ways To Inject New Life Into Your Marketing Plan

All companies will find themselves at odds with their marketing strategy. This isn't to say that they are not getting the results they want from the plan. It just seems as though the plan in, and of itself, grows a bit stale and worn. What's more, all successful companies find that in order to stay on the cutting edge and attract new customers, they need to tweak their marketing approach to appeal to new audiences.

It’s a risk that has tremendous rewards, and even more key is the idea that you don't have to go too crazy with new approaches. With these seven slight, creative tweaks, you can breathe new life into your marketing:

1. Use Social Media a Little Differently