Simplify Your Digital Clutter

My daughter shared a blog post with me -  25 Areas of Digital Clutter to Minimalize. I was surprised to find that I already do many of the 25 areas shared. I guess I've always been about efficiency in my home and business. I purge regularly. By that I mean I reduce, resuse and recycle on a regular basis. I do have to say, though, that my office gets neglected and that's generally the last place I practice minimalizing my clutter!

This was such a good read that I wanted to share it with you. I'm sure you'll find it helpful. And there are so many good links in it for further information, I'll simply send you there to read the full post.

Click here to read entire blog post at Becoming Minimalist.

Enjoy! Ciao for now, Paula

6 Ways to Market Your Business Locally

1. List Your Business in Local Online Business Centers
If you're a regular reader, you've already listed your business in the Local Business Centers at the top 3 search engines, Google | Yahoo! | Bing. (If you haven't, click here to sign-up for this free how-to email series or go to the "List Your Local Business Online" link at the top of this page.)

2. Have an Interactive Web Site
While you can promote your business without a Web site, it's not recommended. There is still the perception that your site should be an digital "online brochure".  PLEASE don't fall into this notion. Your Web site should provide interaction and value to your customers. They visit your site to make an inquiry, find a phone number, place an order, or look for more information. Make it easy to do that by providing good site usability and multiple ways to reach you. Keep it fresh and new by updating your content regularly.

3. Promote Your Web Site
Being a gardener :), I like to think of Web sites like a garden. Your Web site is the garden and you are the gardener. Nothing happens if you don't first prepare the soil, plant the seeds, water and ultimately harvest the fruits of your labor. Same thing with a Web site - you can't simply put your "brochure" online and do nothing with it! You must prepare, plant, tend and get (and keep!) the customer. You see, it's not an inactive process. Just like all your other marketing efforts to get customers in your door or to your site, you must work at it consistently and persistently.

There are literally hundreds of ways to promote your business online - search engine optimization, local business results optimization, pay-per-click advertising, banner advertising, joint ventures/affiliates, email marketing, social media marketing - just to name a few.

Online marketing follows the same principles that offline marketing does. You need to make an effort to create transparency and exposure for your business. Get some related links to your site from other local businesses. It's just like handing out your business card in the offline world. Create a targeted email marketing campaign. It helps build trust and keeps you top of mind with your customers. And you don't have to be selling in these emails - simply providing valuable information with an occasional offer works best.

4. Get Social
The question isn't IF social media can help your business, it's HOW. It's human nature to be social creatures craving belonging and friendship. Social media addresses that need.

Again, there are MANY strategies on how to use it to promote your business. Find what works best for you. The most important thing is to commit time to it so you are present and interacting. Just like a Web site that is nothing more than a stagnant brochure online, a business page that isn't interactive is a waste of time. Figure out ways to leverage your existing customers/fans to find new opportunities.

5. Set Up Joint Promotions with Other Businesses
In my local area, there is a group of about 20 business owners that created a group that promotes their downtown shopping community, both to destination-seekers and local shoppers. They have a Web site and a Facebook fan page. All of these businesses can link to the site and fan page, as well as to each other to show they are part of this common group. This shows support for and raises awareness of their efforts to promote their local shopping community.

6. Patience and Persistence
At a recent local marketing seminar held in our community, South Central College presenters shared the 10 P's to combat marketing insanity and encourage us to look at our businesses through a new lens -

• Product/service
• Price
• Place
• Promotion
• People
• Process
• Positioning
• Performance
• Physical Evidence
• Patience & Persistence

Marketing in today's world is like paddling upstream. All small businesses today need to adopt a state of "adaptive capacity" - the ability to be flexible and adapt to today's marketing "normal". Today's "normal" is not static, you can never catch up, is always changing, is always adapting, is always anticipating, is always connecting to your market(s), is hiring people that love to learn and can roll with the punches.

In my own business, I began establishing annual goals for myself. That quickly changed to semi-annual and then quarterly. With today's fast-changing technology, we have to be ready to change with it and stay ahead of the curve. Or at least not get behind it. :) What worked yesterday may not work today and certainly won't work tomorrow. The moment you stop actively marketing, you go backwards faster than you moved forward. Continue to push ahead and continue to innovate.

Ciao for now, Paula

Local is Key Area of Focus for Search Engines

Local businesses have a host of new options for raising their profile online. Many new services are becoming available specifically aimed at the small, local business. BusinessWeek.com reports that U.S. small businesses will spend $17 billion on Net (online) ads this year.That figure is expected to increase by $36 billion by 2014, making up 1/4 of all local advertising.

BusinessWeek also reports that there's "an increasing sense of urgency around having an effective online marketing strategy." Heck I've been talking about it with my small business clients for YEARS now! But maybe more awareness and easier, more affordable tools will emerge - moving more small businesses to take action.

You really have 3 choices - do it yourself, hire a professional (me or another qualified marketing consultant), or do nothing. OK, so you really only have 2 choices because if you're reading this you already know that "nothing" isn't really a choice. :)

Microsoft's Bing is enhancing their local business listings. Google has rebranded their Local Business Center as Google Places and created pages with more information on small businesses and enhanced your account profile so you can see your listing on Google Maps, see how many times they shown it, and you can even see how many actions (clicks) people made when your listing was presented. Log in or add your business listing here: Google.com/Places  If you want step-by-step instructions for adding your listing to each of the top 3 search engines (Google, Yahoo! and Bing), send an email to me at locallistings@aweber.com and I will send you a free email series that will show you how to do it.

In 11 cities, Google will also let you pay $25/month to have your listing pop up with an icon and other information when searchers check neighborhood maps from their smartphones and on the Web. If that's successful, maybe the Twin Cities will be next. If you have a listing, you'll show up. And if not, your competition will get the business!

There are lots of opportunities out there for you to market your local business online. These online sites have been successful in providing platforms for local, small business listings - MerchantCircle, Yelp, Valpak, Groupon, and CityDeal.

Companies like ReachLocal, WebVisible, HubSpot, Infusionsoft (and many more like them) have small business software that can help you bring order to the chaos of monitoring your online presence. Most have a recurring, monthly fee to use, but are browser based, so you can access your account from where you are - home, mobile or office.

The bottom line is that local businesses face an ever-growing range of options for promoting themselves online. If you need help sorting them out and finding which is best for you, give me a call or send me an email so we can begin the conversation. :)

Ciao for now, Paula

Marketing Seminar for Small Business Owners coming to New Prague

Hi everyone. In my ongoing effort to help get information and resources out to our local small business owners, I'm going to participate in a marketing seminar coming to New Prague on Tuesday, June 15, 7-9 PM.  I encourage you to come also. It's extremely affordable at only $10.00 and we will go home with a marketing book valued at $34.95. Now, it remains to be seen whether or not this will be valuable information for us, but for $10 bucks and 2 hours of my time - I'm going to find out!

It's presented by Southern MN Initiative Foundation (SMI), and supported by the New Prague Economic Development Administration (EDA) and the New Prague Chamber of Commerce. The 2-hour seminar will be held in the 2nd floor council chambers at the New Prague Chamber office at 118 Central Ave N.

For more information, see the ad in last week's New Prague Times or
view the ad online at SMI's Web site.

Register online at the SMI Web site or by contacting Connie at 507-455-3215 or email connie[at]smifoundation.org.

If you'd like to stay updated on small business marketing on a regular basis, follow this blog. You can do that a number of ways - see the right-hand column and choose the option that works best for you.

I regularly post updates in all areas of small business marketing online. If you've found the information and resources I provide valuable, PLEASE share it with other small business owners.

Thanks! Paula

The Key to Making the Right Business Decisions

is FLEXIBILITY. I could relate to a recent blog post by David Bullock about the ever-changing business environment we live in today. He reminds us that technology is changing, customers are changing, and market demand is changing. How do we make the right decisions when changes happen so quickly.

In my business, Internet Marketing, some things change gradually while others things like Social Media change rapidly. How do I make the right decisions for my own business as well as my clients? BE FLEXIBLE.

I'm a planner and cautious by nature, so once I have a plan it's difficult for me to change on the fly - it creates stress for me. So working in the online environment has taught me to not hold too tightly to any one client or any one decision. More often than not, technology changes, customers change, market demand changes, goals change, etc. I have to learn to change with them. That's a challenge for me! Most of my business requires that I get to know a client's customers and business market. A great deal of effort and time goes into this process.

My best experiences have been when I have the opportunity to work long-term with small businesses. It helps me immerse myself into their target market and think like their customers do. That's the only way I can best serve them. But the catch? Most small businesses don't have the time or money to commit to such a relationship. So I must always be 'listening' to them to find out how I can best meet their needs and budget; it's a challenge!

If you are willing to share some thoughts with me about what you struggle with in your small business, it would be helpful for me. You can email me at marketyourbizonline[at]gmail.com or simply post a comment at the end of this post. It will help me be more flexible when making my business decisions, which ultimately will help you, my customers/clients. :) Thanks, in advance, for your input!

Ciao, Paula

P.S. David's entire post on this subject  is brief and should only take a couple of minutes to read, but it's worth a look. Click here to read: Learning How to Make the Right Business Decisions.