Need Small Business Marketing Services? Website Development and Promotion, PPC, SEO, Content Distribution, Social Media , Video Services, Graphic Design – Our Small Business Marketing Pacakages are comprehensive. Contact Matt – kurbpromo@gmail.com
Small businesses need marketing – I just told you my 10 best internet marketing strategies for 2009.
But some strategies work better for some businesses than others.
At the moment, as you may know if you’ve been reading (yeah right! haha) I’ve launched a whole lot of new businesses online, and I’ve been talking recently about breaking down the steps to get your online business or small business website ready to start marketing your services.
I talked about this recently, using successful small business marketing strategies to make websites effective and viable as soon as possible.
So I’ve been doing a lot of copywriting, a lot of which has been posted up on this blog, covering different aspects of the online services I offer, as I peel them off my main online marketing platform into individual niche services such as PPC and SEO services.
Not to mention the recent power post on my top 10 internet marketing strategies for small business in 2009 where website development was number #1 because you can have all the marketing clout in the world but if your website sucks then you may aswell forget it.
It’s got to look professional, provide convincing copy and generally convey a compelling experience.
But now I am generating the basic content I need I must admit that as soon as the content is up and the designers have developed a concept for the visual theme, so that the sites are at least established . . . which business will I start marketing first?
Which will become the most profitable quickly with the least effort?
Let me just cross analyse and compare.
Idea #1: Is a service I have cheap access to which I am aiming to market locally alongside
Idea#2: Is a high demand, high value product but in a niche im inexperienced in
Idea #3: Is of course my own specialized services in SEO and PPC
Idea #4: Is a low value product in a highly competitive industry but has proven results if you’re committed if you put capital into it, but again im inexperinced in this niche
Idea #5: Is a cheaper value proposition for blog promotion. This service is much lower intensity then any of the other digital coaching services we offer, but expands to a much wider audience.
If you read my top 10 you’ll know I rated adwords as the top marketing strategy after basically just having a decent website to start with.
This is the point where I take my list and comparing this to my list of ideas and determining how successful each of these strategies will be.
1: Website Development
2: Google Adwords PPC
3: Blog Promotion
4: Online Video Marketing
5: SEO
6: Email Marketing
7: Article Marketing
8: Social Media Marketing
9: Viral Marketing
10: Community Building
What kind of sites would ppc adwords work for?
Adwords would work for Idea #1. But not #2 or #3, because the market is too competitive, or rather, I’m not at a level where I can be competitive in it. Again the market for #5 is somewhat undefined, however, bloggers are more sophisticated generally then to engage an online brand that is so freash and hasn’t been developed.
So adwords could work for #1 and #4, but both may require more than I’m used to spending because I haven’t tweaked the sites to adjust for the kind of business I’m doing. It’s as I say, I’m moving into this quickly and I still don’t KNOW that the site will convert, it’s likely to be more expensive then my flagship sites which I’ve been optimising for so long.
I need to be aware of how much I can spend to get a sale. With #4 I have to spend to get sales, but it’s all in the ratios.
With a lot of these other strategies, blogging, video, and more social / interactive stuff, it just takes so much time I wouldn’t use it unless I was building a contribution to my core activity.
But if adwords won’t work, what will? We must leverage SEO, blogging and article marketing to get the soonest possible results. How will this work?
Well we know you’d do your keyword research, and then we have to write up to 10 pages, 3-5000 words all up anyway to provide decent base content for our niche site. The most likely way you would do that is with a blog, and you’d follow up that with some SEO link building.
My suggestion is that when you’re preparing all that base content for your site you actually make a real effort with up to 3 of the articles/blog posts so that you can leverage them immediately for article marketing.
You can always contact us if you need freelance copywriting and/or article marketing so you can continue to create articles and content for promotional purposes, but the main sales copy, the important copy that your visitors will read when they decide whether to pursue a purchase, should be written by someone who knows your business well, even if that’s you – though we can edit up your landing and sales copy for oomph as long as we have enough of an idea from you about exactly what it is that makes your proposition so special.
But which of my new business ideas will SEO and content marketing strategies work for?
With #2, it’s my only choice, mainly because the demand is so high I will get search interest and this is best to capitalize on by developing search friendly strategies and hoping for the best from that. With #3 I’m slightly more flexible, but it’s still a good low risk / low commitment strategy.
With #4 I have no hope with SEO because the item is something that employs a hook, it’s not something they’d be looking for otherwise. With #5 it’s a bit of a mystery, but because I’m competing as a low value technology service there will be competition and there may be scrutiny.
With #1 it’s a high value proposition and it’s a competitive market in general so even locally I will be competing against much more established players.
But what about branding, social media, web 2.0 stuff, is it useless?
Not at all, it’s just now that we’re projecting beyond 3 months from now, then we can think about what social media strategies could work.
Immediately, I already have my established sites from which to launch my new online marketing niches services – design, blog promotion, ppc and seo. I believe a lot of my business for these services will come from traffic through my established sites and blogs, which is really more a product of the web property I’ve already built – my blogs, SEO authority, but social networks and the kurb brand also.
Determining factor: I can’t commit to ALL these ideas How much work is involved?
#3 the PPC and SEO consultancy gigs are at one end of the scale because although high value, and the end of the day it’s me who has to do the work. With #1 and #5 I can happily rely on my staff, as long as the task is managed and checked off with me. With #2, where I’m dependent on search, there will be a lot of effort involved in content creation, but the difference is I’m building as asset rather than selling my labour so the work I’m doing is not only building my assets value but also increasing the amount of revenue it’s bringing in.
But this is where #4 shines. A marketing system more than anything else, I just have to optimise and make adjustments where appropriate, it’s not likely to take me any more than an hour a week once I’ve spent a few hours on it – not unless I want to, of course!
THE FINAL ANALYSIS: EXPENSES + TIME COST vs. RETURNS
Also asset value, how valuable the asset will become through development.
Idea #1
Estimatedl Monthly Earnings (6 month projection): $1000
Monthly PPC / Marketing / Labour Expenses: $350
Time cost: medium
Asset Value: High
Idea #2
Potential Monthly Earnings (6 month projection): $1200
Monthly PPC Adwords + Marketing Expenses: $100
Time cost: High
Asset Value: Highest
Idea #3
Potential Monthly Earnings (6 month projection): $1500
Marketing Expenses: $100
Time cost: Highest
Asset Value: Low
Idea #4
Potential Monthly Earnings (6 month projection): $1200
Monthly PPC : $600
Time cost: Lowest
Asset Value: Lowest
Idea #5
Potential Monthly Earnings (6 month projection): $1200
Monthly PPC / Marketing / Labour Expenses: $500
Time cost: low
Asset Value: Medium
I’m sorry I’m going to have to break this down further in another post – coming up soon!
Need Small Business Marketing Services? Website Development and Promotion, PPC, SEO, Content Distribution, Social Media , Video Services, Graphic Design – Our Small Business Marketing Pacakages are comprehensive and start at $950 for 3 months. Contact Matt – kurbpromo@gmail.com
