Understanding Online Small Business Marketing

Online versus Offline

• Offline: Most businesses learned from business school marketing 101 that with a traditional brick and mortar business it's all about "location, location, location".  In order for a traditional retail store to survive, the owner will locate the store in a highly populated (visible) area where a large group of people will pass by, like a shopping mall or busy street corner with lots of traffic (cars) driving by!  The majority of the brick and mortar businesses have this marketing strategy down pat!

•  Online: Very simply a significant number of small businesses fail online because they do not recognize the fundamental difference between online and offline commerce!  In order for businesses to be successful they need to understand consumer behavior, which in this case, businesses must learn the reality of online behavior.  And the reality is that when you get traffic to your web site it is NOT about getting it to just "pass by" like your brick and mortar business.  It's about providing the visitors to your web site with "information, information, information." 

Learning how to be Successful in Online Small Business Marketing

It should be very clear to you at this point that during the first steps to starting a small business you need an online presence (web site). And when an internet user searches the web you need to understand that they are seeking information (behavior). But... they are seeking more than just information, they are seeking "relevant information". As you may, or may not know "content is king", and when consumers are searching the web, they are seeking specific, relevant content.

For example, if the theme of your web site is based on selling "home theater accessories", then you need to make sure that the content is relevant to that specific theme! If the content of your web site is not relevant to the theme, then you will be severely penalized by the search engines, resulting in low rankings.

Using the above example, if the theme of your web site is "home theater accessories", then you would strategically place relevant keywords and keyword specific phrases such as: "home theater", "accessories", "home theater furniture", "home theater seating", "popcorn supplies"... so on and so forth... through out your web pages.

You now have a theme based keyword specific web site that has relevant, content rich information, which in turn is attracting free (high search engine rankings) targeted visitors. At this point most uninformed online entrepreneurs would start to SELL, SELL, SELL, their products and services. If you do that, then your online business will FAIL, FAIL, FAIL! Ultimately, this where most online businesses fail.

The first steps to succeeding in online small business marketing should entail learning how to PRESELL your potential customers...

When you start to attract free visitors to your web pages for the first time, these visitors do NOT know who you are and frankly don't care about you. These first time visitors are "cold leads" because they do not trust you at this point. They do not trust you enough to buy your products.

So how do you turn these cold, untrustworthy strangers into warm, willing to buy consumers? The answer is that you provide them with information, information, information! But, there is much more to it than that.

You must provide a solution to their problem. When they search the web, they are seeking out information on a specific topic. They are doing research on particular products and services. You need to provide a solution to these specific searches. If you want to gain their trust and confidence and turn them into warm leads, you must provide your first time visitors with relevant and useful information.

Let the content of your web site reflect your personality. Be yourself. When strangers are visiting your web pages, they can sense if you are a fake. Let them know you are a real person. This will turn cold leads into warm, willing-to-buy consumers.

Now you are ready for the conversion process. You can now MONETIZE (make money)! You can take your warm, willing-to-buy visitors and convert them into income. Once you gain their trust, you can begin selling your products and services.

In summation, the first steps to starting a small business is a process. This process includes writing a business plan. This business plan consist of learning such things as consumer behavior and future business trends.

But, more importantly, the first steps to starting a small business should include learning how to be successful in online small business marketing!

And keep in mind that this online small business marketing strategy can apply to marketing any type of business whether it's marketing for attorneys or dental marketing for that matter.

So as you can see understanding online small business marketing is one of the first steps to starting a successful small online business!

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