Lilly Buchwitz

Farmington, NMApril 14, 2004

Marketing your Small Business on the Internet

your site

Overview

Part IIsearch engines

Part Iyour Web site

Part IVeverything else

Part IIIemail marketing

Part I

Your Web site

Your Web site

Your Web site is your most important marketing communications tool

Your Web site is the face of your business Your Web site is on the World Wide Web —

your customers are more likely to come from Montreal, London, Paris, or Tokyo as they are from New Mexico

Before you promote your site

know your area of service, and make it clear on your site

know who your target audiences are think about what they might expect when they arrive

on your site then design your site with your audience in mind keep it simple!

The number one reason why anyone goes to any Web site is to find information

You never get asecond chance tomake a first impression

Who’s the audience?

What’s the product?

What’s the product?

Part II

search engines

What you need to know about search engines

1. A search engine is not the same thing as a directory.

2. There are only three search engines that matter today.

3. Understanding how search engines work and how people use them will help you “get found” on them.

4. You must carefully prepare your Web site before you submit it to the search engines.

5. Submitting your pages to the search engines takes less than 10 minutes.

6. The only person who can prepare your site and submit it to search engines – effectively – is you.

search engine marketingis a lot like paintingyour home

Search engines that matter

There’s only one directory that matters

Specialty directories

Search for “directory” and “search engine” on Yahoo! for a list

When you find a directory specific to your business, check it out to make sure it’s appropriate

Then (and only then) submit your site You may have to pay for a listing — and it’s

probably worth it

How search engines work

database

search resultskeyword

submit URL(Web page address)

How directories work

database

search resultskeyword

submit listing

$$$$

How people search

they start with broad, general terms like “travel” or “wine”

narrow it down by adding more specific words (“travel Spain” or “wine Merlot”)

they will not search for your company by name they will never search for the words

“welcome to”

Preparing your site to get found(this is the hard part)

Choose 10 words that describe your business, service, or products.

Take your time.

Think like a searcher.

Let’s look at an example…

beer

wine

Toronto

make wine

brew on

premises

make beer

grapes

Using your keywords:html title

The html title of the page is what you see at the top of your browser when you are on that page.

It’s what displays as the link for your listing on a search engine.

Keep it under 75 characters. Make each title relevant to the page it’s on. Spend the most time writing the title for your home page. Write a title for the starting page of each major section of

your site.“Best place to make beer and make wine in Toronto:

Fermentations”

Using your keywords:meta description

The meta description tag describes in a little more detail what’s on your page

It’s what displays below the title in your search engine listing

Keep it under 150 characters to be sure it doesn’t get cut off Make each description relevant to the page it’s on Try to entice potential visitors with clever copy, so they’ll

clickmore…

Using your keywords:meta description

It’s not really about ranking, it’s about describing your page to potential visitors

Not all search engines use it, but if they do, it’s what shows up on the search results page below the title of the page

Here’s how it works:

<META NAME="description" CONTENT="Fermentations: Toronto's favourite place to make beer and wine">

The meta keywords tag can be the same for all the pages on your site

Not all search engines use this tag when ranking sites – but it can’t hurt to include it

Use a list of words and phrases with no commas in between (search engine spiders are programmed to read only a certain number of characters in the keyword tag if they read it at all – commas just take up space)

Using your keywords:meta keywords

Here’s how it works:

<meta name=“keywords” content=“beer wine toronto brew on premises brew your own beer make your own wine make wine from grapes”>

Using your keywords:meta keywords

Using your keywords:ALT tags

every image on your Web site should have a carefully written ALT tag

the ALT text is what visitors see if they move their mouse over an image

Using your keywords:file names

don’t use abbrv.

Using your keywords:on your home page!

Work your keywords into the copy of your home page (and on other pages, if you can) as many times as you can without making it sound ridiculous.

This may seem obvious but it ain’t necessarily so. Focusing on your keywords when writing the copy

for your pages also helps reduce jargon.

an example…

What NOT to do

Don’t load your meta tags with irrelevant keywords just because they get searched for a lot (like “sex”).

Don’t repeat your keywords several times in a row. Don’t hide text on your pages by making it the same colour as

the background. Don’t use a string of keywords for the title of your page. Don’t submit exact copies of pages with different file names. Don’t use re-directs or other technology that will confuse the

search engine’s spider

Submitting your site(this is the easy part)

Bookmark the submission pages of the three search engines that matter or bookmark my page

Highlight the URL of your page, press CTRL/C, then go to each submission page and paste in your URL. You can submit one page to all the search engines in less than five minutes.

If your site is small enough, submit all your pages this way. It will be an hour well spent. If your site is large, submit the first pages of the main sections of your site — the pages with titles and descriptions.

Wait…(this is also the hard part)

it can take from two weeks to four months for your site to be included in the database

it can take weeks after that before you see your site appear in the search results

every time the database is re-indexed, your ranking will change

re-submit every month and monitor your results

Don’t pay someone else to do it for you

no one else understands your business as well as you

it will take more time for you to explain your business to a stranger than it will to do your search engine optimization yourself

FREE

paid placements

Part III

email marketing

Waitress: Well, there's egg and bacon; egg, sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg, bacon and spam; egg, bacon, sausage and spam; spam, bacon, sausage and spam; spam, egg, spam, spam, bacon and spam; spam, sausage, spam, spam, spam, bacon, spam, tomato and spam; spam, spam, spam, egg and spam; spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, baked beans, spam, spam, spam and spam…

(Vikings start singing in background)

Spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, lovely spam, wonderful spam… spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam…

The importance of email

Email is your most important communications tool

Make sure your email address is credible and set up properly with a display name

Prepare a detailed contact page and make it part of your main navigation system

ANSWER YOUR EMAIL!!!

What to send via email?A newsletter

A newsletter is understood to contain information

People who subscribe to, or pick up, a newsletter usually read all of it

Whatever your business, you are an expert in that subject

Give people information!

Educate customers about your product

Present information about your product, your product category, your industry, in an objective, informational way.

Teach your prospective customers. Give them valuable information. They will appreciate it, and come back for

more.

What else to send?

special offers invitations to enter a contest invitations to…. visit coupons/discounts

Rules for email marketing

1. the most valuable list is the one you build yourself

2. always get permission before sending email

3. make it frequent, regular, and brief

4. include “why you’re receiving this”

5. include options for unsubscribing

6. suggest they pass it along to a friend

GotMarketing (www.gotmarketing.com)

Part IV

everything else

Banner advertising

Like all forms of advertising, they’re expensive.

Even if you find an inexpensive site, you still have to pay someone to design the banner

Banner advertising doesn’t fit into the marketing budget of most small businesses.

Sponsored content

think: advertising Calloway golf clubs on a golf news or golf info site

paying for a link on a relevant site might be a good investment for your small business (especially if you serve a niche market)

Run a contest

best way to collect names and email addresses

prize can be your own product/service – or partner with another business so you both benefits

you must offer the site visitor something in return for their contact information

Include your Web address on everything!

business cards brochures signs yellow pages ad t-shirts, hats, pens your car or truck

Measure your success

How many people (unique visitors) come to your Web site

How many times (in a month) they come Where they are coming from (referring

URLs) Whether they subscribe to your newsletter How many calls you get saying “I saw your

Web site, and…”

Let me know about your successes!

lilly@buchwitz.com

http://home.eol.ca/~lillyb/

Remember Yahoo! wasn’tbuilt in a day!