Get online to drive the growth of your small business

Maybe your small business is not yet online, and you're thinking about how a website could be used to generate sales and lift the profile of your business in your market.

Or maybe you've already got a website for your small business, but it's not generating anywhere near the type of traffic and prospects that you had hoped

There is absolutely no question that online marketing is one of the keys to the future growth and even viability of your small business ......and it's not just for the big corporate end of town. But you've got to get educated in how to leverage Internet sales and marketing for your business. And I've come across a great non-commercial resource site that can help you

The Australian Government has  an online resource to help Australian small businesses understand how the Internet can benefit them.  At the Winning Business Online website, there is a training program offered that is funded by the Australian government that helps businesses who are yet to get online, or they may have an existing online presence but are needing to improve  their understanding and skills.  The site offers free and low-cost seminars.

Watch out for people promoting expensive Internet marketing and SEO services - there is much you can learn and do yourself.

For more than the past five years, online marketing has definitely been driving the growth and success of my management training business - I was self-taught and I'm certainly not a tech. You can learn to master this. For some more tips on website and online marketing, see SEO for Small Business

Video marketing for small business

A great opportunity to get yourself onto the first page of Google is through the use of video marketing.

You may well find that by preparing a short video clip to promote your product or service and then getting it posted online with YouTube, could mean that your video snippet appears in search results ahead of your actual business website.

However, in preparing and uploading your video, be careful to select the right keywords that you want to tag your video clip with.

Have a look at these short clips, which explains  some of the potential benefits that video marketing can offer your business

Choose your attitude

This short video clip offers a great reminder of the importance of the leader's attitude in setting the mood in the workplace.

Yes, you will have days when running your small business will seem to have just one frustration after another! But when you have staff who work for you, then you need the resilience to remain positive, because how you deal with those frustrations and demands wll so often be setting an example that your staff will follow.

So if you are in a leadership role, the video is an important reminder to us that we can choose the attitude we adopt when responding to the pressures and frustrations of a small business .....

Small Business Marketing - ignore social media at your peril

Like it or not, social media is now an essential part of the small business marketing landscape.

Statistics and surveys reveal that more than 85% of people under the age of 35 are using Facebook and / or Twitter. If  the users of Facebook were a country, it would represent the third largest population in the world.

If your small business does not have a strong online presence, then it is likely that your competition will be found ahead of you when your prospective customers are conducting an online search for your services or product.

In previous posts, we've explored the importance of ensuring the website of your business is search engine optimised (SEO) - however just as important is that your small business has an active presence in social media.

It's easy for your business to set up a Facebook page, but just make sure it has some educational or informative content regularly uploaded so that people want to bookmark your site and return to it. The potential for interaction with your business through social media is a way that you can start to build a relationship with prospective customers ..... and people prefer to do business with those they know and trust

Have a look at this video, that offers a compelling case to ensure your small business incorporates the use of social media in your internet marketing plans