It might be tempting for local business owners to make changes to their business listings in order to improve their search engine optimization (SEO), but they actually might be ruining their listing. Changes like adding a slogan to the business name or changing office locations to seem local will actually negatively impact your listing and possibly get you delisted by the major search engines. Here are a few simple ways that you might be ruining your local business listing. Change your phone number in your business listing While call tracking might be an important way to measure success in advertising, your online business ...

If your e-mail marketing campaign seems to be in a rut, it might be time to look at your e-mails and see if it is time to make a few changes. Here are a few quick steps you can take to help increase your turn around rate. Change the content layout. By varying where your content is normally placed in each e-mail, it'll force people to pay more attention to what is going on and not just casually glance through. Segment the list based on customer habits. By creating more specific e-mails that go out, customer interest is more likely to increase ...

It can be difficult to lure new customers to your business. You need to convince them that they need your product and services. It is easier to convince existing customers to use you more. They already know your company and what you have to offer — all you have to do is convince them to use you more. Customer history shows you about their preferences and attitudes and you can customize your marketing efforts for each person. By looking into your customers' sales history you can build loyalty and increase sales for your comment. Recommend products or services that ...

With everyone jumping on the social media bandwagon, it is easy to get caught up in the hype and lose focus. Tapping into social media requires more than just a single idea, it requires an effective plan to help your company and brand create opportunities for community and engagement. Follow these tips to help you get started on your social media campaign. Create a vision Develop an idea of what you want your brand or company to be in social media. Will you be offering special deals or coupons? Is it to personalize your brand? What is the message you ...

Even though it may seem like a bad decision to stay within your market to increase sales, it is often one of the easiest ways to grow your business. You already have an established business, regular customers, and have plenty of information about the area. They key is to know your customers' purchasing histories. Bulk Buying Discount Look at what your high sellers are during various points of the year. Offer bulk buying discounts for those items to entice higher sales. Even if they are only saving pennies at a time, customers respond positively to any kind of discount. Purchase Incentives If you want ...

The holiday season is upon us and now is a great time to establish new relationships as well as build on existing ones. Holiday sales can also help boost your business. Send out holiday cards or ecards. Small businesses can help build relationships with their existing clientele by sending out holiday cards. It could help remind clients about your business if they haven't worked with you in some time. It can also add a personal touch to your company. Show reviews and ratings for products and services. When people are shopping online, they do take into account what other poeple have to ...

Many small businesses have decided to cut their marketing budget, however this can end up hurting your company more than you realize. Spending more money on marketing during an economic downturn can help your company get ahead when the economy turns around. There is a direct relationship between the success of a small business and its marketing spending, according to the “Small Business Marketing Health Check” report from Hurwitz & Associates. About 65% of small businesses that expected increased revenues had raised or planned to raise marketing spending, compared with just 32% to 36% of businesses with flat or declining ...

Having a solid Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaign can help bring in plenty of visitors to your website. However, converting those clicks into actual clients requires another step — landing pages. If your landing page is not up to par, you can drive away plenty of potential customers that you worked hard to get to your website in the first place. Here are three tips to make sure your landing page works to convert clicks into clients. Provide What You Promised There are plenty of things you can say in an ad to make someone click on it. Any promises or claims made should ...

Having an e-mail marketing campaign for your business can be an easy way to keep in touch with clients and other businesses. There are a few steps you can take to make sure that your campaign stays effective. Make signing up easy Getting subscribers is the first step to making sure your campaign works. Make sure that people who are interested in your company actually know how to sign up for your e-mails. Have a clear link to subscribe on various parts of your website. If you have a lot of offline clients, have flyers and marketing campaigns that include directions on ...

When running your own E-commerce site, there are plenty of obstacles that can prevent visitors from actually purchasing something from your website. According to the Retail/ E-Commerce Industry Report Q2 2009 from iPerceptions, some of the top barriers to buying were: Didn't find what I wanted (34%) Website navigation/usability (13%) Too little product information (8%) A bad website design is an simple deterrent for customers. If visitors can't easy find your product and services on your website, then they are less likely to become customers. The experts at OneIMS will guide you through a variety of available options to develop and deploy powerful websites. For ...