Small Business Marketing-7-Point Checklist and Execution Plan

In case this is the first time you’re hearing from me, I’m Andrew Mazer. I’m the founder of Small Business U, but first, I’m a business owner. I started a wholesale business in Philadelphia back in 1986 in service to hardware stores, variety stores and $1.00 stores. I was 21 years old at the time. I’ve been in service to business owners ever since.

I’m a business owner who learned how to market my own business online. After wasting a bunch of money on my first website back in the late 1990’s, out of sheer frustration that I couldn’t find anybody to competently help me, I went on a mission to figure it out.  I decided to take it upon myself to learn how to leverage the Internet to get new customers. There was no way I was going to miss the emergence of the Web as a marketing platform.

One Technique or Tactic Can Make a Huge Difference. You May Find it On This Page.

In year 2000, I discovered one way to get my business in front of a qualified market of prospective customers and since then, I’ve been getting new customers and making real sales every day.

This one single idea actually carried me and expanded my business for more than 2 years before I realized I there are probably more things I could start doing to get more customers online.

This book is normally reserved only for attendees of my $397 workshop. Order the digital download for $7 now and you will also get a $50 Off coupon toward the tuition to an upcoming workshop. CLICK HERE.

I started telling some of my friends in business some of my ideas which they applied to their business and they started getting career changing results as I have.

One of the coolest things that I discovered which inspired me to teach other business owners is, marketing your business online is not at all complicated. One thing, one tactic applied can spark results in dramatic fashion. This is not an exaggeration. In fact all the things that I teach business owners work independently of one another. Each time you add another, they all work better. You don’t have to be an encyclopedia of knowledge and be a prisoner of processes to get your website to start generating customers.

As I mentioned, the very first thing that I learned about marketing my business online was really effective. Every morning I would wake up to find new orders in my inbox. And every day, people would call and say I found out about your company online. And then they would order merchandise from us to sell in their stores. This went on for a couple of years before I even considered I could be doing something more. I learned one more thing. it worked. Each individual element of marketing I added improved the results.

Now I’m going to give you a list of 7 things you can do and you don’t have to be an expert or get any technical training to do the stuff.

Out of these 7 things, it only takes ONE to make an impact on your business. Pick one to implement.

These are listed in no particular order.

1. List all your services or products: Create a web page or blog post to describe every item or service you sell. For example, if your a massage therapist, you probably have a menu of massage services or styles all listed on one web page. Now, give each individual massage style it’s own dedicated page. Why? Because if you make a page dedicated to Pregnancy Massage and all you do is describe pregnancy massage, and its benefits, this page will attract more attention from the search engines when someone is looking specifically for pregnancy massage. Add statistics, quotes from medical experts, and testimonials from women you have served. Drop a photo on the page and you have added valuable content to your website which will serve you and your business forever. For businesses selling physical products, do the same thing. Start with your favorite, most profitable items and work your way down. It’s a tiny investment in time and creativity and worth so much.
2. List all of your service areas. Whether you serve people at their homes or businesses or if they come to you, this is an effective strategy. I have a friend who has a garage door business. He repairs and replaced residential garage doors. His business is called Cherry Hill Residential Overhead Door. Cherry Hill is a town in Southern New Jersey, very close to Philadelphia. He was obviously getting great placement in the search results for people looking for garage door help in Cherry Hill but he was invisible in the surrounding towns. We made a page listing each town in about a 15 mile radius around Cherry Hill and then an individual page describing the services he provides there. Now, he’s getting call fro all those areas and he’s even showing up in searches in adjacent towns not even listed on his site. If you’re in a business where the people come to you, list the places where people come from to patronize your place. Make up web pages describing your place, your products and services, give directions, add a map…make it helpful by using practical information which may be useful to the website visitor.
3. Make an offer. Give your website visitor a reason to engage with you right now by giving them a gift, a discount coupon or a piece of educational material which can be delivered automatically and electronically the moment someone puts in their name and email address. This will improve the chances of doing business with you right away AND it will add their contact information to your email list so you can keep in touch.
4. Expand your online footprint. Make sure your business information (your profile) is listed on every possible and practical search engine and directory online. This is so important. You may have done this years ago but guess what…you need to revisit this. Things change. There are dozens of places you can have detailed information listed about your business and people use them. You can list details about your business and products, business hours, photos, and more. This puts your business right in the intersection where people are at the time when they’re actively looking for a business, product or service like yours.
5. Improve your About Us page. One area where no one can compete with you is YOU. Most owners don’t like to show themselves on their About Us page. Instead, they just tell more about the business. I know there are a large percentage of people who make their decision to buy because of what they learn about the owners on the About Us page. Why are you in business? Did you take over the family business? Where did you learn your craft? Married? Love dogs? Sharing things like this make you more endearing to certain people. Other businesses can’t (or won’t) get on this personal level but it’s very powerful. It’s especially important if you’re the type of company who serves people in their home.
6. Consider advertising on a directory. There are all kinds of online directories out there where you can place your company profile and fill it with details about your business (see #5 above). Some are general and some are industry-specific. Many are free but come with an option to pay for premium listings. Some are only fee-based. My company has been advertising on a fee-based directory for many years because it works. A good fee-based directory does their own marketing in order to drive results to their subscribers. It’s like having a team of professionals working to make sure your investment produces dividends. I highly recommend you do your homework and find a fee-based directory with a good reputation and try listing your business on it.
7. Make your website mobile-friendly. If your website is more than a few years old and you haven’t updated it in awhile, it’s probably not considered mobile-friendly or mobile responsive. This means it doesn’t display well on phones and other mobile devices. It’s official…the search engines will not show your website in the search results (it will rank your website much lower) if there are similar businesses with mobile-friendly websites to show instead. It’s a bummer to have to redo your website but it’s a fact of life. Getting customers is worth the investment.

If there’s one item on this list which stimulates you to take action, I honestly think it will serve you well. I have executed these elements on my own websites and for clients and they work. They work now and they worked years ago. They’re not “tricks” to try. They’re tactics which work.

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If you got any good ideas from this checklist, you will REALLY appreciate my book,

The Business Owner’s Guide to Marketing Online.

I don’t normally sell it online.  I give it away to attendees who come to my $397.00 full-day seminar/workshop.

However, if you have read this far down the page, I can tell you’re a serious student (like me). So, I’m going to give you instant access to download the book for $7.

If you do, I will also send you a coupon code worth $50.00 off my $397 seminar/workshop in case you think it may be for you.

Right now, I have events scheduled in Philadelphia and Cherry Hill, NJ. You can see the details if you CLICK HERE.

Click Here to buy the book now.