Low-Budget Online Marketing

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Holly Berkley. Low-Budget Online Marketing

LOW-BUDGET ONLINE MARKETING FOR SMALL BUSINESS

Introduction

1. The Benefits of Online Marketing

What Is Online Marketing?

Prerequisites for Successful Online Marketing

Adequate human resources

Consistent communication

To sell or not to sell online

What Sells and What Doesn’t Sell Online

Case Study

Case Study

2. Attracting Your Target Audience

What Are the Characteristics of Your Ideal Customer?

How to Target Different Types of Audiences

Women want to save time and money

Seniors prefer simple sites

Teens represent a large, racially diverse generation

Case Study

Get the Word out through Those You Know

How to Personalize Your Website

Learn from Amazon.com

Organize and customize content

Focus on the customer

Testing Your Website’s Appeal to Your Target Audience

Banner Ads Rely on Placement

Worksheet 1: Discovering Your Target Audience

3. Create Effective Content

Survey Demonstrates Importance of the Web

Key Components of Great Web Content

Case Study

Case Study

Low-Cost Ways to Generate Fresh Content

Dangers of Changing Your Home Page Too Much

Visitors could become confused

You could hurt your search engine position

Benefits of a Flexible Home Page

Test campaigns and track successes

Keep focused on your target audience

Keeping Content Fresh with a Blog

Ways to Generate Content If You Don’t Write

Buy content

Have customers generate content

Link to other sources of content

4. Generate Free Advertising

Pinpoint Marketing versus Interruptive Marketing

What is pinpoint marketing?

Day-part marketing

Embedding Marketing Messages in Content

Establishing Credibility

How to get your content onto other sites

Swapping Advertising

How to Generate Word-of-Mouth, Viral Marketing

Case Study

Offer something for free

Utilize message boards and chatrooms

Choose a memorable domain name

Case Study

Small Businesses Go Social to Generate Free Advertising

Consider Location-Based Applications and Websites

5. Email Marketing

Stats to Support Email Marketing

Permission-Based versus Spam Email

Building Your Email List

Goal-Oriented Marketing

Email Newsletters

Content ideas

Why short is sweet

Timing and frequency

Email List Hosting Services

Testing and templates

Tracking success

Targeted content

Writing an Effective Subject Line

Taking a tip from viruses

Learning what works

Campaign Number One

Campaign Number Two

Worksheet 2: Planning Your Email Campaign

6. Building an Online Community

What Are Online Communities and Why Are They Important?

Community-Building Technology and Ideas

Message boards

Content

Calendars

Contests

Chatrooms

LivePerson instant messaging

Community Editors

Buying Ad Space on Other Community Websites

Using Online Communities to Assist with Customer Support

7. Co-Branding Strategies

Why Co-Branding Is Different Online

Integrating Partnerships into Your Website

The Power of Co-Branding

Co-Branding Guidelines

Case Study

How to Integrate Partner Products

Do it right the first time

Take a tip from newspapers

Complementary Partnerships Work Best

Worksheet 3: Finding the Right Co-Branding Partner

8. Getting to the Top of the Search Engines

Choosing the Right Keywords

Optimizing Your Website. Home page text

HTML tags

Title tag

Meta tags

ALT tags

Flash pages, image maps, and heavy graphics

Redirects, pop-ups, and pop-unders

Back buttons

Text links

Site maps

Frames

Link Popularity

Case Study

Keeping Content Up-to-Date

Positioning Your Website in the Local Market

How YouTube Helps Your Ranking

How Long Does It Take?

Paying for Positioning

Success with Keywords

CPC versus CPM ad buys

The use of landing pages

Writing effective ad copy

Worksheet 4: Search Engine Submission Readiness Check

9. Cost-Effective Media-Buying Strategies

CPM, CPC, and CPA Ad Buys

Testing, Testing, Testing

How to Make a Banner Ad Successful

Target Your Ads for Success

Track Results

The Power of Customer Referral

Case Study

10. Basics of Good Web Design

Simple Sites Are Best

Keep the User in Mind

Guidelines for Effective Web Design

Worksheet 5: Testing Your Website for Usability

Worksheet 6: Rate Your Website Marketability

11. Working with Your Web Developer

Stay Away from Technical Lingo

Be Prepared and Define Your Goals

Use Examples of Other Sites

Get 24/7 Tech Support

Put Everything in Writing

Keep Your Developer Informed

The Price of Web Design

12. The Power of the Web

The Internet Reaches Everyone

Crossing the economic barrier

Breaking the language barrier

What this means for your small business

Key Points about Online Marketing

References

Dedication

About the Author

Notice to Readers

Self-Counsel Press thanks you for purchasing this ebook

Contents

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With the Internet boom of the mid-1990s came the end of corporate-controlled media. The Internet revolution gave everyone a voice, regardless of income, status, or political views. It quickly took the small business beyond the boundaries of the neighborhood and allowed entrepreneurs with limited budgets to compete on a global level.

However, it didn’t take long before deep pockets and major corporations starting taking a bigger and bigger piece of the Internet space. In early 2000, big businesses used their budgets to develop massive online co-branding campaigns and to push out flashy high-tech ads across major web portals. They hired SEO agencies to optimize their websites to show up at the top of Google, and the once cost-effective pay-per-click ad buys got too expensive for the small entrepreneur with a limited marketing budget. It seemed that the small businesses could no longer afford to keep up.

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Another example of targeting your banner ad placement is embedding it in content. Before you buy an ad, ask the website editors what types of stories or promotions they may be doing that would relate to your business, then ask for ads on those pages. If the site has a keyword search, ask to have your banners come up when words associated with your primary product or service are entered.

The deeper the page in the site, the better, because you will be reaching visitors who are truly searching for your information. This strategy is directly aimed at those companies looking to get the most value for their online marketing dollar. For companies with a larger budget, I would recommend buying banners on the home pages for branding purposes. However, branding is expensive, with the average cost of establishing a dominant online brand estimated at $80 million USD. So for the purpose of online marketing on a shoestring budget, don’t waste your time or money on home page banner ads. (For more on online ad buys, see Chapter 9.)

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