Marketing That Wont Break The Bank

Have you been intimidated by Twitter and aren’t quite sure where to start? Or have you been using it for a while and need to know if you’re “doing it right”? Either way, there is always a lot more to learn about Twitter and how it can be a useful part of your small business marketing toolkit. Unlike Facebook, LinkedIn and other social networks, your messaging on Twitter needs to be short, sweet and to the point. On today’s episode, we’ll talk about how to engage your audience on Twitter, give you some tips and tricks to build your audience and take a quick look at Twitter ads for business.

In business, our goal is to get more customers, right? In many cases, it isn’t as easy as it sounds. One reason is that your customers need to know, like and trust you before they are willing to buy your product or service. One way to do that is by using Facebook Groups. Depending on your needs, Facebook Groups are great ways to communicate with your audience – whether it is to advise them of upcoming product launches or sales, give them some extra guidance, allow them to ask questions – or any number of topics that can help them to get to know, like and trust you. In this week’s episode, we’ll talk about how to set up a Facebook Group, decide on a “theme” and start growing your tribe (and business).

Have you ever wondered how successful your social media marketing efforts are? Do you know if all that time and work is paying off? Do you truly know what’s working and what isn’t? As we enter the final stretch of 2017, it’s time to take a close look at your business and how you are doing so you can start planning for 2018. In this week’s episode, we’ll explore how to evaluate your social media marketing efforts, do a little sleuthing on your competition, and come up with some “to do’s” to add to your 2018 marketing strategy.

When it comes to building your email list, you need to give people a reason as to why they would want to receive emails from you. The old “subscribe to our newsletter” button on your website is no longer enough to get people to sign up. So what’s the solution? Using lead magnets that give your audience something of value in return for their email address. On this week’s episode, we’ll discuss what constitutes a lead magnet, how to create a lead magnet, and then how to promote it to your audience.

There are many moving parts to optimizing your online presence for local search, and all need to work together so that your potential customers can find you on the internet. In last week’s episode (https://www.voiceamerica.com/episode/102312/local-search-optimization-a-simple-guide-for-small-business), we talked about off-page optimization – claiming your business from search engines, building citations and backlinks, and making sure you are using reviews, press releases, your blog and other sources to optimize your presence outside of your website. This week, Jim Froling, president of (949) Local Internet Marketing, is back with Local Search Optimization Part 2. Join us as we explore what you can do on your website with on-page optimization to help the search engines recognize you and deliver your information in local searches.

Search Engine Optimization is a term that is used a lot when it comes to internet marketing. Simply put, it’s the process of making sure that your website and online presence ranks high enough for the search engines to notice. When it comes to local businesses – whether you are a brick-and-mortar or service-based business – it is extremely important to optimize your online presence so that those potential customers in your own back yard find you. On this week’s episode, Jim Froling of (949) Local Internet Marketing will teach us about local search optimization, what works and how to make sure you are maximizing your online opportunities to be seen. Join us as we unlock what could be a valuable asset to your online marketing efforts.

I’ll bet that most of us did this when we started our businesses: We decided to go into business for ourselves, thought up a name, and then said “I need a logo to brand my business”. The fact is, there is a lot more that goes into branding your business then just putting a logo together. In this week’s episode, we’re going to talk about the importance of branding, what goes into building your brand and how important it is to work with someone knowledgeable in branding or rebranding your company. My guest is Jan Miller, owner of 21-13 Impact Graphics. He is an award-winning graphic designer and has helped many businesses build (or rebuild) their brands from scratch. Join us as we discuss branding and its importance for your business.

We all know that email is an important method of communicating with our customers and potential clients. The goal is to stay top of mind, so that when the time comes, they buy from us. Theoretically our email list should be something that we are constantly cultivating, giving them more and more reasons to know, like and trust (and buy from) us. In practice, we tend to forget this quite often. As a result, our list is stale – or we don’t even have a list to begin with! In this week’s episode, we’re going to explore how to grow your list – big or small – with a variety of strategies that will make your audience WANT to see your emails and miss them when they don’t show up in their inbox.

To blog or not to blog…that is the question that many small businesses ask these days. There’s a lot of work involved in starting a blog – from set-up to writing content to building relationships with your readers. In today’s episode, we’ll break down the concept of blogging into actionable steps that will get you up and running quickly, including a look at some of the technical aspects of maintaining a blog, how to write content your readers will love, and simple ways to share that content in multiple places for maximum exposure.

Social media is recognized as an important part of any effective small business marketing strategy. Conceptually, we understand what we need to do to promote our businesses online, and, in most cases have made an effort to do so. Sometimes, though, there are lingering questions in the back of our minds as to whether or not we are doing it “right”, if we are reaching our audience, or how to actually implement something that in theory should work, but we can’t for the life of us figure it out. In this week’s episode, we’re going to answer the top questions that many small businesses seem to have – many coming directly from listeners to Marketing That Won’t Break The Bank. So, if you have a question that you are dying to ask (and if you have that question, chances are that others do too!), then please send them our way at janet@411marketingsolutions.com (and tune in to hear the answer LIVE!).

Most of us have used LinkedIn to connect with others professionally, whether it’s to expand our network, look for a new job, or even hire someone for our expanding businesses. LinkedIn does provide some unique ways for businesses to promote themselves far beyond the typical personal profile. In today’s episode, we’ll take a look at how to incorporate some of those aspects into your marketing plan, including how to set up a company page and showcase page, how to build a content strategy specifically for LinkedIn, and some simple marketing tips to help you engage your specific audience on LinkedIn.

Whether you are an avid Facebook user or post sporadically, it is difficult to ignore the power of Facebook to help connect with your audience and build your business. The key to being successful on Facebook is having a plan in place that gives your audience a sense of continuity and another opportunity to know, like and trust you. Today’s episode focuses on how to engage your audience on Facebook with some tips and tricks, how to put together a simple Facebook marketing plan that is manageable, and talk a little bit about using Facebook ads to further promote your business.

When it comes to online marketing, one of our top goals is to get our content in front of the right people who will ultimately buy our products and services. To do this, we need to get into the minds of our target audience to figure out what they are typing into the search engines to find your products and services, and then build our content around those search terms, known as keywords. In today’s episode, we’ll explore the importance of identifying the correct keywords to focus on, how to find them utilizing various tools, and some do’s and don’ts as to how to use them throughout your content marketing.

Sometimes as small business owners we feel like we are all alone when it comes to marketing and promoting our businesses. But, in reality, there are many opportunities around us to partner with others that complement our business. Building partnerships and “power teams” with other businesses means that you can pool ideas, audiences and marketing dollars that will make you all stronger than if you continued on your own steam. Joining us today are my friends Norma Jean Benton, Senior Loan Officer at AmeriFirst Financial Inc., and Jody Bras, Realtor® with Windem Real Estate. Together they have developed such a strong partnership to promote each other’s business that they have become a force to reckon with. We’ll be discussing what it takes to be a power partner, things to look for (and avoid) in partnerships, and what extraordinary things can come out of your power team.

We’ve all done it…every time a cute video shows up in our newsfeed, or someone makes some astonishing statement with a video attached we’ve sat there and watched it. Sometimes we are amused, sometimes we think to ourselves “why in the world am I watching this?”. Regardless of our reaction, we all know that video is a powerful marketing tool. In this week’s episode, we’re going to take a close look a video and the various ways that you can use it to build your brand, promote your business and get people talking about you and your business.

Online advertising is an important part of your marketing toolkit. Many small businesses aren’t quite sure where to start, or have heard horror stories of pay-per-click advertising gone wrong that they have shied away from the subject all together. On this week’s episode, we’ll explore the world of online advertising, looking at how it works, what it costs, common mistakes that many small businesses make, and much more. My guest is Jim Froling, owner of (949) Local Internet Marketing. He is my go-to expert when it comes to all things Google AdWords and other online advertising opportunities. Join us as we unlock what could be a valuable asset to your online marketing efforts.

In many communities, Buy Local initiatives and campaigns are increasing in momentum. Support for Small Business and buying local programs often go hand-in-hand. The term Buy Local is fairly broad and each community may determine their own policies and guidelines. In this episode, we will explore what one City is doing to promote Buy Local in it's community. Our guest, Colonel Greg Raths, USMC (ret) and Councilman for the City of Mission Viejo, CA, will give us an insider's look at what Mission Viejo is doing to promote small businesses and Buy Local.

We’ve all heard the phrase “content is king”. When it comes to social media marketing, it is especially important to make sure that you publish content that your audience (and the search engines) love. In this week’s episode, we are going to look at (1) the difference between original content and content curation, (2) what’s important to look at when developing your own content, and (3) how to implement a simple content plan.

We’ve all heard the saying, “Failing to plan is planning to fail”. This is especially true when it comes to putting your business and marketing roadmap in place. Do you know what your goals and expectations are for the year? Do you have a plan to get there? On today’s episode, we’ll talk about the importance of your business and marketing plan, steps to help you put that plan together, and how to implement your plan. My guest is Mickey Gubman, Certified Focal Point Business Coach. His expertise business management processes and operations development has helped him teach his clients how to grow their businesses and embrace change as a way to break down barriers and think outside the box. Join us as we discuss how a little bit of planning can help you run your business better.

One of the most important pieces to a successful marketing strategy is to build and cultivate your email list. In today’s social media age, this may be counter-intuitive…you have followers, likes and people engaging with you online, so why would you need to have an email list as well? Tune in to this week’s episode to find out why email is still important, how to use your email list to build your community and, ultimately, make sales.