1. Lilly Buchwitz Farmington, NM April 14, 2004 Marketing your Small Business on the Internet

2. your site

3. Overview Part II search engines Part I your Web site Part IV everything else Part III email marketing

4. Part I Your Web site

5.  Your Web site is your most important marketing communications tool  Your Web site is the face of your business  Your Web site is on the World Wide Web — your customers are more likely to come from Montreal, London, Paris, or Tokyo as they are from New Mexico

6. Before you promote your site  know your area of service, and make it clear on your site  know who your target audiences are  think about what they might expect when they arrive on your site  then design your site with your audience in mind  keep it simple!  The number one reason why anyone goes to any Web site is to find information

7. You never get a second chance to make a first impression

8. Who’s the audience?

11. What’s the product?

14. Part II search engines

15. What you need to know about search engines 1.A search engine is not the same thing as a directory. 2.There are only three search engines that matter today. 3.Understanding how search engines work and how people use them will help you “get found” on them. 4.You must carefully prepare your Web site before you submit it to the search engines. 5.Submitting your pages to the search engines takes less than 10 minutes. 6.The only person who can prepare your site and submit it to search engines – effectively – is you.

16. search engine marketing is a lot like painting your home

17. Search engines that matter

18. There’s only one directory that matters

19. Specialty directories  Search for “directory” and “search engine” on Yahoo! for a list  When you find a directory specific to your business, check it out to make sure it’s appropriate  Then (and only then) submit your site  You may have to pay for a listing — and it’s probably worth it

20. How search engines work database search results keyword submit URL (Web page address)

21. How directories work database search results keyword submit listing $$$$

22. How people search  they start with broad, general terms like “travel” or “wine”  narrow it down by adding more specific words (“travel Spain” or “wine Merlot”)  they will not search for your company by name  they will never search for the words “welcome to”

23. Preparing your site to get found (this is the hard part) Choose 10 words that describe your business, service, or products. Take your time. Think like a searcher. Let’s look at an example…

24. beer wine Toronto make wine brew on premises make beer grapes

25. Using your keywords: html title  The html title of the page is what you see at the top of your browser when you are on that page.  It’s what displays as the link for your listing on a search engine.  Keep it under 75 characters.  Make each title relevant to the page it’s on.  Spend the most time writing the title for your home page.  Write a title for the starting page of each major section of your site. “Best place to make beer and make wine in Toronto: Fermentations”

26. Using your keywords: meta description  The meta description tag describes in a little more detail what’s on your page  It’s what displays below the title in your search engine listing  Keep it under 150 characters to be sure it doesn’t get cut off  Make each description relevant to the page it’s on  Try to entice potential visitors with clever copy, so they’ll click more…

27. Using your keywords: meta description  It’s not really about ranking, it’s about describing your page to potential visitors  Not all search engines use it, but if they do, it’s what shows up on the search results page below the title of the page  Here’s how it works:

28.  The meta keywords tag can be the same for all the pages on your site  Not all search engines use this tag when ranking sites – but it can’t hurt to include it  Use a list of words and phrases with no commas in between (search engine spiders are programmed to read only a certain number of characters in the keyword tag if they read it at all – commas just take up space) Using your keywords: meta keywords

29. Here’s how it works: Using your keywords: meta keywords

30. Using your keywords: ALT tags  every image on your Web site should have a carefully written ALT tag  the ALT text is what visitors see if they move their mouse over an image

31. Using your keywords: file names don’t use abbrv.

32. Using your keywords: on your home page!  Work your keywords into the copy of your home page (and on other pages, if you can) as many times as you can without making it sound ridiculous.  This may seem obvious but it ain’t necessarily so.  Focusing on your keywords when writing the copy for your pages also helps reduce jargon. an example…

35. What NOT to do  Don’t load your meta tags with irrelevant keywords just because they get searched for a lot (like “sex”).  Don’t repeat your keywords several times in a row.  Don’t hide text on your pages by making it the same colour as the background.  Don’t use a string of keywords for the title of your page.  Don’t submit exact copies of pages with different file names.  Don’t use re-directs or other technology that will confuse the search engine’s spider

36. Submitting your site (this is the easy part)  Bookmark the submission pages of the three search engines that matter or bookmark my pagebookmark my page  Highlight the URL of your page, press CTRL/C, then go to each submission page and paste in your URL. You can submit one page to all the search engines in less than five minutes.  If your site is small enough, submit all your pages this way. It will be an hour well spent. If your site is large, submit the first pages of the main sections of your site — the pages with titles and descriptions.

37. Wait… (this is also the hard part)  it can take from two weeks to four months for your site to be included in the database  it can take weeks after that before you see your site appear in the search results  every time the database is re-indexed, your ranking will change  re-submit every month and monitor your results

38. Don’t pay someone else to do it for you  no one else understands your business as well as you  it will take more time for you to explain your business to a stranger than it will to do your search engine optimization yourself

40. FREE paid placements

41. Part III email marketing

42. Waitress: Well, there's egg and bacon; egg, sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg, bacon and spam; egg, bacon, sausage and spam; spam, bacon, sausage and spam; spam, egg, spam, spam, bacon and spam; spam, sausage, spam, spam, spam, bacon, spam, tomato and spam; spam, spam, spam, egg and spam; spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, baked beans, spam, spam, spam and spam… (Vikings start singing in background) Spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, lovely spam, wonderful spam… spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam…

44. The importance of email  Email is your most important communications tool  Make sure your email address is credible and set up properly with a display name  Prepare a detailed contact page and make it part of your main navigation system  ANSWER YOUR EMAIL!!!

45. What to send via email? A newsletter  A newsletter is understood to contain information  People who subscribe to, or pick up, a newsletter usually read all of it  Whatever your business, you are an expert in that subject  Give people information!

46. Educate customers about your product  Present information about your product, your product category, your industry, in an objective, informational way.  Teach your prospective customers.  Give them valuable information.  They will appreciate it, and come back for more.

47. What else to send?  special offers  invitations to enter a contest  invitations to…. visit  coupons/discounts

48. Rules for email marketing 1.the most valuable list is the one you build yourself 2.always get permission before sending email 3.make it frequent, regular, and brief 4.include “why you’re receiving this” 5.include options for unsubscribing 6.suggest they pass it along to a friend

49. GotMarketing (www.gotmarketing.com)

50. Part IV everything else

51. Banner advertising  Like all forms of advertising, they’re expensive.  Even if you find an inexpensive site, you still have to pay someone to design the banner  Banner advertising doesn’t fit into the marketing budget of most small businesses.

52. Sponsored content  think: advertising Calloway golf clubs on a golf news or golf info site  paying for a link on a relevant site might be a good investment for your small business (especially if you serve a niche market)

53. Run a contest  best way to collect names and email addresses  prize can be your own product/service – or partner with another business so you both benefits  you must offer the site visitor something in return for their contact information

54. Include your Web address on everything!  business cards  brochures  signs  yellow pages ad  t-shirts, hats, pens  your car or truck

55. Measure your success  How many people (unique visitors) come to your Web site  How many times (in a month) they come  Where they are coming from (referring URLs)  Whether they subscribe to your newsletter  How many calls you get saying “I saw your Web site, and…”

56. Let me know about your successes! lilly@buchwitz.com http://home.eol.ca/~lillyb/ Remember Yahoo! wasn’t built in a day!