Comments for Marketing for Small Businesses

Comment on Writing for Search Engine Presence by Mark Lincoln

Mark Lincoln — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 02:05:00 +0000

Well, Genevive “Spam-bot” Fratto, generally you can use search engines WHILE eating and drinking. Generally there’s no fear of side-effects when it comes to Google.

Or perhaps you’d like to improve your spam-bot settings?

Comment on Getting your marketing budget to work for you in 2010 – not against you by Tweets that mention Marketing for Small Businesses » Getting your marketing budget to work for you in 2010 – not against you -- Topsy.com

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 03:49:06 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by HotPJ Graphic Design, Wendy Riley-Biddle. Wendy Riley-Biddle said: Latest Hot PJ Blog Post: Get our mketing budget to work for you in 2010 – includes invite to Rree Mketing Wkshop http://tinyurl.com/yedzu7v [...]

Comment on How to improve the effectiveness of your ads by Wendy Riley-Biddle

Wendy Riley-Biddle — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 21:25:57 +0000

Hi Kal
Thanks for your comment, (and the copy of the mag).
You’ll only really know if your ad passes muster from the number of enquiries you get from it. As you have developed a tailored landing page on your website and placed the URL clearly on the ad, you’ll have a great tool to measure its success.

It is always easy to criticise than it is to create, and there is nothing worse than being faced with a blank page and a looming deadline.

One of the best places to start is to think back to why you started the business in the first place. My guess is that http://www.searchenginecollege.com came about because you saw a gap in the market for SEM training. To fill that gap you put your extensive SEM knowledge and contacts into developing high quality courses that are easy for students to access and study at their own pace, but have industry ‘cred’!

The benefit to the students, and their employers, is that the knowledge and skills they gain from the courses help them to improve the performance of their site without having to rely on (sometimes) expensive external consultants.

If so, then this gives you some direction for the ad.

A headline could be:
“Improve the ROI on your website without paying huge ongoing SE consultancy fees”
“Unchain yourself from ongoing SE consultancy fees – turn your staff into Search Marketing experts”
While question-style headings are good, the key is to make sure your target audience will clearly see the benefit and answer ‘yes’, then read on.

The body of the ad is the place to reinforce these benefits with clear examples, rather than list features – so short descriptions on each course, and most importantly the benefit they will bring to the target audience, would be relevant.

To help get them to act ‘now’ rather than put it in the ‘I’ll do it later’ basket, some kind of time based offer could also work as an incentive.

What ever any advertiser does, so long as they can measure an ad’s effectiveness, and can apply what they have learned to improve the success of future campaigns, no ad should be a total failure – maybe just an expensive lesson!

Comment on How to improve the effectiveness of your ads by Kalena

Kalena — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 00:44:10 +0000

I recognize some of those ads from Web Site Mag. Hope our ad passed muster

Comment on Free SEO/SEM course for Charity and Not for Profit Sites by Mark Lincoln

Mark Lincoln — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 02:30:38 +0000

Great to hear it’s going well Kalena. “Link love”. Love it! haha

Comment on Free SEO/SEM course for Charity and Not for Profit Sites by Kalena

Kalena — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:18:43 +0000

Hey, that was quick! Thanks for the link love Wendy and for the NFP referrals Amazed how quickly the word has spread via social media alone

Comment on A rebrand is not just a change of logo! by Tweets that mention Marketing for Small Businesses » A rebrand is not just a change of logo! -- Topsy.com

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:29:22 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by marklincoln and HotPJ Graphic Design, Wendy Riley-Biddle. Wendy Riley-Biddle said: Latest Hot PJ blog post: "A rebrand is not just a change of logo" http://tinyurl.com/yfup9pf [...]

Comment on How to use Twitter and Blogs to drive traffic to your website. by Mark Lincoln

Mark Lincoln — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 02:01:41 +0000

Thanks for your comment, Ben. Although you seem to have been cut short at the end!

Comment on Watch out! Unscrupulous search marketing companies on the hunt for gullible clients by Jeff Ballweg

Jeff Ballweg — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 01:11:19 +0000

Thanks for the warning Mark. I’ll also note that I’ve got a client who came to me for web design work and in our initial talks about SEO, he mentioned that he was working with a company “to get his site on the top of Google.”

Seems they’re just re-selling Google AdWords for a monthly fee at inflated rates. Does anyone know where they’re from and if they’re trading as a legitimate company somewhere?

Comment on Facebook Privacy by Mark Lincoln

Mark Lincoln — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 21:11:39 +0000

P.S! @Heather no problem at all! I certainly see a lot of use in Facebook for non-profits. Unfortunately New Zealand non-profits aren’t quite as well supported as the US and UK non-profits but there are still a lot of NZ non-profits on Facebook and they’re building quite a following.

Especially good if your non-profit doesn’t have its own website, or it has a website but it isn’t upadted regularly or offer many avenues for two-way conversation. Interaction is Facebook’s strength and it’s definitely worth a look to see what it can do for you.