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Small Business: SEO, Email Marketing, Websites and Socia Media – Oh My!!!

Small business is no longer just local business…

In today’s world, a social and web presence are not optional, they are a must and vital to the success of your business. I am here to say no matter how small your business is, a digital presence in the world is easier than you think.

First, you must have a plan of action. Create a marketing plan and social media plan for your business. Of course newly created businesses rarely have much wiggle room for paid marketing, but social media is thankfully free and if you use it wisely,  you will quickly reap it’s rewards. 

Looking at your financial status, figure how much you can realistically spend on your web design. Often you can locate another small business/boutique style designer like myself to create a WSYWIG (What You See Is What You Get) site or site on another platform, such as Word Press of Joomla. Expect a website to cost you between $2000-$5000 as a low ballpark average.

First of all, you may be unsure of what exactly the acronym, SEO means.  If you don’t this may be your biggest roadblock – Search Engine Optimization. How you rank compared to the world? Compared to your competitors in your region or around the world. Mashable has a great article on ways to increase your SEO. 

http://mashable.com/2012/01/09/increase-google-rank/

There are many ways to increase your SEO. Often SEO and website design go hand in hand. A big part of  SEO is meta tags – these are keywords or main ideas that best describe your business or site. These help your rankings in search engines and help drive more business to your site. In addition, to correctly using meta tags, proper web platforms, social media, and blogs are also huge components of driving traffic to your site, and making your web-presence more prevalent.

Do you have a Facebook page, Twitter handle (@businessname) or LinkedIn accounts? All of these not only increase your SEO, but help you create an online community of customers and supporters. Here is a great article from the Social Media Examiner on small business successes with social media.


http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/9-small-business-social-media-success-stories/

Now social media is great, it keeps our customers connected, up-to-date, involved with our business when properly managed, but what about email marketing and newsletters? Are these a thing of the past? Think again. Email marketing is still a useful and widely accepted marketing tool that businesses should still utilize. I wanted to hear what other experts thought where the best email marketing tools out there and this article beautifully sums them up. 


http://www.readwriteweb.com/biz/2010/08/which-email-marketing-platform-is-right-for-your-small-business.php

What are your goals for your small business in 2012? Do you need a consultation? Should you outsource social media and other web related business? Sit down, grab a pen and paper and map out your goals, think about how those should look and then compose a plan to help you achieve those goals.

Have questions related to this blog or any other social media, web design, or graphic design questions?

Happy planning!
Katherine Fell

Contact me Katherine Fell @naptimedesign on Twitter or katherine@naptimedesign.com.
www.naptimedesign.com

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Kat loves all things technological, marketing, digital strategy, photography, and design. She is deeply passionate about helping her clients grow their business and digital footprint. She loves coffee, her husband, her family, her plethora of horses and cattle, dogs, and the king of the castle cat, Mango.