Small businesses are realizing more and more that the internet is a gold mine for gaining new business and helping their company prosper during these difficult economic times. We hear story after story of small businesses shutting their doors because they aren’t sure of how to keep things going. We have put together a simple two step solution for helping business owners understand what they need to do online and how to take advantage of the internet.

Step 1 : An Effective Webstie

• Aesthetically appealing and professionally designed website

  Sure you can have your nephew design your website for you but if it doesn’t look good, chances are people are going to over look you.

• Developed to achieve your business objectives

  If your website only is there as an “online brochure,” that is fine, you still need to have some sort of call to action and capture those users visting through a well planned online strategy. Add a simple online form so that you can follow-up with them down the road to keep them up-to-date on new products and services.

• *Update* Crawlable

  Not all sites are built correctly. Again, you could have the best looking site in the world but it needs to be built correctly. In that it needs to have the ability to be indexed easily by search engines. Thanks to Alli Denning for the addition.

• Maintain content through easy web software (CMS)

  This is a big one with us. Gone is the traditional method of web design where everytime you want to make a change to your website you have to go through the “webmaster”. Find a content management solution (CMS) that is easy to manage and update content so that you can control things and not have to rely on someone else.

Setp 2: Marketing and Promotion

• Search Engine Optimization (On-Page & Off-Page)

  If you have a website and think that is it – think again. There is still work to be done. You must put together a strong internet marketing plan together for both On-Page and Off-Page SEO. A study by Forbes (via eMarketer.com) says that marketers of all sizes should start with search. Don’t underestimate the use of On-Page SEO and doing what you can organically. Also, one of the biggest things people overlook are having quality links back to your website with specific reputable websites and having a strategic Off-Page SEO plan.

• Strategic E-mail Marketing Campaign

  E-mail marketing is one of the best forms of marketing your company hands down (after SEO of course)

• Social Media Management (Facebook and Twitter)

  Yes, you can gain new business from creating a Facebook page and having a Twitter account. We are setting up our clients all the time with new social media accounts and helping manage them for them.