Low-Budget Online Marketing

Large companies have huge budgets for marketing their products and services online. What's the difference between a $100,000 marketing campaign and a $1,000 campaign? Surprisingly, not much! This book teaches small-business operators how to achieve big-business marketing success on
a small-business budget. Low-Budget Online Marketing for Small Business takes readers behind the scenes of successful marketing campaigns. The book shows small-business owners how to cut costs so that they can adapt the same successful marketing strategies that big companies use.
For anyone looking to attract attention to their small business on the web, this book will show them how, and with only a minimal investment.

INTRODUCTION xi
1 THE BENEFITS OF ONLINE MARKETING 1
What Is Online Marketing? 2
Prerequisites for Successful Online Marketing 2
Adequate human resources 3
Consistent communication 4
To sell or not to sell online 5
What Sells and What Doesn't Sell Online 6
2 ATTRACTING YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE 11
What Are the Characteristics of Your Ideal Customer? 11
How to Target Different Types of Audiences 12
Women want to save time and money 13
Seniors prefer simple sites 13
Teens represent a large, racially diverse generation 14
Get the Word out through Those You Know 15
How to Personalize Your Website 16
Learn from Amazon.com 17
Organize and customize content 18
Focus on the customer 19
Testing Your Website's Appeal to Your Target Audience 19
Banner Ads Rely on Placement 20
3 CREATE EFFECTIVE CONTENT 25
Survey Demonstrates Importance of the Web 25
Key Components of Great Web Content 26
Low-Cost Ways to Generate Fresh Content 28
Dangers of Changing Your Home Page Too Much 29
Visitors could become confused 30
You could hurt your search engine position 30
Benefits of a Flexible Home Page 31
Test campaigns and track successes 31
Keep focused on your target audience 32
Keeping Content Fresh with a Blog 32
Ways to Generate Content If You Don't Write 33
Buy content 33
Have customers generate content 34
Link to other sources of content 35
4 GENERATE FREE ADVERTISING 37
Pinpoint Marketing versus Interruptive Marketing 37
What is pinpoint marketing? 38
Day-part marketing 38
Embedding Marketing Messages in Content 39
Establishing Credibility 40
How to get your content onto other sites 40
Swapping Advertising 41
How to Generate Word-of-Mouth, Viral Marketing 41
Offer something for free 43
Utilize message boards and chatrooms 43
vi LOW-BUDGET ONLINE MARKETING FOR SMALL BUSINESS
CONTENTS vii
Choose a memorable domain name 44
Small Businesses Go Social to Generate Free Advertising 45
Consider Location-Based Applications and Websites 46
5 EMAIL MARKETING 49
Stats to Support Email Marketing 49
Permission-Based versus Spam Email 50
Building Your Email List 51
Goal-Oriented Marketing 53
Email Newsletters 53
Content ideas 54
Why short is sweet 54
Timing and frequency 55
Email List Hosting Services 56
Testing and templates 56
Tracking success 57
Targeted content 57
Writing an Effective Subject Line 58
Taking a tip from viruses 60
Learning what works 61
6 BUILDING AN ONLINE COMMUNITY 67
What Are Online Communities and Why Are They Important? 68
Community-Building Technology and Ideas 68
Message boards 68
Content 69
Calendars 70
Contests 70
Chatrooms 71
LivePerson instant messaging 71
Community Editors 72
Buying Ad Space on Other Community Websites 73
Using Online Communities to Assist with Customer Support 73
7 CO-BRANDING STRATEGIES 77
Why Co-Branding Is Different Online 78
Integrating Partnerships into Your Website 78
The Power of Co-Branding 80
Co-Branding Guidelines 81
How to Integrate Partner Products 84
Do it right the first time 84
Take a tip from newspapers 85
Complementary Partnerships Work Best 85
8 GETTING TO THE TOP OF THE SEARCH ENGINES 89
Choosing the Right Keywords 90
Optimizing Your Website 90
Home page text 90
HTML tags 91
Flash pages, image maps, and heavy graphics 94
Redirects, pop-ups, and pop-unders 95
Back buttons 95
Text links 95
Site maps 95
Frames 96
Link Popularity 96
Keeping Content Up-to-Date 99
Positioning Your Website in the Local Market 99
How YouTube Helps Your Ranking 100
How Long Does It Take? 101
Paying for Positioning 102
Success with Keywords 102
CPC versus CPM ad buys 102
The use of landing pages 103
Writing effective ad copy 103
9 COST-EFFECTIVE MEDIA-BUYING STRATEGIES 107
CPM, CPC, and CPA Ad Buys 107
Testing, Testing, Testing 108
viii LOW-BUDGET ONLINE MARKETING FOR SMALL BUSINESS
CONTENTS ix
How to Make a Banner Ad Successful 109
Target Your Ads for Success 110
Track Results 111
The Power of Customer Referral 112
10 BASICS OF GOOD WEB DESIGN 115
Simple Sites Are Best 115
Keep the User in Mind 116
Guidelines for Effective Web Design 116
11 WORKING WITH YOUR WEB DEVELOPER 125
Stay Away from Technical Lingo 125
Be Prepared and Define Your Goals 126
Use Examples of Other Sites 126
Get 24/7 Tech Support 126
Put Everything in Writing 127
Keep Your Developer Informed 127
The Price of Web Design 127
12 THE POWER OF THE WEB 129
The Internet Reaches Everyone 129
Crossing the economic barrier 130
Breaking the language barrier 130
What this means for your small business 131
Key Points about Online Marketing 131
REFERENCES 133
WORKSHEETS
1 Discovering Your Target Audience 22
2 Planning Your Email Campaign 65
3 Finding the Right Co-Branding Partner 87
4 Search Engine Submission Readiness Check 105
5 Testing Your Website for Usability 119
6 Rate Your Website's Marketability 122