By now, you’re sure to have heard about social media and how it’s changing the way we communicate and interact with one another.  From Facebook to YouTube and everything in-between, new social media websites sites are being launched on a regular basis, storming into our everyday lexicon.

All fine and well, but there’s also much for the small business to gain -understanding just how social media operate can be a huge advantage in terms of marketing your business for free online, creating buzz, and obtaining customer feedback.  According to SEO.com, “Social media marketing engages customers on a more personal level, and can rapidly create buzz around a product, brand, or business. It can also be more cost effective than traditional forms of advertising and outreach”.

Interested?  Great!  Here’s a bit about social media’s biggest players and how your business can benefit.

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Taking a “if a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it” philosophical approach, your new Web site will do little for your business if it’s not getting much -or any- traffic.  While you can certainly pay for visitors, this post focuses exclusively on organic, or un-paid means of driving traffic.  Commonly referred to as Search Engine Optimization (SEO), the following strategies are sure to help improve the visibility of your Web site in the major search engines, all in the name of generating much needed traffic and business.

Keyword Research
Let’s say you own a North Carolina plumbing business.  If a potential customer is using Google, Bing, or Yahoo! to find a plumber, what words (called ‘keywords’) are they likely to type and search for?  Plumber?  Plumbing service?  Clogged toilet?  Or something altogether different?  Serving as the foundation of SEO, identifying which keywords pertain to your business is essential to having your site come up for relevant searches.
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According to a Nielsen Global Online Survey on internet shopping habits, “more than 85 percent of the world’s online population has used the internet to make a purchase”.  With such a large portion of the population turning to the internet to locate (and purchase) services and products near and far, a Web site has become a must have component to survive- and thrive- in today’s climate.

Contrary to popular belief, however, creating a Web site for your business doesn’t have to be difficult, costly, or time consuming.  We promise.  In fact, you can pretty much handle the entire process yourself, saving the headaches and frustration for someone else.

Step One:  Choosing your Domain
A domain is your Web address.  Ours is www.Magnets.com and our blog’s is www.BloggingMagnets.com —-yours may be, well, we’ll leave that up to you.  To see what’s available, check out GoDaddy, Microsoft Office Live Small Business, or Yahoo! Small Business.  While many domains have already been purchased, chances are you can find one relating to your business for $10 or so.  Once you uncover that hidden gem, purchase it!

Step Two:  Hosting Your Web site
Think of your Web site as a living, breathing organism.  This organism needs to ‘live’ somewhere.  Now, replace ‘live’ with ‘hosted’, and it should all make sense.  Companies able to host your site include WordPress, GoDaddy, Yahoo! Small Business, Intuit, and Microsoft Office Live Small Business (the latter three are complete solutions that can also be used for design and maintenance –see steps three and four).  Whatever company you decide to go with, hosting should run around $100 per year –probably the most expensive component of creating your Web site.

Step Three:  Design
Sure, there are literally hundreds of design firms and freelancers who could create a real eye catching Web site.  For thousands and thousands of dollars, that is.  To have money left over for the mortgage, use a template -a previously created design- for your Web site.  While not created ‘exclusively’ for you, chances are you’ll be able to find one that meets your critical design, layout, and color requirements.  Ranging from free to a hundred bucks or so, if you’re using Intuit, Yahoo! Small Business , or Microsoft Office Live Small Business for hosing they have dozens of free templates.  If you’re using WordPress or GoDaddy for hosting check out ithemes.com or even WordPress itself.

Step Four:  Content and Maintenance
By now you should have a fully functioning, live Web site —-devoid of any and all content.  Using your site’s content management system (CMS), the tool that enables you to add and delete content, images, pages, etc., you’ll be able to add as much or as little content and pages as you see fit.

At the end of the day you can literally get your Web site and up and running within a few hours.  With so much commerce taking place on the internet, why not get started today?

Stay tuned for additional posts on how to grow your small business, all with little time and financial investment.

E-mail marketing is by far one of the most successful and cost-effective ways of marketing your small business.  According to the Direct Marketing Association, in 2009, commercial e-mail returned a whopping $43.62 for every dollar spent.  Talk about return!

As small business owners, it is vital to take advantage of e-mail marketing given that it is an easy and affordable way to grow promote your business.  But don’t just take our word for it -below are some helpful tips to get you started:

Given the CAN-SPAM act, each e-mail you send will need to include an opt-out so recipients can easily opt out of all future mailings .  E-mail marketing companies such as Reachmail, Vertical Response, and Mailchimp are designed for the small business, providing cost effective tools for you to add an opt-out, as well as construct, design, send, and track your e-mail marketing campaigns.  Take a look around to see which best suits your needs.

Building your target list
To stay within the parameters of the CAN-SPAM act, you need to make sure you have permission to send e-mails to your mailing list.  Which begs the question, “how exactly DO I build my contact list”?  Well, the path of least resistance is by creating an e-mail opt-in form on your Web site or, if you are an e-commerce company, adding one during check out process.  For additional ways to grow your target list, click here.

Develop your message and offer
Now that you have a list of contacts, the next task at hand is developing your first e-mail’s offer and/or message.  Whether promotional in nature offering a discount on a future service/purchase, or a newsletter keeping your customers abreast of company happenings, the key is to provide information your customers find valuable and worth their time.  Remember:  e-mail boxes are apt to be crowded with competing messages, so you need to make yours stand out from the pack.

Target your customers
Depending on the content and intent of your e-mail, you’ll need to select who to send it to.  Some e-mails are applicable to your entire target list.  Others are not.  Be aware that sending an e-mail that’s not relevant to your audience is a quick way to lose that customer and/or have them opt-out of all future e-mails.

Beware of spammy language and over e-mailing
E-mails chock full of sales related content are unlikely to make it to the inbox.  To ensure the highest level of deliverability, use a spam checker to identify and remove any red flags.  Additionally, don’t send e-mails to your target list whenever you feel like it as over e-mailing frustrate your readers, causing them to unsubscribe or report you as spam.  Rather, create a roadmap for your campaigns well ahead of time.  And stick to it!

Make it useful and fun with a message or offer
Subscribers really appreciate receiving e-mails that are valuable and informative.  Not surprisingly, coupons and helpful guidance tend to be winners.  For example, a makeup company can send an e- newsletter to their subscribers about fun makeup tips for the season or new makeup trends. Or a heating and cooling company can give their customers tips on how to save energy during the winter and summer seasons.  From a design standpoint, make sure the e-mail is easy to read, fun, and interesting with images that relate to your business.

Have a catchy subject
Many people tend to delete e-mails quickly at after reading the subject, so make sure yours is relevant and catchy!  For example “receive an additional 20% off ” or “free shipping of your next order” are great subject lines sure to grab your customer’s attention.  Of course, watch out for spammy language.

Guide your customers effectively
If your e-mail is promoting a certain product or service, make sure images and relevant text are hyperlinked to the appropriate landing page for that product or topic.  For example, if a florist is promoting red roses for Valentine’s day, the images should link directly to the red roses page.  The goal here, of course, is to create a path of little resistance so your audience accomplishes the action you desire…be it make a purchase, send you an e-mail, complete a survey, etc.

Measure your results
The e-mail marketing companies mentioned above give you the ability to measure results, allowing you to gauge how well (or poorly) your campaign was.  From how many people (and who exactly) opened your e-mail, clicked on a link, and forwarded it to a friend or colleague, these results will help optimize all future e-mail campaigns.

We hope this helps you get started with your e-mail marketing efforts!  Stay tuned for additional posts on cost effective ways to grow your small business.

At Magnets.com we’re all about helping our customers grow their business and bottom line.  Accordingly, the next several posts will detail a number of easy, straight forward marketing initiatives that can be used to, well, help you grow your small business.  And they’re all commercial free.  We promise.

Now, you’ve probably read and heard from friends, family members, and colleagues alike a number of ideas that you should implement (some of which probably contradict others…).  And that’s okay.  With our ‘how to’ series we’ll be presenting a number of marketing initiatives that have truly worked in real world settings –be it for us or other small companies.  We’ll also present a number of statistics showing the power of each technique and what it could mean for your business.  Lastly, we’ll document the steps needed to implement each concept.

Topics covered include setting up a Web site, e-mail marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), press releases, social media, and online advertising. So, stay tuned and make a note to visit often!

As the official magnet of the Backstage Artist Lounge, a private area backstage at major music festivals, we get to showcase our magnets to some of music’s biggest names.  Papa Roach, Godsmack, and Seether, anyone?  Without further ado, here’s some images fresh from Houston’s Buzzfest.

Do a simple online search (read:  Google…) for ‘Promotional Products’ and you’re bound to find hundreds of companies literally pushing thousands and thousands of different products.  From pocket knives to Band-Aids, petroleum derived ‘green’ plastic mugs to actual live plants, which product has the longest shelf life and is most effective?  Which is bound to stay well within your budget?  Which resonates best with customers?  Many questions without obvious answers.  That is, until you see the distinct advantages of custom promotional magnets.

 Your promotional efforts won’t be a waste
You can rest assured that magnets will stick around longer than flyers and ordinary business cards.  If your Pavlovian reaction to junk mail and ordinary business cards is to tear them in half and throw them away, as it is ours, what business benefits from that?  Talk about a waste of money. 

Your message will always be seen by customers and prospects
When it comes to ordinary business cards, those that don’t get tossed away typically get stashed away in a box or drawer where they rarely see the light of day.  Magnets, on the other hand, are sure to be seen day in, day out on the cherished refrigerator.  Talk about exposure!

Magnets are cost effective
A custom business card magnet can cost as little as 8 cents.  With promotional pens running no less than 40 cents each, water bottles at least 90 cents each, and mugs not cheaper than 99 cents, magnets are a budget friendly, obvious choice. 

Magnets are useful
What pen or promotional stress ball is collectable and able to keep important reminders, lists, drawings and receipts on the fridge?  Answer:  none, why of course.  Not only are magnets ideal for reinforcing your company name, they are also a useful item that’s sure to build awareness for your business or service. 

If you can dream it, it can be made
With magnets you can be as creative as you want!  From a limitless choice of colors, designs, shapes, and functions, the sky truly is the limit.  For example, clean/dirty dishwasher magnets, used to communicate whether the dishes are, well, clean or dirty, are an outside the box magnet that’s trendy with real estate agents and other professional service firms. 

Magnets are light enough to be sent using regular postage
Turn regular invoices, statements, newsletters, brochures, holiday cards, and quotes into a useful promotional piece.  What’s more, direct mail pieces accompanied with a magnet are 60% more likely to be opened and read than a mailer without a magnet.  That just can’t be done with hand sanitizer or branded t-shirts. 

All of our magnets are made in America
Not surprisingly, the majority of promotional products on the market today are produced in China. While it may save a few cents here and there, if at all, it comes at the expense of turnaround, local jobs, the environment, and national pride.  Our magnets –from the magnetic material to the printed paper to the laminate finish– are completely American made.  And will continue to be so.

Let’s face it:  you spend most of your time doing what you do best —-servicing your customers day in, day out.  When it comes to advertising, marketing, and promotions, most tradesmen have limited know-how, let alone time.  But that doesn’t have to be the case.

Luckily, the following four promotional strategies require little time, money, and effort.  Best of all, they are proven strategies that’ll help you grow your business and bottom line.  And who could argue with that?

Give your customers a souvenir
After completing a service, stick a business card magnet onto your customers’ refrigerator.  This will help them remember your service, all while keeping your contact information in plain sight.  Not to mention, you can never go wrong with magnets –something most people find fun and enjoy collecting!

Stay top of mind
Keep you name top of mind by sending your customers a friendly reminder every few months, and what better way than with a branded (not to mention useful) calendar magnet.  For certain months you can include helpful tips on common repairs and problems that occur during that time of the year.  For example, before hurricane season people may want to check their roof to avoid unnecessary and costly damage and leaks.

Spread your knowledge
To garner good will, send your customers helpful informational magnets that have guidelines and advice on how to maintain their homes during severe weather conditions such as tornadoes, blizzards, and heat waves.  This will show your customers that you care about their well-being, reinforcing the value of your expertise and business.

Get out in the neighborhood
When you or an employee is working at a customer’s home, take a few moments to stick some magnets to neighborhood doors and mailboxes.  This is a fun, easy, and eye catching way of getting your contact information out in the community.  But don’t just take our word for it…give it a try!

We’re all about social media, the newest and greatest technologies, online review sites, and connecting with our customers.  If you’re reading this blog post, chances are you are as well!  So, why not take a moment to find us, from Facebook to Citysearch!?

• Facebook
• MerchantCircle
• Citysearch
• Superpages
• Insiderpages