10 Things You Can Do to Help Your Business

10 Things You Can Do to Help Your Business

With all the media hype about the downturn in the economy, many businesses are inclined to call it quits and close up shop. Instead of throwing in the towel,however, people should focus on the positives and search for possible solutions to improve anything negative.
Results can be seen, by new businesses and old, by concentrating on specific tasks that can help put your business in a better position.
I recommend using these ten marketing strategies to help your business become more profitable in 2009 and beyond. You may find that some may work for you better than others, but the key is to find the ones that work for you and implement them into your routine so that your business can thrive.

1. Have a website that has been recently updated and which you can easily manage yourself that is search engine friendly.

2. Have a blog and be sure to have it set up to be simulated to several different mediums upon posting. Audio and video blogs are becoming more popular every day, with video blogs,in my experience,becoming the best way to attract new customers.

3.Get yourself a company page on Facebook(see my Social Networking page), and look into running ad campaigns there if the demographics are suitable.

4. Get involved on other Social Media realms such as LinkedIn,YouTube,Digg,etc.
(Again, for a great list see my Social Networking page)

5. Be sure that your marketing material clearly states what your offer is and what action you want your potential customer to take.

6. Get useful company documents, such as forms and templates, online using sources such as Google Docs or wikis,etc. It is becoming more important to be able to share and collaborate online with tools that can help mobilize your business.

7. Track your ad results so you know which activities you want to continue, and which ones are not worth continuing.

8. Make sure you have a form to build your leads,i.e.list. Whether it be an online contact form that captures the customers email address and name, or whether you get your customers by phone,fax, or walk-ins, you can't convert them into a paying customer if you have no lead to follow up with.

9. Contact your old clients. This is often overlooked by many businesses, but if they have done business with you in the past, they likely will do more business with you in the future. This can't happen, however, if these leads are just sitting dead with no one reaching out to them for their business.

10. Set up a Google alert for your company so you know when people are talking about your company or products. Whether the alerts turn out to be good or bad, this gives you a chance to at least know what is going on, and take corrective action if the need arises. This is also a good tool to use to keep an eye on your competitors as well.

There are many more ways to help keep your business thriving, but this list has some keys that could make your business better if you can stick to any of them that you find work, and will help create a better business for you for years to come. Good luck and hope you enjoyed reading. See you next time.

John Bishop
johnnynfl