Your Local Small Business Online Marketing Funnel
Marketing your business online is all about showing that you have
something to offer your visitors that your competitors do not have.
Marketing your small business online means reaching out to your current
customers as well as prospective customers and setting yourself apart.
Successful small business Internet marketing is all about establishing
relationships. Just as customers in your brick and mortar store have a
chance to come in and get to know you, online customers need to be
given the chance to learn more about what you do and to decide that
they want to do business with you.
This is where the concept of your small biz online marketing funnel
comes in. Your small biz online marketing funnel is a means by which
you can - over time - find new customers and increase your small
business sales.
Your small biz online marketing funnel is not unlike the local small
business marketing that you undertook when you first opened your
business in its physical location. First you needed to choose a
location and to get that location ready. You ordered the supplies you
needed. Then you started advertising. On opening day, it's likely that
you had a product giveaway - a keychain, a coffee mug or maybe even a
t-shirt - as well as a coupon giveaway, something that would entice
your customer to come back.
Your small biz online marketing funnel works in much the same way: you
choose a domain name and build your website, or have your website built
for you. You'll get everything that you need in order - including a
free or low-cost giveaway. And then you will begin marketing your small
business online.
It is important to remember that your website is your virtual business.
All of the Internet ads that you place will bring traffic to your page,
so be sure to use the page wisely.
Use your homepage to tell prospective customers about your business -
share your mission statement, share customer compliments. Use a page of
your website to let your current and prospective customers know more
about who you are and what you believe in. Focus both on your business
and on establishing a relationship with your customer.
Drawing prospective customers in to your website brings them into the
widest part of your small biz online marketing funnel; allowing them
the opportunity to get to know you begins to draw them down into the
funnel.
However, you do not want them to make it to the second level of the
funnel and stay there, just as you do not want customers at your
physical location to walk in and walk back out again. This is why you
should plan - as part of your small business Internet marketing
campaign - to draw them into the next smallest area of your small biz
online marketing funnel.
You do not need to offer a physical giveaway. Instead, continue to
build relationships with your site visitors by offering them something
of value. Offer them free articles about products and services that
your small business offers. Set up a newsletter that will allow you to
communicate valuable information (as well as special offers) to them at
specified intervals.
Doing so allows you to take an important step towards increasing sales:
it allows you to establish a relationship. By consistently providing
your subscribers with information or coupons that are valuable to them,
they will begin to recognize you and your company as a company that
they want to do business with, and they will look forward to hearing
from you.
You will be able to encourage them to do business with you by promoting
low-cost front-end products. Now, rather than a free article that gives
your prospective customers a little bit of information, turn them into
your new customers by offering low-cost products. Low-cost front-end
products such as e-books that provide useful information about
important topics within your industry - and further establish your
credibility and the customers' trust - will help to draw those
customers down to the smallest level of your small biz online marketing
funnel.
For instance, let's say you own and operate a local floral shop. A
perfect low-cost front-end information product that you could offer to
your customers to draw them further into your sales funnel would be an
e-book with planting tips for growing flowers in your local area.
Customers who purchase your low-cost e-book will find value in the
information, increasing the likelihood that they will purchase
additional, higher priced products from you as well.
The last level of your small biz online marketing funnel is the place
that you want your new customers to be: it's the stage where your free
and low-cost front-end items, along with your newsletters and other
marketing, will increase sales of your high-cost, back-end products and
services.
This is the goal of your small business Internet marketing: to find
prospective customers, establish a relationship and increase sales. To
recap, your small biz online marketing funnel works like this:
• Build and Market Your Website to Draw in Prospective Customers
• Engage the Prospective Customer
• Establish Trust with a Giveaway
• Establish a relationship using a newsletter and special offers
• Encourage small, low-cost front-end sales
• Make the big-ticket sales of your products and services
Through this process, and by continuing to market your site to new
prospective customers, you will find that the small biz online
marketing funnel is a technique that allows you to consistently and
reliably get new customers and increase sales for your small business.
Your Local Small Business Online Marketing Funnel - To learn more about this author, visit Caroline Melberg's Website.
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