Your small business marketing dollars need to be targeted to be effective. 

Imagine this: You own a neighborhood fitness studio.  You are new in town, and need to get the word out to cash in on the guilt ridden fat driving folks to the gyms, yoga studios, and Pilate classes in January. 

You decide to use some search marketing techniques.  You purchase some pay-per-click ads using great headlines and featuring significant savings.  In your ads, you direct folks to your website to get more information.  Clicks go great, and you receive thousands of unique visitors to your website to learn more about “NO FAT ALLOWED Fitness Playground.”  (Sure, you can use the name!)

The Cost

However, your $1456.98 spent in December on ads afforded brought in no sales and only 2 week long free trial offers.

What’s worse?  You didn’t even ask for their email address.  You have no way of continuing a relationship.  You are like the retailer on Main Street who has hundreds of people walking by the shop with no way of building a future relationship with them. 

Online it need not be so!

Your marketing efforts need never be in vain!  The first conversion you want to build is your email conversion.  You don’t need to make the sale the first time they visit; they may not have confidence in your product or service.  If they don’t make a purchase but you offer them a way to “keep in touch”, they will revisit your website repeatedly.

Today there are plenty of choices for email software.  Most all of them offer a free trial version.  Here are three systems with which I am quite familiar:

• Get Response allows subscribers (you, not your subscribers) to embed videos, audio and photos in your email marketing.  They offer an in-house survey tool you can use on your website, making tracking easy and integrated into your email marketing.
• Constant Contact – allows subscribers to use email templates, online surveys and they feature event marketing: you get easy-to-use email invitations, reminders, event homepages, and your own public events calendar.  You can host an online or offline event.
• AWeber – I am using AWeber right now on this website.  I use the other systems on other sites. I like their latest tool: the customized email sign up box.  Super easy to do, but finally it looks nice too.  This does NOT require a graphics person or web designer, you can do this for yourself in an hour or less.

If you look to the right side, you should be able to see my email subscription box. They have scores of tempates to choose from and any color combination you like.

In fact, may I invite you, if you are not already receiving my Small Business Growth Report, to sign up now and receive an informative and useful evaluation checklist for your website?

Don’t waste another marketing campaign, either in organic search ,paid search, or offline marketing that directs people to your website.  Get set up with one the providers above (or have someone set you up), and start building a relationship with your prospects.  Give them a chance to get to know you - after all, "to know you is to love you," right?

To Our Success,

Harmony Thiessen

PS.  You should know that I do have an affiliate relationship with the three providers above.  That means, at no expense to you, I receive a small commission if you happen to do business with them.  I appreciate if you are going to check them out that you click to their site from here.