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SMB Web Promotion?
I work for a small grant writing firm and I'm researching ways our company can better promote ourselves on the web? We have a website, but my boss is wondering where else can we promote our business? I've suggested more social methods, i.e.: creating a Yelp page & a Facebook page, etc. What else would you recommend? Most of our clients are in the educational / non-profit industries... are there any social networks related to those industries that we should be a part of? Any ideas on how we can better promote ourselves online would be helpful.
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3 Answers
It's really hard to beat paid search. Those are the folks looking for what you're selling, so you're not just punching them in the face with ads as they are hanging out on a social network. Paid search is also highly-controllable with respect to being able to correlate spend to your own metrics.
That's not to say that hanging out on social networks like Yelp, Facebook, or Twitter would be a waste of time. Those are great areas to target in on your audience, but it's much more akin to branding than direct marketing.
I'd also look to influence the prominent bloggers or editorial sources in your vertical. Their downstream influence will get you reach AND authority.
Creating an ideal client profile will help you put yourself where your clients are. One of the steps is to interview your ideal clients to elarn if the information you've gathered is correct.
I would create a survey for the clients you've worked with to learn more about your ideal clients.
I run a web design consultancy in China, www.authoring4u.com and this is a question most of my clients come up with.
However there's really no simple answer, web promotion is about hard work - ideal steps are creating a Facebook group, a relevant Twitter account (both of which will really only draw in existing clients, but can be used to maintain their interest) and then getting out there and doing the hard work.
The two best ways to improve your web presence are:
1. Forums - Don't spam, don't link dump. But get involved in relevant forums for your field, and make sure you include your weblink in everything you post (if permissible - if not make sure it's available in your profile at least). Make strong relevant postings, that are not adverts but include useful information and slowly you'll build credibility and improve your search engine rankings to boot.
2. Blog - influencing prominent bloggers is kind of hard to do (though you can pay for their services) but starting your own blog is easy, do what Maria stated and identify your ideal clients, then write a blog for them - contribute everyday, short, relevant and non-advertorial pieces, and again provide the opportunities for people to link back to your business, it's very slow going in the first instance but over a period of time - you will become an acknowledged thought leader in your industry and that will also drive up your search engine rankings and give clients more confidence in your business
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