MDS Resource — Digital Ad Agency

Tag: customers and prospects

  • 10 Internet Marketing For Small Business Ways To Attract Local Customers

    Easy Ways To Attract Local Customers

    The Facts About Consumer Internet Usage

    This trend continues to rise and Internet Marketing for small business must get on board with this — or perish.

    • Most Consumers search online for local products and services.
    • Approximately 35% of all Internet searches are for local things.
    • There are more than 250 Million searches on Google alone every single day!
    • Online marketing is predicted to be at least 15% of all media ad spending in 2013.

    Internet technology is GREAT … But, it has caused Problems for Some Local Businesses! Here’s why:

    1. Consumers are using online search instead of yellow pages and newspapers when looking for local products and services.
    2. Some businesses still spend thousands of dollars on ineffective traditional advertising methods.
    3. And, some businesses are not yet investing in online advertising and marketing. Are you?

    As a Result …

    • Business expenses continue to rise while profits decline.
    • Local Businesses are struggling to get new and repeat customers.
    • Great customers are buying from Local Businesses well placed online.

    Here Are 10 Ways Your Local Business Can Connect With Your Local Consumers

    1. Connect With Search Engine Visibility

      • You must work hard to gain better search engine positioning and rankings.
      • You must search engine optimize your website using on-the-page factors, making certain that your money phrases are in your content.
      • You must search engine optimize your website using off-the-page factors, persuading other sites to link back to you.
      • Claim, verify and optimize your Google Places listing
    2. Connect With Your Professional Website

      • All Effective Websites MUST Have:

        1. An organized and easily navigable layout
        2. Fresh, relevant and compelling content everywhere
        3. A strong Call-To-Action on every page
        4. An integrated lead capture system
    3. Connect With Email Marketing

      • Local Internet Marketing Money Is In Your LIST!

        1. Email marketing is cost-effective, automated and easy to deliver.
        2. Email marketing helps you build trust and credibility.
        3. Email marketing allows you to generate business on auto-pilot 24/7.
        4. Email marketing statistics are simple to track.
    4. Connect With Mobile Marketing

      • There are approximately 4 BILLION Mobile users worldwide!
      • By 2014, Mobile Internet usage is expected to exceed Desktop Internet usage!
      • Business websites must be Mobile optimized to accommodate Mobile Internet on-the-go users too rushed to squint, zoom and scroll.
      • Text message marketing promotes and connects with local audiences on the go.
    5. Connect With Social Media

      • Search engine optimization (SEO) is NOT enough! Hang Out With Your Customers and Prospects Online …

        1. Consumers spend many hours on social media sites every single day.
        2. Building relationships on sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube is necessary for business.
        3. Social media markets are so big, Facebook is the 3rd largest country in the world!

          1. China
          2. India
          3. Facebook
          4. United States
    6. Connect With Video Marketing

      • Online Videos are HOT … Perhaps, Too HOT To Handle!

        1. Videos increase your visibility in search results and positioning.
        2. Online videos help you develop trust and expert status.
        3. Videos increase conversion rates, website traffic and are the single most powerfl small business advertising!
          cVideos run on auto-pilot and set you apart from your competitors
    7. Connect With Publish Online Content

      • The Internet Revolves Around CONTENT! Effective Website Optimization Multi-Purposes Content Everywhere

        1. Publish keyword rich articles and blog posts related to your industry.
        2. Publish keyword optimized press releases to attract media attention.
        3. Publish content to online directories to drive traffic back to your website.
    8. Connect With Reputation Management

      • Do You Know What People Say About Your Business Online? Local Search Optimization Relies On The Social Proof Of Reviews & Testimonials!

        1. Pay attention to what is being said about your business online.
        2. Promote positive online reviews & testimonials about your business.
        3. A bad online reputation can negatively impact your business.
        4. Respond promptly and handle all negative remarks quickly.
    9. Connect With Online Classified Ads

      • Effective Marketing Local Business Is All About Promoting Your Business Everywhere Local Customers Hang Out

        • Online Classified Ad sites are free or are very low cost.
        • Craigslist is one of the most popular online classified ad sites.
        • Optimize your ads with effective keywords to show up in search results.
        • Images in your ads make them more attractive to consumers.
    10. Connect With Paid Online Advertising

      • Successful Internet Marketing For Small Business Quickly Learns Its Best Market From Paid Advertising!

        1. Paid online advertising is effective at gaining more exposure quickly.
        2. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) is one of the most popular paid advertising methods.
        3. Google’s paid advertising platform is called AdWords.
        4. Facebook also has paid advertising to get in front of your best prospects.

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  • How I Am Marketing Local Business Profitably By Anticipating Eager Buyers Shopping For What I Offer

    Great Customers Come From Marketing Local Business
    Great Customers Come From Marketing Local Business

    It’s no secret. Times are tough, job security is a thing of the past and there’s no free lunch. Never let it be said that you’re outdone and victimized by circumstances, right? You’re at the helm of a viable small business and you’re determined to make this work — er, determined to succeed! But, times have changed and marketing local business is not at all what it used to be. Nobody’s calling from the Sunday Classifieds or yellow pages. Few are answering telemarketing calls. Even you probably don’t open too much direct mail.

    Marketing Local Business Is More Than Internet

    Top it all with these young techies with their rocket science tales get-rich-quick on the Internet. Do you really believe that an award winning drop-dead beautiful website brings revenues in your door? Can it be true that simply appearing on Google Page One, whether pay-per-click or “free,” guarantees that online visitors will grease your palm? Where is common sense? You’re a consumer, too. Look at your own consumer behavior — do you buy from the first automaton that shows up on your phone or screen?

    Marketing Local Business In A Consumer Paradise

    What is the secret to marketing local business today? Whereas, ten years ago we still paid attention Sunday football commercials to see the latest features of the 2011 Chevy Malibu, today consumers don’t care to be told what’s available. The world is, indeed, your oyster. When you have a need, fill it. When you crave, seek satisfaction. When you are in pain, relieve yourself. The Internet is for consumers the universal mail order catalog. It is so easy to simply search for what you desire, shop it from thousands of vendors everywhere in the world and buy it when you are ready. This is a buyer’s world, a consumer’s paradise.

    Inbound Marketing Local Business Is Not Intrusive

    Inbound marketing local business is unlike any intrusion marketing. Render yourself findable and prepare to tell your story just like you do face-to-face:

    1. Anticipate eager buyers shopping for what you offer. This is the inescapable first and necessary step. Drop that silly idea that your market is everybody in the world. Your very best customer has a specific personality. Before they buy they have a problem. When you fully understand the problems you solve best, then you know very well those best prospects with whom you ought to speak. More to the point, now you know exactly how they are searching for their solution.

    Marketing Local Business Offers Solutions

    1. Put your company in front of them everywhere they look. One foot in front of the other — you learned that and toddled. Only after you fully understand how, what, where, when and why they are searching … only then can you know exactly where to stand to be seen. Offer them a sip of water to quench their thirst. Allow them to see for themselves that you have a solution to their problem. Be found by standing directly in front of your best prospects.

    Court Prospects While Marketing Local Business

    1. Court them, nurture them and never let them forget you. Once found, they have ample opportunity to get to know you. Marketing local business online makes you a publisher. Carve your best stories into the Internet. They will be there available to be heard forever. Although, you cannot know if you and a prospect met at the right time. You may not be a good fit for each other. They may not appreciate your business model. Respect them and allow them to get to know your company.

    Great Customers Come From Marketing Local Business

    It’s so easy online to facilitate the gathering of wonderful customers and prospects in your virtual place of business. Honor them and encourage them to openly discuss the solutions to real problems that you offer. When time is right the right prospect will step forward and convert into a great customer. Inbound marketing local business means that they found you, they partook of your hospitality and many of them like what they found enough to ask to buy from you.

    Call Now
    Answer Your Marketing Local Business Question: 612-235-6060

    Call MDS Resource For Special Offer Now: 612-235-6060

  • How To Succeed At Online Marketing For Small Business With Any Realistic Budget

    Don't Ignore Online Marketing For Small Business
    Don't Ignore Online Marketing For Small Business

    Are you a small business owner? Do you want to see a lot more customers coming to you in 2011? Certainly, every business owner I’ve met answers these in the affirmative! What’s your plan to grow your business with great new customers?

    Clearly, every new customer is a function of new leads in your sales funnel — we know this as conversion. And, every new sales lead is a subset of the number of eager buyers shopping for what you offer who are exposed to your business — we know this as marketing. Admit it, the numbers of people exposed to your business depends on marketing strategy, tactics, advertising, etc. Times change and so has effectiveness of traditional marketing tactics and offline advertising. Whereas, telemarketing, yellow pages, newspaper ads and other previously effective tactics are seriously lame today, online marketing for small business produces more targeted sales leads everyday.

    Don’t Ignore Online Marketing For Small Business

    Most small business owners ignore online marketing, because they don’t understand how the Internet has dramatically changed consumers. Furthermore, many unwary businesses have been duped into costly schemes to fool Google and other search engines. Have you been duped into believing that #1 on Google first page or a million website visitors in a month are ends in themselves? How do they add to your bottom line? Here’s a clue: work both of them into a business plan, pass it on to your banker and ask for a business loan. Point is, show your banker a plan to get more targeted sales leads calling you on the phone and then they’ll talk money. Google itself and random website visitors do absolutely nothing to grow your business.

    Fortunately for you, this Internet thingy has totally changed the way we consume! No longer flipping through yellow pages or browsing the Sunday Trib classifieds, eager buyers shopping for what you offer are on the Internet right this second searching for you. Every time they search they receive a search results page. If you’re not on that page, they will buy from somebody else. Online marketing for small business has one goal: everywhere they search they find you there.

    Affordable Online Marketing For Small Business

    Fact is, effectively marketing your business is now possible with any realistic budget:

    • Email marketing has long been the favorite of Internet marketers, perhaps because it’s the online equivalent to direct marketing. Done right, instead of intruding in the Inbox, you ask and they grant you permission to nurture them and keep them informed with current and relevant information. Keeping permission marketing foremost in your mind, think of events, specials and successes that you’d appreciate knowing about your favorite vendors. Your customers and prospects will appreciate the same about you.
    • Online articles are another great way to increase awareness of you, your business and, especially, those special things you do that benefit your customers. Do you remember fondly thumbing through a magazine, reading interesting articles and clipping some articles so you can refer back to them later? The Internet is several magnitudes greater than any paper magazine. This very minute somebody is reading an article about your product and service and today she’ll bookmark it and maybe tell her friends about it. Have you ever tried to find a article in a magazine you threw out a long time ago? That won’t happen online, because it’s always available to be found, 24/7, 365 days a year.
    • Social media is all about family, friends and vacation pictures — right? No. It, too, can be tremendously effective in putting your business in front of eager buyers. Facebook membership alone is the third largest country in the world: China, India, Facebook, USA … In 2010 it’s been reported that the largest growing Facebook demographic is middle aged women. Again, keep in mind how online marketing for small business is primarily about developing relationships with your marketplace. What better way to start a conversation with a new prospect than at a huge party? Facebook, for example, is a neverending party of friends, family and coworkers, and they’re all talking about what’s on their minds. Strike a positive chord with just one, and they’ll tell somebody about you, and on and on.

    Follow Online Marketing For Small Business To Success

    Online marketing is about branding. The more people recognize your personal name, your business name and your place in the community, the more likely that one of them converts into a customer. Notice how we haven’t mentioned traditional advertising agencies and TV commercial production crews — the prohibitive prices of traditional marketing simply are not necessary online. It’s more about leaving thousands and thousands of bread crumbs from your business throughout the Internet. Whenever some eager buyer happens on one crumb while shopping for what you offer, Hansel and Gretel will follow the trail to your door. Like all marketing, the only goal of online marketing for small business is to create customers.

    Call Now
    Answer Your Online Marketing For Small Business Question: 612-235-6060

    Call MDS Resource For Special Offer Now: 612-235-6060

  • What is Inbound Marketing?

    Why does Inbound Marketing matter to you and your Local Business?

    Welcome to the Brilliant Ideas About Internet and Money Frequently Asked Questions Series, Part 3: What is Inbound Marketing?


    Marketing Local Business Online Is Inbound Marketing

    Previously, we discussed What Is Internet Marketing? itself:


    “… a Marketing Relationship is a specific conversation between Business and a market.  Therefore, Internet and Online Marketing are relationships between Business and customers and prospects that take place in the New Media of today, and New Media of the future.”

    How have new customers found you in recent months?

    Today, people find out about your Local Business in two main ways:

    • Passing Word-of-Mouth recommendations, or
    • Finding you on a search engine results page

    Word-of-Mouth depends on the good will of existing customers.  How would you like people publishing Word-of-Mouth recommendations online?  Why not spend zero dollars marketing your Local Business?

    What is Outbound Marketing?

    In traditional outbound marketing companies focus on finding customers through:

    • Building brand awareness,
    • Advertising, and
    • Promotion

    Outbound Marketing includes:

    • Focus on your product / service (advertising & promotions),
    • Focus on your transaction (sales),
    • Focus on your business (public & media relations),
    • Focus on your post-sales support (customer service), and
    • Focus on your customer after-the-fact (customer satisfaction)

    Everyday, a typical consumer is overwhelmed with over 2000 outbound marketing interruptions!

    They have become quite creative in blocking these interruptions, including:

    • Caller id,
    • Spam filtering,
    • Tivo, and
    • Satellite radio

    Customers need to find a very good reason to visit your Local Business.

    Marketing Local Business online is quite a challenge!

    What is Permission Marketing?

    Alternatives to intrusive and increasingly ineffective outbound marketing are based on what Seth Godin calls Permission Marketing:

    “Permission marketing is the privilege (not the right) of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who actually want to get them …”

    “It realizes that treating people with respect is the best way to earn their attention.”

    For the business to engage the prospect, the prospective customer must grant either:

    • Explicit Permission (e.g., request email or catalog), or
    • Implicit Permission (e.g., follow a search engine result link)

    Furthermore, Godin says:

    “In order to get permission, you make a promise. You say, ‘I will do x, y and z, I hope you will give me permission by listening.’ And then, this is the hard part, that’s all you do. You don’t assume you can do more.”

    What is Inbound Marketing?

    Google reports more than 1 Billion searches each month for local products and local services.

    Fully qualified prospects are already looking for products and services in your industry.  Inbound Marketing is when customers call you to:

    • Make appointments,
    • Purchase products, or
    • Gain information

    When customers find you and like you, you can get business from them, from their friends and from their family.

    “Home delivery is the milkman’s revenge… it’s the essence of permission,”

    Godin says.

    Online Marketing is starting to make more sense …

    What comprises Inbound Marketing?


    Rick Burnes     suggested an intertwined relationship between three main components of Inbound Marketing:

    Hubspot: Inbound Marketing

    1. Inbound Marketing Content

      • Content is the substance of Inbound Marketing.
      • Content is the information that attracts prospects to your Local Business.
      • Content includes the Call To Action that converts prospects into customers.

    2. Inbound Marketing Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

      • If people don’t know you exist, how are you going to do business?
      • SEO makes it possible for potential customers to find your content.

      3. Marketing Local Business online must include both Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and SEO if you want your Local Business found.

    3. Inbound Marketing Social Media

      • Social Media amplifies the impact of your content.
      • Widely distributed content will be discussed.
      • Socialized content taken seriously becomes authentic.
      • There is more trust when a person has a choice.

    Social Media have two sides:

    • What you say about your business
    • What others say about your business

    Why Inbound Marketing?

    1. Inbound Marketing has high Value

      • Cost less than buying ads, PPC, mailing lists, print, etc.
      • Blogs and Twitter accounts are free to start
      • Higher Return on Investment (ROI)

    2. Inbound Marketing is Effective

      • Targeting specific markets is easier
      • Prospects qualify themselves
      • Pre-sold customers search, find you and ask to buy

    3. Inbound Marketing has great Timing

      • Prospects search for you
      • Searching prospects are considering a purchase now
      • Prospects considering a purchase are more receptive to your message

    Godin remarks,

    “One of the key drivers of permission marketing, in addition to the scarcity of attention, is the extraordinarily low cost of dripping to people who want to hear from you.”

    What are Prerequisites to Inbound Marketing?

    You need to do your homework and fully understand those looking to buy what your Local Business offers.

    Your Market analysis includes:

    • What groups of customers exist? (markets)
    • Which customer groups do you prefer to serve? (target markets)
    • What do they need?
    • How do their needs change? (market trends)
    • How do they use these products and services?
    • What price are they willing to pay?
    • How do they want to receive what they buy? (distribution)
    • What do you offer that meets those needs?
    • Who are your competitors?
    • What are your competitors doing about your target market?

    Exactly how are your customers searching for what you offer?  It’s not enough to know how you describe your offering.  What matters most are the exact words prospects use to search for it.

    Simply make it easy for potential customers to find your Local Business.

    “The Internet means you can treat different people differently, and it demands that you figure out how to let your permission base choose what they hear and in what format,”

    instructs Godin.

    How is Inbound Marketing Done?

    Setup your web site to attract visitors naturally through:

    • Search Engines,
    • the Blogosphere, and
    • Social Media sites

    Don’t forget your Call To Action to convert visitors once they arrive on your web page!

    The Inbound Marketing process is straightforward:

    • You provide content of interest to people wanting to learn or know something.
    • You share similar content from other people who do the same.
    • Interested readers come to see you as an authority in your field.
    • When somebody considers a purchase related to your expertise, they will come to you.

    Inbound Marketing is like Word-of-Mouth with people passing recommendations online.

    Seth Godin sums it up like this:

    “Real permission works like this: if you stop showing up, people complain, they ask where you went.”

    Marketing Local Business Online Is Inbound Marketing

  • What Is Internet Marketing?

    Why does Internet Marketing matter to you and your Local Business?

    Welcome to the Brilliant Ideas About Internet and Money Frequently Asked Questions Series, Part 2: What is Internet Marketing?


    Marketing Local Business Online Is Internet Marketing

    Previously, we discussed What Is Marketing? itself:


    “Marketing is a system the sole purpose of which is to communicate with the marketplace.”

    Marketing, then, is the social process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging products and value with others.  The Marketing concept becomes a philosophy.  It makes the customer, and the satisfaction of his or her needs, the focal point of all Business activities.  It is founded on the belief that profitable sales and satisfactory returns on investment can only be achieved by identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer needs and desires.

    Let’s look not only at identifying customer needs, but also to satisfying them and anticipating them in the future.  The right product, in the right place, at the right time, at the right price …

    In that same spirit, Internet Marketing is a relationship between Business and customers and prospects that takes place in Internet Media, such as Search Engines and Web Pages.

    Furthermore, Online Marketing is a relationship between Business and customers and prospects that takes place in Online Media, including Email, Mobile Phones and Internet.

    As you recall, a Marketing Relationship is a specific conversation between Business and a market.

    Therefore, Internet and Online Marketing are relationships between Business and customers and prospects that take place in the New Media of today, and New Media of the future.

    Internet and Online Marketing are relationships between Business and customers and prospects — the only difference between these relationships and other Marketing processes is the Medium!

    What, then, is the Opportunity and the Potential offered by this unique Marketing Medium?  Let’s compare and contrast:

    • If a Medium has a continuously shrinking Market, the potential for doing Business in that Medium approaches zero.
    • If a Medium has a continuously growing Market, the potential for doing Business in that Medium approaches infinity.

    This, then, is the crux of everything we have to discuss in this and subsequent conversations.

    • If you want to grow your Local Business, you must participate in the largest and fastest growing Markets for what you offer.
    • If Business is not communicating with a continuously growing Market there can be no relationship with that Market and little or no Business comes from that Market.

    What Relationships do you want with your Market?

    Over 1 Billion Local Searches are performed every month on the Internet …

    … if your Customers do not find you, from whom will they buy ???

    The Internet is one of the largest and fastest growing markets in the known Universe.  Ecommerce and multinational companies have created extraordinary fortunes based solely on Internet Marketing.  Local Internet Marketing for small Business is quite a different animal, as we will discuss in subsequent conversations.

    To learn more about Internet, Money and your Local Business browse our Web Site and see if our ideas work for you and your Local Business.  Look for our further conversations and Brilliant Ideas About Internet and Money !!!

    Marketing Local Business Online Is Internet Marketing

  • What Is Marketing?

    Why does Marketing matter to you and your Local Business?

    Welcome to the Brilliant Ideas About Internet and Money Frequently Asked Questions Series, Part 1: What is Marketing?


    What Is Marketing

    David Packard, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard, once remarked,


    “Marketing is too important to be left to the marketing people.”

    How can that be?  What is so important about Marketing?  Who are your Marketing people?  What benefit do they provide your Local Business?

    Peter Drucker, the father of Business Consulting, often admonished us,


    “The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.”

    What do you have in your Local Business if you do not have customers?

    If you do not have enough customers, what changes do you need to make in your Local Business?

    Furthermore, after studying the most successful Businesses of all time, Peter Drucker observed The Purpose of Marketing:

    “Because the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two — and only two — basic functions: marketing and innovation.  Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs.  Marketing is the distinguishing, unique function of the business.”

    Successful Marketing is therefore a systematic approach to the MarketPlace:

    • Marketing is a System the sole purpose of which is to communicate with the MarketPlace.
    • Marketing processes are specific conversations between Business and a Market.

    Relationships start with a Single Conversation — Marketing Relationships are no different:

    • Every conversation is a relationship between Business and a distinct set of customers and prospects.
    • Every conversation takes place in a specific medium, whether print, radio, television or Internet.

    What Relationships do you want with your Market?

    • What conversations have you started with your Local Business customers?
    • What conversations have you started with fully qualified prospects?

    Will your best customers search for you?  Or will they go to your competition?

    Think about the conversation we started with you here a minute ago in this blog post.  What about our message rings true with you and your Local Business?

    To learn more about Internet, Money and your Local Business browse our Web Site and see if our ideas work for you and your Local Business.  Look for our further conversations and Brilliant Ideas About Internet and Money !!!

    Marketing Local Business Online Leads To Success