If your website isn’t generating the business leads you want, you are probably lazy!

Are you offended? Great. Perhaps now that I’ve gotten your attention you will appreciate some “tough love” and words of wisdom.

A website or social media campaign is NOT a “set it and forget it” infomercial

Although most people mistakenly believe that simply having a website is the pathway to riches, it just is NOT true! Websites, social media and free ads are all tools.

Simply owning a hammer doesn’t make you a master carpenter. Owning a website does not make you an Internet marketing tycoon!

Make sure to promote your website address EVERYWHERE. That means on your business cards, work vehicles, e-mail signature, t-shirts, your dog’s collar, etc. This helps to build familiarity with your brand/business and when people have a need for the services, they will automatically think of you.

Are you taking advantage of  free advertising?

Post information about your business or services on free websites such as Craigslist, Front Porch Forum and any other place where you can post a link to your website for free.

If possible ALWAYS include a good photo with your ad. People think visually rather than textual. In other words, people are lazy to read but will pay attention to photos.

“But I don’t have any photo graphic skills” (sniff, sniff..would you like some bread with that whine?)

Easy Peasy and Not to Cheesy Tip: Go to https://www.canva.com and create a free account. Upload a photo and paste in your web address, etc. and then post that photo to free ads, Facebook, Twitter, etc. It’s so easy that a baby could do it!

Take advantage of social media. Facebook should be your first stop.

Create a Business Page at https://www.facebook.com/business/learn/set-up-facebook-page You can then manage it from within your personal Facebook page and even share content back and forth.

Technically constipated? Get regular. Here’s how:

Post regularly to your Business Page. Post interesting things like recent job or project photos, events you attended, etc. Do NOT post family photos, etc. Save that for your personal page.

Remember, this is a BUSINESS page so use it accordingly. Post at least once per week and use your personal Facebook page to ask your friends to “Like” your Business Page.

Don’t be greedy. Social media is about sharing. Really!

Don’t be afraid to share other’s posts. If you share another non-competing business’s post, they will likely do you the same favor and share your post on their business page. This can result in new “Likes” on your page.

Tip: Whether you share others content or your own, make sure to check the “Likes” on a post and “invite” anyone who is new to your page. See an example below:

Tweet like a bird!

Get a free Twitter account and use it. You can actually set it up so that when you post to Facebook, the post will automatically go to Twitter.

Create your own video network and become a “legend in your own mind”, (at the very least)!

Get a free account with YouTube (which is owned by Google). Take some quick videos of a project you’re working on and post the videos on YouTube. The real benefit is that Google ranks videos and Facebook pages, so increase your search visibility.

Reviews will make you look like a star!

For local businesses, reviews are a MUST. If you hope to compete with others in your field, get pro-active about asking your clients to post reviews on your Google “My Business” page, Yelp, YellowPages, Angie’s List, etc.

Think about it for a moment…

If you’re looking for an electrician and don’t know any of the companies that come up in a Google search, which one which you call? The company with a dozen 5-star Google reviews or the company with none? Reviews add credibility so take full advantage of them and offer your clients incentives or rebates, etc. in exchange for honest reviews.

Which one of the above would you call first, if you weren’t familiar with any of them?

These are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to resources for free web marketing

Actually, it’s pretty easy to find TONS of places to get free attention and Google is your friend, so simply do some searching. The trick isn’t finding the resources as much as it is to find the time to do the work you should be doing to promote your Internet marketing campaigns.

Bottom line is that somebody has to do the work. If you’re too busy, contact us. That’s what we do!

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