Promote Your Local Business with Social Media

Shama Hyder of Shama.tv  recorded this video as an answer to a reader’s question regarding marketing a local business with Social Media.

Another rapidly growing resource (other than social media) for promoting a local business is with the Power of LocalAdLink.

LocalAdLink is an online advertising service that enables local businesses to reach local customers.  LocalAdLink.com is a local search directory and acts as the central hub for the LocalAdLink technology. When a customer visits LocalAdLink.com, proprietary geo-targeting technology identifies their location and serves up local businesses in their zip code. Once there, a customer can perform additional searches for local businesses and services across a complete selection of categories and get the information they require.

Currently LocalAdLink has over 40,000 independent representatives selling advertisements in every zip code across the nation.  Learn more about LocalAdLink.

 

Until next time,

Follow me on Twitter!
Ed

CNN = Constant Negative News

I don’t know about you, but I have stopped turning on CNN these days.  All you have to do is turn on the news and listen to one of the so-called “Commentators” or “News Anchors” telling us all how bad things are, and you then begin listening more intently to those ads that run for anti-depressants!

Even our new President is causing wide spread panic every time he opens his mouth and tells the world what a crisis we’re in. 😥

First, the media tells us about 15 people being gunned down, then they show us some cute video human interest story, and just keep smiling the whole time.

C’mon here folks! Are we REALLY going to determine the future of our business and families based on what these bozo’s in the media tell us and how we should be acting and thinking? Our government is casting us into a debt situation this country may never get out of with all these billions in bailouts. Layoffs are going through the roof, and everyone is sitting on their hands waiting to see what happens next.

Every time one of these morons starts spewing off about more bad news for the economy, it makes me realize that we’re not really hearing news… we’re hearing carefully orchestrated bits of information designed to achieve a predetermined response. The media tells us what they want to tell us, and we listen, and respond. Right now, we’re being fed negative in huge junks, not just little bits and pieces.

I’m not saying we aren’t in a recession.  Heck, I said the “R” word over a year ago on another blog when no one else was even HINTING that our economy was in trouble. I said then, “Folks, whether you realize it or not, this country is IN A RECESSION.” We’re all feeling the pain, myself included.

But what I’m warning you of is this: If you succumb to all the news reporters telling you about how bad things are, you’ll have a hard time ever recovering from this down time, and depending on what you do with the bad news you’re being fed, you may NEVER climb out of the cellar.

Many fortunes have been made during bad economic times… and I’m here to tell you, this time will be no different. The question is, will you be one of the ones making fortunes, or kissing yours goodbye? The decision is really yours!

I’ve run a business through a recession, and I know what I’m talking about. (I survived two before this one, and I’ll not only survive this one, I’ll thrive.)

The key is to make changes RIGHT NOW in your business strategy. I’m making them in mine, I suggest you do the same!

Here is what I suggest you do:

1 – Shut off the news for 30 days. Stop listening to these morons telling you how bad the economy is. Stop reading the negative in the newspapers. Put your head to the grind and stay focused on your business and your profits.  Who gives a rip about which bank failed this week, or which of the automakers is going to buy out the other one? Does that REALLY affect what you’re doing in your business?

Stop believing the hype!

 

2 – Increase Your Marketing. I know this does not exactly fall under the category of “Cutting Back during Down Times” like many of us have been brainwashed into thinking we should do, but it’s the absolute BEST MOVE you can make right now. 

While everyone else is shrinking their business because that’s what they’ve been told they should do to survive, you should be growing yours. I’m not saying you should make irresponsible decisions and spend more than you have and hire 3 people that you can’t afford to hire, but this is a HUGE chance for you to grab a sizable chunk of your niche and marketplace by pushing ahead with an aggressive marketing plan. When the dust settles and those news reports FINALLY start telling us “things appear to be turning around” ( and you KNOW they will turn around ) then you’ll be solidly in control of the top spot in your market… everyone else will THEN start to try and claw their way back into the game… you’ll be looking back and smiling. 🙂

For the first time in over 7 years, I am ramping up my own business’ advertising budget – SUBSTANTIALLY. Because I know, when the storm settles, I’m going to be in a better position than I’ve been in since I started in business for myself in 1989. No question in my mind.

 

3 – Listen to Winners. Let’s face it, most of us have not been through a depression. Many haven’t actually tried to survive a business through a major recession. So knowing what to do, and when, is not always easy. For many, it’s a guessing game. And if you’ve ever tried to “Guess” when the best time to buy a stock is, you already know, it’s usually too late by the time you made up your mind to buy something. It’s already started going up.

So who do you listen to when it seems everything is going from bad to worse? Listen to positive news… not the garbage these idots on the news channels are spitting out every day.

I’m not a big advocate of the “Rah Rah, You Can Do It” tapes and listening to speakers who make you think that everything is in your mind. But there is some merit to turning off the negative and focusing only on the positive.

I made a personal decision when Barrack Obama got elected that I was going to ignore his platform and just build my business in spite of him. Not that I’m against him personally, I just don’t believe what he is doing with all this porkulus spending is good for anyone, and it’s going to take a long time for this country to dig out from the debt he’s putting us in right now. The question is, will you and your business survive it all?

I am reading only positive “how to build my business bigger and better” news these days and have stopped reading the garbage. The old computer saying “Garbage In – Garbage Out” applies to your brain ESPECIALLY in bad economic times like these.

For some, you may not even have a business. You may be thinking of starting one. Trust me when I say, “There is no better time to start a business than during a bad economy…”  I know that doesn’t make sense to some, but to those who understand how and when most fortunes get made, you’re probably looking for more ways to expand your business umbrella right now.

Take a look at this list — do you recognize any of these companies?

  • Hewlett-Packard
  • General Electric
  • Sports Illustrated
  • MTV
  • CNN
  • Federal Express
  • Burger King
  • IHOP

What do these companies have in common? That’s right – they were all STARTED during a recession!
 
Remember, spending doesn’t just “stop” during economic downturns. People are more selective, and they work harder at getting value for their money — but they’re still spending.

So you want to make sure you’re out there where they can see you, and that you offer a superior value to them.

So let the doom-and-gloomers carry on, but don’t listen to them! Instead of waiting for the politicians to ‘spend’ us out of trouble, focus on how you can make more money! That’s exactly what I’m doing. I hope you’ll be doing the same.

Until next time!

twitter

 

Ed Hudson

P.S.  Are you as fed up as I am with all the negative news? Have any other suggestions for growing a business during these down times? Click the comment link and leave your ideas. Would love to see other view points.

 

Why You MUST Advertise in a Bad Economy

Who (besides me) is sick of listening to the news on a daily basis? CNN has become what I now call “Constantly Negative News”.

A plummeting stock market, banks failing, hundreds of billions of dollars being passed around in the hopes of fixing it all.  People are understandably worried about the economy, their jobs, their homes and their credit.

Meanwhile, in the past 6 months, my business has grown by about 20%. How is that possible? It’s simple: Marketing on the Internet is very different, and you have to approach it differently.

 

Advertising

Television and radio are kept alive by the ROI (return on investment) of their sponsors, and the commercial web is no different. The advantage of advertising online is that it’s far more efficient. When a sponsor puts an ad on a television show or radio program, they can only be vaguely certain of who is watching or listening. Sure the networks provide their own research in demographics and how large their audience is, but much of it is guesswork and impossible to know for sure.

Also, results from TV and radio are very difficult to track. How do you know if the person who just bought your widget was motivated to do so by seeing or hearing your commercial? Again, it’s guesswork.

The internet is different. When you place an ad online, you can track exactly how many people saw it, precisely how many people responded (clicked-through) and exactly how much money you earned from it. You can work to refine and improve your ads to improve your ROI as well. It’s vastly superior to TV and radio in that regard.

So when it comes time for companies to tighten their belts, it only makes sense that they will focus on the ad medium that has the best ROI.

What does this mean for you, the guy just trying to be found on the Internet? It means your advertising-driven web sites that use AdWords ads or other mediums will likely remain relatively healthy during hard times, providing you don’t overspend your budget.

When times get slow, the natural tendency is to start slashing costs where ever possible just to stay alive. That is the absolute worst mentality there is when it comes to your ad dollars. Yet, I see people making the worse mistake of their lives in the advertising category, and they start cutting back there too.

My own advertising has increased over the past 6 months, and will continue to increase over the next 6 months.  I have been in business for myself through three recessions now, and my experience has shown that “Now is when you have to be ramping up your ad business, or you may not be in business this time next year.”

I will be the first to tell you, if you’re not careful and don’t know what you’re doing, you can spend a fortune with Google AdWords campaigns and still not increase your business all that much.

 

A Better Option

Raise your hand if you’ve ever done a Pay-per-Click ad campaign, and either spent a ton of money and gotten mediocre results, or spent your monthly budget by the 8th day of the month.

I have stumbled on to (thanks to one of my blog clients) what I honestly believe is going to turn the online advertising world upside down in the coming months. Better than Pay-per-Click because your monthly ad costs are fixed, not skyrocketing beyond what your budget can afford, or worse, your monthly ad budget is totally exhausted by the 8th of the month. Yet, in many cases, I am seeing better placement of ads with far fewer dollars on major search engines, even on Google, with this new ad medium.

I only wish I had known about this advertising resource sooner, it would have saved me a lot of advertising dollars!

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A survey I conducted recently included a question about advertising budgets, and I was not at all surprised to see that most respondents to the survey either didn’t have an ad budget, or the budget they did have was to include less than $5000 for the entire year for all sources of advertising.  That’s less than $420 per month, and many said they planned to spend less than that.

What if I told you that you could spend $200 per month and show up on more than 100 search engines for an entire month?

What if I told you that you could spend $100 per month and do the same thing?

Forget all of the software and gadgets that all the marketers are peddling trying to sell you the next best thing to come down the pike to help your PPC campaigns. You won’t need it!

I am still in the testing stages with my own ads, but I can tell you (even before my 30 day testing period is up) that my ROI is going to be phenomenal.

I want to share this ad opportunity with you, but doing so now would be just a tad-bit pre-mature. So stay tuned here, and once I’ve completed my own personal ad testing, I will give you another update.

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Watch for my next post, as I try to explain to you what all the fuss is about with this crazy thing called “Twitter”, and why you might want to take a closer look at that (if you haven’t already).

Until then, have a great weekend!

 

Ed

Secret to Success (and More Leads?)

As we near the end of another year… it never ceases to amaze me the number of folks who start crying the blues to me about how slow things are.. or how bad lead flow is.. or how far down sales are this year versus last, etc., etc.

 

Just like you, I’m constantly seeing advice on how to be successful. Usually it has to do with buying new technology, getting a new attitude, or learning new tricks of the trade. But over the years I’ve noticed something much simpler that almost always leads to success. I’m sure you’ve noticed it too: just keep moving!

 

No matter how little money you have, how little you know, or what your personal problems might be, you can eventually achieve success if you JUST KEEP TRYING.

 

Life seems to award the spoils to those who show up day after day. In most businesses, the real key to success is just being there.

 

Lately I’m seeing a lot of successful Internet and real estate businesses that started out in the late 90s with no money and little idea of what they were doing. How did they climb to the top? They didn’t give up! They just kept going, putting one foot in front of the other day after day, refusing to throw in the towel.

 

Nowhere in business is this more true than in marketing and advertising. I can just about guarantee your first ad won’t sell much. It’s your sixth, seventh, 101st ads that will deliver the goods.

 

You’ll have days that don’t go right, and times when quitting seem like the smart thing to do. But keep moving. Eventually your refusal to give up will create momentum for you and your project…and that always seems to lead to lucky breaks and better times.

 

This advice holds ESPECIALLY true when it comes to your advertising. Seems that when things slow down a bit.. the human tendancy is to pull back on that advertising. “No one is responding to the ads.. so let’s cut back right now until things pick back up.”

 

WORST THING YOU CAN DO FOLKS!!

 

As we enter this new year in just a couple of days… let me encourage you not to become frustrated with an ad that isn’t pulling what it once did. Don’t give up on a plan. If it was good enough to be a plan to begin with… STICK WITH IT! See it through!

 

I cannot tell you how much I have had to tell myself this over the past weeks. And so it is my year-end advice to each of you!

 

Stick with your marketing, even during slow times, it will carry you through and when times are good again, you’ll be GLAD you did!
Most of all… go in to 2007 with a clear vision as to where you want to be at this time next year! Plan your attack, and work your plan. If you don’t… next year at this time, you will be looking to 2008 in the exact same spot you are in now.

 

I simply love the line I know you’ve all seen at the bottom of my signature file, and I leave you with that today:

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

Albert Einstein

 

Happy New Year everyone! I look forward to an exciting year in 2007!!
 

 

Ed