But it can be overwhelming when it comes to planning out a local Internet marketing strategy.

Let me make it simple. Get the right tools first, and you’ll get new business in spite of yourself…

Quality Website (hint: simple is better): If you don’t have a website, or your site is not showing up for some keywords or all of the keywords related to your business (locally for sure), you really need to get an overhaul, or a new site entirely.

A quality website should also have a blog attached. Google loves blogs and the back links from the blog to your site help improve your rankings.

Properly listed Google Local Business Center: Fill out as much information and include as many pictures and videos as you can. The better you do this the better your site will list in the local search results.

Facebook Fan Page: Did you know that Faceook has over 300 Million active members? That’s more people than the United States! Social Media is the rage and will be for a long time. You need to be involved and active because that is where many of your clients are gathering and sharing. The next level from having a Facebook Fan page is to create a social medial marketing campaign. You can watch a video on this here.

Side Bar: Linkdin.com is also where you need to be if you are b2b. It may help you in the b2c market as well. But I am trying to keep the basics to the bare minimum to help you get a handle on this whole local internet marketing thing.

Mobile Website: Do a search for your business on a mobile phone. Look at it. If it looks terrible (and 99% of all websites do), you need a mobile website. Why? Because that is where more and more people are doing their local business searches from…a mobile phone. And my own test results prove this . And Google is betting big money that it is the future and are building an entire search engine just for mobile phones. If you get one now you will be ready for the wave of mobile search results before your competition does.

Youtube Videos: Youtube gets more searches than Yahoo.com and MSN.com. Guess who number 1 is? Google.com of course. Youtube videos will help you generate new business, and you can host your videos there as well and then embed them in your blog and or website. Video is a must because it gets people more involved with your business, and that is the key to nurturing your relationship with your prospective clients and current clients. This is usually the last thing that businesses do because it requires a little more work. But you can create stunning videos simply using pictures and audio or music.

Like I said, these are the basic tools that will form a foundation for all your internet marketing campaigns. And you’ll even get clients from simply setting some or all of these tools up (correctly done). Now all you have to do is wrap them all together and start promoting. Here are three simple and free ways to start generating more prospective clients…

• Include all your links in your email signature.
• Include them on your print material.
• Promote using Google Adwords and Facebook
  Ads!

You are probably thinking, “What do I do first?” or, “How do I get started?” The answer is to take baby steps and do one thing at a time. Or, get it all done at once.

If you want to do one thing at a time I suggest…

• Getting your website built if you don’t have one or
  if the one you have is not working well. And then attach a blog to your site or get a blog separate from your site. Then, make sure it’s listed and confirmed properly (and optimized) in the Google Local Business Center.
• Then, get a Facebook Fan Page. And after that get a mobile website.
• Once you complete these areas get a few videos created.
• After you get these things accomplished begin a social media marketing campaign.
• As you get deeper into the social media marketing campaign begin your paid online advertising campaign (Google Adwords, and Facebook Ads).

The good news is that you can get listed in Google’s local business center fast. You can get a website, a blog, a mobile website, and a Facebook Fan page created quickly as well.

You can even get a nice video or two created quickly as well (using pictures and audio or music). But in order to maximize their effectiveness, you they have to be done right. I strongly recommend you hire someone who understands these areas (Yes, that includes myself and my crack team of coders).

Do you need help with any of this? We can offer a hand. Contact us to get your basic foundation up and running.

Brian Maroevich
(415) 320-1526

I get a lot of requests that go like this, “How do I create a Facebook page for my business?” or, “Can you create a Facebook page for my business?” Does that sound like you? If it does sound like you then read this…

The first thing you need to understand is that a business Facebook page is called a ‘Fan Page’ on Facebook.

And Facebook only allows you to create a business Facebook Fan Page if you have a personal profile page. You can create just a facebook business page (Fan Page) but it is very limited in what you can do with and it’s really a waste of time. Because you want to be able to use some of the very robust applications and be able to get a unique URL for your business fan page.

First Step On How To Create A Business Facebook Page!

So the first step is to get a personal profile set up if you don’t already have one. Then, create a business page. You can find this link on the lower left of your profile page.

After you build your basic fan page get at least 25 fans of your business page because after you have at least 25 fans you can now go get a unique business fan page URL. But don’t grab any old URL. Get one that is search engine friendly.

The cool thing about Facebook is that if you build it right you will get free traffic to your business fan page. And since you can use applications that create a welcome page or a coupon page you can build your list and grow your business.

Secondly, take advantage of the local advertising that Facebook makes available. You can target your ads to locals and get them to become ‘fans’ of your business Facebook page and many will convert to new clients as well.

You do need to be active. You won’t be successful if you build a page and not post any fun, useful, and interesting posts. So either have someone do that for you or do it yourself.

If you want us to build a killer business Facebook fan page that will help you grow your small or local business we can do it for a very reasonable fee. Contact us for more details.

For small businesses it’s best to keep it simple. For my retail locations we have a very basic 6 page mobile website design. It’s search engine optimized and the layout is simple as well.

The goal of a basic mobile website design is to get your prospect to call one of your locations, come to one of your stores, or sign up for your text message coupon or information list.

If your mobile website design has too much information and loaded with images and videos your quality score will drop, and prospects will not find our mobile site, and if they do they will drop out because it loads slowly.

A solid mobile website design for a local business should include:

• Home Page
• Contact Page
• About Us Page
• Services Page
• Coupon (or similar)
• Directions

Other page options could be: Gallery, Videos, and Audio. Sky’s the limit really but you want to keep your mobile site design simple and go from there.

Each page should not have very much information and totally geared toward getting your prospect to take action: call your store, or get on your list.

If you don’t have a mobile website for your business you are missing out the hottest trend in marketing. People are using their smart phones and cell phones to find local and world wide business in droves.

If you want a simple but effective mobile website design that attracts customers and helps you build your list and your business we can help you accomplish this task very quickly and you’ll be very happy with our work.

To grow your business and use Facebook marketing techniques properly requires a plan. “Those how fail to plan, plan to fail”, as the old saying goes.

There are many tools on Facebook and in the Social Media Marketing arena that can and should be incorporated into your Facebook fan page design and marketing plan. Twitter should be one of your main tools.

But just getting an account set up is the beginning. You have to get people to your fan page, and you have to get them involved. Because they only way to get people interested in your brand or to sell more of your products and services on Facebook is to get people to know, like, and trust you.

And that is what Social Media is really about, in terms of a marketing tool for small businesses.

One simple strategy is to start a contest. Get people to ‘Like’ your businesses fan page and offer a prize at the end of the contest to your ‘Fans’.

Notify your current clients, prospects, friends, and send out a press release and marketing pieces to generate even more interest.

Use Facebooks paid promotional tools, and begin a pay per click campaign.

For more Facebook fan page design ideas and marketing tips join our mailing list. Or ask us about our Social Media Marketing program.

There are a few basic, but important small business internet marketing strategies that you should take care of right away.

First, you need to make sure you website is properly optimized so that the search engines understand what your site is about, and can rank you accordingly.

Second you must get your site properly set up and optimized in Google’s Local Business Directory. This is mostly free and you have to do it right. We can help you do that for a small fee.

Third, you need to set up shop on the top social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Linkdin for starters. But before you run out and start doing all that, you need to avoid the costly mistakes of setting your account up because you only get one shot at it, and many small business don’t understand the complexities. Therefore we can give you a leg up on the competition by getting your site properly optimized and branded on these sites.

For a comprehensive Social Media Marketing System go to Social Media Prodigy now.

These are three simple foundations to get your small business internet marketing going. But we are just getting started so be sure to stay tuned to TriggerSeo.com for more tips, secrets, and small business internet marketing strategies.