BlogSmall business, Marketing, Promotion and Web Design

As I was almost going to bed tonight I (again) checked the PR in my trusty Firefox SearchStatus bar and to my dismay - it went down to 0. Of course I got puzzled and annoyed. First thing I did was going to Google Webmasters Tools to see if there is anything wrong with the blog.

Right I was! Turns out - when I changed the design of the blog I forgot to submit the site for verification again, since the old verification method was creating a specific meta tag. Obviously, with new template the meta tag was gone, which sort of angried the Google monster

Word to the wise. If you one of those people who enjoy tweaking your blog’s design instead of watching TV - don’t use meta tag verification method.

Now, if I only did it AFTER Google dance, not a week before…

No dip in website traffic though. Maybe not yet.

Popularity: 21%

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Small businesses, especially those that are not geographically “challenged”, should not limit themselves to small-scale marketing tools. Coupons, flyers, business cards, comp cards - it all can work for geographical regions of a small scale. Sending out postcards or distribute flyers can get really expensive as your targeted location grows in size. These marketing tools can’t distinguish among prospective clients, regular clients or, so-called, premium clients. Yes, big news, you have to keep promoting yourself to your premium clients too. It’s like dating - guy is supposed to bring flowers to his girlfriend or wife even after they moved in or got married.

Really neat idea was suggested by some of our customers. They give out free magazine subscriptions to their premium clients. Obviously, it’s not just any magazine - it’s the magazine about the industry they engaged it, and the magazine where their advertising shows up quite often. It may sound like a cheap trick. In fact - it’s just indirect marketing to your existing clients. Just a little something to keep them happy.

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Couple of months ago I did a little “research” - I asked people around to find out if they know anything about RSS. Turns out - none of my business-oriented colleagues knows that term. Even more - they have no idea what news aggregator/reader is and actually read news from all the web sites they are interested in by actually visiting those web sites.

Here is your chance to shine. Offer your clients/dealers/affiliates an RSS stream of company news, price updates, discounts. Make sure they know what it is. Make sure they know how to use it. Stress that RSS, unlike e-mail, will not be a stream of spam, so they can read your content free of spam and annoying ads. Customize RSS feeds so that it will supply different information to different groups - customers, dealers and affiliates.

Next thing you know - RSS may have a chance to replace e-mail in your company altogether. It’s cheaper, faster and more reliable. Too bad no one notices.

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