WebVisible CEO offers tips to drive success in 2008 Business owners across the country are asking themselves how they can improve on their successes of 2007 and take their companies to the next level. Today, an Internet presence and online advertising strategy is essential for any business to succeed. Kirsten Mangers, CEO of WebVisible, an Irvine, Calif.-based software firm that manages local search advertising programs for small businesses, offers eight tips to help small businesses get the most out of Internet and search engine marketing.

1. Research. Take a look at what other local businesses in your field are doing. Put yourself in the place of a customer who buys your products and who might be interested in contacting your company for businesses. What are their keywords?

2. Stand out from the crowd. Many potential customers seek out local businesses by using search engines like Google or Yahoo! If you are listed in an online directory, your business name will pop up, but so will your competitors. It’s wise to invest in search engine marketing so your business appears at the top of the list of search results.

3. Pay attention to the competition. We all have competition. Your competition may not be readily known to you, but there are other businesses out there marketing to the same potential customers as you. Why aren’t they finding and going to your site? What is your competition doing differently from you? Some of your competitors are investing in search engine marketing to drive customers to their websites, and you should be too.

4. Critique your website. Ask five people to review your website and offer suggestions for improvement. Is your website easy to read, does it tell your company’s story, are the contact numbers and e-mail addresses accurate?

5. Invest in marketing. Marketing must produce a significant return on investment (ROI.) Internet marketing should be seen as an investment, not an expense. Search engines are probably the best way to get the highest ROI on your marketing dollars.

6. Do the math. Let’s say your time is worth $50/hour, a customer is worth $200 to you and each time someone clicks on your ad it costs you $3. If you invested in search engines ads and got 1,000 targeted visitors to your website, and 2 percent of them became customers (20 new customers) that would mean $4,000 in new revenue for your business. Your cost would be $3,000 (based on $3 per visitor), and if you had a partner execute this strategy for you, your time savings would be worth at least $5,000 (it would take you at least 100 hours to get set up and manage this yourself.)

7. Let the experts help you. As a small business owner how much free time do you have? And if you do have extra time, are you going to spend it learning the complexities of Internet marketing or keeping up with the ever-changing formulas that the search engines use to determine who gets displayed and when? When it comes to acquiring new customers, let the experts handle the complex stuff. When planning Internet marketing strategies for 2008, don’t go it alone. After all you hire an architect to design a building or home, so why not hire a search engine marketing expert to design your online marketing and customer acquisition strategy?

8. Learn from other people’s mistakes. A great way to learn about the effectiveness of online advertising campaigns is by talking to people who work in the same industry at chamber of commerce and trade association meetings. This is also a quick way to learn what does or does not work, without having to make those mistakes yourself.

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About WebVisible
Established in 2001, WebVisible is a leading software and technology provider to the local online advertising industry, named Emerging Software Company of the Year by the Technology Council of Southern California. Our proprietary software, Geneva, is a scalable platform for creating and managing local interactive advertising products. We integrate directly with a network of over 30 top search engines including Google, Yahoo!, MSN and Ask. WebVisible provides an exchange between private label resellers of our local advertising products, search engines, and other online media providers, creating one of the largest independent exchanges of its kind. WebVisible’s technology automates the account management, media provisioning, bid, budget, and reporting processes, allowing an affordable, turn-key online advertising solution for local businesses all over the world. WebVisible’s service suite includes local search marketing, locally-targeted banner advertising, fixed placement ads, profile and landing page technologies, and call-related services packages. All products are privately branded and sold by a growing list of resellers in the yellow pages, newspaper and online marketing industries. For more information, please visit www.webvisible.com or call (949) 502-5766.