London East, UK - An insider's view of the basics. More leads, more clients, more sales by Tom Menzie, who has been involved in the reclamation trade for over 10 years and is now working as a freelance digital marketing specialist.

Website
So, you have a website. It is your brochure, your business card, even your point of sale. It is accessible to millions of people. I have found that most business website owners underestimate what it can do. They believe a site will do just fine on its own. Why is it that many owners neglect the thing that should be their most prized marketing asset? Is there an item that you have had for months, just sitting there, not shifting? Chances are, there is someone out in interwebland who wants to pay your asking price for it. There are several ways to wave it seductively under their nose.

TIP: Don't have website? There is a service, brought by a joint initiative from Enterprise UK, e-skills, Google and BT under the banner of Getting British Business Online - a free service to aid British businesses get an online presence. It will allow you to create a free website (hosted by Google) but more importantly, register a FREE (for 2 years) dot co dot uk domain name. If you don't have a website - get one. Be wise in choosing your domain name and be descriptive of what your business does and even where it is located. Don't be tempted with acronyms and shorten "Barry's Antique Lamppost's & Lighting Salvage" to balls dot co dot uk as the traffic received will not be relevant and somewhat unwanted. Visit gbbo dot co dot uk to register your free domain name and website.

Google ranking
Search Engine Optimisation - or SEO as it is known - gets your website noticed by the search engines and helps to display it as high as possible in the search results. Try a test. Tap in one of your items such as 'reclaimed bricks' on Google. Are you on the first page of the results? It is very unlikely that the searcher will go beyond that first page. However, SEO is not instant and so it should be viewed as a long-term investment which can take up to a year before your site creeps up the results ladder. After that, the benefits have the potential to last for years. Factors which help optimise a site include written content, the code 'behind' the website, links from other sites and many, many others. Relevance is paramount to the searcher so if you have a few different product categories, make sure you give each a page of its own and do not cram them together on a single page.

TIP: Google loves local searches. If you have not already done so, go to Google maps and try to find your business. Click on 'More info' and then the link that says 'Business Owner?' and update your listing. If your business is not listed, go to google dot co dot uk/places and add it. You have the opportunity to add lots of text, 10 pictures and other information. Make use of it as it will give you the chance to be seen on that all important first page of results in Google's 'Local Search Results' section. If you do not know what you are doing get a professional to do it (by that I mean a SEO specialist like me, and yes, it actually is a real job). Warning: If you have been sold a SEO 'package' by your web designer, which submits your website to all the search engines periodically this will almost certainly do your search engine rankings more harm than good.

Google Adwords
Search Engine Marketing - or SEM - pretty much covers all that is 'paid'. Google Adwords is the most popular example, commonly known as pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. Whilst SEO is considered a long-term solution, PPC is more an instant advertising tool. It is the best way of getting your product or message on that all important front page of the search results. Do a Google search for one of your stock items. Do you see your competitors adverts popping up? (No ads showing? That's an opportunity!). Adwords can drive genuine, interested, quality traffic to your website and a quick check on some people in the trade already using them, show that ads are driving more traffic to their site than normal 'organic' search results. Google makes it very easy to set up and activate an Adwords account for the inexperienced but the downside of just taking these 'easy' pre-set options is that you will be getting fewer clicks and going through your daily budget very quickly. At worst, someone will click your ad, be disappointed when they do not find what they expected and leave your site. So be warned, running an effective Adwords campaign requires a lot of research, constant monitoring and adjustments. The trick is to get the most amount of quality traffic to your site for the least amount of cost-per-click. Don't get me wrong, Adwords is a brilliant way of advertising your company, products, services or events, just be careful with your settings and do some thorough research.

TIP: Adwords is not the only solution so spread your campaigns across different providers. If you are in the reclamation or salvage trade then you will already be aware of SalvoWEB. It has already driven a massive amount of interested searchers to the site and you have the option of premium listings, Banners, PPC buttons and FREE listings. If your stock is not even on a free listing, then you will be missing out on some of the 200,000+ visits per month to the site - and they are your potential clients.

Social Media Marketing
I'll admit that even I was a late starter with social media 'networking'. The idea of displaying my life on the internet and 'tweeting' about what I had for lunch never did appeal to me. But as with all new ways of getting people to be in contact and talking to each other (no matter how they do it), social media creates marketing opportunities. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Digg and many other examples are leading the way in how people interact and share information. Think of them as online word-of-mouth or just another way of connecting with your existing customers and potential ones. Social media marketing is a hot potato at the moment. Agencies are charging extortionate amounts to promote businesses in this way and why? Because it works. Once you have setup your accounts and got yourself some followers, you can easily let them know your newest item of stock for example. If they are not interested, there's a chance they might know someone who is. Ignore social media at your peril.

TIP: Register your business name on social media sites before someone else does. Ask your existing customers if they have accounts and ask them to 'follow' you. Give updates on new stock and interesting news but don't over do it. This can be very little work for the potential return.

Finally
You may not know or may not want to know the details of how to implement these tasks and strategies. You may just be looking for a cost-effective way to further promote your business. You don't see many carpenters working with a blunt chisel. Your website is a marketing tool and there are many different ways to sharpen it. With regards to hiring a specialist to perform these duties, keep in mind that if they are not getting you a multiple return for your investment, they aren't doing their job right. Expect to see a monthly report to show how your campaigns are running and whether you can track them to a conversion. Remember, all this form of marketing can do is make your phone ring more, receive more emailed enquiries or get more people to visit your premises. The rest is up to you.

For a free website analysis and report, Tom Menzie can be contacted on 07931 358 124 or emailed at reclaimed@gmail dot com

Story Type:  News

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