The Click Depot Blog

Obama has charisma. Does that rhyme?:). But he’s got more than that - he’s got the country’s liberal youth on his side now. He’s got the 20-somethings that traditionally rarely appear at voting booths talking to each other about him now. And how did he do it? Did he use a million dollar defense-developed system for magically infesting youth minds or nobel-prize winning economic theories? Not really. All he did was use the power of Internet and Mobile marketing to his advantage. He used the same tools and techniques that a Plumber, a Carpenter, a Doctor, a Restaurant or any other business can use. In fact, we even know what tools he used and they cost hardly anything.

He contracted with local and national Search marketing and Internet Marketing firms. He built an Email list. He used mobile marketing. He used www.icontact.com, a tool to build email lists, something that we’ve used for a long time.

Read this detailed report about the use of SMS in the US, and how Obama’s clever use of SMS in the presidential race has made it a huge success with businesses around the country.

All this should either confirm your approach and belief in the Internet as an ever-growing marketing tool. If it’s sounding like something you haven’t invested in yet, take our advice, do it now! Trust me, you don’t even need a website to do that. We do it all the time and help small companies realize their dreams.

If you have an online or offline business that has never used the Internet for marketing on a large scale, there are a lof of things you can do to start on that journey TODAY, NOW, not later, not next week. By the time you end reading this short post, you will have the knowldge to start promoting yourself online.

STEP 1: Google Local/Maps: Go to http://www.maps.google.com and search for your business in your location. If you find that your business is already listed, great; if not, create one. You simply need to log in using your google/gmail account (create one in 2 minutes if you don’t have one) and complete the entire profile. This helps in a big way. A lot of people search Google or Google Local to look for businesses and the information that you enter is what gets searched. Make sure that you enter all your information in detail and upload pictures if possible.

STEP 2: Reviews: Send email to 10-25 friends/customers and ask them to write a review on Google against your business. This will help your business rise to the top of the listings. Here you go, you have a secret from us now!

STEP 3: Local Directories: Think about what your potential customers would search on the net to find your business. For instance, for a florist in Raliegh, it would be “Raleigh Florist directory” or “Raleigh Red Roses directory” or something similar. Search for those terms and observe the results. Usually, there should be at least a few listings of sites that you can submit your business too. These are called diretory sites and are like free Yellow Pages. You can list your business there and increase your brand’s prensence on the ‘Net.

After you are done with these steps, now that your business is online, the next step is to consult with a web designer or a Raleigh Internet Marketing firm to get a simple website. You should be able to get a basic one for about $500-$700. Make sure that the website is developed to be friendly to the Search Engines. You can find more information about this at http://www.theclickdepot.com

The Internet is an interesting place. We all know that it is expaning constantly (how many new websites do you browse to in a week?). But did you know that it is also constantly changing? It started off as more of a communication and information source sort of place in the late 90’s. Email was the eighth wonder of the world. Y2K brought with it the dotcom boom and everything from buying books to shoes to PC’s went online. The early twenty first century further made the Internet easier to use but there were still way too many technologies, few standards anda growth so fast that most people were’nt sure where to get started.

All that has changed today. This blog that I am writing on was installed on very affordable ($10/month) shared hosting, on free blog software (Wordpress) without a single line of code, without any IT person’s help, in less than 10 minutes. No kidding. This means a lot. The last 2-3 years have seen businesses, and I am not talking about the Walmarts and the Amazons. I am talking about the salons, the little soccer-apparel store, the neighborhood chinese market AND yes, your neighbor himself, create websites. So what does that mean for us and wait a minute, I thought this was going to be about local marketing!

You are right. More and more business have their websites. More websites means more competition and that’s what is changing the landscape. I run an SEO firm. A small one at present, and still, I see at least 10 businesses moving their advertising and marketing spending from direct mail and traditional methods to online marketing. Your customers are not looking at the thick Yellow Pages book anymore. I throw mine into the trash the day it arrives. I look only one place, that’s the Internet for all my business needs.

If you are not capitalizing on this market, WAKE UP! On the Internet, getting in early is too important. From getting a good domain name, to gradually building traffic from a variety of sources, it takes time to grab a piece of your market that’s searching for you online. All that competition (which is multiplying on a daily basis) means that it is getting harder and harder to do that.

No BS and sugar coating this message. Get in before it is too late.