5 Ways to Attract Customers with Social Media

Business owners are always looking for new ways to attract customers. Newspaper, radio, and television absorbed media budgets until the advent of online marketing roughly ten years ago.  At Web4Retail (an online marketing firm), we educate and inspire small businesses on the benefits of social media and how it can attract new customers if managed correctly. Below are some first steps into the world of social media:


1. Create a Facebook Fan Page

There are lots of ways to get creative and engage your customers, and then their friends become your fans and customers too. It’s best to ask an expert to help you set up your page and manage the day to day maintenance.

2. Tweet Special Offers or Advice Daily Via Twitter
Sprinkles Cupcakes is just one business that encourages customers in its stores and on its Web site to follow the company on Twitter. Every few days, the company sends out messages such as “Celebrate National Chocolate Cake Day! The first 50 people to whisper “rich” at each Sprinkles receive a free dark chocolate cupcake.” That gets people into the shop — and most times they buy another cupcake and a drink.

3. Encourage Customer Reviews on Yelp

Some 90 percent of consumers say they trust recommendations from people they know, and 70 percent say they trust consumer opinions posted online, according to a Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey. A Web4Retail client, Bedderbuy, utilizes Yelp beautifully for new customers and reviews. I encourage all furniture retailers to make Yelp a part of their online marketing effort.

4. List Your Business on Google and Yahoo

When we want to find anything, we turn to Google or Yahoo to search — and you can’t get any bigger in terms of Web sites than these. Google has a Local Business Directory where you can register your business absolutely free. And here’s what’s most interesting: You don’t even need a site to have a strong Web presence. It’s open to all types of small businesses — with hundreds of thousands posted. (Yahoo offers a similar service.) There’s no reason not list your business on both sites — whether you own a mom and pop hardware store or a bar, you want to leverage the extraordinary reach of these search engines. Check out Google’s tutorialto help you get started.

5. Be Your Own Publicist

Finally, the Web site ”Help A Reporter” is a free daily email service that delivers media queries three times a day right to your inbox from among some 70,000 bloggers, authors, TV reporters, and radio producers. Often the requests are for small business owners — recent listings seek smallbusiness owners to discuss creative financing in this economy; other queries are for gardening experts, jewelry makers; the needs are very diverse. This is a way for you to do your own publicity without the expense of a publicist to get your business mentioned in the media.

Web4Retail had designed and manages more than 100 Facebook pages for businesses. If you would like more information visit our website @ www.facebookyourbusiness.net or call 877-536-4786

Tips On Developing The Marketing Section Of Your Business Plan

Here's some tips on how to develop the marketing section of the business plan for your small business .......

I suggest that you evolve demographics for your anticipated customer base that allow you to develop a marketing plan from the customers you wish to reach with your product information. Demographics are generally available at web sites such as the US Census Bureau and other links below.

Seek information about individuals who are likely to buy your product, such as age, location, lifestyle, and similar information that would allow you to gear a marketing plan toward a population of buyers you wish to impress.

When researching on web sites I recommend that you change your search key words. Here is a list of preface words that you should consider followed by words identifying your product when searching on Google or like sites: Financial Forecast **Anticipated Revenue ** Future Market **Sales and Revenue **Market Coverage **Industry Forecast **Market Trends **Market Data **Forecast Data **Outlook **Others you may think of implying data and information in the past, present or future.

Sometimes the information doesn't jump right out of the page at you. You have to give some thought to how you are going to use the data and be willing to look at it at face value and think about potential underlying support it may be providing to your premises. You may have to change your focus from a technical one to a business one and elevate your view of information, then interpolate downward.

Give the best you can to preparation of all the other elements of the plan except the financial section and then use them as a springboard to complete your expense and revenue forecasts in the finance area to complete your business plan.

Online resources ....

* Entrepreneur Resource Center

* Ecom

* Fact Finder

* SEC EDGAR

The Key Elements For Success Of A Small Business In Overseas Markets

Here's a few things to ensure are addressed if you are intending to expose your Small Business to overseas markets .....



Make sure you are versed in their customs and know the costs of start up. You should already have a business plan but if you don't I strongly suggest getting one. How will you fund the expansion into the new market? What type of entity will you operate as (LLC, Incorporation, Corp, S-corp etc). Find out the international tax rules. What will your sales forecasts be? What about initial costs and operating costs? Who will represent you over seas? All this boils down to is there are market for your business in the Asian markets. When will you be profitable? Who are your competitors? What is your marketing strategy? The answers to these questions and many more will allow you come up with your key strategies as well as contingency planning. Having a great accountant who specializes in international accounting will help tremendously as well. You may seek some legal services as well.



Spearheading a campaign into an overseas market requires an incredible amount of detail and cultural/custom/legal specific knowledge. It would also be highly beneficial to transfer someone from your management team directly ahead of your startup - that way you have a source you can rely on to negotiate on your behalf and ensure everything is prepared smoothly before you invest further ahead. They can also be responsible for sourcing local talent for succession management with an excellent background in your industry.