Because of this terrible economy most of us have had to make major changes to our expenditures.  One aspect of the personal side that I have cut back probably 80-90% is restaurants. The fact is, I love great restaurants, so, with such a deep cut, one might think that it’s a bad thing, yet not at all. I’ve learned to cook and to take meals that I love at certain restaurants and replicate them at home, pair them with a great wine and viola, wonderful meal at a true fraction of the original cost.

That’s how we have to start looking at the current economy. Yes, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. If business is slow and continues to be slow, I’ve got one word for you, INNOVATE!  Get out of that daily routine and try new things! Do something different and the gauge the results.

Here are 7 ideas that are quick and painless.

Blog Set up a blog on your website and start creating content and keep creating it. All kinds of good things can come of it, and at the very least, you have new content on your site, and Google LOVES new content!

Volunteer your expertise Are you really good at something?  Why not offer your expertise.

Create A Coupon Set up a Coupon on your website that requires a visitor to submit their e-mail and start building an e-mail opt in list.

Sell on your Website Got a few unique products that you sell?  Why not add them to your site and the whole world can become your customer base!

Create a YouTube Page Want to get people’s attention?  Create quick 2 to 3 minute videos, upload them to YT, then add them to your blog.  Learn more HERE.

Follow People on Twitter from Your Local Area Don’t listen to what other people say about Twitter, people use it and love it.  Reach out to people locally and it will help drive more traffic to your site.  Think of it this way, people see you are a local business, they check you out via Twitter, clip your coupon and come in and spend money–see how it falls together!

BONUS IDEA: Spend some money on your business Everyone ‘s got spend-a-phobia right now.  But, let’s remember, spending money drives revenue growth (it’s called investing).  Here’s an idea:  if you have a Facebook page for your business take $50 and earmark it for ‘Advertising on Facebook.’  If you set up the pay per click program for radius around your business and at $1 per click 50 people click onto your ad, and then land on your site.  Ten of those people clip your coupon and then spend $500 at your business.  Wow, not a bad investment.  Learn more here about creating business locally with Facebook here.

Do you have any additional ideas?  Please share them with us.

Preston Ehrler, Webvantix

I speak to a lot of local business owners throughout the country and one thing they are very interested in is finding local customers through Facebook.

Here is a quick tutorial on how you can use geographically centered Facebook advertising to attract customers to your local business–great for restaurants, and shops.

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As a web development company working with businesses throughout the country, we get a great deal of questions regarding driving traffic to a website.  Almost always the customer leads the discussion to SEO, and while we think a proper, yet basic, SEO setup is warranted, our belief is that fresh content drives both traffic and indexing.

Participation in blogging, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are far less expensive than both ongoing SEO work and traditional advertising and have the potential to quickly reach exponentially more people, yet we still hear the following reasoning NOT to participate:

1.  ”We are too busy.”

(Response:  That’s great, especially in this economy, but if you’re busy, your competition has taken notice, and is doing EVERYTHING they can to take business away from you, EVERYTHING.)

2.  ”We don’t know anything about computers.”

(Response:  Business is dynamic.  It is no longer sufficient to open a local brick and mortar business, and hope for the best.  Be proactive, learn what to do–blog about the passion you feel for your business.  If you have an antique store, blog and video blog about your passion for the pieces in your shop.  If you own a restaurant blog and Twitter about your specials and anything going on such as live music–I promise you, your customers want to know!)

3.  ”Our customers are not online.”

(Response:  If your customers are seniors, they are the fastest growing demographic online, and, as they move into retirement, their children and those taking their positions at companies that may be your clients, are online.)

4.  ”I tried Twitter and had only 8 people following me.”

(Response:  Social Media Marketing is a long-term investment.  You cannot be online for a couple of weeks and expect major changes, yet time invested will have a lasting effect.)

5.  ”I don’t like Facebook.”

(Response:  Facebook recently crossed the 350 million person threshold.  Your customers are there, if you don’t connect to them there–someone else will, that’s for sure!  And while you are considering spending a few thousand dollars to create one of those awful local cable TV advertisements, you could spend a fraction of that money to advertise via pay-per-click on Facebook in only your geographic area, and reach far more people.)

As a reader of this blog, what are your thoughts about businesses using Social Media to market themselves?  Do you have questions about getting started, or have you had some specific success or failures?

Your input and thoughts are welcome.

Preston Ehrler, Webvantix