Where do most of your customers come from? It's a question you should obviously know and I'm sure you do. However have you ever sat down and looked at all the ways in which customers reach your business?  You should list all the ways, then see which ones come to the top as being the best for providing new customers. If the Internet is not in your top two then something is wrong. Over the next 12 months you need to develop a plan to increase your Internet leads to the point of being your #1 source. I wrote a two part article on Internet marketing for small business that addresses some of the reasons why. Internet Leads Jumped to #1 Recently website inquires surpassed trade shows as our #1 source of leads.  This is a trend that's been 10 years in the making.  Slowly, year after year, our Internet leads increased and its now to the point where our website will provide more leads this year than trade shows.  It's not just an "economy" issue either. How about you what are you top sources of leads? Leave a comment below, I would love to hear about them. Photo Credit

"Attract more leads to your website today! " "Order now! Guaranteed to increase your website traffic!" " Triple your website traffic in 30 days!" I get so tired of these offers, it reminds me of the "half naked girls" tactic.  Every year I travel all around the world to attend boat shows for my company. Without fail every show I go to has one ingenious company that has figured out the tactic to drawing a crowd - half naked girls. By strategically placing women in bathing suits on the boat the crowds grow. It always amuses me to see the crowds gather around, I can't help but think how someone from that company must be saying "look at the crowds, what a great idea this is". The problem is that while there may be a crowd gathered around a) they aren't there to see the product and b) they couldn't afford it.  The tactic is attracting the wrong crowd.  This same principal holds true when it comes to attracting traffic to your website. The quickest sign to me that you have no idea what you are doing is by making one of these hollow, senseless, traffic increasing claims. Gathering a crowd for a crowds sake is not what your business is looking for. Attracting more website traffic is not your goal.  Attracting more qualified website traffic is. One hundred interested, motivated and qualified leads are much more important than boosting your traffic stats. The reality is most sites already get enough traffic, it's conversion to that next step in the sales process that they need to work on. However that's not to say that you shouldn't continually be working on ways of cultivating more qualified traffic to your site. Magnetize More Qualified Leads To Your Website So how do you go about building qualified traffic?  The tools that you want to focus on are many of the Internet Marketing ideas we cover at this website. Here's a list of 9 specific ways you can increase traffic.

Ding Dong, the doorbell at your house rings.  You haven't showered in weeks, your clothes are all tattered and you look like crap.  You drag yourself to the front door and, surprise, you have guests.  Everyone lets themselves in only to find that there in no furniture, no pictures on the wall, nothing! Just white walls, an empty house and you. I'd say you just made a horrible first impression, wouldn't you? That's what's it like when people go to your Twitter page. That is unless you've personalized it. Why Personalize That Twitter Page Nearly half of all Twitter users engage the site through Twitter.com, as opposed through a third party program such as Tweetdeck or Seesmic. That means millions can come to your page. What will they see first?  Let's hope its not an empty house.  Use the opportunity to show people something unique about yourself or company.  Give them a short excerpt on who and what your business is all about.  Don't ignore this space, it's another great branding opportunity for you to use to your advantage.

This is the second part of a series on Internet Marketing for Small Business.  You can find the first part HERE. What can replace all those dying marketing channels that your small business is still using? Internet Marketing. In the first part we looked at most of the current ways small business attracts and cultivates new customers.  In reviewing each of those methods it becomes clear that over the next 5 years most of the current channels being used are going to decline in consumer consumption and engagement.  The good news it that the Internet and the wide variety of tools that are available will not only replace all of those channels, but surpass them in effectiveness. Internet Marketing Channels Website Email Social Networks Blogs Advertising Participation (comments, forums, newsgroups) Video Podcast's Search This is a list of the categories generally considered when developing a strategy for your small business on the Internet.  Within each category there are a many tools available.  However, if we are to analyze each category the same way we did with your current system of attracting customers then it would look like this.  Remember, based on past and current trends what do you think each of these channels will look like 5 years from now in terms of consumption and engagement.  Will they be up or down?

Most of the marketing channels that small business have used in the past are dying right before our eyes. It's got me thinking about why so many small businesses aren't utilizing more Internet marketing tools today.  It can't be cost, since most of these things cost very little in the way of monetary investment.  Perhaps it's a perceived lack of time.  However if you knew your success depended on it I know you would make time. I guess it could be a lack of knowledge on how to use these tools or how to get started. Quite frankly there is a ton of great stuff on the Internet that answers a lot of questions you may have. So, I'm left with two reasons that small businesses choose not to utilize these tools a) their current lead generation and cultivation system works just fine b) they don't believe Internet marketing will work. Current System For Attracting Leads Let's look at the first one. How do you attract customers today?   Here's a list that I came up with, perhaps there are more. Word of Mouth (Referrals) Print Advertising (Newspapers, Yellow Pages, etc) AM/FM Radio Trade shows Direct Mail TV Outdoor Advertising Phone I'm sure there are other ways that you attract customers to your small business, however this probably covers most. Now, based on trends what do you think each of these channels will look like 5 years from now in terms of consumption and engagement.