This week I have a guest post from Noah Battle from Sproutbox Media, an expert in SEO. Please contact me if you are interested in writing a guest post! Enjoy and I’ll talk to you next week.

The year and decade are not the only things that have changed. There is literally an explosion of options and opportunities for businesses to grow.

Some of those opportunities will prove invaluable, others might not. A lot will depend on your business, knowledge and sustained activity. Below, I have briefly listed 8 tips that can kick start (or enhance) your business online marketing plan for 2011.

Start with a review of your current marketing activities. It’s interesting the number of businesses that don’t realize how much they are spending on marketing or how much of a return on their investment (ROI) they are getting. Think about it for a bit. Where are you spending your marketing dollars? How much is going to yellow pages, local newspaper, direct mail, website, internet marketing, etc.? Do you know where your new business is coming from? What forms of advertising is paying off? Where are you getting new clients? Are you meeting your revenue goals?

If needed, set aside a few hours to review your current marketing activities and your marketing ROI. Find out what’s working and what’s not working. Reallocate money into what is working, or better yet, start using the money that is not working by expanding your overall marketing options. Get more into the new online marketing opportunities that have fast become mandatory for accelerated business growth.

Is your website performing?

Your website should be an asset that is building your business value on a year to year basis. If it isn’t, you should seriously consider if you have made the right website investments and whether your investment level has been serious enough to compete in today’s business environment.

Give your website stats a hard look. Make sure you are using Google Analytics (it’s free) or some other high quality stats package. Know your number of website visitors, where they are coming from, what pages are ranking on the first page of Google, your visitor to customer conversion ratios, etc. These are critical performance factors of your business.

Your website needs to be fast, it has to be easily navigated and it needs to be functional. This is your new business storefront. Use your website to tie everything together including links to your social media pages, blog, subscription to your email newsletter and more. If your website is not doing what it couldor should, then get help ASAP.

Is your website ranking for the most important phrase in your industry?

More than 70% of local consumers of your product or services will “Google” you before purchasing. An astounding 98% of searchers will only review the first page of search engine results. That means that only 2% of searchers will find your business if it is not on the first page. Search for your business in the major engines, Google, Yahoo, and Bing to make sure your website is listed, if it comes up then you are fine. Your search should be for the main industry phrases, not your business name. Hint: Consumers that already know your business name are a small percentage of the local consumer you want to do business with. Instead of business name, search for “City + Industry Keywords”, e.g. “Portland Dentist”, “Portland Bookkeepers”, “Portland Accountant”, etc. without the quotes. If your business comes up on the first page, then keep doing whatever you are doing. If not, then make ranking a high business priority for 2011.

Are you getting your share of the Google Places Goldmine?

If you are a small business owner, you can’t go anywhere on the Web without hearing about Google Places. Google is certainly making a hard push toward local search with the back-to-back launches of Place Pages, Place Search, Google Hotpot and a seemingly never-ending list of local announcements. If you’re a small business owner, it’s not always an easy job to keep up, but it’s really important that you do. Google Places is a goldmine of opportunity for those smart enough to get first page positions.

Google has reported that more than a billion searches each month are for local products and services. That number is growing each month. In addition to the local focus, Google Places has the advantage of being faster to rank than traditional SEO and is less expensive than Pay Per Click (PPC).

Here are few pointers to help you rank for less competitive markets. Competitive markets will be covered in an upcoming post or webinar:

• First thing is claim you’re listing, completely.

A big mistake that many small business owners make with Google Places is not claiming their listing or taking the time to accurately fill out all of the fields. You want to make sure your profile is as complete and accurate as it can be. When you claim your listing, you’ll be asked to include basic information about your business, such as business name, address, phone number, website address, e-mail address, categories, service areas and location settings, hours of operation, payment options, photos (up to 10 photos), videos (up to five YouTube links) and any additional details. Every available field should be filled out in order to give your business the best chance for ranking high.

• Smart Keywords.

When you fill out your listing, be smart about your keyword usage – using terms related to what you do and your location. Do your keyword research to know which terms searchers are using to find your business. Make sure those keywords are included in your description, and be sure you are listing your business in the right category. Do not stuff the description with keywords (you only have 200 characters), but do keep search engine optimization in mind when you’re writing it. Keywords are one of the factors Google uses to decide when it’s appropriate to show your site. Be smart, use the right keywords and don’t overdo or under do it.

• Add images.

Why should you bother uploading photos of your business? Well, because the new Place Search is putting those image thumbnails right next to your site URL in the search results. Your site + Places page now shows up in the same package. This gives you another opportunity to grab a searchers eye and get them to click on your listing instead of competitors.

• Encourage Reviews.

It is wonderful how the opinions of friends and online peers are so highly valued. We check reviews before we buy from Ebay, we check Amazon reviews before buying there, and we check reviews before we book an important dinner. There is a massive social trend toward a pervasive use and dependence on reviews. Reviews are already a heavily weighted component of the Google Places ranking algorithm. With Google Hotpot and reviews becoming part of Social Search, it’s clear that reviews could very soon become part of Google’s overall ranking algorithm strategy.

As a small business owner you need to encourage customers to leave reviews about your business. Reach out to them during checkout, after the purchase, in e-mail newsletters, in company mailings and at other touch points. Teach them how to leave reviews and direct them to the appropriate sites. Let customers know how important reviews are to your business. You need to start figuring out how you’re going to positively solicit reviews from customers in a way that won’t turn them off.

Local search has changed. Web search has now become local search, and that means small business owners must compete much differently than they did before. More than ever, it’s all about creating a comprehensive online strategy, showing users and search engines that your business is a relevant and trusted brand. Search engine optimization is about to become more important for local businesses than it ever was before. Make sure you have a smart 2011 online marketing plan to compete and succeed!

Other important areas to consider:

• Mobile Marketing
• Pay Per Click Marketing
• Starting/Expand an eMail Newsletter
• Integrating Online and Offline Promotions
• Getting Really Serious about Social Media Marketing

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It’s that time of the year, a time to reflect on how your business performed and changes you would like to make for the new year. Looking back over 2010, it’s easy to look for trends and habits that brought you closer to your current goals.  It might be wise to focus on some of your habits that might have pushed you away from your goals (spending too much time on Twitter or not charging enough for your hourly rate)

Setting goals can help you move forward and measure what you want to achieve. Many times we set an unrealistic goal around New Year’s to lose weight or stop a bad habit. It can be hard to maintain a hard goal if you don’t have the right support and guidance to help you reach it.

Here’s some suggestions to help you get started with your 2011 business goal strategies. Please leave other suggestions in the comments, I’d love to hear other tricks to tackle your goals!

*Set Clear Goals

It’s very important that the goals you set for yourself are clear and something you could easily share with a colleague (they would understand it). Don’t set fuzzy goals. An example of a clear goal would be: Writing a 3 paragraph blog post once a week (have it due every Tues at 5pm, publish on Wed at 12pm).

Just saying that you’d like to do more YouTube videos or blog posts isn’t enough, you need to be explicit and write down exactly what you want to accomplish.

Put the goals in a place in your office where you can see them daily or weekly if possible. I’ve read that it’s good to move things around at your desk every week or so, so that you still can SEE them. After a while, you can’t really see a piece of paper, especially if it’s been sitting in the same place for week. Mix it up!

*Have Someone Hold You Accountable!

This could be a colleague, a mentor, or a business coach. Personally I found it hard to hold myself accountable to goals and noticed a huge change when I promise someone I’ll get something done. Be sure to maintain this accountability on some kind of schedule. Perhaps meeting with your accountability person every 2 weeks or once a month. Explain and give valid reasons why you didn’t achieve a goal and have your accountability person help you re-evaluate the goal to make it more attainable. Also, celebrate when you have accomplished your goals!

*Look at Your Habits of 2010

Did you have hurdles in your business that caused you to slow down or not accomplish what you wanted? I’ve seen it happen with myself and colleagues, we become afraid of finishing that one step that will lead to bigger and greater things such as hiring an assistant, investing in software that will free up our time, partnering up with a colleague, and many more.

Take a look and examine those hurdles and figure out some strategies to help you break free to them. Incorporate the strategies into your goals.

*Use Visual Aids

Having visual triggers can help you motivate as well as be very inspirational. I wanted to double my web hosting customer base over the last year. My office mate wanted to help me, so he created a graph to reflect my current customers and how many more I needed to reach my goal. Every time I got a new customer, I would physically stamp a little deer on the chart. I can’t tell you how excited I got very time I signed up a new customer and had the chance to add more deer!

*Break Goals into Bite-Size Chunks

Don’t forget to break the goals into weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly goals. This can help you reflect on data and numbers in different ways and give you an overall sense of where your business is going. Many times, business is seasonal, maybe you have a slow time in Quarter 1, but always double your sales in Quarter 2. Perhaps you sell a lot of products around holidays, so you can set more timely goals and plan to market for those occasions!

*Reward Yourself

If you do make your goals, be sure to have a way to reward yourself. This could be as simple as taking a day off, getting a massage, or doing an activity you love, but don’t make time for (golf, hiking, skiing, camping, etc). Sometimes the best rewards are making memories with family and friends.

Dream up those goals out and be creative. Imagine that they are as important as the supporting posts in your house. Without the posts, the house would collapse. They are necessary for a house and how it functions, just like in your business!

For more tips on goal setting, visit: http://www.entrepreneur-resources.net/setting-goals-for-2011-2010-habits-to-keep-or-leave-behind

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As a savvy business owner, you want to learn ways to save time and money. Here’s a great overview of some apps that will simplify your life!

1) Evernote

**is available for most smart phones, FREE

Why it’s cool: Captures your ideas, docs, photos, audio recording in one place.  Here’s a list of 21 ways to use it: http://christianpf.com/how-to-use-evernote-creative-uses/

Features: Geo location, Multi-language support

2) Vlingo

**available for most smart Phones, FREE

Why it’s cool: Voice interfacing technology lets you dictate texts and emails, look up contacts, and search web by voice.

Features: Google Maps &  Twitter Integration

3) Omni Invoice

**$4.99, iPhone only

Why it’s cool: Creates quotes and invoices, spans multiple products and services categories, can add discounts & tax exemptions, & tabs on delinquent payments.

Features: Contact integration & HTML templates

4) Poynt

**Works on the iPhone, Android, & Blackberry, FREE

Why it’s cool: Great for a traveling business person! Location Aware Yellow Pages, it identifies where you are and everything you need on the road: gas station, retailers, restaurants.

Features: Google Map directions, Address Book integration & Search Results

5) Inertrak

**iPhone only, $4.99

Why it’s cool: Task management tool designed for business owners to juggle projects. The app does calculates how each workday is spent, adding up the hourly billing for each client.

Features: Detailed product view & desktop integration

6) Linked In

**iPhone, Blackberry, and Palm, FREE

Why it’s cool: Helps you stay connected, access the social network online, real status updates and messaging tools.

Features: Search and Invites.

7) Appbox Pro

**iPhone, 99cents

Why it’s cool: All in one alarm clock, flashlight, currency convertor, loan calculator, random generator. Also does Google services such as News, Docs, Calendar and Reader. I think this is my favorite app right now, so many uses!

Features: Fun Icons & Background to choose from!

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The Internet has grown up in past 15 years and very few people can really be true “Webmasters” (doing everything: programming, animation, graphic design, SEO, information architecture).  It’s better to rely on folks who have a speciality in their field. Hiring professionals who are very skilled within their field can save you lots of time and money as a business owner.

There’s a slew of reasons how a website consultant can help you, but here’s some useful suggestions to get you started:

1) A professional is trained to have an overall view for detail, design layout, search engine optimization, information architecture, usability, and functionality. They also know how these factors play a role in the project and which talent to hire.

2) Talking to a consultant can save yourself hours of research when trying to find the right solution to solve a number of problems for your website.

3) A professional can step into your company and give guidance and direction for your website and provide different suggestion and methods to help you achieve the results you want.

4) A consultant can help you organize your website assets before even beginning the website design process. Usually this step is over-looked and done at the last minute.

5) A professional can help provide your business a road map and assess your needs that you may not even realize you have right away or may not encounter until business has a growth spurt. Experts can look into the future at the bigger, overall picture.

Now that you’ve decided to hire a Website Consultant, how do you find them?

• Referrals – Other web firms, designers, developers can refer you to great consultant they know and work with. They can help match you up with the right people.
• Online Forums that are up-to-date and well regulated
• User/Group Lists
• Craigslist.org

Some Items to Keep in Mind When Hiring:

• Timezone. Do you want someone local, or anywhere in the world?
• Personality. Do you find that you immediately like the consultant’s style? Do you like the way they communicate?
• What kind of clients has the company/consultant worked with in the past?
• Diversity of skill sets – perhaps your project involves complex database problems or e-commerce solution. Has the website consultant has experience in those fields of work?
• How does the company/consultant handle project management?
• Do you like how they tackle problems, do their problem-solving skills match the style of your business?

Hiring a professional to help you undertake an overwhelming website project can be a great experience. There is keep in consideration when you are wanting to solve a billion different problems at once and aren’t certain of the solutions that are out there. Talking to professional can calm your fears and help build the foundation to help you solve those problems and move forward to a better future!

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