This document outlines 5 key points for small businesses regarding online marketing. It discusses: 1. Knowing your brand and defining its personality and reputation. 2. Listening to customers, colleagues, and partners to understand how others perceive the brand. 3. Staying true to the brand's voice and level of service across online interactions. 4. Generating and sharing valuable, helpful content like case studies, customer insights, and commentary to build an engaged community. 5. Measuring return on investment through analytics to refine online marketing efforts. The goal is community building through engagement rather than immediate sales.

1. Online Marketing
5 Key Points for Small Businesses
@liamdempsey

2. The slides are online:
bit.ly/pottstownscore

3. ABOUT YOU
• Small business owner
• Thinking about starting your own
business
• Provide advice to small business
owners

4. ABOUT LIAM
• Director + Owner, LBDesign
• Self-employed since 2005
• An employer since 2009;
employees in the US + UK
• Co-founder and co-editor
of chickenmonkeydog

5. WHAT WE’LL COVER
• The goal of online marketing
• Knowing your brand
• Listening to your customers
• Being genuine + keeping true to
your brand
• Creating + sharing valuable content
• Measuring a return on investment

6. WHAT WE WON’T COVER
• What marketing solution is best for
your company
• Whether it’s better to focus on
Facebook or your website
• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• My pizza crust recipe

7. GO!

8. What is
ONLINE
MARKETING?

9. Online Marketing
is
Community
Building

10. • We’re hoping to establish
CONNECTIVITY
• We’re looking for ENGAGEMENT
• We’re developing a SHARED VISION
with COMMON GOALS
COMMUNITY BUILDING

11. Attentive Community
Captive Audience
Willing Sales Targets
=
=

12. A willing sales target
must be the end goal …
yet it is rarely the
immediate focus

13. Very rarely
should a ‘sell’ be
our online
marketing focus

14. Treating People like People
• Good online engagement
means treating people as
people, not like targets
• Emulate our offline
interactions with potential
customers and clients

15. How do we build
community on
the internet?

16. KNOW
YOUR
BRAND
1

17. KNOWING YOUR BRAND
• Your brand is more than your logo
and company colors
• Your brand can be thought of as its
personality and reputation
• It’s not so much what YOU think of
you – it’s what OTHERS THINK of
you

18. EXERCISE NO. 1
How would
you define
your brand?

19. GO!

20. LISTEN
FIRST
2

21. LISTEN FIRST
• Need to listen what our customers,
colleagues and partners think of our
company
• Monitor social media, customer
feedback, emails and employees
• Establish an environment where
constructive feedback is encouraged

22. EXERCISE NO. 2
How are you
listening to
your clients?

23. GO!

24. BE TRUE
TO
YOUR
BRAND
3

25. BEING TRUE TO
YOUR BRAND
• Be true to who you are
• Maintain a consistent voice
• Offer your true level of service
and care

28. GENERATE
AND SHARE
GREAT
CONTENT
4

29. How do we
generate and
share great
content?

30. WE CREATE
content that our
audience will find
useful, interesting
or helpful.

31. CONTENT EXAMPLES
• An exciting case study
• Examples of challenges overcome
• Photos of new products or from
social events
• Connection to partner businesses
• Links to valuable offers online

32. CONTENT EXAMPLES
• Promotion of other local businesses
• Customer ‘how to’ insights –
enabling customers to get greater
value from our products/services
• ‘Day in the life’ – what our staff do
on a daily basis
• Commentary on industry news

33. EXERCISE NO. 3
What value
adds could
you produce?

34. GO!

35. MEASURE
YOUR
RETURN ON
INVESTMENT
5

36. MEASURING ROI
• The web allows for the
collection of detailed
feedback on our efforts
• Measuring and analyzing
feedback is the key to
refining online marketing

37. MEASUREMENT TOOLS

38. THE TAKEAWAYS
• Know your brand
• Listen first
• Be true to your brand
• Generate and share great
content
• Measure return on
investment

39. Questions?
@liamdempsey
@LBDesign
http://lbdesign.tv