Las Vegas Web Design Las Vegas Website Design & Marketing Services - Perkolate

Most of the time, the biggest hurdle that most, if not all, small businesses, especially in Las Vegas, have is a limited marketing and advertising budget. Having a small business budget makes it difficult for your Las Vegas business to have the most glamorous marketing and advertising campaign. Advertising can be pretty expensive, especially when you have so many other things that can eat up your budget.

With a limited budget in mind, you should consider some less expensive and cost-effective forms of advertising your business including:

Website

Even with a small budget, you can get a small simple website up fairly inexpensively. Good news about a website is it can advertise your Las Vegas business 24/7.

Flyers

Create a simple flyer (you can do this yourself in Word) that you can hand to potential clients, as leave behinds in other businesses. Include an incentive or special offer to get better results. You can print a simple flyer on your own printer or have it printed in bulk at a copy center fairly cheaply.

Google AdWords

Advertise on google and come up on the first page as a “Sponsored Listing” and help deliver website traffic and leads for your business. Most times, you can find relatively cheap keywords to bid on and you can set your own monthly budget.

Sponsor Community Events

Donate services and/or time to local Las Vegas community events and be recognized as a supporter of your community. Often times you’ll receive a way to promote your business through a free ad, a press release or PR event. This can help give you an edge over your competitors as well!

Hang in There!

The key is not get frustrated because you only have a small budget to work with. Small businesses are often very imaginative, especially when it comes to stretching their money and making sure that each dime is put to good use.

I’m sure you’ve visited many websites that have banner ads over many of its pages. Blinking, flashing, popping up and sometimes you will actually take notice, read the ad and perhaps click through to the website. People do in fact click on website banner ads. You should consider banner advertising to help promote your Las Vegas business and website.

Sponsored ads on websites that are complimentary to your website can be an invaluable way to promote awareness of your Las Vegas company’s products and services AND gain valuable traffic to your website to encourage more leads and sales for your products and services.

Sponsored website ads can be free, bought, traded, or sold. Really just depends where you look, how popular the website is your are advertising on and how much traffic it receives. Where you choose to advertise online also depends on your current marketing budget. To find potential advertising opportunities, you should research websites you feel your ad might be a good fit for. There’s usually an “Advertising” link on the footer of the website. Contact the webmaster or advertising department and ask about their rates.

The more sponsored ads you have in key website locations, the more likely a potential customer will find your website and look at what you have to offer. Making your website business available to the world and easy to find is the best way to increase the traffic to your website.

Remember to keep your banner ads simple, clear, eye-catching and write a clear call-to-action like:

• Free Evaluation
• 10% off
• Free Shipping
• 2 for 1

Las Vegas businesses, here’s the lowdown… advertisement is simply not marketing, it is only a PART of marketing. It’s like saying you want to have a rich market, but you don’t want to market to you client base. Forget about online marketing, web marketing, a sound corporate identity. You don’t need ‘em?

So wrong. Same is true for revenue generation… if done in your own bubble, none of these valuable strategies and tactics will get the results you’re looking for. For your Las Vegas professional services, where your relationship with your target Las Vegas audience evolves and solidifies based on their trust for you - it is all about layering your “marketing touch” in a way that builds trust solidly over time. You will scare potential clients with too much too soon!

You, as a Las Vegas business owner, have to know which strategies to use and when, based on clearly defined objectives. Each and every marketing strategy has a different and unique purpose. Here’s an overview to making sound choices.

Advertising your Las Vegas business means getting the word out to potential clients about your company through paid advertising which includes ads or commercials in the Las Vegas media, including potentially print, radio, television and internet. You should consider advertising to:

• establish awareness for your company’s products and services
• heighten interest in the marketplace
• educate potential customers
• influence perceptions customers may have about your business

With that said, advertising can be fairly costly, but if you do it correctly and with a marketing perspective in mind and a fair budget it can indeed be effective and produce results.

Public Relations or PR is getting the word about your business products and service through the press, including articles, interview and newsworthy stories. As a business, you should use Public Relations to:

• build credibility and trust for your Las Vegas business
• move up a level in the eyes of your target audience and clients
• create a buzz
• get free attention

Getting good publicity requires a What’s In It For Me (WIIFM) messaging, so you have to pass the “who cares about my Las Vegas business” test each and every time. If you release a PR new item, for example, with “My Las Vegas business is proud to announce the…,” you’re going to end up dead in the water! Good relationships building with the local press is essential.

To promote your business equals getting the word out through articles, blog articles and email newsletters that you write and that potential customers will VALUE. These types of communications give you publicity and allow you to get enough visibility to become a speaker, a sponsor, will allow you to join committees and help you promote to:

• entice your target audience to consider your company’s products/service
• invite your audience to an a real time or online event or seminar
• introduce a new offer your business is promoting
• meet a short-term objective like a monthly sales goal 
• test new ideas about what your clients are looking for
•  invite interaction with you and your company

Promotions are one of the most effective ways for professional businesses to build trust with customers in the vast marketplace. The options in your promotional tool kit is both vast and can be cost-effective. Get a basic plan of both online/offline promotional strategies and tactics in place you will be in pretty good shape.

As a professional business owner, you will have to make critical choices for each and every strategy you undertake…. online, offline, etc. Here are some rules of thumb to help guide you:

• utilize the WIIFM factor always
• unless you have the backing of a fat marketing budget, promotion and PR tend to be your wisest and smartest investments for ROI
• online marketing and promotion is in general more cost-effective than print media
• permission-based marketing is a always a must

If you want your business to build awareness, interest, and credibility, you really will need all three strategies: advertising, PR and promotions as par of your marketing mix.

Ways to promote your Las Vegas website in a cost-effective manner.

So just what is the difference between promoting your Las Vegas website and a traditional brick and mortar store? It’s a common question asked by many new business owners and internet marketers. It turns out the principles are the same but the methods are a bit different. Let’s take a look at how they differ.

The primary goal of the promotion and awareness-building of both is to first create awareness of its existence. Secondly, you need to communicate to potential customers to know what exact products and services you offer and why it will make their life or running their business more easily. Next you want to show them how your products and services are better than any others others in the market. This is all to achieve your final goal of visiting your Las Vegas website or store. Making the sale is another lengthy topic all together.

If you have a sizable advertising budget, you can start by advertising in the New York Times or on NBC for a brick and mortar store or on Google or Yahoo sites if you’re on the internet. If you do not have a large budget, there are many cost-effective ways you can promote your Las Vegas website.

8 Cheap Ways to Promote Your Las Vegas Website

1. Tell your friends and family all about your website. On average, a person has a couple of hundred family members and friends. Email them, stay in touch and let them know!
2. Sign up for a leads service that will refer leads to your Las Vegas website. This will be a nominal expense in relation to the leads if you utilize the right service.
3. Post your helpful articles and opinions on forum web sites. This helps add credibility to you as an expert in your field and will refer people back to your web site.
4. Consider Search Engine Marketing (SEM). An paid advertising campaign on Google Adwords is another way to reach your potential clients. You can choose the exact phrases and words you want and set your own monthly budget.
5. Create a flyer or simple tri-fold brochure that promotes your Las Vegas business and your web site.
6. Place newspaper classifieds in local Las Vegas newspapers. You can generate a very cost effective campaign using weekly newspapers that are less expenisve and can reach your target market in Las Vegas and beyond.
7. Write and publish helpful and insightful articles just like this one that showcase your expertise and knowledge and help direct clients back to your web site.
8. Start your own Las Vegas blog on your website. Your own company blog allows you to add more pages of content to your website and more pages of rich content helps with SEO efforts.

For more ways to promote your website for free, consider doing a google search for “free ways to promote my website” and see what other helpful tips come up. It takes a little time to do the research, but the benefits can be very beneficial!

If you’re preparing to design a catalog for your company here in Las Vegas, sometimes approaching the task can seem overwhelming at times, however, we here at Perkolate have taken time to put a list of catalog design tips and tricks that will help you plan and think about your new catalog design.

1. Plan out what information you’re trying to convey with the catalog and write everything out into a Word document so you can go back and edit.
2. Try to imagine how many pages your catalog will be (more pages will be more expensive for both the design and printing) and specify in the content you’re writing what will roughly go on each page.
3. Write for your target audience, at their level and tell them how your products and services will help make their jobs easier and help them to be more successful business people and companies.
4. Assemble any master graphics and photos including logos, product shots, examples of your work, staff photos, building shots, etc.
5. Set a timeline to do your due diligence before contacting a professional design company (like Perkolate) and think about what a realistic schedule is that you want the printed catalog completed.
6. Don’t have too much text on the pages, make sure you leave enough room for exciting and dynamic graphical images.
7. Cross sell any other marketing materials you have as well including your website.
8. Make sure the new design matches your current marketing materials (website, brochures, business cards, etc.) to help reenforce your company’s branding and identity efforts.

Successful marketing techniques are crucial to any Las Vegas business. This is especially true when it comes to internet marketing. Hiring a Las Vegas company like Perkolate to handle marketing concerns can prove to be very beneficial, this is why it is so important to make sure that you have hired the right company. Marketing can not only be hard work but can be quite strategic, not all internet marketing companies may be proficient.

When marketing on the internet, blogs and articles can be very effective in getting the word out. However, utilizing the proper tags and maintaining the appropriate content can be quite perplexing to the most business savvy individual. Some companies may simply make use of “filler” content, which provides no real substance. This makes marketing strategies ineffective and wasteful. Not only should the company provide relevant content, but it should not read as a paid ad.

In addition, content should always be professional. Grammatical and spelling errors should not be present. A reliable company will ensure that the grammar and spelling is always accurate. Information should be factual and geared toward the appropriate audience. These mistakes may seem minor but may prove detrimental when it comes to marketing techniques that involve blogging, aritcle writing, or otherwise posting information on the internet.

Making use of the proper tags is also another frequent error. If the information isn’t searchable, your business is not getting out there. Search tags should be frequently assesed for popularity, age group, and several other criteria. Many other companies may simply attach a few tags and assume their work is done. Maintaining and updating tags assists in extending the life of the material and can make a significant difference.

Blogging and article writing is an excellent marketing strategy, it’s a proven way to get maximum returns on your investment. However, it does require a lot of time and know how. If and when deciding to hire someone to do this for you, make sure the services offer professional quality content. Blog design and content is an expertise and should not be left to just anyone. The future of your business may depend on it.

Most of our clients here at Perkolate are always interested marketing their website to make sure they get the most exposure they can for their website and for good reason. What’s the sense of having a great website if no one knows about it? Search engine optimization is always part of a thorough marketing plan for any business on the Internet; yet, most people don’t realize that each search engine places different priority to search engine-optimizing strategies. What works best for ranking on Google may not be the best strategy if you’re looking for higher ranking on Yahoo or MSN.

Here’s a website that I’ve used for a while when I have search engine specific questions when a client makes a particular request to gain higher ranking on a specific search engine. The website is Search Engine Forums ( http://www.searchengineforums.com ). It’s basically a forum community of people looking for questions answered on specific search engine standards. Their regular posters are very knowledgeable people usually in the Marketing/SEO industry who keep up all the latest changes in the way certain search engines index their search listings and help inform those of us who don’t have the time or desire to stay on top of the latest index and spidering changes to the Big 3 Search Engines - Google, Yahoo and MSN.

They also have info on other search engines and listing directories besides the Big 3, so no matter how well you may know SEO, people of any expertise level can find useful and helpful information on the latest updates and changes to the search engine or web directory they are looking to increase their website’s overall search ranking. Remember, the Internet is like an ocean and just putting your website out there without worrying about SEO is like tossing a bottle with a message in it and expecting someone to find it. Give your business and website a better marketing chance by getting the fundamentals down for Search Engine Optimization.

PR can be an invaluable tool to help promote your company’s brand and website and create awareness for your company or business in the local Las Vegas community. Most smaller companies don’t have the budget to hire a professional PR firm to help get the word out about their business, however, there are many free or low cost ways you can promote your company using online PR services.

With regard to PR, online press releases is an excellent tool to get your company out into the Las Vegas community. Press releases are created for a variety of reasons: new client acquisition, community involvement and volunteer work, new hires, company growth, and much more.

Improving your Las Vegas website’s search engine ranking is crucial to your success online. If you don’t take time to learn SEO (search engine optimization) and SEM (search engine marketing) you will waste a lot of time and money building sites and blogs that no one sees in Las Vegas or beyond. SEO is how you get more viewers to your pages (traffic), and SEM is the process of combining SEO with pay per click (PPC) advertising to market your website and products. Search engine traffic means people already searching for your product or information, and therefore already interested in buying.

First determine your best topic choices and how much competition there is for each topic. If you start out trying to compete with a lot of high ranking websites, you’ll find your site gets hopelessly lost in the search engine rankings. Instead, try to find niches where there is considerable demand for the product or information, but less competition from very strong sites. That makes it much easier to to rank higher in the search engine rankings. A keyword research tool like Wordtracker is very helpful in this process.

Once you have your content, one of the best ways to get higher rankings in the search engines is with backlinks. Backlinks are links to your website or blog from other websites. The more backlinks you have, the better. Backlinks from higher ranked sites have more weight. You can manually request backlinks from other sites, but this can take a very long time to accomplish. There are products that help, such as article submitters, which submit articles you write to different article directories, providing backlinks to your site.

Another product is backlink exchanges. If you use a backlink exchange, be sure it is a legitimate one: there are many that use techniques that can get your site kicked off the search engine results pages.

Taking the time to study SEO and SEM beats months and years of trial and error. The end result is a site that ranks high, on the first page of the search engine results, and that’s worth investing in SEO education and products that streamline the process.

If you need professional assistance in improving your website’s search engine rankings, contact Perkolate at 702.341.0085 or email us at fullsteam@perkolate.com.