Archive for the ‘Marketing’ Category

Advertising Possibilities For Las Vegas Small Business

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

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.

Las Vegas Brochure Design Tips

Sunday, January 17th, 2010

Las Vegas Brochure Design Tips

If you are in business in Las Vegas, you should probably have a brochure to promote your business that you can leave behind when you meet a potential client. Maybe you’re afraid you cannot write one yourself? This articles was written to help!

Brochures are basically a great way to help promote your Las Vegas and can be left after meeting a potential client, can be left in hotel and restaurant lobbies, handed out at networking events, trade shows, etc. So how can you create and write an effective, targeted brochure that will stay on someone’s desk and not end up in the shredder?

Define your products and services & your target market.

Take a few minutes to figure out exactly who your target market is. Gender, age, location, and specific issues that they face that you can help solve with your products and services. Tailor your brochure copy to most effectively communicate and help your target market.

For example, if you are a family law attorney and your clients are mainly women, late thirties, seeking child support, then your brochure copy should focus on this target market. The copy you write, the tone and the points you make in how you will help a potential client should focus around your target. The images used in the brochure, the headlines, the colors, etc. should all support the communication.

Keep your reader’s interest.

Write enticing cover copy and headlines for your brochure. Try not too stuff too much information on each panel of your brochure as you don’t want it too look overwhelming to read. A reader should be able to glance at headlines and sections of your brochure without becoming overwhelmed. Keep paragraphs brief and use bullet points to help compact the information you’re trying to communicate. Keep your paragraph headlines exciting! This will want to make readers read on!

Keep your brochure from ending up in the trash.

Utilize an area of your brochure that has helpful Q&A, resources or tips on information relevant to your business. In the example of the family law attorney above, perhaps include links to complimentary legal and government websites or direct readers to more information or resources they might find on your own company website.

The key is to think carefully about designing and writing your brochure so that you will keep your target market engaged, raise their interest, provide helpful information and ultimately get that reader to contact you for more information!

Enriching Your Las Vegas Marketing Mix is a Must

Saturday, January 9th, 2010

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.

8 Cheap Ways to Promote Your Las Vegas Website

Sunday, January 3rd, 2010

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!

Perkolate Launches Sevens and Above Website

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

Perkolate Marketing and Design of Las Vegas is proud to announce the launch of its latest website for Sevens and Above at www.sevensandabove.com.

las vegas web design web development dating website

About Sevens and Above

Sevens and Above, provided by ONGS Capital LLC, is an online dating service designed to help adults find successful relationships. With over twenty years of relationship experience, at A Great Date, the commitment is to provide the tools that will help you find the person with whom you can have a great date, maybe more!

Top Effective Marketing Strategies for Las Vegas Business

Saturday, December 19th, 2009

Marketing your Las Vegas company is the current economy is now more important than ever. Without effective marketing strategies in place, you will not be able to reach new potential customers, and as we always say, if you aren’t marketing, your competitors surely are.

With this in mind, I’ve compiled a list of links that discuss and outline top effective marketing strategies for businesses:

If you need assistance with constructing a Las Vegas Marketing Strategy, please contact Perkolate at 702.341.0085.

Hispanic Marketing for Lawyers, Las Vegas

Friday, December 11th, 2009

If are a lawyer, then you need to figure out how to market yourself so that you speak to as many customers as possible. After all, the more people who know about your services, the more likely they are to one day use them. This doesn’t mean that you should advertise only to one group of people but to as many different groups as possible. An often overlooked population is the Hispanic community. More and more people in this world speak Spanish and are looking for lawyers who understand this. This is why it is so important to really consider one’s Hispanic marketing options. The following are just some of the many ways that you can target this community.

The first thing to do is to create a Spanish language website. Creating this ensures that the Hispanic community will be able to quickly and efficiently access important information about your law firm and about your services. Additionally, such a website shows this community that you care about their culture and respect their language. This could really be the reason that a person decides to use your services versus someone else’s. Make sure that when you build this website you not only use the Spanish language but use people and images that remind this community of themselves. The more specific you make this website to the intended audience – the Hispanic community – the more successful the website will be.

Once you have a Spanish language website, you can incorporate search engine optimization (SEO) techniques into it. This will increase the likelihood that the Hispanic community will learn about your website and about your services. Consider the Spanish words that people may use when looking up information about lawyers. By incorporating such words and phrases into the website, you can be sure to increase traffic to your website. The more traffic a website has, the higher the likelihood that people will end up using your services.

Don’t underestimate the power of targeted direct mail. By sending direct mail that includes not only Spanish but also relates to the Hispanic community’s customs and traditions, you will then be able to stand apart from other lawyers looking for new business. Direct mail is exactly what it sounds like: direct. By learning about this culture and using Spanish on such marketing items, you can be sure that this population will be that much more likely to remember you.

Ultimately, when it comes to Hispanic marketing for lawyers, you want to make sure that you show this community that you respect them. This means using their language, understanding their customs, and showing them that you generally care about their needs. Once you do this, you can focus on everything from SEO content on your Spanish language website to SEM targeted at Hispanic community. The more people you can speak to, the better: This brings in more clients who bring in more money.

For an evaluation and assistance, contact perkolate at fullsteam@perkolate.com or call us at 702.341.0085. Se habla espanol.

Must Have’s to Market Your Las Vegas Website

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

When a Las Vegas business is looking into whether to invest in web marketing or to stick to local business it is good to know the pros and cons of working on the internet along with how to make a successful and widely exposed website. This way a business can properly decipher whether expanding onto the world wide web is right for them.

How to market websites?

There are many ways to market a website, some important and vital in the success of a web based business, and some more on the optional level. Some examples of vital needs in marketing a website are:

Web Development Related Marketing

When marketing online the way your website is put together and designed is vital in getting your business into the top of the search engines above all potential competitors. Some examples of making a good website are keeping all concepts within the website all related to one topic which is your business. Use an easy to remember domain name with a popular URL such as dot com or dot net. And also make sure your URL will not be confusable with a competitors so you do not risk losing business to someone else.

Search Engine Optimization

There are many very complicated concepts in search engine optimization such as installing meta tags, creating codes which make bot crawling easy to achieve on your website so search engines can easily index every page of your website, and more. When utilizing search engine optimization it is good to think about investing in a professional web design company in Las Vegas. A professional web design company can easily create very complex coding within your website to help you get your business an increase in visitors in a short amount of time. 

Definition of Web 3.0

Wednesday, November 11th, 2009

Web 3.0 is the future of the WWW as we know it. It will be the stuff of dreams and super future movies. It will enhance browsing so that you don’t have to make separate inquiries when figuring out several things. For example, you want to go miniature golfing, see the best movie out right now and eat at taco bell afterwards. Normally, you would have to open up a search engine, find mini golf range, search for movie theaters, go to another site to read about the movies, and then do yet another search to find the taco bell. So, what if you could just type something like “city name, mini golf, best movie, closest taco bell” , then just sit back and wait while the internet does it all for you? That is the dream and vision of Web 3.0

In a constantly evolving world of web design, graphic design, C++ and all those other design languages that most just have heard whispers of, what does this mean? It means even more evolution, more opportunity. More leeway for creative genius. In the current world of Web 2.0, a designer can make a stamp. He or she can make graphics, blogs, and make his or her presence known upon the internet. That is where 2.0 stops. 2.0 is designed for people to talk to one another. Everything panders to this desire to “stay connected” . Our cellphones, PDA’s, laptops, home PC’s. Web 3.0 takes it up a notch. Bordering on AI technology, the machines can speak to one another. Through keywords, through designs, the web page will evolve into something that allows the computer to see a web page as we do. As such, a designer, and those that want a design, must be able to speak this lingo.

The average computer user today tends use their computer to play a few games, check their email and watch a TV show. A portion of our population has not begun to tap into the full potential of the internet. As such, when they want a web page made for their businesses, they seek out a professional. In the age of 2.0, nearly anyone can publish a web site. Point and click technology makes it all simplistic, a dream. But in 3.0 if you cannot make the web page speak to the other pages, well it is lost in the sea of information that is the world of online. It is always best to hire those that understand this all, lest you be lost in the anonymity of the Web.

What Do I Need to Design a Website for My Las Vegas Business?

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

Launching a website for your Las Vegas business is one of the smartest steps you can take - these days, having a site is absolutely necessary. Here, we’ll cover the basics on how to get started in designing an attractive, functional website for your business in Las Vegas.

Your first step is to register a domain name for your business. Your domain name should be the same as your business name and easy for customers to spell and remember. You’ll also need to make sure that you have hosting for your website. You can often find domain and hosting packages, which is something you may want to look into for convenience’s sake.

Once you have your domain and hosting all set up, it’s time to get building. A website design company will be able to help you come up with a layout for your website that will attract and appeal to your customers. Finding a good website design company to fit your needs is crucial. You can also look into copywriting services to ensure that the content on your website is written in a compelling, clear way. Be sure to make use of SEO optimization when deciding on your website’s content. This helps customers find your company’s website via search engines.

The images on your site should be of excellent quality. Blurry or grainy images do not look professional and will turn your website’s visitors off. You can use images of your company’s headquarters, of your employees and of your products to add a personal touch to your website. You can also use stock images available online if you’d prefer.

Once you’ve launched your website, include links to it in your email signature, on advertisements and countless other places to get the word out to customers. The more people that view your website, the better!