MaconMacGuy.com:

Putting the tech pieces together
for Macon & Middle Georgia
for "a good while now"

If you have a website, your hosting account probably already has email accounts – so DON’T USE gmail or hotmail or yahoo etc. for your primary business account. Use an account tied to your domain – this will seriously boost your brand awareness and make you seem more official in the eyes of potential clients/customers.

For example, all of the hosting accounts – from the very cheapest all the way to the most expensive Dedicated hosting package – available at MidGaHosting.com come with multiple email accounts. You can access your email via the traditional route – using an email client like outlook or Thunderbird – or you can use Webmail.

The advantage here is that using you@yourbiz.com as your business email is that is reminds people of our business, of your domain, of your website – thus boosting your brand.

While we’re on the subject of boosting your business through small changes, here’s another tip: Make sure your email signature is worth reading. It should include a link to your webpage, your email address, and your basic contact info. Why? Again – to boost your brand.

This has the side effect of making you look more professional and more businesslike.

But what do you do if you just can’t let go of gmail/yahoo/hotmail/etc.?

I have one client who just loves using Gmail – so we set his Gmail account to fetch lal of the mail from the biz account so that he receives all of his mail in one spot. Yet people are emailing him at HIS domain, so this still reinforces the brand.

So start using your domain to the fullest! You paid for it!

…and if your hosting account doesn’t have sufficient email options to suit you, check out the packages over at MidGaHosting.com – [it's another MaconMacGuy.com production!]

There are more articles and blog posts and newspaper material available online about marketing your business online than a multigenerational family could read in several lifetimes.

This is a real problem for the small business owner. It’s even bigger if you aren’t online-centric.

So what do you do?

Here is my take on the whole online marketing thing. CAVEAT: I’m not getting rich from anything I’m doing online – nor do I have a realistic chance at becoming so! I use the online marketing stuff to let the world know what I offer.

I have indeed had some clients come from an online search – but most of my clients have come from word of mouth and from referrals.

So you should probably have a package from Morton Salt next to you while reading this!

1. You can’t do everything.
2. You SHOULDN’T do everything. If you did, the business would seriously suffer.
3. The occasional “quick fix” might be OK – i.e. deal sites like Groupon, DealSaver, etc – but aren’t very good for developing a longterm business.
4. A lot of the stuff that’s HOT right now online will be gone in a few years.
5. Tell a story….Tell it well….and Tell it consistently.
6. Oh – and make it short. If it’s a long story, break it up into smaller segments (like, CHAPTERS!)
7. Where to tell it? Start with your own website – yes, you need one!
8. ONLY Then move on to other places – Facebook, Google Places, etc.
9. There are ways to get your stuff to automatically show up on other websites – using RSS. CLICK HERE for an article about gettting your blog to automatically update your Facebook Page.
10. The ideal would be to write it once, and have it show up in several places online. Its’ less work that way!

Any other ideas? Let me know!