Really? Isn’t that what you are? You are after all, representing your company.

Do your employees do this or do you train and empower them to answer customers’ questions and solve their problems?

Which side of the situation is your company on? Are you enjoying an increase in business or is your company struggling to make ends meet? If the latter, what are you doing about it? Rather than wait for things to change, be proactive and find (or create) a way to benefit from the housing market. If you run a real estate firm, consider creating a property management division to manage rental properties for your clients. If you run a home building company, consider creating a home remodeling division. Your options are limitless; you just need to find a service that compliments your core business and is not adversely affected by the housing market.

As much as I hate to say it, Google has stepped up to the plate by adding quantative search data to their AdWords keyword tool, which previously only displayed relative search data. Check it out!

Ready to get started? For most business owners, LinkedIn is probably going to be the most effective, and there are several others, such as Plaxo, Go Big Network and Ryze.

Company name/domain name

If you are still in the process of starting your company, you’ve got a bit of an advantage. Because you’re not tied to an existing company name, you can develop one while you search for a short and memorable domain name. Short and memorable is always better than having keyword phrases in your domain, but if you can have both, by all means do so, but avoid keyword stuffed or hyphenated domains. You should do everything in your power to purchase both the .com and the .net version of the domain you want. While you’re at it, go ahead and register your domain for at least five years, preferably ten years. It will cost a bit more but doing so can help to improve your organic search ranking because the length of time a domain is registered for is one of the many factors in Google’s algorithm.

Organic search optimization

Include your company’s name and tag line in the title tag and header tags on an about us page, which should be a separate page from your home page. Additionally, the file name should be the same as your company name.

  Example: http://www.yourdomain.com/your-company-name.htm

This ensures that your website appears in the organic search results without diluting the effectiveness of the search engine optimization of your home page.

PPC (Pay-Per-Click)

Utilize Google and Yahoo’s PPC (Pay-Per-Click) programs with your company’s name as the keyword phrase. Chances are that your own website will show up in the organic ranking as well, but every impression counts. Plus, you won’t need to invest very much on this because unless you generate tremendous attention few people will actually search for your company name, and most of those that do will click on your organic listing anyway.

Display advertising

Utilize display advertising, such as banners or rich media ads (Flash, Quicktime, etc.) on targeted websites. You can search for appropriate websites through a company like Federated Media, which connects advertisers with publishers. Display advertising gives you the opportunity to put your company name, logo and message in front of a large number of people relatively quickly with a modest investment. The click-through rate of display advertising is generally low, often below one percent, but the key here is the visibility. Each and every impression you get to make with potential consumers adds up.

Blogging

Blog on a regular basis to create dialogue with your visitors and encourage them to return. The more often visitors return to your site, the more impressions you’ll be able to make with them giving you a greater chance to convert them into clients. You can even use free open-source software such as Wordpress, which is extremely powerful and highly customizable. Installing your own blog is far more effective than simply setting up a free account like those offered by Wordpress, BlogSpot or any number of other blog hosting services because it allows you to continually add fresh content to your own website which is something the search engines love!

First and foremost, you will need to continue your marketing efforts and if at all possible, increase them. When the economy slows down and your competitors cut back on their marketing, it’s your opportunity to increase your market share by earning the clients they are losing. Your profit margin may be temporarily reduced during this period but your client base will increase. When the economy picks back up, your profit margin will return to normal levels if not higher than before, with even higher revenue provided by your new, larger client base.

You should also take a look at what is missing in your competitors’ marketing and fill the void. For example, if you run a custom pool company and you know that all of your competitors just build the pool and move on, while your company actually takes the time to replace any sod, plants and fencing that was removed or damaged during the construction, make sure that your marketing emphasizes that.

Another effective approach to add to your marketing strategy is to eliminate what isn’t needed so that more emphasis can be placed on what is. Cirque du Soleil did this when competing with traditional circuses by omitting certain aspects of their shows so that they could focus on the elements that provided the highest entertainment value while creating higher profit margins. You can and should do the same thing in your marketing strategy by determining what factors are not optimal, then eliminating them in favor of those that are.

A slow economy can be rough on small businesses, but it can also give them a serious advantage if they are prepared. Are you?

• One option that can work very well in some industries, provided that you have the budget and the manpower to manage it is PPC (Pay-Per-Click) marketing. By signing up with a search engine to display contextual ads based on search terms entered by their visitors you can reach a very targeted prospect and you only pay when they actually click on your ad. You also need to be aware that some of your competitors may click on your ads; some just out of curiosity, some out of malice, though the percentage of this happening is usually very low. To prevent this, you can ban certain IPs.
• If you’ve built an opt-in email list, you can utilize it to drive traffic to your website by publishing and sending an email newsletter. This can be an easy way to promote a particular product, service or event, from time to time, however, using it to promote your business in general typically take a moderate amount of work to develop the necessary content on a  regular basis. If you have the manpower, it is definitely worth considering.
• Display advertising (banners, rich media, etc.) can be a powerful tool not only to increase traffic, but also to fortify your branding efforts. If you plan to utilize this medium, be sure to focus on quality over quantity. Advertising on websites that are geared to your ideal prospects will be far more successful than advertising on websites based strictly on the volume of visitors they have.
• Redirected traffic is usually very cheap, and there is a reason for that. It is almost completely worthless. Not only is the traffic extremely untargeted but more often than not, you don’t receive anywhere near the number of visitors that they claim to send you. Avoid this medium like the plague.

Marketing your website is more like a marathon than a sprint. The business owners that develop extremely successful websites do so by working hard at it day in and day out. Over time, this dedication is what allows them to make their way to the front of the pack while others are quitting all around them.

We’ve all seen “New and Improved” emblazoned on a variety of products from breakfast cereal to personal care products to auto accessories and more, but what does it really mean? Nothing. In fact, the message it conveys is that you didn’t even take the time to think about why someone should use your product. Why? Because “new” means it has never existed before. How is it possible to improve on something that never existed before?

 Another classic example is “Under New Management,” usually displayed on a gigantic sign outside retail establishments and restaurants. What’s the problem here? The people who are no longer patrons because they were dissatisfied with the previous management don’t pay any attention to that establishment anymore and those that were happy with the previous management most likely don’t want to see someone new running the establishment. At best, they will be indifferent, at worst, they will move on to another establishment. The statement does nothing to inspire new customers to visit.

Think not just about what you’re trying to tell your customers, but exactly why you’re trying to tell them that and what it would actually mean to them.

No matter what challenges you may face in your business, always remember that there are men and women all over the world, far way from their family and loved ones and going without most of the conveniences that we take for granted, and that is why you have the freedom to live your life as you choose.

While you’re enjoying this Memorial Day weekend or any other time, for that matter; when you happen to come across a member of our armed forces, be sure you let them know how much you appreciate them. They deserve it.