Profitable Niches

In years past, before the internet craze and the emergence of social networking sites, small business owners knew the value of the “word-of-mouth” referral. You could grow your business just by keeping your existing customers happy. A happy customer naturally refers your products or services to their friends and family and anyone else who will listen.

When the dotcom era arrived it was difficult to replicate that same customer satisfaction and referral process. You either had to satisfy the search engines for higher placement or you had to purchase expensive advertizing for your website. People stopped using the traditional ways of finding local products and services and turned to the internet as their source for shopping information.

There was no real way to let anyone who found you online  that you had a great product or the friendliest service in town. You could put testimonials on your website, but people soon became wise to the fact that 90% of those testimonials were fake. Then came sites like Twitter and FaceBook and MySpace.

These social sites are a gold mine for the creative small business owner. A creme brulee cart operator in San Fransisco grew by word-of-mouth via Twitter and within a few months the owner had to quit his day job to keep up with the growing demand of his little cart. (“Mom and Pop Operators Turn to Social Media”, Claire Cain Miller, NY Times, July 23,2009)

This goes to show you that the word-of-mouth era has returned but with a technological twist. It is now possible for your happy customers to bring you more business to your brick and mortar small business as well as your online business. A wise business owner will recognize this and grasp the golden ring. Encourage your customers to “Tweet you right”.

Be creative in asking your customers to give you that valuable referral. It may be something as simple as printing up a little sticker with “If you love me Tweet me” on it to put on your products or sales receipts in your store. Make sure if you are an online business you include your URL and a Tweet request on every product you ship out.

You will be surprised at how well this works. Most times your customers would not Tweet you because they never thought of it. Simply asking them to do it may be all you need to do. If you don’t ask you will not receive.

You could even turn it into an in-store contest. Offer a free product or service to a random customer you find Tweeting about you. There are many ways you can cultivate link love from your customers. Just be creative!

Be visible on Twitter yourself. This is a great platform for your small business to let your potential customers get to know you. Just be sure you know how to use social media effectively. Learn internet marketing for small business and you can reach a whole new level of success.

Internet Marketing for Small Business | Niche Marketing Course | How to Find Profitable Niches