If you own or manage a local business, or any kind of business for that matter, you may be wondering how to grow your business and ultimately make it more profitable.

While many so-called gurus will tell you that there’s hundreds of ways to get more clients and make more money, there are only three methods you should be concerned with.

In essence, all strategic business growth comes down to these 3 things. Once you’ve learned them, you’ll quickly discover that all other marketing strategies and tactics fall into one of these (or possibly all of them).

By now, you’re probably wondering, “What Are They?”

Without further ado, here you have them:

1. Client Acquisition or Attraction – this pillar focuses on getting new prospects and clients. Many businesses put most of their money and efforts in this category which is quite a shame. Although it is always smart to bring in the prospects into your business, this should be the very last option since this is where the most time and money are required. Besides the time and money, you’ll get the lowest results in this category when it comes to your marketing plan.
2. Client Purchase Conversion – this is a great place to instantly see immediate income boosts. The reason is simple. This is the point when a buyer has already made the decision to give you their money so why not give them other complimentary products or services to buy. This works utilizing upsell, downsell, and cross sell strategies as well as monthly consumable items like monthly dog food, term insurance, spa treatments… You get the idea.
3. Client Retention – so your clients have already given you money. They’re satisfied with their experience with your business. Now what? The client retention pillar is an absolute must for every business, however, most miss the boat BIG TIME! This is the least expensive strategy and it focuses on deepening the relationship with those who’ve already given you money and the best part is A BUYER IS A BUYER, IS A BUYER, IS A BUYER. They keep buying. The question is, will it be with you?

There you have it, the 3 pillars of business growth. Use one of them and you’ll increase your profits almost immediately. Use all of them, and your transform your business forever. This isn’t hype but real business strategies that work.

At eMarketing Chicago, we offer a complete business analysis to identify your greatest business needs and develop an easy to implement plan of attack. Best of all, with just the first few clients, you’ll get more than your money’s worth.

Oh yeah, did I mention that we offer our WORLD FAMOUS (hey, somebody’s gotta say it) Complete Business Analysis absolutely FREE. Be sure to contact us right away. Your business could depend on it!

Video Marketing in Chicago and Chicagoland based businesses is the new way of getting prospects engaged with you and your products and/or services. Here’s an example of how we use video to put your business in the spotlight and get potential customers taking the action of contacting you right away.

Do you own a local business?  If you do, then your business absolutely must have a website if you’re hoping to remain competitive in your marketplace.  Many business owners don’t realize this.  They think, “sure, if you’re doing business online like Amazon or eBay then obviously you need a website.  But I’m not selling my products or services online, just locally, so I don’t have any need for a website.”  That sounds sensible at first glance, but they couldn’t be more wrong.

Because times have changed, and the way people get information has changed, too.  Radically.  Ten years ago, a local company could get by without a website.  Back then, the Internet was new, and not every family had a computer hooked up to the worldwide web.  And, for many of those people who were online, the Internet was sort of exotic – it was something of a hobby.  They would spend their online time in chat rooms talking to new friends all over the world, or looking for Beanie Babies on eBay, or downloading the latest cool game.

But somewhere along the way, three things happened –

1.High Speed Internet Access got cheaper, and replaced dial up for the majority of users.
2.Almost every home in America is now connected to the Internet.
3.Google became THE dominant search engine

What does a High Speed Internet connection have to do with anything?  A lot.  Ten years ago, most people had dial up connections over a standard phone line.  That meant that most of the time they weren’t hooked up to the Internet, and connecting usually took several minutes. And surfing was slow.

In other words, if they needed to look up the phone number of a local company, it was much easier and faster to just grab the Yellow Pages.  Besides, back then, few local companies had their own website.  But these days, in most homes, there are several computers hooked up to the Internet 24/7, with a high speed DSL connection.  Tens of millions of people in America spend several hours a day in front of their computer, using the Internet   Almost every home in America is now online, and the vast majority of them are using high speed Internet connections.  That’s the first two radical changes.

So what does Google have to do with anything?  Well, in a word, everything.  Ten years ago, there were lots of search engines – Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, Netscape, AOL, and scores of others.  And there still are dozens of search engines.  But hardly anyone uses them.

Google came along around 1999, and they just completely took over the search engine business, practically overnight, because they were so much better than the others.  Probably 85-90 percent of all searches these days are Google searches.  And Google lists everything, including local businesses.

Are you starting to see the big picture?  Ten years ago, most people still weren’t on the Internet, and now they are.  And today, instead of being an expensive, slow moving toy, the Internet has become an integral part of their lives.  Now, with a click of their mouse and a few keystrokes, they can find any information they need in about 5 seconds.   Why get up, hunt down the Yellow Pages, dig through its hundreds of pages until they find “muffler shop”, when they can just type in “their city muffler shop” and have all the information they need without leaving their chair?

Well, most people won’t leave their chair.  They’ll just go to Google.  Which means that the Yellow Pages are yesterday’s news, and if you don’t have a website for your business online, you are missing out on huge numbers of leads and customers.

Any local business that doesn’t have a website has got two choices – get a website, and get one soon, or plan to eventually go out of business. It’s just that simple.  What’s next?  Check out part two of our report: Why Your Website MUST Rank Highly In Google!