The Internet is no longer an untapped resource of revenue for small businesses, as it once was in the past. Competition is extremely heavy, and it would now seem that every small business on the planet has a website. Yes, those early days of being successful online simply because a company was one of a few in their niche industry with a website are long gone.

With so much competition online already and more coming daily, how do small businesses adapt?

There is, of course, no single correct answer to this question. Every company operates differently to achieve different goals, and with that each will have their own strategies for dealing with increased competition. However, one strategy that I believe every small business should consider when dealing with increased competition is Repeat Business Marketing - those strategies focused on generating revenue from current or past customers. Allow me to explain.

The one competitive advantage that every small business has over their competition is the ability to reach out and solicit business from current and past customers. Soliciting repeat business is a viable marketing strategy that every merchant should consider, and for these reasons:

Repeat Business Marketing is Easy
In most cases, a repeat business strategy can be implemented by a company directly, and without the need for outside consulting. With most repeat business strategies, there are no pages to optimize and no bids or ads to manage. In fact, repeat business strategies can be as simple as calling or emailing a past-customer.

Repeat Business Marketing is Cheap
Most repeat business strategies require very little overhead and can be implemented much cheaper than the cost of those geared towards attracting new customers. Also, as previously mentioned, there is little need for a marketing consultant which has the potential to save quite a bit.

Repeat Business Marketing is Targeted Marketing
Repeat business strategies provide merchants with the ability to directly engage a large group of extremely targeted buyers - those that have not only shown interest in a company's products and services, but have also opened up their wallets to purchase said products and services once already.

Repeat Business Marketing Removes the Middle-Man
Repeat business strategies usually feature one-on-one communication between a company and their customers, and because of this, there is no need for a "middle-man" to facilitate the engagement between the two parties, such as a marketing firm, a search engine listing, or an ad.

The following are 7 repeat business strategies that I personally recommend for small businesses with limited budgets. Consider combining a few of these ideas with those of your own to develop a long-term marketing campaign.

Send a Business Card with Every Order

One cheap and easy repeat business strategy is to include a company business card (or refrigerator magnet) with every order shipped. The idea is a simple one; unless a company is a big brand like Amazon or eBay, not every online shopper that decides to buy from them is going to remember their company's name and URL. In fact, most may forget as quickly as 10 minutes after placing their order. A business card (or magnet) is likely to find its way to the customer's fridge where it can serve as both a reference and a reminder for future orders.

Send an Occasion Email Offer

Sending the occasional email offer (Email marketing) is one way in which a company can create a one-on-one engagement with their current and past customers. This engagement, if done correctly, is likely to lead to additional repeat business. Sending an email is both simple and free, and will not only help a business remain top-of-mind with their customers, but a worthwhile promotion may increase sales.

Offer Gift Certificates with all Order Discrepancies

A time will come when a shipping mistake will occur. The most common errors seem to be shipping the wrong size or color of a product, or the wrong product altogether. Mistakes will happen. How a company addresses their mistakes will be key in determining whether or not that specific customer will be back in the future.

In addition to simply correcting the problem, say refunding the buyer or shipping out the correct order, my recommendation is to include a gift certificate that can be used with the customer's next purchase. By doing so, the company is showing that they take order discrepancies very seriously and is committed to customer satisfaction. Also, by providing such an offer, the company is giving their customers a reason to purchase again and themselves another shot at making a great impression. Something as simple as 10% off or $10 off their next purchase can turn a botched order into a life-long customer.

Include Free Samples with Every Order

The word "free" is very rarely said or meant in a world where everything now costs a pretty penny. Offering free samples of products is a great way to not only attract new customers, but to also encourage repeat business as well. A company can use their free sample promotion to introduce customers to something new, such as a different type, brand, size or flavor of the product they ordered. If the products compliment each other well enough, this strategy may encourage customers to not only re-order in the future, but to possible increase their next order to include both products.

Integrate a Login / Password Shopping Cart

This idea is a simple one. For most online shoppers, having an account with an online merchant means not having to enter several lines of billing, shipping, or credit card information with each visit. This convenience ensures that customers receive a head-ache free and speedy check-out process upon future visits, which, by default, encourages repeat business from past customers.

Integrate an Automatic Re-Order Program

This repeat business strategy is perfect for those companies that sell consumables, such as specialty foods, health and beauty products, tobacco products, medications, etc. The idea is to offer customers the option to have their order automatically replenished after a specific amount of time. Customers that enroll into the program, agree to have their credit cards charged and refills shipped at a time they specify. For example, every 2-Weeks or every 2-months.

The benefit to such a system is that the customer no longer needs to continually shop for their products. With regards to the company, the benefit is the promise of future repeat business, as well as the security of not losing a customer because he or she forgets to reorder, forgets the company's name and website address, or finds an alternative supplier with cheaper prices.

Implement a Rewards (Card) Program

This strategy is one that works very well in the offline world, and with a little creativity could be implemented to drive repeat business online. The idea is to reward customers simply for their repeat business. For example, some popular reward programs promote "buy 10 get 1 free" or "5% off every purchase with our rewards card." With a quick brain-storming session, every company should be able to create and implement a rewards program that not only provides value to their customers, but in the end also promotes repeat business.

What does this mean for website owners? In a nutshell, if you maintain a cluttered website above the fold - to the point where site visitors are not able to locate the content that Google has promised they would find - then you risk annoying Google users, and thus Google. And, as we all know, Google doesn't take to well to websites that annoy them. We're talking penalties.

Why the Change?

As I alluded to above, it all comes down to user-experience. If search engine users aren't happy, Google is not happy. Google has said to have received numerous complaints from their users who have become annoyed with not being able to find their desired content after clicking on a listing. Personally, I can relate to this. I cannot begin to count the number of times that I've landed on a website, only to utilize a "Control+F" (find) to locate the information I was originally looking for. Needless to say, this leads to a poor user-experience to which Google is now trying to avoid.

Google is quoted as saying:

"Rather than scrolling down the page past a slew of ads, users want to see content right away. So sites that don't have much content "above-the-fold" can be affected by this change. If you click on a website and the part of the website you see first either doesn't have a lot of visible content above-the-fold or dedicates a large fraction of the site's initial screen real estate to ads, that's not a very good user experience. Such sites may not rank as highly going forward."

What to Do if You Find That Your Site Was Affected

According to Google, this algorithmic change will noticeably affect less than 1% of searches globally - that's less than 1-in-100 searches. However, if you believe that you've been affected by this recent algorithm change, consider how your pages use the area above-the-fold and whether the content on the page is obscured or otherwise hard for users to discern quickly.

If you decide to update your page layout, consider using Google's Browser Size tool, among others, to see how your website will look under different screen resolutions. Find the solution that works for you, and roll with it.

How Should You Move Forward?

First things first, do not just sit back and ignore this update... not if you value your site's high rankings! As an Internet Marketing professional, it is my recommendation to be proactive. Pool the resources of both your design and marketing teams, and create an adequate solution. The goal is simple. Satisfy Google's need for a high quality user-experience by ensuring that each pages' most relevant content is found above the fold.

Furthermore, if you haven't given much thought in the way of user-experience, I'd strongly suggest that you start. Google is hell bound on delivering the best possible search user experience and, as this update proves, that means taking care of their users even after the click. Google has said that this is one of over 500 improvements expected to roll out this year. I'm not a gambler by any means, but I'd wager that "user-experience" will be the basis for more than a few of them.

Today's post is from guest author Kimberly Wilson. Kimberly is from accredited online colleges, she writes on topics including career, education, student life, college life, home improvement, time management etc.

If your small business is struggling to establish itself online, I would recommend that you take an honest look at work on your business's blog. Warning signs of a suffering or stagnating blog include the following: low readership on the blog (few unique "hits" on the blog), few to zero comments on blog posts, or returns on advertisements put up alongside the blog, if any. If your blog languishes in neglect from potential customers, you have to do something about it if you expect any kind of online success for your business. Now, I'm not suggesting that you post ridiculous material simply to draw a wider readership. But there are ways to make your posts look fresher, more interesting, and overall more engaging with potential readers and customers without compromising the ethics of your business.

Keep it Fresh

Keeping your content up-to-date is pivotal to remaining relevant in your customer's sphere of interest. You can't expect to build a reliable customer base if you post once every two weeks about issues covered months ago. You can stay on top of things by frequently visiting news sites that feature stories related to your business. You can subscribe to any number of news hubs (CNN, FOX, Huffington Post) for notifications and instant updates on breaking news. If you're not sure about the latest trends, there's nothing wrong with checking out the competition for insight into the hot topics in the blogosphere. Even if a topic has been picked over by everyone else, you can put your own perspective on it to make it feel fresh to your readers. You won't have to worry about recycling current news as you write your content from a new or innovative angle, regardless of your business's specialty. If you continually blog about current events then readers will rely on you for their industry news.

Outstanding Post Titles

It sounds like a trite detail, but it makes all the difference in blogging. It's critical that you give your blog posts titles that would interest potential customers. For instance, if your small business is about management consulting, make blog titles that assert your business's expertise. Use snappy, emphatic phrasing like "How to Deal with Terrible Bosses" for posts aimed at HR managers and staff looking for management advice. If you're running a blog for a small, web-based floral service, you might opt for more titles like "3 Badass Birthday Bouquets" to grab a reader's attention. Think of a title that you'd like yourself. You're the best judge of your customer base and their needs.

Engage the Readers

You're trying to attract readers to your business. That means you want them to have a genuine interest in your services, some desire that grows organically from a customer's experience with your site. You do this by offering substantive content that informs the reader and makes them want to know more about how your business works. To run a successful business blog, you must start a dialog with your readers as if they were customers in a real store or during a live consultation. Be personable and engaging with your readers; you don't want your business's blog to read as a giant advertisement. Readers will usually interpret business blogs that appear to be selling something as a spammy website not worth their time.

You can also engage your readers by directly responding to comments and queries that they post on your blog. As you connect with your readers, you'll notice a jump in reader participation and the number of hits on your blog. And once you've earned the trust of your readers, it's only a matter of time until some of those readers turn to your businesses services and become customers.

Social marketing provides a challenge like no other marketing strategy does... especially for small businesses with limited resources. In fact, the biggest gripe I often hear from small business owners is that social marketing is too expensive and time consuming to implement. Yes, I will agree. Social media marketing can be both expensive and time consuming. However, that doesn't mean it necessarily has to be.

For the most part, social media is free to use. Sure, there are tools for sale that do make managing and tracking social media efforts much easier, but necessary, they are not. That alone is an obvious plus for small businesses. As far as time goes, well, there is no getting around it. Social marketing does and will continue to require diligent monitoring and participation. The trick is coming up with a strategy that not only fits your company's needs, but also helps to make social media efforts less daunting.

With the start of a brand new year just days away, it's not uncommon for businesses to set new marketing goals and expectations. In fact, I know of several small businesses that have already committed to starting social media marketing campaigns immediately following the first of the year. With that, I thought it would be both fun and helpful to outline a list of tips, suggestions, and strategies for getting started in social media. I put together a small group of 12 Internet marketers (myself included) and have asked them to share something that would be helpful to the true, blue small business owner. Here are their responses:

Karl Ribas, VP of Search Marketing - All Web Promotion

My advice to small business owners looking to get started with social media marketing is to first and foremost create a plan, and then execute it. Like most marketing strategies, social media marketing begins with a plan. Jumping into social media and simply posting everything everywhere is not a valid approach. In addition to first determining which social platforms to use, businesses must also decide on their voice, content, and posting timeline.

Voice: Your voice is the overall tone in which you will use when sharing your content. For example, will you address your followers as the company, or as an individual from within the company? Determining your voice beforehand will eliminate confusion and keep your profiles and updates consistent.

Content: I can't stress how important great content is to social media. Your content is what will set you apart from others in your space, and is the sole reason why your customers will be connecting with you in the first place. It is absolutely imperative that you spend adequate time determining not only the types of content you'll want to share, but the messaging too.

Timeline: A timeline is a detailed schedule for when and how often you will be posting your social media content. It is often suggested that businesses update their profiles daily. I, on the other hand, am a firm believer of posting as frequent as it makes sense to do so. Determine your publish rate and remain as consistent and routine as possible.

Tamar Weinberg, Social Media Strategist - Techipedia

My advice to small business owners looking to get started with social media marketing is to work your ass off! Social media is NOT the new 'it' thing. It was in 2007, yes. In 2012, you are vying for attention among millions of other businesses. You can succeed if you work real hard toward it, but if you're going to just spend 5-10 minutes a day here and there, you will never see the benefits. Don't treat social media with a "set it and forget it" mindset. It's definitely something you need to work toward every. single. day.

Taylor Pratt, VP of Product Marketing - Raven Tools

My advice to small business owners looking to get started with social media marketing is if you only have time to do one thing social media related, make it to monitor mentions of your brand. The last thing you want is to miss out on reputation issues because you're out of the loop. You want to be able to answer any questions/problems customers have had to help ease the negative impact those reviews/mentions might have on future customers. A successful social media campaign requires lots of time, so if you don't have that available to you, this is the next best solution. It's also a great way to help promote those positive mentions that come in about your business.

Rob Snell, Owner - Gun Dog Supply

My advice to small business owners looking to get started with social media marketing is to be VERY careful to not get distracted by Facebook and Twitter. You can't deny that social media is another killer app of the Internet, but it's important to remember that you don't make payroll by how many followers or friends you have. Allocate the proper amount of marketing time to these channels that they deserve based on REVENUE that they send to your site.

Also, do not forget about all the work left to do on your own website, specifically creating SEO-friendly unique content on product pages, writing reviews, and crafting buyers' guides. Create this conversion-friendly content on YOUR domain first, and then PROMOTE it via the proper social media channels!

Julie Joyce, Director of Operations - Link Fish Media

My advice to small business owners looking to get started with social media marketing is to closely investigate how their competitors are using it in order to see not only the types of tweets and Facebook updates but also the general accepted tone. For example, a social work agency probably isn't going to use off-color humor, but someone selling cheeky t-shirts with rude slogans on them would probably do better if they did. You need to know what's unacceptable for your audience or you risk alienating your followers.

Chris Winfield, Chief Marketing Officer - BlueGlass

My advice to small business owners looking to get started with social media marketing is to first find out where your customers (or potential customers) are actually spending the most time and concentrate your efforts there. Don't get caught up in the hype about the new 'social media site du jour'. If you customers aren't there, it doesn't matter how hot it is, it will be a waste of your time and money. Check your analytics to see where people are coming from and, even more important, simply talk to your customers and ask them. You'll be shocked at how effective this can be!

Catherine Seven, Founder - SEOwhat.com

My advice to small business owners looking to get started with social media marketing is to use social media as a tool to reach, touch, and get into the trends of your customers. Don't simply try and sell them! Instead, interact with them as "friends" and make that social bond. Remember, they are on the social platform to get away so make it fun to be your friend. Give them Q&As, quizzes, and prizes, and in return you'll be building a brand that they'll love to be apart of.

Also, use social media as a way to explore new product offerings. For example, create a poll and let your fans and followers choose the color of your next product. In turn, these types of strategies will help your customers to feel valued, and not solicited! This will help you with getting the conversation right the first time.

Liana ‘Li' Evans, President and CEO - Da Li Social

My advice to small business owners looking to get started with social media marketing is to look for opportunities and tools to integrate with your marketing efforts wherever possible. Small business owners shouldn't feel like they need to be on every social channel, that's why the integration and use of tools can be vitally important. Listening tools, such as Trackur, help companies find the most important channels to engage in and can also be extremely helpful in creating an integrated marketing strategy.

Remember, at the end of the day, it's about the value you give to your customers. If you can integrate that value across all your marketing channels, you'll be a lot more successful in your marketing efforts.

CK Chung, SEO Consultant - WEBOSIS

My advice to small business owners looking to get started with social media marketing is to get involved in the conversation! They should find the channels where their audience is voicing their opinions and provide feedback. Whether it's a "thanks" to a positive comment or a "how can we help you" to a negative comment, there's a ton of opportunity out there to interact with customers very easily via social media. To take it even further, they can set up keyword searches to find prospects who may not be communicating directly with them. To add to that, small businesses can even monitor responses to competitors to offer their alternative solution. The possibilities are endless!

Dustin Woodard, President - SEO Naturale

My advice to small business owners looking to get started with social media marketing is to remember that social media, whether it be Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Stumble Upon, Google+, or other networks, is about increasing your online brand exposure and influence with real people - this means you need to be actively following and interacting with others in useful or entertaining ways. Unless you are a big brand, simply launching a presence isn't enough to build a following.

Lyndi Thompson, Marketing Buzz Bee - BizeeBee

My advice to small business owners looking to get started with social media marketing is to not underestimate your current network. Before you run off and try to network with everyone under the sun reach out to your own network. From leads, feedback to even free labor you will find this network is eager to be supportive and spread the word about your business on and offline.

Additionally, I believe the following tips will also serve small businesses well:

Find Gold in Following Up: Social media is jammed pack with distracting information flying in and out every direction. If you reach out, expect to have to reach out several times in order to get a good response. Try different types of media from Twitter to Email marketing to keep in engaged with your community. Don't have high expectations that one touch is going to get you the results you want.

With Your Channels Combined: If you expected to build a house with just a hammer you will quickly realize it isn't going to happen. Social media is ONE tool at your disposal. Be sure to arm yourself with a variety of tools to get the job done and don't give up on social media because it hasn't been the tool that solves all your problems. Invest time into learning, investing and combing your resources and tools to create a strong marketing strategy for 2012.

Core Goals: It is easy to get excited and run off working on a fun project. However, review your core goals and maximize your time and effort to support your business goals. If you need more customers through the door then make sure you have a way to measure your efforts around that goal. Too tough to measure? Skip that idea until you can.

Keith Weigold, Chief Engagement Evangelist - Nutlug

My advice to small business owners looking to get started with social media marketing is to create a content calendar for your blog, tying it to your social media channels.

A simple way to go about it is to first brainstorm with all employees what your company would do if invited to a party: not about what you sell/make/distribute, etc.... but what you can specially do to HELP a customer. Think of things that are unique to your company - stories that are entertaining, informational, educational, and/or inspirational. That's Nutlug's "Old MacDonald's" method to delivering engaging content: E-I-E-I-O (the O is for objectives-based, meaning all content must address both the customers' and marketer's objectives).

Once you've got a great list of blog ideas, schedule them in a calendar by week for the year. Many find this daunting, so consider at least a quarterly calendar. Then add in all of the other events - sales, promotions, seasonal focus points, holidays, etc. - which will fill the content calendar. Understand the calendar is a fluid thing - if something external pops up (a social media trend, a hot topic, social/cultural/economical/weather events, whatever....be it local, national, or global), know that your content topics can be shifted to allow for reacting to these influences.

Finally, OBEY your calendar. Start working on posts a good two weeks out if you can, so you're not scrambling to catch up with your due date. Work on them when you can - doesn't have to be in the office/at work -- if inspiration and time strikes you at home, go with it!

Content should be created first, then considered for channel. If a post doesn't make sense sharing through LinkedIn, for instance, then don't share it there. Your readers/customers will appreciate that you've used relevant content for relevant channels, and you'll have plenty of other opportunities later to reach them through their channel of choice. I even use a column for each content element to see where it will 'live' (other than the blog itself). Remember that social media is about having a conversation with people/customers that have invited you to THEIR party. Don't be the boor in the corner shouting 'buy me, buy me,' but the engaging guest with a crowd developing around them because of the two-way, relevant stories you're sharing.

In closing, it is obvious that social media is far too important of an online marketing strategy for any business, big or small, to simply just ignore. Hopefully, this much is clear. Social marketing, when done correctly, can be very rewarding... especially for small businesses. I hope that my advice plus the advice of those Internet marketing experts mentioned above will in some way prove to be useful to those of you planning to implement social marketing campaigns this coming New Year.

Today, I'd like to discuss one of Pay Per Click's most underused tools, the "See All Keywords" feature from Google AdWords. This feature was previously known as the "Search Query Report" in older versions of the Google AdWords interface, and does exactly as its name suggests... shows advertisers all queries that have triggered their ads. For marketers, this information is undeniably irreplaceable!

How to Use the "See All Keyword" Feature

To "See All Keywords", follow these directions:

1. Navigate to the appropriate level within the account. The "See All Keywords" feature can be used on the account, campaign, and adgroup levels.

2. Click the "Keywords" tab.

3. Select the date(s) that you'd like to review. Please note that there is a 2 to 3-day delay when using this feature. For example, Monday's data won't likely be available until Wednesday or Thursday.

4. Select "See All Keywords" from the "See Search Terms" drop-down option.

At this point, I prefer to export my data into Microsoft Excel where I am able to color-code, sort, and organize it to my liking. To do this, click the "Download" button located just above the report, and select your desired options.

Why Use the "See All Keywords" Feature

Why is learning which queries triggered an ad important? Once an advertiser has a clear understanding of how Google will match their ads with the queries it receives, they can then better optimize and fine-tune their campaigns for relevancy, while saving money in the process. For example:

Improving Quality Score

PPC marketers understand that today's Google is all about relevancy, so much so that it utilizes an algorithm, dubbed Quality Score, to determine which ads rank, where, and for how much per click. In fact, Google is so committed to providing relevant results for its users that it promises advertisers top-placement at lower-than-average click fees just for being relevant. Imagine that... pay less to rank higher.

One way in which advertisers can improve their Quality Scores is by improving their Click-Through Rates (CTR) - the number of times an ad is shown versus being clicked. To do this, advertisers will want to be sure that 1) they are in fact bidding on the most appropriate keywords for their business, and 2) that the impressions they do receive are of the highest relevancy. In other words, it does a company no good to display an ad for "Nike Socks" when all they sell is shoes.

By utilizing the "See All Keywords" feature, advertisers will be able to see which keywords they're ranking for and will be able to adjust. In the previous example, a Nike shoe retailer will be able to see that they're being ranked for "sock" related terms and can therefore negative match these terms and any others they deem unfitting. Another option may be to change Match Type for a specific keyword as well. These changes will limit an ads exposure, thereby limiting its impressions and improving their overall CTR - same number of clicks, but shown less. And, as I've already mentioned above, removing unwanted impressions boosts click-through rates, which in-turn boosts relevancy, which in-turn boosts Quality Score, which in turn means getting higher search engine placement at lower costs.

Removing Unwanted Clicks

This is a no-brainer, really. Search engine marketing is unique in that it allows advertisers the ability to market directly to those individuals that want to know more about a company's products and services. With this level of accuracy, why would a company choose to waste their time and, more importantly, their money advertising to anyone else? Well, they wouldn't necessarily.

By utilizing the "See All Keywords" feature, advertisers will be able to determine whether or not a keyword is a good fit for their campaign just by reviewing the many queries related to it. For example, if a campaign includes the keyword "Jack Black", as in the boutique brand of men's skin care, but Google seems to only match it to those queries relating to the actor Jack Black, than this particular keyword will likely need to be removed. Keywords with alternative meanings or interpretations are often at times poor keywords to include within a campaign. There are of course exceptions to this, but in most cases an advertiser can eliminate unwanted, irrelevant clicks by avoiding such terms altogether. By doing so, an advertiser will make their overall campaign cheaper, and better their cost-per-conversion (CPC).

Finding Alternative Keywords

One last incentive to using the "See All Keywords" feature is getting a first-hand look at the exact verbiage used when a company's target audience searches for their products and services. Such insight will pay mass dividends, especially when used in accordance with a company's PPC campaign, as well as other online and offline marketing strategies. Knowing which keywords a company's target audience uses will not only help advertisers to better understand their audience's needs, but also help them to find new, relevant keywords to which they can now bid on... thereby increasing the overall relevancy of their campaign.

Furthermore, any knowledge gained from using this feature can be applied when managing other accounts from other providers. Should you decide to negative-match a keyword on Google, you'll most likely want to do so on Bing as well.