What’s the best way to meet new customers? When I first started working as a small business marketing consultant in Pittsburgh, I blew countless (and I mean countless) hours attending the wrong events and spent what had to be a small fortune on a never ending list of membership and registration fees. Just so I could make the most of every online and offline networking opportunity under the sun, get my name out there, and hopefully generate a few leads. Notice I said “hopefully.”

Through a whole lot of trial and error, I ultimately learned which strategies and tactics made the most sense for me and my business while also coming to the realization that I needed to work smarter (not harder) if I wanted to generate more leads and meet more customers. Here are 8 tips I’ve learned along the way:  

How can you find more customers, clients, and referrals? There are HUNDREDS of networking events for small business owners—and that’s just in Pittsburgh alone. With so many options, you could literally spend all of your time networking and not have any time left to actually work on growing your business.

If you’re going to maximize your time and your efforts, you need to focus on the groups, resources, and networking channels that make the most sense for your business.

Creating an effective email newsletter for your small business requires a heck of a lot more than just having the right content. From your subject line to your layout, your ability to ultimately engage your target audience and generate leads will have just as much to do with how you present your information as what you actually have to say. 

Facebook is the #1 hardest platform to maintain for small businesses followed by LinkedIn and Twitter—that according to a recent nationwide survey of more than 1,200 small business owners conducted by Manta.com as part of their Q1 Small Business Wellness Index.

Too much or not enough. When it comes to what to include on business cards for small businesses, unfortunately it always seems as though they fall into one of those two camps. Just because you only have a few inches of real estate to work with doesn’t mean you still can’t get your message across and do it in a way that doesn’t require packing every possible bit of information about your business or wind up with something that looks like a barren wasteland.

Your 'About Us' page content is the one area of your small business website where you really have a chance to tell your story—who you are, what your small business is all about, and what makes you unique from your competitors. In other words, your 'About Us' page content is really freakin important.

Know of a Pittsburgh-area small business whose volunteer efforts help make your community a better place to live and work? As part of the first-ever Pittsburgh Small Business Community Heroes award program, Direct Energy and Pittsburgh Magazine are teaming up to help honor small business owners for doing just that--getting involved and giving back.  

Does it feel like something’s missing when you look at your small business website or your business cards? Do you find yourself answering questions from prospective customers who are either confused about what it is you do or totally unaware of your offerings? If you answered yes to either or both questions, your small business could be a prime candidate for a new tagline.

Every time your phone rings, your customers expect someone is going to pick up. Every time you receive an email, your customers expect a reply. Every time you receive a comment on your Facebook page, your customers expect a response. As a small business owner, you’ve got to find a way to manage their expectations while still being able to manage your business. You can’t just spend all of your time answering the phone—you still need to deliver outstanding customer service, make the best use of your time, and sell-sell-sell!

When it comes to managing expectations, a little effort will definitely go a long way. In fact, it’s one of the easiest and most effective ways to avoid frustrating your customers.

Building a small business website is only the beginning. If you want your online storefront to have real staying power, you’re going to have to give it frequent doses of tender loving care.  You want your website to evolve with your business and your customers and that means you’ve got to get in the habit of taking a look under the hood to make sure you’re firing on all cylinders.

Don’t panic. Improving your small business website doesn’t mean you need to give it a complete overhaul. In fact, it’s usually some of the small, incremental changes that can have the most impact. Let’s take a look at 8 ways you can improve your small business website today:

“Get a custom built small business website for FREE! No setup fee, no long-term commitment.” Every time I see the commercials on TV or hear them on the radio, I can’t help but cringe. I know “free” can sound awfully tempting when you’re working with a shoestring budget, but when it comes to marketing your small business, your website is one area where you just can’t afford to skimp. Good or bad, it’s going to form a lasting impression with prospective customers and ultimately determine the success of your web marketing efforts.

Nothing says welcome to small business customers like a sign about all of the things they can’t do when they’re in the store. Instead of starting their shopping experience off on the right foot with some nice, postive messaging, unfortunately some small business owners decide to greet their customers with arbitrary and potentially abrasive restrictions—“No Photography,” No “this,” no “that.”

I get it. At some point you had a few customers who were total jerks so you decided to overcompensate for their jerkdome by plastering passive aggressive signage around your store—signs that almost always a mix of words in all caps (shouting) and at least one smiley face (smart ass). And I’m sure the behaviors that led you to post those signs were warranted. But you’ve also got to think about what affect that signage is having on all of your other customers who haven’t been jerks.

Should your small business have a blog? What should you blog about? How do you even get started? If you’ve been looking for ways to ramp up your web marketing efforts, there’s a pretty good chance some (or all) of those questions will sound very familiar. And they should. Starting a small business blog can be a huge decision. 

Two grocery stores located on the same side of the street, in the same plaza, which are literally right next door to each other. Talk about a toe-to-toe battle for shoppers and parking lot supremacy.  What’s a retailer to do?

The most obvious answer is signage. But that’s not exactly how this scenario is playing out. One retailer has a ginormous sign near the edge of the road that’s virtually impossible to miss. The other has a sign that plays second fiddle to a larger Jo Ann Fabrics sign that still isn’t half the size of their competitor. In fact, if you look at the photo above you can’t even make out the sign that appears directly under Jo Ann Fabrics. Not even if you move an inch away from your screen.

What’s the key takeaway for small business owners? 

It’s not a matter of “if” but “when.” No matter how hard you try, there’s always a chance you’re going to have unhappy customers who decide to vent their frustrations about your restaurant, food, or service via social media. Then POW!--just like that one negative tweet or Facebook post can quickly turn into an online rant session that can be incredibly difficult to contain.

I know it can be incredibly frustrating. In fact you might think they’re being totally unrealistic. But that doesn’t mean you can ignore their comments. Take a few minutes to clear your head, let the sting of their online barbs subside, and gather your thoughts. Once you feel like you’re good and ready, it’s time to map out your response.