When the Internet first started becoming standard in homes, just a pay per click ad would be your entire on-line marketing strategy. Now, marketing and bringing traffic to your website is much more important, and much more complicated. There are many more options. You will be able to bring in high traffic to your business if you just take advantage of all of the ways you can market your business on-line, many of them for free (excluding your time). It is very important that you focus on getting traffic to your website or page because unlike a physical shop or office, it does not get passing by traffic. No matter how nice your website looks -
There are numerous ways in which you can market your small business on the Internet, such as:
ü Search Engine Optimization, also known as SEO,
ü Pay per click advertising
ü Blogs, articles, forums
ü Email Marketing
ü Affiliate programs
ü and Social network marketing
By investing a little bit of time and money into these marketing ideas for your small business, you can communicate with your customers and stand out from your competitors. Once you have your website set up with all of the information that your customers will be looking for, you can begin to direct traffic to your small business website.
The most important search engines to target for search engine optimization is of course, Google. This is usually the first step small business owners take when it comes to bringing traffic to their business websites. You should make sure that consumers will find you when they search for key terms related to your business. When users make a search request, they receive a number of links relevant to their search terms. You want your website link to be as close to the first result as possible. There are many ways to improve your ranking, such as using META tags in your website coding, but you can also see our other articles relating to Search Engine Optimization.
Purchasing pay per click ads is another way to create traffic for your small business website. You can usually pay a few cents for every time someone clicks your ad. Pay Per Click advertising also known as - PPC - is a fast approach of getting traffic to your site and can be used to promote a particular event or product that you have. It is very important that you monitor and adjust your pay per click campaign frequently, otherwise it might empty your pocket in no time at all.
Another method successfully utilised by small and medium businesses is social networking. Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are all great social media websites that will help you connect with your target audience. You will be able to ask questions and answer them, and take feedback and suggestions from your customers. You can also tell your customers, fans, and followers about any special promotions or events your business has so they can get a head start on your deals. Social networking also helps you create a bond of trust between your customers and your business. Most people that I speak to, who are not yet using or getting return from any one of the previously mentioned rightly tell me that they are not getting direct sales from all their effort. This is true, especially for service providers. However remember, that an online marketing model is all about engagement with potential and exisitiing clients. Focus on interacting with your audience, so that you will be the first one they think about when they need your product or service.
We will be delving into the other techniques mentioned in later posts - so stay tuned or if you can't wait contact us and let us know what you would like to know more about.
