Small Business – Stepping into Online Marketing
Many small business owners conclude at some stage that online marketing would benefit their business. Few know where to begin. When you begin to ask around or do your own research online, you realise there are many ways of marketing your business online, along with a great deal of confusing information. There are several ways to put your small business on the Internet:
- Build a Website
- Set up a Business Blog
- Advertise on other websites
- Advertise in online publications
- Use Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising
- Join forums and social networking groups
- Marketing Articles
Build a Website
This is by far the best way to put your small business on the Internet. It will cost money but once it’s done, it can be a means of free advertising that is working for your business 24/7. Unless you know how to build your own site, you’ll need to find a website designer – look for one that understands SEO (search engine optimization). In fact, rather than search for website designers, search for SEO experts who also design websites. Search engine optimization techniques are things done to a website to help ensure the website comes up well in the organic search results when people search for the products or services you offer. If your website designer knows nothing about SEO you may end up with a beautiful website that nobody visits.
Websites need both quantity and quality when it comes to written content. It can pay to have a content writing service write additional content for your website. Those articles might offer your website visitors “how to” advice related to your products, examples and case studies, comparisons and reviews. The more relevant content your site contains, the more visitors it is likely to attract.
Set up a Business Blog
If you don’t believe spending money on a website is justified for your small business, you could choose to set up a business blog. There are many sites that host blogs for free such as Blogger.com. A blog however requires content to be added to it on a regular basis. Unless you can do that or pay a blog writer to do it for you, you are likely to be disappointed with the result.
You can use your blog to post information about new products and services, product reviews, topical stories about your industry or trade, and the occasional personal opinion or comic post on something relevant to your business. It’s generally best not to stray onto personal topics on a business blog. The key with blogs is the volume and quality of the content and the consistency of your postings. There are many successful, well visited blogs on the Internet – but for every successful one there are many more that few people ever read. It will come down to the effort you put into it.
If you have a website, there is still tremendous advantage in adding a blog to it. The content of the blog will generate additional traffic and allow you to make use of keywords you haven’t used on the main pages of your website.
Advertise on Other Websites
This is an option that works best if you have a website so that people who click on your advertisement are taken to your website. If you do consider this method of advertising, think about the types of websites you’ll find your prospective clients on. When considering particular websites, ask the webmaster for their traffic statistics and ask them to give you a breakdown of local and global traffic – there’s no point advertising on a site if 99% of their visitors are in the US and you can only service New South Wales, Australia.
Advertise in Online Publications
As you would with any print publication, check the circulation figures and again, ask how many are local. There are numerous online publications. When considering a particular publication, ask yourself whether the readers of that publication are likely to be interested in what your small business has to offer. To state the obvious, if you advertise your roofing business in a publication that targets teenagers, your response rate is likely to be miniscule. Likewise, spruiking the latest technology gadget to retirees is also likely to fall on deaf ears. The cost of advertising in online publications is often quite low but even spending $100 is too much if only two prospective clients receive the publication. Ask for some sample copies of the publication. Contact a couple of the advertisers and ask them whether they are happy with the response they received from their ad.
Pay Per Click Advertising
This can be good for a business with a brand new website that isn’t yet coming up well in the organic search listings. If you look at the right hand side of your browser after you have done a Google search, you’ll see advertisements down the right hand side, and often in a yellow box at the top of the page. These are Adwords advertisements.
If you sign up with Google Adwords you can set up an online advertising campaign yourself. You’ll need to develop an understanding of keywords. They are the words or phrases that people seeking your services or product might type into the search box when searching online. Businesses bid on these keywords – the aim being to position their advertisement high enough up on the first page of the organic listings that they receive a certain volume of “click throughs” from the advertisement to their website. Learn to use the Google Keyword Tool. This will help you select appropriate keywords.
Another feature of Adwords is that you can confine your campaign geographically – so if you can only service your state, you can choose to have your advertisements displayed only to people searching for a product or service in your state.
Using PPC you will pay every time someone clicks your advertisement. The amount you pay will depend on the bids you have set. You can set a daily budget to ensure you don’t spend more than anticipated. Adwords is a great tool but only a small percentage of people who search click on the advertisements. Most focus on the organic listings – that’s why having a well designed, properly optimized website with well written content will pay dividends. Your SEO expert will optimize your website for the keywords you need. Once your site begins to come up well in the organic listings, you may find you don’t need to pay for advertising at all.
If you are going to try Google Adwords PPC, have a scout around online and you’re likely to find some promotional vouchers that give you a credit of around $50 to kick off your Google campaign. The voucher will provide a code number that you insert when signing up for your Adwords campaign. Some website designers can provide you with a promotional code, so if you’re having a website designed, it won’t hurt to ask if they have one for you.
Join Forums and Social Networks
Joining forums and online social networks such as FaceBook and Twitter can be a great way to expose your small business to others for free. Forums are online communities and tend to focus on a particular theme. There are numerous forums out there on a huge variety of topics – you’ll find forums on renovation, affiliate marketing, parenting, and pet care and just about anything else you can think of. If you have expertise in a particular area, once you’ve joined the forum you can post responses to questions and ask some of your own. If you have your website address and business name displayed in the signature panel of your post, you have a free advertisement that can be viewed by hundreds and sometimes thousands of forum visitors. Becoming an active member of an online forum community can bring not only new clients but useful business contacts to your door.
FaceBook and Twitter are online social networks. You can become “friends” with people whose interests are similar to your own and with people you think might find your services useful. You really need to enjoy social networking for it to become a useful small business tool. If you find it tedious or don’t have time for it you are not likely to persist with it long enough to gain any marketing benefits from it.
Marketing Articles
If you have a website you can write articles on topics related to your small business and submit them to article directories. These directories normally permit you to put your business name and website link in a “resource box” at the bottom of the article. The articles are distributed online and can find their way onto other websites when website owners decide the content is relevant to their site, or that their visitors might find the information useful. If you don’t have time to write articles you can hire online article writers to do it for you.
Article marketing requires consistent effort if you are doing it yourself but can increase the number of visitors to your website. It will work best for businesses that can service the international market so if your small business is geographically confined you may want to consider other methods of online advertising.
Whichever online marketing method you choose for your small business, try to keep statistics on how many website visitors and enquiries you receive from it so you know how well it’s working for you! This can be done by setting up a Google Analytics account.
It may seem daunting if you are new to online marketing but if you operate a small business you really can’t afford to ignore the potential of online marketing.
