Since the world moved to the World Wide Web, online marketing became an essential ingredient in the success recipe of any serious business seeking to survive and excel. Moreover, it is now easier to “catch” many idlers online than it is to get them in the streets.
Initially, marketing used to go where the people were – literally. But since the social media has made it possible to get them online, emerging businesses can take advantage of this to market themselves. Before the dawn and success of the social media, only serious users used to hang around on the Net.
Therefore, our online marketing consultants will share practical ways of utilizing the Internet to give your emerging enterprise a competitive edge. We urge you to remain with us to discover how best and easily you can market your business online.
Use SEO
Since the Internet is a jungle with billions of websites competing for attention and visibility, it is needful to make yours outstanding. The reason is that the first stage of online marketing is visibility – where your target users can find you.
If your prospective and existing customers cannot locate you, then they cannot interact with your business. Therefore, it is prudent to make it easy for people to find you in search engines.
With the above need, you have to optimize your site for search engines. You have to optimize your website for search engines to crawl and locate it easily.
This way, your online searchers will locate you easily and see your offers. It is needful to create excellent content that will allow your users to engage with you. Also, optimize your website for on-page and off-page SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
This means you should use target keywords that users can key into search engines and find your business. It is also needful to take care of other components such as loading speed and your site’s convenience for mobile use.
Social Media Marketing
Initially, we saw that the social media has grown from an “online idler’s club” to become the most active and popular wing of the Net. What began as a platform for sharing some light talks has become a multibillion-dollar industry with billions of users across the world.
In fact, it is the only wing of the Net that brings together users from all walks of life irrespective of social, academic, and economic status. That is why all institutions have their social media accounts – governments, universities, sports teams, businesses, and churches.
Does this suggest to you why a young college dropout who had nothing one decade ago is now the world’s fourth richest man? I am talking about Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook. As of February 2018, he was about $79.5 billion rich.
He has gathered this wealth within 15 years while Bill Gates took over 30 years to cross the $50 billion mark. This means that the social media offers the modern small business one of the best marketing platforms. But how can you optimize this platform? Here are practical ways of doing it:
- Joining industry groups on leading social media platforms such as Facebook. This membership will allow you to offer valuable advice and support to members and develop your brand.
- Creating your business’s Facebook group where you can help and support your group members.
- Monitoring and contributing to online conversations going on within your business niche.
- Creating and sharing educational and informative infographics.
- Using images to extend discounts on Twitter and other social platforms as a way of promoting your products and services without being push.
- Promoting and offering your users free consultation videos.
Use LinkedIn
Another way of using the Internet to market your business is LinkedIn. This is the world’s most respected and largest business social network tailored for business and other professions. One of the ways of doing this is promoting your content there.
This platform has a free publishing provision where you can publish your content and promote your business. Also, you can join industry groups where you can offer free advice and consultancy to your group members. This way, you establish yourself as an authority in your niche.
Lastly, you can do direct pitching by contacting your connections and telling them what you offer. I have seen this method work for me more than on any other platform. The reason is that, unlike other “idler-friendly” social networks, LinkedIn is a place for serious professionals.
Moreover, it is the best place you can meet business owners and engage them directly. This method is ideal because you deal with the final decision makers.
For instance, if you are seeking customers within the real estate niche, you can key in the words “real estate founder/owner/co-owner/co-founder.” You will get all the people with that title and connect with them. Afterwards, you can pitch them directly.
Email Marketing
Email is the most popular means of online communication. Therefore, it remains one of the best tools for reaching out to your desired customers. If you know how to engage this tool, it can be a valuable way of getting customers and maintaining existing ones.
For instance, you need to offer something valuable (free) to convince someone to give you their email address to send them your offers. For example, you can offer them an ebook, how-to guides, and content.
Content Marketing
Lastly, you can utilize content marketing to promote your business. This is a better and friendlier method since it removes the push face of sales from the equation. If you can produce quality multimedia content, you can reach out to more people without making them feel you are “selling” to them.
The reason is that research shows us that 90 percent of consumers prefer finding information about businesses from their valuable content instead of adverts.
We rest our case for now. With all these facts at your fingertips, we hope you are better placed to take your online marketing activities to the next level.
