With so many businesses jumping onto the online bandwagon, you need some savvy marketing to make yourself stand out from your competitors. Here are some tips to get you noticed online.
1. Encourage Web Browsers to Stay
Ensure your website is eye-catching and easy to navigate, giving browsers – or potential customers – every reason to stay and have a good look around.
2. Call to Action
This term is used often, but it works. Supply great content on your website and then encourage browsers to contact you via email or phone or, better still, buy!
3. Let Them Know You’re Real
Internet fraud is a huge concern, so people visiting your site need to know you are a credible business.Prove your reliability with:
- A physical address and landline phone number;
- Photos of you, your staff and premises;
- Testimonials and case study from happy customers;
- Consistent follow up of all enquiries.
4. Use Search Engines
There are ways you can jump the queue when it comes to search engine rankings:Search Engine Optimisation: include key words relevant to your business so your site comes up at the top of the list, ie if you sell hand-made furniture then make sure the words “furniture”, “custom”, “hand made” and “bespoke” appear on your site.Search Engine Marketing: if you don’t want to leave it to chance, try Google AdWords and pay for your site to appear at the top of web searches.
5. Email Marketing
This is a cost-effective way of getting your message out to your whole database of contacts and an excellent method of building relationships with your customers through enewsletters, special email offers and targeted personal messages tailored to their interests.
For more information take a look at my colleague and friend Belinda Jackson’s website: www.webchameleon.com.au.
6. Links and Advertising
Get your name out there by linking to related websites and getting links back from them too.Easy ways to do this include:
- Submit articles to other websites;
- Submit your site to online directories;
- Affiliate with complementary businesses, ie have a link to your legal website from a real estate agency.
- Use banner advertising on targeted websites.
7. Competitions
Your new and existing customers will love an online competition, which is a great way to build interest in your website. Consider partnering with another business for the prize and share the contact information you gain from the entries (with the entrant’s permission of course!).
8. Public Relations
It would be remiss of me not to mention public relations in this article, but PR is another cost-effective method of promoting your business online. Do this by letting your target media and customers know when you introduce a new product, relaunch your website or add new content.
9. Blogging
What better way to tell your customers about yourself and your business than through your own blog, just like this one. Position yourself as an expert on your given topic and write to your heart’s content. It’s an easy way to tell your customers what they want to know.
10. Tracking and Updating
Keep a close eye on all the statistics your web host gains from visitors to your site, including the search terms they use, where they are coming to your site from, how long they stay and which pages they like. Use this information to constantly improve your site.