Company formations

10 Ideas for Marketing Your Business Online

With the ever increasing number of businesses, marketing your business online is equally as important as your offline marketing.

Here are 10 simple ways to effectively market your business online.

1 No matter how small your business is you should have an online presence in the form of a website which can be just 2 or 3 pages, or a blog that you post articles to regularly. Your website or blog should have a sign up form so that visitors to your site can enter their name and email address to obtain more information on your product or service. A 2 or 3 page website is not expensive and can be set up quickly and easily either by yourself using website software or easily outsourced.

2 Make sure the design of your website is clean and clear with easy navigation. It is well known that websites that are confusing to navigate do not retain visitors. If your website does contain a lot of information include a search box on each page so that information can easily be found.

3 Choose a domain name that is short, simple and descriptive of your company. Avoid catch, gimmicky domain names that do not communicate the nature of your business. Make sure the domain name you choose is not already in use or trademarked by going to http://www.ipo.gov.uk.

4 Create and keep database of customers and potential customers. This is crucial in defining which customers are costing you money and which customers make you money. A database will enables you to see any trends, seasonal or otherwise and identify any patterns that you can use to grow your business.

5 Create a newsletter that you keep update and send periodically to customers and any potential customers. The newsletter acts as a constant point of communication and allows you to give updates of new, improved and or additional services to encourage repeat business and attract new business.

6 Ever increasing are the number of buyers and potential customers who go online to seek out what they are looking for or to compare prices. Often a customer will use words of the product or service he is looking for unless he has a specific website address. So ideally, when a customer is search for a product or service he will rarely look beyond the first page of results that are display. For this reason your aim is to get your business listed on the first page of a search engine. This is done by a process of seo (search engine optimization) which you can do yourself or outsource at an affordable price.

7 Buy ads on the search engines. These appear on the search engines e.g. Google when someone searches a particular word or phrase. For example, if I searched for 'upholstery cleaner' the search engine will return a page of results showing upholstery cleaner. If you bought advertising on that keyword your ad would show up each time a search is done for 'upholstery cleaner'. It is commonly known as ppc advertising (pay per click) advertising in that you only pay when someone actually clicks on your ad.

8 Buy banner ads for placement on websites that are relevant or compliment your website. Banners ads visually graphic rather than just text. Once a searcher clicks on the banner ad they are directed back to your own website.

9 If your business sells products set up a shopping cart on your website to give customers the option of buying online. You will also need to have authorisation to accept credit/debit cards. You can buy these systems 'off the shelf' just make sure it is reputable, reliable and straightforward for the purchaser otherwise you will lose customers.

10 Attract visitors to your site using YouTube. Don't blatantly advertise your website rather record a short video of interest related to a an aspect of your business. Maybe a 'How to...' video. Include a link on the video back to your website and vice versa. It's quicker and easier to watch a 'How to...' video than read a 'How to document. And it's a great marketing tool.

Make sure all your marketing efforts are tracked individually so that you can see which ones are bringing in customers and business for you.

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