Online marketing is one area that small businesses can compete against larger companies within the same niche. The internet has created a level playing field for businesses online because all companies perform on the same stage.
Small businesses have a lot to gain from Internet marketing. It has such an enormous effect on the growth of the business simply because it can send thousands of new visitors to your website from around the world.
Online marketing strategies are no different than traditional marketing strategies when it comes to goals and purpose. Both types aim to increase brand awareness and find more customers.
The Benefits of Internet marketing for small businesses
There are so many advantages and benefits for small businesses that use online marketing to promote their brand. Here are just a few of them:
Find new customers from the different online markets
Right now as you read this article there are literally millions of people searching Google, Yahoo, Bing for product and services they want. In addition there millions of people using Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, Pinterest and a whole host of other social network sites.
Internet marketing will help you to penetrate all of those markets and get your company in front of every potential customer online.
Put your company ahead of the competition
More customers than ever are using searching for products and services as they need them by using their mobile devices. If during their research they don?t find your website (either because you don?t have one or it is not mobile friendly) and they find your competitors site instead what is going to happen? Most likely you will be losing customers to your competitors.
On the other hand if you have a good website that is mobile friendly for all devices and users then you are going to have many more chances of getting those customers and any investment that you make in online marketing will keep you way in front of your competition.
Get to know your customers better
We speak a lot about customer engagement and social media and internet marketing gives you the platform to interact with your customers and find out what they want and need. Not only that but you get immediate feedback on your products and services so you which products you should be selling and which ones they are not interested in.
So now that you can see why online marketing is so important let us share some of our great marketing tactics that will help send more traffic to your website:
Make your website simple and fast.
As most people now access the internet via their mobiles and iPads, it is better to have a simple cleanly designed website where visitors can quickly and easily find the information that they want. Make it light, fast-loading and improve its navigation so that customers will not be lost or know what to click to get the information they are looking for.
Remember that people don?t have a lot of time so make sure they get the things that they want in less time. Not only will you please your customers but the search engines will like you too. They love fast loading websites and will reward you handsomely by sending their users to your site over a slow loading one. If you don?t know how to do the technical stuff it is so easy to hire and expert that can do it for you. It will save you hours of headaches and frustration.
Make the images on your site search engine friendly
Images are very important and help make your site look more appealing and attractive. They are also essential for promoting your products and services. They also serve another purpose. If they are properly set up and tagged they will also attract the search engines to your site. This means that not only will they create more pages to be indexed by the search engines but you will also be listed in the Google?s image search results too. This will increase the number of visitors you receive.
To add an image to Google Images search results, the first step is to add your image to you website and write a descriptive text for your image. While you can’t directly upload images into search results, many searchable images that are posted on a website can be added to Google search results. Just like Google search does for web pages, Google Images crawls the web for pictures to include in its results.
According to Google’s own website this is how you set up your images for them to read:
* Include descriptive text. Include descriptive text somewhere near the image like in an image “alt” tag or a caption. This helps Google understand what the image depicts and what searches it will be relevant to.
* Upload high quality photos. Great image content is an excellent way to build traffic to your site.
* Be patient. Images you upload to the web won?t instantly appear in search results. You?ll need to wait until your site is indexed by Google before your images begin appearing.
Optimize your title and description on your web pages
The search engines don?t see your site the way that we do so we have to make it as easy as possible for them to discover your site. Every page on your website needs to have a title and headline that not only tells your visitors what your site is all about but also the search engines.
It is important to make them interesting and appealing. Remember when the results are listed on the search results page you want your potential customers to be drawn to your website description and be curious enough to click on the link. If the description is boring and doesn?t engage them they will simply ignore it and visit your competitor?s sites instead.
Promote your website on the social media networks
Using sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn is the perfect way to spread the word about your site and increase your website traffic.
Make sure that your content is appealing and targeted at specific types of customers that you want to attract so that they will click on the links and visit your site.
Use Twitter to share fresh up to date content and news. Use relevant hashtags relating to your market to make your Tweets searchable by those interested in what you have to offer. The more followers you attract the more customers you will receive.
Although not yet as well known as Facebook Google+ is gaining more popularity. It is owned by Google and they have invested millions into it. They will reward business owners who use it.
Many small businesses often don?t think about advertising on YouTube and yet is the second largest search engine in the world. It is relatively easy to create and upload a short video about your business, product and services that will link back to your website.
LinkedIn, Pinterest and Instagram will all send thousands more visitors to your site.
Invite your visitors to subscribe to your news and updates
A visitor to your site might not buy on their first visit but it doesn’t mean that they are not interested. To help them remember who you are and what you can do for them invite them to subscribe to your mailing list for news, updates and exclusive special offers. This means that you can send out a regular informative email to all of the people on your mailing list and it will bring many new customers every time you do it.
Invest in paid advertising
Paid advertising is the quickest and easiest way to bring a flood of traffic to your website. Paid advertising would include Google Adwords and Facebook Ads. Not only do they give you an excellent conversion rate they are cost effective and extremely low risk as you dictate what your marketing budget is, no matter how small.
Make your website mobile friendly
Mobile users are increasing rapidly in numbers and they all access the internet by their Smartphone?s and tablets. Boost your mobile presence by making your site mobile friendly so it is easy for them to read and get the information they want on their small screens.
We have many more traffic secrets up our sleeves
We have many more excellent tips and suggestions that will have a significant effect on the number of people who will visit your site but these are some of the easiest to understand and can be done by you relatively easily.
However if you are interested in us revealing some of our more powerful traffic strategies or want us to help you set up a traffic generating online strategy that will drive thousands of new visitors to your website on a daily basis as well as pushing your site high up the search engine results please don?t hesitate to get in contact and we will show you what we can do to transform your business.