As a business owner, there is something thrilling about marketing your business and getting the word out about your product, or service.
However, no matter how confident we are about the product or service that we are providing, there are elements of marketing that can be daunting and intimidating.
For your marketing to be successful you need to know how to effectively get across exactly what your product or service is and what it does.
You need to market your business in a way that will really resonate with your audience and show just how different your business is from everybody else out there.
These days, most of our marketing is done on the internet and this makes things much easier for small businesses. For the first time, business owners are in full control when it comes to marketing online. Using the internet, you can successfully market your business with a relatively small marketing budget compared to traditional methods. It is even possible to promote your business online for free.
For businesses with a modest marketing budget, there are also many incredible paid advertising opportunities that allow you to reach your exact target audience like never before. Marketing online puts you in full control and helps you to get many better-targeted results for your money.
It All Starts With Your Website
It might seem obvious, but it’s shocking how many business owners want to market their business on the internet but they don’t even have a website, or if they do, it is not optimized for the search engines. If this sounds like the sort of mistake your business is making, hopefully, this article will help you to see why this is a huge mistake and what you can do to successfully marketing your business online and reach many new customers around the world who otherwise might never have known about you.
Why Your Business Needs a Website
There are many different ways to market your business online, but you need to start with a central hub where your customers can find out about you, your business and what you have to offer. That hub will be your website or blog.
Your website is where you start building your brand and telling potential customers what you stand for and how you can help them. On your site, you will write about your company and products. You’ll post helpful articles, videos, and/or audio. You’ll interact and engage with your customers and visitors via a blog.
Over time they will start to become excited about your products and services and will enjoy getting to know more about you and your business.
As a successful online business owner, you will soon discover the importance of creating a mailing list so that you can communicate directly to your target audience. To do this, you will have to place opt-in forms on your website so people can join your list.
This is the heart of online marketing. Every professional business owner will tell you that owning a list is vital if you want to write to, promote, and build relationships with any potential customers who visit your website.
Why Building Relationships Is Vital to Your Online Marketing
The internet has changed the way we promote our businesses these days. With the advent of social media, building relationships is a very important part of marketing. The relationship you have with your target audience can have a big influence on how successful your marketing campaign is. Those business owners who have solid relationships and good reputations with their customers and followers have a much easier time making sales and building a respected, popular brand online.
So as a small business owner, you might be asking how you go about building relationships with potential customers online. A big part of your marketing and relationship building will come from your online presence. That interacting on social media platforms, commenting on your blog and blogs of others, posting on related forums and so much more. Be informative and helpful online. Get to know your target audience and engage with them.
People buy from people they know, like, and trust. If you want your marketing to be much more effective, it just makes sense to make relationship-building a big part of your business’s online marketing strategy.
List Building and Online Marketing
We have already mentioned that list building is one of the most important things you can do for your business. It’s one thing to have a presence on social media, but you also need to build a mailing list.
This is vital because having a list that you have built up over time is something you have control and ownership over. It’s where you can really get to know your customers and they can get to know you.
When you have a list, you can email your promotions and offers and free information of value and recommendations. You can get people excited about your new products and services.
Everything you do in your marketing—from paid adverts to social media, to search engine optimization (SEO) efforts, should all lead to building your list and improving your relationship with the people on your list. It’s the most important part of online business success and despite how much the internet evolves, it always will be.
Social Media and Online Marketing
Social media is another very important part of marketing on the internet. It is where all of your customers are and they expect your business to be active on social media too. This means Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn and wherever else your target audience hangs out.
For your online marketing to be successful, you need to know where your audience is. Take some time to see where your competition and other successful businesses related to your niche are participating in social media. Study what strategies they are using and note what is working for them and how similar marketing efforts can be used for your business.
Social media is so versatile and can be used for so many things. For example, it’s a great way to drive traffic to your list and websites. It is also an effective way to build relationships, and it’s ideal for showing potential clients that you are an authority in your niche. They will see that you are a business to watch and follow.
Sales Copy and the Power of Persuasion
Part of marketing on the web is understanding how to write compelling web copy that engages your readers and motivates them to buy from you. Having relevant content that resonates with your target audience is essential if you want your site to be found in the search engines and convert visitors into buyers.
With practice, your power to write effective copy will shine through in everything you do online. Alternatively, hire somebody else who can write engaging content for you. Grab hold of that power to market on the web. Understand your audience and write directly to the needs, passions, and desires of your audience and you’ll do well.
Paid Ads and Online Marketing
All of the suggestions mentioned so far are free ways to market your site online. However, if you have a more generous marketing budget you may want to consider running paid ads. They can be extremely effective.
As well as generating new traffic, you can use paid ads to see how effective a landing page or sales page is. It provides quick and easy data that you can gather in hours instead of weeks or months like if you solely used free methods.
Facebook ads are particularly effective because they allow you to target your audience very specifically and you are in full control of how much you spend. Google Adwords can also generate a lot of new traffic to your site as well and of course there are many other options. Paid ads are perfect to use alongside free methods like social media.
Bringing It All Together to Successfully Market Your Business
This is an exciting time for business owners. It doesn’t matter how big or small your business is. The internet has created a level playing field. Every business has the potential to reach a global audience, even if you have a small budget. It doesn’t matter whether you’re new or experienced, it doesn’t matter how much time you have or how much money you have, you can market your business on the web. Now is the perfect time to seize this opportunity to market your business online and achieve your goals.
We can help you to do that. We look forward to hearing from you. Visit https://www.colincoopersuccess.com/ or contact me directly for a discussion on how I can help your business grow.