5 Crucial Tips to Successfully Market Your Business Online

5 Crucial Tips to Successfully Market Your Business Online

You want to get ahead online, but then again, so does everyone else. If you are a business owner, you are in the very same boat as other business owners – that’s the undeniable truth. The online marketing world is grueling. It is highly competitive and can become costly if you don’t know where to start, but there’s just no way around it. If you exclude yourself from the online world, you are going to miss out on a hefty portion of customers. After all, the statistics don’t lie. According to Ecommerce News the business-to-consumer online sales turnover in the UK is valued at 13.7 billion pounds. Do you really want to miss out on your share of that?

How to Market a Business Successfully Online

To make sure that you market your business online effectively, consider our 5 top tips below.

1. Hire a professional digital marketer.

If you want to get ahead quickly and don’t have time to wait for the positive outcomes of organic online marketing, then paid digital marketing is the way to go. If you want a full online marketing make-over, it’s going to cost a bit of money. Getting business finance for digital marketing costs is fairly easy if you avoid the red-tape and hassle of the High Street bank loan and rather opt for an affordable unsecured business loan. These types of loans are preferred for digital marketing purposes because they are short term, have reasonable interest rates attached, are paid out within in 24 hours, and best of all; are available to those with a less than perfect credit score.

Once you have the financing – whether from your business savings or through taking out a loan – it’s time to investigate digital marketers. Hiring an external digital marketing firm like Marketing Refresh could be in your best interests as they can focus on anything and everything from paid Google advertising and social media advertising to developing an SEO-compliant website.

Alternatively, you could also go for a hybrid marketing campaign, using both the digital and the real world to your advantage. Print marketing might seem outdated at this point, yet it still manages to be one of the most effective ways to grow your business. Contrary to how it seems, not everyone is online all the time. With the help of a good hybrid marketing campaign, though, such as the ones offered by Ballantine Digital LLC and others, you could bring them online and directly to your brand. This would also allow you to cast a wider net and bring in a more diverse audience.

• Start blogging.

Did you know that anyone can blog successfully, if they stick to a few basic rules? Blogging is often used to gain visibility and exposure on Google search engine results. Most business owners assume it is a highly complicated process and maybe in the past it was a bit confusing. Google has changed its algorithms and prefers to feature content that offers authentic and genuine information to consumers. This means that the more sales-y your blog post is and the more it promotes the business, the less chance it stands of being listed. The more genuine advice it provides and the more conversational it is, the more chance you stand of featuring in a first page search engine result.

Here’s the good news, you can write your own blog and it won’t cost you. What are the basic rules to stick to? Just remember the following:

• Create a list of interesting topics that your target audience is most likely to be interested in or searching for. Write the content in such a way that it is interesting, entertaining, and informative. You need to post content at least once or twice per week.
• Write longer, in-depth posts and use your target keyword/key phrase sparingly. Posts of 1000 words or longer are in depth and helpful to the consumer. Just be careful not to waffle or include too much fluff to up the word count.
• Use catchy headings to break content up and try to include bullet points as this makes it easier for the eye to scan/read. Large chunks of text often cause readers to lose interest or feel overwhelmed.
• Use a very clear call to action in your blog. The point is to get a consumer to visit a page, sign up for a newsletter, or share the content. Make sure they know what the next step is – don’t leave them guessing.
  
  
• Leverage the power of social media.

Something you need to know about social media is that you can spread the word about your business without paying anything. Social media, especially Facebook, provides the perfect way to communicate and connect with your niche market. It’s somewhat of a captive audience. Of course, you should also make sure that you sign up for an Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter account. Dedicate scheduled time to updating your social media pages each week. It’s important not to ambush your audience with TMI (too much information). You need to schedule posts at the busiest time of day for your audience at least 3 times a week. Do not use social media to simply advertise one product after the next. Use the platform to post related information, how-to videos and articles, industry-related laughs, and to make conversation and leave comments on relevant posts that can point back to your business.

• Create helpful YouTube videos.

Have you ever wanted to know how something works, or how to do something and found yourself Googling YouTube “how to” videos? Well, you are not alone. Millions of consumers do the very same thing and you can use this to your advantage. For each of your products, you should have a YouTube how-to video hosted. Keep it relatively short, but highly informative. Make sure that your video content is mentioned in the information and that you include all of the possible links to your website, social media pages, and contact information. Of course, if you need assistance creating professional how-to videos, you can factor the cost into your unsecured business loan and ask your digital marketing team to handle that for you.

• Adopt a community attitude.

Joining online communities is one of the most important things you can do for your business. For instance, if you run a vegan business or sell vegan products, you should hunt online for vegan community social media pages and forums to join. Once you have joined, start conversations and become part of existing conversations. Make mention of what you do in some of the communications that you are part of and don’t be afraid to provide your expert advice when it comes to vegan recipes, nutrition advice and the occasional link to your products. This is a great way to position oneself as an expert in their niche industry. Next time someone in your specific niche is looking for advice, they will think of coming to you for help. And that means more sales.

Work on Your Online Marketing to Drive New Business to Your Website

Your website is no good if it is not driving new sales and presenting you with new leads consistently. Whether you opt to get finance for digital marketing costs and hire a professional to assist you, or choose to handle your digital marketing yourself, you need to spend time on your online marketing to boost your online presence and ensure that your sales figures keep growing.

Author Bio