Internet has become the most important and vital source of information for everyone around the world. Now people prefer to search everything online, instead of looking at directories and going through Yellow Pages. If you already have an online business presence, you must be aware of all the benefits your business can avail from it. Internet marketing allows start-ups to reach a wider audience for a fraction of the cost of traditional advertising. Internet marketing campaigns are measurable through web analytics and can be tested for effective and accountable results. As it is, it can be quite difficult for your business to stand out in the crowded market. So, why do so many entrepreneurs still neglect opportunities to market their products or services online or delay it as an unnecessary expenditure?
With limited funds at your disposal, entrepreneurs often shy away from online marketing techniques because they view it as optional or too complicated to implement. But you would be surprised at the big payoff even simple online marketing techniques can get for your business. Here are some important online marketing strategies for entrepreneurs to grow your company and set it up for success.
Personal Branding
An entrepreneur is the visible face of his or her business and there is immense value in using social media to leverage a trustworthy personal image. Branding yourself before your company gives you the chance to gain your audience trust and literally turn your own following into a profitable business.
Personal branding also allows you to meet and socialize with potential customers and investors, in order to form long lasting relationships and build brand reputation. And if we see from a monetary prospective – personal branding won’t cost you a penny- it’s completely free to do, though you might need to spare some time for it.
Search Engine Optimization
SEO is an on-going process of making your site more visible to your audience. Sustained SEO strategies can help your business feature on top of search results so that more potential customers get to know about your brand, whenever they search for a relevant product and/or service you offer. And the ranking of your website also depends on the website layout and type of content you are creating.
So, SEO doesn’t require that much more investment particularly if you are already creating new content on a daily basis. And it is worth spending a little money, if you know for sure that website will be properly indexed.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is extremely flexible and can be done in a wide range of forms, depending on your product/services and how your consumers consume such content. Content marketing can help accomplish various business objectives and other goals. For instance, you can offer eBooks or whitepapers as downloads on your site to increase the conversion rate, or you can generate more inbound traffic to your site by maintaining a blog. Indeed, content marketing is a powerful tool, which if used properly can help highlight the true intrinsic value of your business or service.
Email Marketing
Email marketing has the maximum potential to generate business leads and increase the Return-On-Investment (ROI) because it costs next-to-nothing. So what are you waiting for? Start growing and maintaining the database of subscribers from your existing customers list, your social media following and other methods, like QR codes and opt-in forms, so that you can schedule and send newsletters to them regularly. The marketing goal is to engage your audience and encourage ‘top of mind’ recall for your brand and products among your customers.
Conversion Optimization
Most of the internet marketing strategies discussed here aim to get more audiences on your website, but how will you convert them into your loyal customers? There should be clear conversion paths so that you can get more value out of every visitor on your site. You can perform on-site research to gauge visitor intent and their satisfaction level. Also, use a variety of testing to identify pages that provide the biggest yield. The idea is to either create more conversion opportunities, or to improve interaction with existing customers.
While the online marketing strategies mentioned in this article are certainly not exhaustive but they are a good kick-off point for any entrepreneur looking to promote their brand. You can implement these strategies individually but if you pursue them all collectively, you are likely to see an even bigger return on your investment. Want to know about internet marketing techniques? Get in touch with us at Local Directive now and we’ll be more than happy to help you out. Just fill out the contact form or give us a call at 1-866-925-9524.
