So you have started a new business and you have a shiny new website. But is that all you need to do? Not quite!
Here are some tips to help you maximize your online marketing potential.
1. Social networking
Social networking is the latest buzz word in marketing. This includes sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google + where you build communities of friends, or professionally oriented sites such as LinkedIn.
Creating accounts for yourself or your business and linking them to your website can be a very effective way to advertise your site through word of mouth (Look at the bottom of this page for an example). This can work especially well in conjunction with a blog. Just make sure you regularly post updates to your accounts to get the most value out of this.
You can also pay for advertising on services such as Facebook which will target specific markets based on people’s social profiles. Be wary though, some people are cynical of being targeted in this way so this is a double edged sword.
2. Blogs
If you have a knack for writing, a blog (like this one) is a great way to publish your thoughts online.
A blog is a kind of content management system that enables you to write articles and post pictures without having any idea how to develop websites.
Search engines love fresh content on websites, increasing your site rankings. People too love updates and new stories, so this is a good way to get people coming back to your site.
3. Forums
Maintaining or contributing to a forum is a great way to advertise your business.
If you have or expect a lot of site traffic, maintaining a forum is a fantastic way to nurture an online community of people with interests relative to your business or locality, gaining you a loyal customer base in the process.
If this sounds like too much effort, you can also join other relevant forums which can help you keep up with industry news, technology developments, and offer or seek advice on various subjects.
Some forums let you append your web site address to your signature, which gains you free advertising whenever you post something. However, be careful of directly promoting your service in anywhere other than designated forums. Freely offered advice is the most effective way to advertise in a chat forum.
4. Backlinking
Backlinking is a technique to increase search engine ranking by having your website linked to from other sites.
Search engines weigh up every site that links to yours, and depending on how popular and relevant to your business those sites are, increase your rankings accordingly. This can have a huge impact on traffic to your site.
Backlinking can include registering with business directories, paid advertising, or posting your site address on forums where permitted. It can also include link trading – approaching a company related to yours to ask them to post a link to your website, in exchange for you providing a link to theirs.
Even one link from a popular, relevant website can boost your page rankings enormously.
The exercise of backlinking will help you to gain knowledge of the online communities for your business and locality, understand your advertising options, connect with potential customers and partners, and to keep an eye on the competition.
There are in existance web design and specialist SEO companies that offer paid backlinking services. It is essential to understand what you are signing up for if you choose this option. Some less reputable companies operate by automatically spamming your site address on hundreds of forums and blogs that may or may not be relevant to your business. While this may work in the short term (long enough for them to collect a fee), search engines frown upon it, and can actually ultimately ban your site from the search results altogether, which can devastate your online business. Avoid this kind of service at all costs.
The better SEO companies are more akin to a professional marketing service, approaching relevant companies on your behalf and making a pitch for a link trading deal. While this kind of service can be highly effective, unless you have a big marketing budget, you might want to give it a go yourself first.
Learning how to backlink is as simple as following the various techniques outlined in this article. It will demand a little time, but very little technical expertise
5. Business directories
There are many, many online business directories, both free and paid. Sign up to as many reputable, free business directories that you can find which are relevant to your locality or business. Be sure to leave your contact details and website address where allowed.
You can also consider paid services, which usually guarantee a link back to your site, and can attract many customers. Before paying for an online listing, make sure that the site is relevant to your business, and has a decent amount of online traffic.
Be wary of registering with generic online business directories that exist only for the purpose of backlinking. Search engines do not rank backlinks from these sites positively and you could get a lot of spam as a result.
6. Banner and boxed advertisements
There are many sites offering paid banner and boxed advertisements, where you can pay to display a site advertisement in a banner or box in a prominent position on their webpage.
This can be very effective, but be sure your ads are going to be playing to your market.
7. Google Adwords
Google Adwords is a pay system whereby when people type in certain search queries, you can pay to have your advertisement show up to the right of their search results.
This can be effective particularly if you have a popular business model with a lot of competition and are having trouble getting a decent page ranking in the unpaid results.
However for niche businesses where you already rank on the first page of Google’s unpaid results, you might not need this service.
Microsoft offer a similar service, although without the same market penetration.
8. Offline advertising
Despite the modern day prevalence of the internet, don’t forget the more traditional forms of offline advertising.
Most people rely to some extent on printed hardcopy for their information.
Consider advertising in local magazines, newspapers and on shop bulletin boards. Print and hand out business cards to bars, restaurants, cafes and other local businesses.
Join clubs or social groups, volunteer for community events and attend industry seminars. Even in this digital day and age, word of mouth can be the most effective (and free!) form of advertising.
