Internet Marketing Strategies For A Small Business
So what are some of the best internet marketing strategies for a small business? You may be searching the internet to find out how you can get your company website more exposure online without having to spend too much of your money. Fortunately the internet is a great place to get great exposure for your small business by leveraging simple yet effective tools, and online platforms.
One effective internet marketing strategy for a small business, is Search Engine Optimization, or SEO. SEO is a great way to put your business website in front of customers that are looking for you. Did you know that 80% of searchers look online for a business before they even consider going offline and doing business with you? So it’s important for small businesses to establish a web presence online so that when their customers search for them, they can find them, preferably on the first page of the search engines, and in the top 3 positions. The higher your rankings, the more traffic and sales you will get. And in addition to that it’s also important to have reviews about your business on several sites such as Yelp, Homestars, Google Places, etc. This can give you an advantage over your competitors as well as a boost in rankings.
Other top internet marketing strategies for a small business include using social media. Social media sites such as Facebook, and Twitter are a great medium for branding your business, and developing a relationship as well as two way communication with your potential or current customers. When using social media it’s important to realize that you don’t just use it to pitch your products and services without adding real value. Offer your potential prospects promotions and discounts, freebies, tips and advice, and other incentives. You can also create videos and upload them directly to your Youtube account, and then tweet about it, or promote it on your Facebook page, provided it will be of interest to your followers, and commercial free. Remember, social media is all about building trust and relationships. The more people trust you, the more likely they are to buy from you.
Article publishing is another great internet marketing strategy for small businesses. It’s usually free to submit your articles to article directories such as Ezinearticles.com and Goarticles.com. Writing articles is a great way to pre-sell your products and services without looking overly promotional. If the article you write is relevant and useful for your user, they will most likely click through to your site and see what you have to offer. When writing articles, you’re allowed to use a resource box which can include a couple of links to your site. This is a great place to offer them additional free information if they visit your site. It’s also a great way to get back links to your site with keyword rich anchor text, to help you with your SEO rankings. However, just make sure you don’t stuff your resource box with too many keywords and make it look clean and to the point. Once they land on your site, you only have a few seconds to capture their attention, so it’s probably best to have an opt-in list with additional free information that they can sign up to.
There are several internet marketing strategies for a small business that you can use, including both free and paid strategies. I’ve included only the free internet marketing strategies, so this is usually a good place to start. One important thing to keep in mind prior to implementing any internet marketing strategy is to perform proper market and keyword research. If you can understand exactly which keywords will be the most relevant for your business, that aren’t too competitive you’ll be able to convert your prospects into buyers much easier, and won’t much additional traffic. Your overall bounce rate will also be very low, because visitors won’t be clicking off of your site as soon as they land on it. So do the necessary research ahead of time by using keyword tools such as Market Samurai, and Google Insights to see what’s working right now for your competitors. Once you know the intent of your potential customers, it will really reduce the amount of effort you need to spend on SEO, and other internet marketing strategies for a small business.
