Once upon a time, algorithms didn’t sit atop the throne—this was during the early days of the internet when being found on the web was far simple than it is today. Back then, creating a website or another page was all that you had to do to ensure that your business was visible online. Today, things are far more complicated and having a website or a page online is no longer sufficient for a business to be visible to the users of the World Wide Web. A lot more needs to be done. Here is how you can market your business online, today!
How do I promote my business online? Do I need to spend thousands on marketing to reach the right audience? How can I use the internet to reach more people and win new customers? Asked yourself these questions? You probably have! The good news is that you’re not alone. Most small business owners have little to no clue about the best ways to market their business online, reach the intended audience and win new customers.
This stems from inexperience. After you launch your business online, it can take you anywhere between a few months to a few years to figure out the best way(s) of marketing your business online—that is if you don’t have access to the right kind of knowledge. Here, knowledge refers to knowing about how the most successful businesses, especially those offering the same products/services as you, are marketing themselves online. You can’t ask them for that information so you’ll have to do you own research. But, we will relieve you from this burden and give you access to the ways being employed by successful businesses to market and promote themselves online.
Use Search Engine Optimization
Okay, you’ve probably been given this advice a million times before, but this is only because search engine optimization or SEO is an effective way to market your business online. You can’t promote your business and/or products/services to your target audience online unless they know you exist. The best way to let people know about your online existence is search engine optimization.
By optimizing your website, search engine optimization or SEO increases its chances of making it to the first page of search engine results, which in turn increases your online visibility. Search engine optimization helps you to reach your target audience, and ultimately turn them into customers. Now, there are many ways of optimizing your site to get a higher ranking in search engines such as Google. One way and which you can perform yourself is blogging.
Start blogging and regularly post unique, interesting, engaging and relevant content online. When Google notices this, it’ll automatically rank you higher on the search engine results page. Get in touch with a professional to find out what else you need to do to get ranked on the first page of the search results.
Get Positive Online Reviews
A bit like you, your potential customers aren’t sure about what they should do. But, with a bit of encouragement and guidance, they will know what course of action to take. No one is born knowledgeable and it takes time, experience and education to learn about things and distinguish the good from the bad. It’s pretty much the same with your prospects.
Your prospects will consider your business only after they have significant knowledge of the products or services you’re offering—which takes time, experience and education. And, based on that knowledge, they will categorize your business and the products/services you’re offering as either good or bad. But, where do they get that knowledge from? Word of mouth and online reviews.
The Rise of Online Reviews
For long, businesses have relied on positive word of mouth to win new customers and grow. But, over the past decade or so, word of mouth has faded a bit as a vital social proof. The reason is the rise of another phenomenon: online reviews. Many will beg to differ but today no business, big or small, can grow without generating numerous, positive online reviews, on a consistent basis. You can drive all the traffic you want to a site, or landing page but you’ll only be generating market awareness and sales for your competition without this vital social proof. So, why is it so crucial to generate positive online reviews for your business?
Why You need to Generate Positive Online Reviews
According to a recent study by Myles Anderson, the founder and CEO of BrightLocal, prior to visiting a business, 90% of consumers read online reviews. Following are some of the other interesting findings of the study:
- 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations
- Customers are 31% more likely to spend on a business with positive reviews
- 72% trust a local business more if they read positive online reviews about it
- 92% will use a local business if it has at least- a 4-star rating online
- 72% of consumers will take action only after reading a positive review
Using review sites, existing customers of a business give objective feedback about it and its product or services. Though they are individual experiences, these reviews are considered by many people as the ‘truest’ information that they’re going to get about a business or product/service. So, use online reviews to your benefit and get your existing customers to say good things about your business and/or product/service.
There are many ways to market and promote your business online. However, the above listed ways are easiest, cheapest and most-effective ways to do so. If you need a new website with search engine optimaztion (SEO) in mind; we can help. We have a great team of designers and can have your site ready for your ongoing SEO efforts. Call me and we can discuss more: 800-614-7886. 😉
by Bobby J Davidson
We love our company and we love what we do. Check out the ‘Why Percento‘ page to learn more: Love of Technology and Business! Contact me today to discuss how our great team can assist: 1 800 614 7886 or our Contact Form.