Online marketing is an important part of any successful business. Whether you are just starting out or have been in business for a while, there are some basic online marketing tips that will help your business grow and prosper. In this article, we will discuss five online marketing tips that will help you drive more traffic to your website and convert those visitors into customers.
Register a domain name and start a website
One of the most important online marketing tips is to have your own website. A domain name is the web address where your website is registered, like the domain name on this website is thentrepreneurhouse.com.
Your website should be seen as your main sales channel. It’s the only salesperson that keeps working for you 24/7. All other channels serve as traffic sources to your website. That’s why your website is the number one online marketing tip.
When you start working on your website, it is very important that you make sure it is user-friendly. This means that the visitor is not distracted too much by flying elements and that it has a fast loading time. Don’t know how to make websites? Then it might be wise to outsource this.
In the first instance, I would advise you to work on it yourself. This way you save on costs and you also learn how the process works. This will ensure that you can make the small improvements yourself, which will save you a lot of headaches in the end. Should you want a conversion-enhancing website after some time? Then you can always have a professional web designer make adjustments.
Make sure you have an active social media
Building a presence on social media channels is another important online marketing tip. This is also one of the most cost-effective ways to reach your customers. Social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram are free channels where you can cultivate an audience that will be interested in what you have to offer.
It also gives them a chance to engage with you and share their experiences of buying items and/or services from your business. It is also a pretty good channel for generating traffic to your website and your popularity on social media is seen as one of the ranking factors in search engines like Google.
Note: an active social media strategy will not cost you money, but it will cost you a lot of time. So be aware of this beforehand. You really do get back what you put into it.
Create a Google My Business account for better local findability
In many cases, local buyers use search engines to find a nearby business that offers the products and/or services they need. Make sure your business is visible on Google by creating a Google My Business account.
When you set this up properly, your business will come up in the first results on the SERP (search engine result page). This places it just below the paid advertisements and even above the organic results. In the image below you see an example of the Google My Business results in the SERP.
It also shows you in the Google Maps results of potential customers in an area around your shop or office location. You’ll also be able to provide customer reviews, photos and videos of what you offer, and useful information about where your business is located. So having a presence on this platform builds trust with customers who are looking for physical locations of businesses like yours.
Get started with keyword research
Keyword research is a crucial step in the process of online marketing and higher rankings in Google. Once you have chosen your keywords, it becomes easier to set up SEO campaigns and generate more free visitors. There are various tools that help discover what people search for on Google or other search engines. These include the Google Keyword Planner, SEMRUSH, and Ahrefs.
Through these tools, you can find out the monthly search traffic and the level of competition. For the actual level of competition, I always recommend entering the keyword in Google itself and checking how strong the content of your competitors is. Are their texts all-encompassing? What do they do well and what could be better? When you have these answers, you can start creating your own content.
Create qualitative content
During your keyword research, you have already looked at where the opportunities lie in relation to your competitors. While creating your own content, it is up to you to put the collected information into practice.
A rule I often apply myself is to increase the average word count of the competition by about 20%. This forces you to go deeper into the subject matter and to see which subjects your competition is not yet paying attention to. An important rule here is that the content must be of high quality at all times. Are you just going to type some text to get the extra 20% content? Quality over quantity.
Should you still find it difficult to write web texts that score in Google? You can always call in an SEO specialist to help you with this.
Create a lead product
Do you sell more expensive products and/or services? Then it is wise to work with a lead product. This is a relatively inexpensive product that you offer to potential customers to get to know your company. This is an ideal way to gain trust and to approach them with your core product.
The goal of the lead product is not to make a profit. If you can use this product to reduce your advertising costs, that’s fine. The goal is to build a list of potential customers for your core product. Because these people have already purchased a product from you, you already have their details and can target them even more specifically with your best offer.
Examples of a lead product
- E-book;
- Step-by-step plan;
- Handbook;
- Mini course;
- Etc.
Conclusion
Hopefully, the tips in this article have given you insight into how you as a starting entrepreneur can use online marketing for your business. If you want to discuss your online marketing strategy and improve your lead flow, do not hesitate to contact me via my website RubinKoot.nl.
Good luck with applying all the tips!