The business world is currently very unstable. The COVID-19 pandemic affected millions of small businesses around the globe. Most of them were forced to shut down temporarily, while some businesses decided to just close down completely because people were asked to stay at home.
Although getting a small business funding so you can continue to operate is a good idea, it will just stay the same if you don’t know how to promote your business and make sales during these times.
With this pandemic still active outside, turning to online marketing is the best course of action for many entrepreneurs worldwide.
If this is your first time entering this industry, how can you market your business online effectively? We have highlighted some of the simplest ways to do this.
1. You Need a Website
It might seem generic for some people since this is a must if you want to market your products and services online. However, did you know that most of the small businesses don’t even consider having a website?
They are using Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to market their products and services and they all think that is already enough.
Yes, most of your clients are from these social media sites, but it is better if they can make the transaction on your website instead of just messaging you directly on your direct message.
Get your own domain and look for a reliable hosting provider.
2. Search Engine Optimization
Once you’ve set up your website, the next step is search engine optimization. You have to remember that your website needs to be visible on the search engines because your clients do not only come on social media.
Most of your traffic will still come from people who are using search engines to look for products and services.
Basically, you need to optimize your website to make sure that the search engines would be able to get as much information on your website as possible.
As long as you provide good quality content and more value to the users, you can have a chance of being placed on the first page of the search engines and get more traffic.
3. Adopt a Responsive Website Design
This is a very important part of marketing your business online. Creating a website is not the only thing that you have to do because you have to make sure that your website is accessible on different devices.
If it was 10 years ago, you will only focus on desktop computers, but today, you need to have a responsive website. Most people are now surfing the web through their mobile phones or tablets so you need to make sure that your website will not look silly when it appears on smaller devices.
You need a design that would make your website adaptable to different screen sizes and resolutions. Most of your clients are using mobile phones so if your website is not optimized for different devices, you will lose a lot of customers.
4. Content Marketing
“Content is King” — this is something that every marketer knows and it won’t change in the near future. Investing in high-quality content could prove to be very beneficial, especially for SEO purposes.
Google and other search engines are now focusing on content more than anything else. They only consider websites that can provide something of value to the users. If your website is full of spun or scraped content, you won’t make it.
You need to look for the right keywords and don’t spam them inside your articles. Using the keyword at least once will do and make sure that you use LSI keywords — long-tail keywords that are directly related to the main keyword.
Your content should be informative and readable. This is what the search engine wants so don’t even think about using spun articles for your content.
5. Build your Reputation
Even if you are very popular in your area, most people won’t even know that you are already offering your products and services on the web. How can you build your online reputation?
Social media is the best way to build up your reputation. Create your own business page and ask your friends and relatives to spread the word. If you are on Facebook, they just need to like and share the page so other people will see it.
Get likes and followers and start posting relevant content on your page. You can post marketing content regularly, but make sure that you add in other high-quality posts. Don’t just focus on marketing and try to offer something informative to your readers.
6. Online Advertising
This is where your funds will probably go when you are marketing your businesses online. Although all of the other methods above don’t cost a lot of money, nothing beats online advertising. What are your options?
- Google Ads: Google definitely has the biggest network in the world and you can promote your business through this. You can opt for pay-per-click (PPC) advertising so you can get your ad in front of millions of people who are using Google.
- Social Media Ads: Facebook and Instagram allow business owners to create their own ads. They have a platform that will allow you to choose your target audience. You just have to create your own ad and optimize it on social media sites.
- Direct Advertising: If you prefer something more direct, you can just look for websites that are relevant to your products and services and talk to them directly. You can negotiate for your ads to be shown on their website.
Final Thoughts
All of the methods mentioned above are only some of the basic methods to market your products and services online. Once you’ve started doing them, you will surely learn some of the more advanced methods to gain more traffic for your website.
If you are still a beginner, you should try to do all of the methods above as they will enable you to build and solidify your foundation on the Internet.
