Most offline businesses have little idea what is involved in marketing their business online. I would always suggest using the services of an specialist internet businessmarketonline consultant. Why would you want one those? The reason I suggest this will be obvious at the end of this article, but for now ask yourself one question, If YOU needed a tooth extraction would YOU have it done by the dentist or will his receptionist do? If you want the best online business marketing, go to a specialist who knows what to do.
TOOLS OF THE TRADE:
Website or Blog
The first thing an offline business is going to need is an online presence in the form of a website or blog. This is going to be the advertising billboard for your business to be seen on the information highway of the World Wide Web. Just like the offline world, the better the placement of the billboard, the more people are going to see it. So for your website or blog to bring in leads, you need to place it in front of the thousands of people who are going to be looking for your service and your product.
You are going to have to decide what the purpose of your website is going to be. Do you want it to solely bring you leads for your business, do you want it to sell your product and service, do you want it to promote your
business as the authority for your industry? Whatever you want your website to do, you need to decide before you begin your marketing campaign. To get the best online business marketing strategy you need to know what the end result is that you are looking for.
The look and design of your website will also need great consideration. It’s a fact that not all flash, expensive designer websites are going to do the job that you want it to. Some Web Designers unfortunately give more thought to how much they can charge, rather than what is the best solution for their client. Sometimes, a low cost website with basic functionality will best serve the purose you have. You don’t have to spend tens of thousands of dollars to get the BEST website.
Site content is very important. You need to provide content that is valuable, relevant and informative to the visitors that come looking for what you are offering under the specific keyword phrases. The more relevant the better.
Here is a brief example of what you need on your website for the best online business marketing:
1. A video. Video is huge in online marketing. It certainly says more than text and brings a sense of trust and confidence to the prospects who have come to visit you.
2. A picture. Whether it’s a picture of you, your product or someone performing your service. Again, a picture says a thousand words in terms of building that relationship with your visitor.
3. Text information. A light hearted description of what you have or do. You need to identify the NEED that your prospect will be feeling and then provide the SOLUTION to that need. Make sure your content is relevant to what your website is about.
4. Lead Capture System. A system where your prospect can leave his name and email address to receive further information from you in respect of your product or service.
This is a minimum of the requirements that your website must have. There are other requirements that are dependent on what you want your website to do for you.
On average, visitors to your site will spend 3 seconds before deciding to stay or go. That’s not a long time, so your website presentation had better do what it’s supposed to do or you are going to lose a lot of valuable leads.
You must make sure you spend quality time discussing your website with your marketing consultant. Here’s a hint, don’t ask how much it is going to cost before you ask what it is you need. Let him know what you need, ask what the best strategy is to achieve that and then give him your budget that he canwork to. There should be a plan achievable for every budget. You will need to understand that the best online business marketing strategy for you is whatever your budget can afford at that time. You need a presence and a good strategy to start and then you can build on that as your budget permits.
VISITOR ATTRACTION:
There are several ways to attract visitors to your website. Some of these are specialist functions and you will not be able to perform them with the expertise required to achieve the results you may be looking for.
Obviously, if you are marketing online you are wanting to attract as many qualified leads to your site as possible to increase your opportunity of conversions to sales.
1. Search Engine Optimization or SEO. You have probably heard this term on numerous occasions. It basically means that you optimize your website to increase your chances of placing higher in the Search Engine results.
Certain keyphrases that you choose are strategically placed on your website for the “Search Engine Spiders” to find and use to rank your website. Now this is only one of the methods used to raise your page rankings with the
search engines. The weight that Search Engines now place on the on-page optimization is inconclusive. What does matter is that SOME weight is placed on it.
2. Deep One Way Back Links. The search engines now place a high degree of importance on the number of links from major sites back to your website. The sites must be good quality with an average of Page Rank of 5 or higher. These sites show the search engines that your website must be of some importance in the niche you are in as they are all linking back to you. If that is the case, you will rank higher with the search engines and place
higher in their search results. This is a very important part of achieving the best online business marketing, and this step cannot be overlooked.
3. Article Marketing. Submitting articles to various article networks will help a lot in bringing you both targeted visitors, as well as raising your page positioning with the search engines. This is a time consuming task
that is very labour intensive although the results are very satisfying. In a lot of cases, the writing of the article and the submissions to the article networks will be outsourced to other agents. It is important to use agents
with good reputations and a good reporting system so you know the job has been done to your satisfaction.
4. Social Networking. Using social networks like Facebook and Twitter for your business is also very beneficial in lead generation and back linking to your website. Like the other forms of marketing, this is very time
consuming and labour intensive. Your consultant should be able to recommend a good outsourcing agent who knows how to best utilise the benefits of social network marketing. This is important because you don’t want your
campaign to “spam” the networks with your content as this will lead to the other users losing all interest in you, and possibly the site administrators banning you.
5. Social Bookmarking. Having your website booked by major bookmarking networking sites gives you a high credibility amongst the search engines. A high chance of front page placement for good quality back links from
these sites is achieveable. Again, this is labour intensive in setting up the accounts with each network. However once that is done, the rest is easily maintained. You should outsource the initial setting up stage. Look for good quality sites with a page rank of 5 or higher. Leverage is a main consideration with the best online business marketing strategy, as we look to outsource as much as possible to specialists in each field.
6. Video Marketing. This is a very powerful method of online marketing that is currently underutilised. The strategy is simple, make a useful video of 1-3 minutes full of content, have a call to action, leave your contact details. Upload the video to video networking sites and you are done. The trick is to select your keyword phrases carefully and plan each campaign well.
CONCLUSIONS
There are many other strategies and combination strategies that can be implemented depending on your budget and time frames. Importantly, choose a specialist consultant who knows how to put together a great campaign
that will bring you the results you are wanting. Spend quality time with your consultant discussing all of the matters I have already raised above. Get detailed information on what will be done, set time frames for everything
to be completed and then set timeframes to measure results. Test and measure everything. Keep what works, and discard what doesn’t. Online marketing is a specialist field. If you want the best results, get a specialist.
Use the principles of the best online business marketing strategies to really push your business to the front pages of the search engine results. Think of that billboard again and see yours at the front of the line on the information highway of the World Wide Web.
Sene Iafeta’s focus is on helping new small and medium businesses who are looking to the internet to create the right online marketing solution that is right for them, their business and their budget. Every client is encouraged to openly discuss all their ideas and objectives they want to achieve from their online marketing. A marketing analysis on their current campaign can identify the strengths and weaknesses from which a new online campaign strategy can be formulated>
