A Three Pronged Attack For Online Marketing
Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.
The world of marketing is always changing but one thing that is for certain is that in the 21st century businesses need to have an online presence. The virtual landscape is constantly changing but with so many companies taking to the web and so many clients wanting to do their business this way, it is more important than ever to stay ahead of your competitors and find new ways of reaching your target market.
The process of marketing your business over the internet need not be as technical as you might have first feared and even the least tech-minded person can at least grasp the basics. Assuming that you have a website that is both easy to navigate and interesting for the user to read, you can then start to promote your services in the follow ways.
SEO
Search engine optimisation or SEO is the process by which you maximise your website’s potential to appear higher in search engine rankings. For example, if you are a car mechanic then you will want people to be able to find you easily when they type such phrases as “car mechanic”, “car repairs” and “repair garages” into Google or any other search engine.
There are various ways that you can optimise your site that that it appears higher up these listings but the main way of doing this is to build links from your site to other relevant, credible sites around the web. The best method of link building is to constantly release exciting content surrounding your areas of expertise which contain seamless links back to your site. The better these sites are that you’re posting on, the more powerful the link.
Adwords
Adwords is the term used to describe a paid form of advertising that Google offers within its search engine. These adverts can usually be found at the top or side of the search page and are often highlighted within a box.
Similar to the organic listings underneath, these ads will appear according to the search terms that are entered by the user. However, unlike these organic listings that can be manipulated by SEO, Adwords marketing is paid for depending on how many clicks the ad receives.
Campaigns can be built using Google’s Adwords tool so that whenever someone types in your relevant search terms, you effectively compete with everyone else for the chance of having your advert displayed.
In accordance with your budget, you can select a bid amount for each search term and then depending on the competitive nature of this term and how much other people are bidding for it, your advert will be shown or not. You will then be charged your proposed bid amount if somebody clicks on it. If all of this sounds a bit confusing there are plenty of Adwords training courses available to help get you started.
Social Media
We are all familiar with how much social media has grown over the past few years but it can be used as much more than just a way to keep in contact with your friends. Google and other search engines are constantly updating the way they rank sites to accommodate those that are regularly active on site such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest etc. Therefore creating company profiles on sites such as these and using them to distribute information about your services will not only increase your chances of reaching the masses but also improve your search engine rankings too.
Be sure to choose the best site for your business though. If your products rely on pictures to increase sales then you may want to choose to be on Pinterest, a sort of virtual pin board where people can bookmark their favourite sites from around the web.
However, if your products don’t heavily rely on pictures and your target audience is between the age of 18 and 35 then it might be a better option to use Twitter. You can enhance your use of social media further by establishing the peak times your audience are likely to be receptive to your information and scheduling your activity around this.
In this day and age there is a lot that can be gained from harnessing the power of the web. By marketing your business via this popular media you can really reach out to a new generation of people and this is just the start.
Featured images:
- License: Creative Commons image source
This article is written by Chris Mayhew on behalf of Marketing By Web. This web marketing agency is based in Bristol and offers services in online marketing for a large range of clients. For more informatiuon on SEO, Adwords and social media management visit their website today.