29/04/2015
Simple tips to market your online
One of the hardest things when starting a new business is knowing how to get your brand out there, especially if you’ve not got any marketing or advertising experience. However, fear not - here are a few tips to help your company get the recognition it deserves.
Where to marketWhen thinking of where could be a good place to market your company, you needn’t always assume it is going to cost. Sure, there are plenty of tested methods which may incur a charge, but don’t forget the basics. Use social media – Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest can provide just as much interest as a banner advert campaign if done correctly. Email marketing campaigns are also commonplace way to improve website traffic by highlighting new products or services to previous customers. You could also consider commenting on various blog posts in which readers may find your product relevant, or writing a guest post on a popular website within your sphere.
What’s your target market?Most companies don’t aim to be all things to all people, and this makes it easier to have a target market in mind. When thinking of who your target market could or should be, it’s important to bear in mind that developing strategies with specific customers in mind shouldn’t mean that you isolate other potential clients, just because they are outside of this age group for example. Having a target market can however help to direct the tone of your brand identity and can give customers a connection to your business.
Make sure you’re Search Engine OptimisedCustomers need to be able to find your website online, without knowing the direct address. The simplest way to do this is to increase your Search Engine Optimisation. Let’s say you run an online paint company - when a potential client types in ‘paint’ into a search engine, you don’t want your company to be showing up on page 10 of the results. To ensure this doesn’t happen you need to format your content to include keywords that are relevant to both your products and services. You shouldn’t try to ‘beat’ the system by writing in a way that doesn’t make sense though, as not only could this see you face consequences from the search engine provider, but also it could see you lose custom as people wouldn’t trust a site where the content does not make sense.
Don’t write off leafletingLeafleting might seem a little outdated in the internet era, but it still can be an effective marketing method. You can reach people who might have not necessarily been included within your target market, and it is a low cost way to make sure your company is represented offline too. You have to make your flyer stand out to gain interest in your product, and it should ask the reader for an action – such as, go on to our website for more information. Remember you don’t want to give too much information away, both on an aesthetic /space point of view, and because you always want to leave the reader wanting to find out more.
How about Adwords?Google Adwords is a scheme which lets you display an amount of advertising copy to web users based on a selection of keywords. Imagine you run a café in London, you would want potential customers to want to click through to find out more when they enter the generic ‘cafes in London’ search. Your description should be specific about what you offer, and remain true to your brand. Like a leaflet, it should also include an action to engage the reader. It’s important to keep track of what keywords are popular in searches, and what helps with click-through’s so you can amend your advert if necessary.
Join affiliate networks Working in parallel with another company can often improve your business. These schemes often offer a percentage of commission for every re-directed customer who goes on to make a purchase on your site. The most common method is through banner adverts, but these can also be done by either discount/voucher websites such as Groupon or Wowcher in which you could offer a particular product on a discount, or offering a discount voucher to the customer off their choice of purchase. What’s more, the surge of popularity in bloggers/vloggers means this is now another aspect of affiliate with sites such as YouTube allowing companies to embed adverts.
Go to MarketplacesEven if you sell your goods on your own website, you can still profit from stocking them on common marketplaces such as eBay and Amazon. Gone are the day in which these sites stocked limited items, as now over half of eBay’s sales come from fixed-price sellers. It’s important not to consider both these marketplaces as the same though, as the sites buyers often don’t overlap – so stocking your products on both sites isn’t a mistake. Amazon also offers sellers the option of packaging and posting their own stock, or they can take the hassle off you with FBA – and no, that’s not too good to be true.