So you finally got a website for your business? Great. Is your website appealing and actually have useful information? Even better. Now comes the confusing, arduous process of promoting your business and the website which represents your business. There are a good number of ways to promote your business online, and I recommend trying as many as you can.
Online Classifieds
One of the best ways to promote your business (and you can do this without even having a website up) is to registry your business into the endless amounts of online classifieds websites out there. Registration is usually a quick and easy process that would take no more than ten minutes per website. Since there are so many online classifieds out there, it’s a good idea to get into the heads of your clientele and think about which websites they would likely use. It’s also not a bad idea to ask your customers which local listings sites they use through a survey that might accompany a purchase. Some good online classifieds pages to include are the following:
E-Newsletter
If you don’t already have an online newsletter arriving in your clientele’s inboxes, you should start now. If you need email addresses, this would be a great prompt to include in a customer survey. How often should you send out the newsletter? Unless you update or make additions to your business monthly, I would just send them out quarterly or case-by-case. If you are moving locations or changing inventories, obviously let your customers know. If nothing much is happening, don’t annoy your customers with pointless emails.
Social Media
This is actually somewhat of a tough call, as I don’t believe it is necessary for all businesses. Not every business needs a Twitter or Facebook account; in fact some customers might be confused or even laugh at the idea for some businesses. Then again, places like restaurants or bars with a changing menu or varied specials would have good use for a social media account. I would advise you to survey if your clientele are active social media users and which social media they use. Giving your customers any easier way to contact or access you is never a bad thing.
Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) should have a post all to itself. Essentially it is the process of optimizing your website with the best keywords possible that would bring in search engine traffic. To do this, you have to spend a good amount of time brainstorming keywords that potential customers would type into Google to find your company or service. It’s also a good idea to look at your competition’s websites and see what keywords they have for their sites. Often times, you will find that many business’s websites have language that is too highly specialized and probably doesn’t bring in much search engine traffic. Once you think you have a good set of keywords that people would search to find a business such as yours, implement them into your website every way you can: Page titles, navigation menus, picture captions, paragraph text, and so forth.
Advertisements
This could also be its own blog post. There are an infinite amount of spaces on the internet where you could advertise. The key is finding the places that would give you the most success. Personally, I don’t think Google AdWords is the way to go for most businesses; too many people pass them up, and your SEO should give you results on Google anyway. Instead, I think specialized blogs related to your business are a decent avenue. Particularly if the blogs are localized, it would probably have an even more direct effect on your customer base.
By-line:
Mariana Ashley is a freelance writer who particularly enjoys writing about online colleges. She loves receiving reader feedback, which can be directed to mariana.ashley031 @gmail.com or you can leave a comment below.
