How To Market Your Business Online

How to Market Your Business Online

Many business owners see the web as the «Promised Land» for creating new revenue for their organisation. Whilst this is certainly true, these companies fail to take into account the difficulties of the overcrowded marketplace they are entering into. Many business owners have the misguided belief that: «If you build it they will come». These sentiments should be reserved for Hollywood movies. In actual fact, nothing can be further from the truth. From the start of their endeavours, their sentiments should have been «If you Market it they will come». Marketing is the key to any successful online business.

There are numerous ways to generate traffic to a website, each with their advantages and disadvantages. Budget lines for these marketing methods vary dependent on the industry you’re in, so upon deciding your marketing method, it is essential to check out your competition in these areas to determine budget.

Online marketing methods

Pay per click (PPC)

There are many PPC services available. The most widely known is Google AdWords, whilst others include Yahoo Search Marketing and Microsoft AdCenter. PPC will give a business immediate Target Traffic. In most cases a working PPC campaign can be setup in a matter of days. PPC also offers the clearest track ability in terms of sales and return on investment (ROI).

There is only one major disadvantage to PPC and that is the cost associated with it. These are payable even if it does result in a conversion, therefore there is a possibility of spending more than you make on the sale. To check out the cost associated with your selected industry I suggest using the Google keyword tool and follow the instructions.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

If PPC is a sprint; SEO is a marathon. The short term effects of SEO are very limited, although once an effective SEO campaign is in full swing, its effects don’t incur any charges for a click through. This type of marketing provides a wealth of traffic through long tail and short tail keyword search terms. Unfortunately it is much harder to calculate ROI with an SEO campaign.

If you’re looking at procuring long term business on the web, SEO is simply a must and the sooner you start the quicker you will make money with this method. It is always a good idea to look at your competition for the natural search term before the creation of your website. Look at the number of results for your key industry terms. This can be found by typing in your term to a search engine. In the results on the right hand side you will see how many other people are targeting that term. Anything above ten million results and you’re probably looking at least six months of hard work to get to the position you want to be at, the first page of the search engine results.

Another thing to look at is page-rank. Don’t obsess over this but check out the page-rank of your top twenty competitors using Google toolbar. If most of your competitions page-rank is above four then you are going to need a very weighty budget.

Shopping Feed

If you’re planning to sell products online, a shopping feed should be a serious consideration for immediate traffic. Most shopping feeds can be configured and automated with a one time setup, however this can vary depending on your content management system. The majority of shopping feeds do have a cost per click associated with them but it is normally far less than that of a Google Adwords campaign or such like. There are also a number of free shopping feeds such as Google Base and MSN product search beta (invite only). When looking at a shopping feed it is essential to check their target area as many are limited to the USA. The main pitfall to consider with shopping feeds is they allow for easy price comparison so if your mark-up is extreme you could easily be priced out of the market.

Social Media

Social media is a great source of converting traffic; as a recommendation from social sites are normally treated by users like a recommendation from a friend. This being said social media requires a lot of hard work.

If you have an inward approach or don’t spend a lot of time on your chosen social site, then it is a pointless exercise. On the other hand; if you’re constantly helping other social users by outwardly directing your content, then social media can be a great part of your marketing plan. If you’re just using social media to promote your own site (inward directed) then you will struggle to see a great deal of difference in site traffic.

Once you have considered all these factors you can then begin investigating budgets for online business success. If you’re looking for more help then we suggest hiring a consultant or visit our consultancy site for more great tips.