E-Class #41: How to Start Marketing Your Business Online

Checkpoint:

You have created a business card for yourself and your sales staff that accurately communicates who you are and what you do.
You have included as part of your card design or content a reason for your prospect or customer to keep your card.

The internet is today’s primary consumer research tool. If you’re not online, you’re missing out on a huge pool of potential buyers.

Hopefully, you’ve already started working on your online presence. If you started to create your website a few weeks ago, you’re well on your way.

If your business does not have an online presence, it is harder for customers to find and choose your business over the competition. With over 73% of North Americans online, it is no wonder that individuals and businesses in all industries are looking to the Internet to enhance their marketing strategies.

But it is not just company websites that users are viewing. Blogs, consumer reviews, chatrooms and a variety of social media are growing rapidly in popularity.

The Internet is a very powerful tool for businesses if used strategically and effectively. It can be a cost saving alternative to traditional marketing approaches, and may be the most effective way to communicate with your target market.

In this E-Class we will cover:

Why every business should be marketing themselves online
Internet marketing strategies for every business
An overview of online advertising, and how to get started
How to start publishing and promoting your intellectual capital online
Common mistakes to avoid when starting an online marketing campaign.

Internet marketing is a strategy that every business should include in their marketing plans.

The Internet is a great way to create product and brand awareness, develop relationships with consumers and share and exchange information. You can’t afford not be taking advantage of online marketing opportunities because your competition is likely already there.

Internet marketing can take on many different forms. By creating maintaining a website for your business, you are reaching out to a new consumer base. You can have full control over the messaging that users are receiving and has a global reach.

Internet marketing can also be very cost effective. If you have a strong email database of your customers, an e-newsletter may be cheaper and more effective than post mail. You can deliver time sensitive materials immediately and can update your subscribers instantaneously.

Top 10 Websites (Globally)

Yahoo.com
Google.com
You Tube
Windows Live
Facebook
MSN.com
MySpace
Wikipedia
Blogger.com
Yahoo Japan

You will notice that half of these websites are search engines. An increasing number of consumers are first researching products, services and companies online, whether it is to compare products, complete a sale, or look for a future employer. Most people in the 18-35 age group obtain all of their information online—including news, weather, product research, etc. The remaining sites are interactive sites where users can upload information for social networking, or information sharing.

Here are the top internet marketing strategies, and how to implement them into your business.

Internet marketing – like all other elements of your marketing campaign – needs to have clear goals and objectives. Creating brand and product awareness will not happen overnight so it is important to budget accordingly, ensuring there is money set aside for maintenance of the website and analytics.

Be flexible with ideas and options—do your research first, try out different options, and test and measure the results. Metrics and evaluations can be updated almost immediately and should be monitored regularly. By keeping an eye out for what online marketing strategies are working and which are not, it will be easier to create a balanced portfolio of marketing techniques. You might find that in certain geographical areas, certain marketing strategies are more effective than others.

This list is by no means the full extent of options available for marketing online, but it is a good place to start when deciding which options are best suited to your company.

Create a website.

We reviewed this in an earlier E-Class, and by now you’re probably well on your way to a killer site. The primary use for the Internet is information seeking, so you should provide consumers with information about your company first hand. You have more control over your branding and messaging and can also collect visitor information to determine what type of internet users are accessing your website.

Build your site with search engine optimization (SEO).

Since search engines comprise 50% of the most visited sites globally, you can go through your website to make it more search engine friendly with the aim to increase your organic search listing. An organic search listing refers to listings in search engine results that appear in order or relevance to the entered search terms.

You may wish to repeat key words multiple times throughout your website and write the copy on your site not only with the end reader in mind, but also search engines.

Remember when you design your website that any text that appears in Flash format is not recognized by search engines. If your entire website is built on a Flash platform, then you will have a poor organic search listing.

Here are some ways you can optimize your site for search engine rankings:

Include as many keywords as possible in the title for your webpage
Use keywords in the all of the headings within your website
Put keywords in the first paragraph of all body copy
Use keywords in all hyperlinks on your pages

List your site in as many online directories as possible.

Listing your business in an online directory can be an inexpensive and effective online marketing strategy. In the E-Class on website creation, I showed you some of the search engines to register with. Now you should be looking for other industry-related online directories that can help drive traffic.

You should also create a listing for your business on Google Maps Local Business Center (www.google.com/local/add) and Yahoo! Local (listings.local.yahoo.com). This will make sure your business will appear on the maps that are generated during specific searches.

Integrate your website into your existing marketing collateral.

Put your website address on every piece of paper that represents or markets your business. Reference information on you website in your brochures and advertisements to drive traffic to your site.

Remember, you need to promote your website both online and offline.

A vital component of your online marketing efforts will include online advertising, and there are several ways to do this.

Price Per Click Advertising / Google AdWords

If you find that visitors access your website after searching for it first on a search engine, then it may be beneficial to advertise on these websites and bid on keywords associated with your company.

These advertisements will appear at the top of the page or along the left side of the search results on a search engine. You can have control over the specific geographic area you wish to target, set a monthly budget and have the option on only being charged when a user clicks on your link.

To get the most from your PPC ads, focus on the following points:

Only purchase the most relevant keywords
Focus on motivating qualified buyers to click on the ad
Lead buyers to the page of your site that is most relevant to the keywords
Test many different copy and keyword combinations until you find what works the best
Monitor the number of clicks, and measure it against those that convert to sales

Online Ads (i.e. banner ads on other websites)

These advertisements can have positive or negative effects based on the reputation and consumer perception of the website on which you are advertising. These ads should be treated similar to print ads you may place in local newspapers or other publications.

Here are some tips:

The ad needs to be visually interesting, and linked to a key page of your website.
Place ads on relevant sites, or sites that your target market will commonly view
Consistently measure the metrics of the ad – how much traffic is it generating?

Here are some free online marketing strategies that focus on publishing your intellectual capital to promote your business.

Create and post online videos on relevant subjects.

With the growing popularity of sites such as You Tube, it is evident that people love researching online and being able to find video clips of the information they are seeking. Depending on your small business, you may want to upload informational videos or tutorials about your products or services.

Create a blog, and write posts of relevance to your customers.

Blogging can be a fun and interactive way to communicate with users. A blog is traditionally a website maintained by an individual user that has regular entries, similar to a diary. These entries can be commentary, descriptions of events, pictures, videos, and more. Companies can use blogging as a way to keep users updated on current information and allow them to post comments on your blog. If blogging is something you wish to invest in, make sure that it is regularly updated and monitored.

Embarking on your online marketing strategy can be an exciting thing. Just be sure to avoid making these common mistakes that some businesses make.

They become locked into an advertising strategy early

Remember your marketing mix when creating a marketing strategy and avoid putting all of your eggs in one basket. Online marketing is a very valuable tool, but depending on your business and your target markets, other marketing campaigns may be the best option for you. Especially if this is your first time making a significant investment into your online sector, you want to remain flexible and able to adapt your strategy based of feedback received by researching and analyzing different options.

They act without researching

Similar to becoming locked into an advertising strategy early, this mistake implies not dutifully testing and researching different online marketing options. For example, if your target consumer is aged 65+ and you are spending all of your marketing efforts into creating a blogging website (where the average ages of bloggers are 18-35), then you are likely not going to have a successful campaign.

They assume that more visitors means more sales

You have to go back to your original goals and the purpose of your company. More visitors may not mean more sales if your website is used primarily for information and consumers purchase their products elsewhere. This is also vice versa. You could have an increase in sales without and increase in unique visitors if your current consumer base is very loyal and willing to spend lots of money.

Often people will collect information online about products they wish to purchase because it is easier to compare options, but they purchase in person. Even though shopping online is becoming quite popular, people still prefer to see and feel the physical product before purchasing.

They don’t follow up with customers that make a purchase

Return sales can account for up to 60% of total revenue. It’s no wonder that organization’s are always trying to maintain loyal customers and may have customer relationship management systems in place. It is easier to get a happy customer to purchase again than it is to get a new customer to purchase once.

They don’t measure their ROI

How are you going to tell if your online marketing efforts are successful? Are your visitors actually motivated to purchase or sign up? In an upcoming E-Class I’m going to show you which metrics to use, and how you can generate comprehensive reports from free programs.

They don’t incorporate online marketing into the overall business plan

By ensuring that your online marketing plan is fully integrated and accurately represents your organization’s overall goals and objectives, the business plan will be more comprehensive and encompassing.

They try to discover their own best practices

It is very beneficial to use trial and error to determine the best online strategy from your company, but do not be afraid to do your research and learn from what other have already figured out. There will be many cases where someone was in a very similar position as you and they may have some suggestions and secrets that they wish to share. Researching in advance can save a great deal of time and money.

They spend too much too fast

Although it may be cheaper than traditional marketing approaches, internet marketing does have its costs. You have to consider the software and hardware designs, maintenance, distribution, supply chain management, and the time that will be required. You don’t want to spend your entire marketing budget all at once.

They get distracted by metrics that are not relevant

There are endless reports and measurables that you can analyze to determine the effectiveness of your campaign. We’ll go over these in detail in an upcoming E-Class. You will need to establish which measurables are actually relevant to your marketing.

…and this is only the beginning! Your online marketing strategy will continue to grow and evolve as you learn about new trends and opportunities.

If you’re not a techno savvy person, the world online marketing can seem overwhelming and complicated. Stick with me. As you begin to learn buzzwords and understand the how all these things fit together, you’ll get more comfortable building your online presence.

One of your best resources to build your knowledge of online marketing is, of course, the Internet. There are thousands of articles out there on a variety of subjects, so dive in and get answers to your burning questions.

In a few weeks we’re going to come back and revisit your online marketing efforts. I’ll show you how to measure the success of your strategies using online metrics, as well as how to tap into social media like Twitter and Facebook as a way to promote your business.

Good luck!