Online Promotion For Small Businesses
The online presence that you develop for your company is the key to profitability as we move into an ever more digital society. Without having a prominent online presence, you are going to regrettably continue to lose ground to your competitors. And if you fall too far behind, it might be hard to ever catch up.
Developing A Successful Internet Presence
Having a successful internet presence requires more than just a boring, static website. Instead you will need an optimized and professional site which will make people sit up and take notice. Use compelling images and graphics, not to mention video and audio to set your site apart from other sites.
Always view your site from the perspective of your visitors. Make it simple for them to navigate and find what they are seeking. Keep in mind, people use the web to find info and solutions to their concerns.
Avoid the narcissism trap that plagues so many websites. People don’t genuinely care about how great you feel you are or how many awards you have won. Instead, visitors to your site are most interested in what you’ll be able to do for them.
Check your your ego at the door and constantly focus on the wants of the visitor at your site. Doing just this one thing will transform your site and demonstrate your super servant mentality. This vibe will attract clients to you due to the fact they are going to feel that you care.
Getting The Technical Aspects Correct
At the minimum, your site needs to have the correct SEO (search engine optimization). Search engines like Google have ‘spiders’ that routinely visit your site to help them to ascertain where to place your content in their index. Therefore, you’ll want to have things formatted and structured correctly to make it easy for them.
You can also help the search engines index your content by utilizing sitemaps. Certainly use a traditional HTML sitemap, but also incorporate an XML sitemap as well.
Probably the most important Search engine optimization element will be the title tag for each page. The title tag is what’s seen in the search engine listings. Try to keep your title tags less than 65 characters in length. Definitely use your primary keyword within the title, but also attempt to make the title tag as compelling as possible to entice a visitor to click on your listing and visit your site.
It is also a good idea to have a meta description on every page to let search engines know what the page is about. Like title tags, meta descriptions appear within the search engine results. Therefore, a well-written meta description can help persuade people to visit your site.
Each page should be tightly focused around one primary keyword phrase. Too many keywords will confuse the search engines not to mention the reader. It is ok to use related keywords, but do your best to keep the topic of the page as targeted as possible to the primary keyword phrase of the page.
Above all, creating useful and informative content will be the ultimate goal. Content is king (or queen). Providing valuable, free content will be the best method to initially get visitors to your site as well as get them to return to your site in the future. Well written content also gives you a chance to demonstrate your
knowledge and expertise in a specific area, and that you know what you are talking about.
Also, don’t overlook the obvious. Have your address, phone number, an email contact and even a map showing the location of your company clearly visible. Make it simple for your customers and clients
and get in touch with you. Having ample contact information also shows a prospective customer that you are indeed a real company and not just a web page.
Interacting With Prospective Customers And Clients
More than ever, it’s essential to have a dialogue with your clients and give them the chance to easily converse with you. This is particularly true if you’re selling a larger ticket item (say $1,000 or more). People have to know and trust you prior to investing their hard earned money with you.
One of the most common way to communicate with customers or prospective customers is to have them opt in to your email list. However, email newsletters won’t get the job accomplished. Newsletters have gone the way of the dinosaur. So you need to give them a compelling reason to join your list.
The most effective way to persuade a person to join your email list is to provide them something of value in return. A free video, a special report, etc. Just make certain you really deliver and give them something worthwhile, otherwise they’ll unsubscribe from your list.
You can also interact with people utilizing social networks like Facebook, Twitter or Linked In. If you own a business, developing a Facebook Fan Page might very well solve most or all of your social media needs. Social media is great, but you need to be really careful about which networks you join due to the fact they can consume massive amounts of time to maintain.
In summary, marketing your company on the internet is no longer an option. It is mandatory. The traditional phone book is being utilized less and less all the time. It is now known that two-thirds of shoppers now research the web before they make a purchase. But as long as you’ve got a prominent Internet presence and people can locate you online, you can claim your share of new business from the web and prosper.
For more great information on local online marketing, make sure to visit Mark Brinker & Associates at http://www.markbrinker.com.











