There are many ways Ways to Market Your Business Online. We have listed both the Free and low-cost ways to promote your business online in this post. Do you know there are billions of customers out there?
Let us take Nigeria for example, with over 200 million people, you can see we have a big market at hand for businesses to thrive. This post is guaranteed to get you desired results if you can patiently and consciously read the marketing techniques itemised here. We recommend reading this post more than once for effectiveness and result manifestation.
In the past, say 20 years ago during the internet’s earliest days when algorithms had nothing to do with search and visibility. In those days, it was easier to be found on the web. There is no technical know-how or the need for awareness of hundreds of ranking factors in order to be discovered relevantly in an online search.
In recent days, the search engine has revolutionalized and it is more technical. But with the evolution of Google’s core search algorithms, with the introduction of measures like Panda, Penguin and Hummingbird, you need to be a pro for you to excel in the field of ranking your business online.
Our business has come out to help other entrepreneurs in ways to market their businesses online. The best way to market any business online is to be found organically through a search at the top of Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs) and not forgetting other search engines like Bing, AOl, Yandex and so on.
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Nowadays, appearing relevantly for highly-competitive keywords has become an ever-increasingly herculean task. It is a known fact that if you want to hide anything from anyone online, you put it on the second page. Funny enough, some people seem to dominate Google’s searches while others seem to falter.
In order to succeed in business or in life, we need to do the work. Hence, when it comes down to marketing your business, you certainly need a tremendous amount of experience and effort to push your business to the next level. We have coined out certain questions below
How do you market your business online?
What does it take to market your business online?
How can an industry be found online? There are some ways to market your business that will offer a better return on the investment of your time than others. Some will take weeks to give results; while others will take months and years.
How to market your business online and get results
1. Use of blog and post high-quality content regularly
One of the most important ways you can market your business online is to build a blog where you can post and distribute high-quality content that provides a very high amount of value regularly. If you want a quick kick and start process then this is not for you because it is definitely a very long-term strategy, and it won’t pay off overnight, but as an entrepreneur, you need to understand the importance of using this online marketing method.
Having a blog helps in creating authority and position you as an industry-based leader and authority. If you can become an authority in your industry, you’ll possess all the attention of consumers, the media and business owners alike. This in turn converts to enormous amounts of visibility and sales.
2. Share your content on Medium and Quora
Medium and Quora are high authority sites and can help position your business in the right direction. You need tactics for marketing your content on sites like Medium and Quora.
How does it work? Write one high-quality piece of content on your website. Make sure it’s keyword-centric, insightful, unique and offers a lot of value. Make sure your content helps people in some way, shape or form.
Now, write another article on a site like Medium or Quora, and create one link from that article using a primary or relevant keyword back to the main article on your site or blog. This is called content marketing, and it’s the most powerful method for acquiring traction on Google’s SERPs, while also reaching large existing audiences through these authority sites as well.
3. Connect with others on LinkedIn groups
LinkedIn groups can help you connect with others in your industry or niche to help spread your message. You can promote your content through LinkedIn groups as long as you don’t come across as spammy. It’s best to add value to a conversation or discussion before trying to drop your links.
You can message other members in the group without being connected and can become a huge asset depending on the particular circumstances. Share updates often in the group, and be sure to stay in the spotlight without oversharing.
4. Use Facebook ads and strategically-targeted landing pages
In the past, when you post on Facebook you are sure your post has been seen by lots of audiences but with the introduction of ads, the Facebook algorithm does not organically favor business pages except you break the barrier with the use of ads.
Facebook ads offer a great opportunity for reaching the right demographics for your business. With the use of metrics like interests, geographic location, marital status, age and many others, to locate potential consumers(audiences) and send them to a strategically-targeted landing page.
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You can start off with micro-spends to know which ad copy and ad page receives the best responses for dropping consumers into your sales funnel. It might take a while to know which ad metrics converts on advertising on a platform like Facebook, but once your campaign is profitable, all you need to do is scale up.
5. Leverage the power of Instagram influencers
Influencer marketing is gradually gaining momentum in marketing today. We have done a lot of influencer marketing for brands and we can tell you it is effective in getting your services out there within the shortest possible time.
You can instantly reach droves of people from across the world at a moment’s notice. We need to point out that algorithms and visibility do not favor us, especially since we don’t have the reach of hundreds of thousands or millions of followers.
To reach those people, we need amplifiers, power users and influencers to help spread our messages. While this won’t be free, it will give you instant access to a wide audience in your specific niche as long as you select the right Instagram influencer to help spread your message.
Related: Influencer Marketing
6. Create useful video tutorials on YouTube
YYouTube has grown to become a powerful social media tool for promoting your video content. It provides a great resource for marketing your business online. To win in this space, you need to focus on creating useful content (video tutorials) which can be easily create and edit using a video editor by adding some effects, background music to it, and this with time will eventually reach a vast amount of people. Again, you have to focus on adding value without much concern for generating profit.
YouTube has proven to be one of the most efficient ways to market your business online.
7. Develop a relationship with your customers through email marketing
Email marketing is another effective ways to Market Your Business Online. We highly recommend email marketing for every business owner to engage in, but it’s not an easy process. Do not not forget that you need good content marketing plan in all your marketing endeavours.
For a successful email marketing campaign, you need to give something away for free in exchange for the consumer’s email address. It needs to be something of value. To collect emails, you need to create a free report or ebook that will help people in your industry or niche. Then, develop a relationship with that consumer through drip-fed campaigns using a system like Aweber, Get Response, Constant Contact or Mailchimp.
Please, don’t try to sell at every opportunity. Connect first, then focus on selling.
8. Use Angie’s List or TripAdvisor
Something of notable interest in this article is the use of sites like Angie’s List and TripAdvisor that offer a way for any business to reach a large amouunt of audience of potential consumers. These sites are a great resource for finding any local business, giving you the opportunity to have consumers leave reviews based on their experiences with your company.
For service providers, try Angie’s List. For those in the travel-related field, why not list on TripAdvisor? You must note that these links not only good for SEO, but you’ll also gain access to a large audience of consumers that are looking for products or services in your industry or niche. Try to create a good listing, and drive customers there to post authentic reviews based on their experiences with you.
9. Build consumer trust on platforms like Yelp and Trust Pilot
Another foundation on which busineses can thrive is on “trust”. People are held back to trust businesses they don’t have direct knowledge of or know someone who’s worked with them. This gap can be filled by sites like Yelp and Trust Pilot.
Trust Pilot and Yelp are specifically for helping consumers find the right company to work with, and it increases transparency by providing past customers’ experiences with the company. These sites are the largest in the world for online reviews and should be leveraged to help build trust with potential consumers.
10. Utilize rich snippets, AMP and FBIA
Some important features for you to market your busirness online and get the visibility you need in order to gain some forms of traffic with your content are to utilize rich snippets, Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) or Facebook Instant Articles (FBIA). these can guarantee some forms of early exposure. Rich snippets apply to a number of content forms including articles via the AMP specification, local businesses, music, recipes, reviews, TV, movies and videos.
There are WordPress plugins you can use for rich snippets via Schema.org’s specifications, along with plugins for both AMP and FBIA. With focus on mobile by Google and Facebook, having AMP and FBIA articles will give you a small advantage over those who don’t make use of them there by increasing your visibility on SERPs and in newsfeeds.
11. Use guest posting in your niche
Reach out to popular bloggers in your niche as this has been known to be one of the ways to market your business online, especially if you have something of value to add to one of their posts. If you find a popular blogger who often writes about a particular subject that directly correlates to your line of work, it is adviseable to reach out and look for ways to collaborate
One way is to guest post on thier platform.
12. Regularly contribute on industry-specific forums
A better strategy to post on industry-specific forum is to join conversations and add value before you try to link-drop.
I have seen a lot of people getting the forum-strategy posting for SEO wrong. They go to these forums and drop spammy links, and they’re booted off the forums. You can’t do that.
Ensure you offer value. Chat with others, provide suggestions. Answer questions. Just don’t spam links. Add your link to your signature after a few posts or after the rules of the forum allow you to do so, but don’t try to direct people to your site instantly. You might be getting “egungun becareful, na express you de go” signal.
13. Optimize your website for SEO
SEO importance in todays world wide web can not be over emphasised. You need to optimize your site for relevant keywords becuase it is an important aspect of marketing your business online. Something to note here is that for a new business — less than two years old — you’re going to have a hard time ranking at the top of Google’s SERPs for any keyword that’s marginally competitive.
Search Engine Optimization goes along with excellent content, optimizing your site’s On-Page and Off-Page SEO. Get a full list of Up to date SEO Checklist that can propel you to ranking on top pages on search engine result pages.
14. Offer a free product or service to customers
Once a while, provide a free product or service. Research recently showed that people are more likely to accept something for free than they are to pay a price for it. So, why not provide a free service or product to your customers?
Let’s say you sell custom fanny packs. If so, why not throw in another custom merchandise piece, such as a pocket calendar or a sticker to sweeten the deal?
We are offering a free 15-minute consultation if you are here and can read this. We are also giving away a free website package to you (3 persons though) that can read this and quote us with this post. There are plenty of ways to make the most out of free goods.
Whatever the product offering, be sure to secure the customer’s contact details so you can get in touch with them later. If you’re offering a service for free, you can upsell those customers to your paid services. People are more likely to feel like they owe you when they accept something for free.
15. Use business listing sites like Yahoo Local and Google Local
This is very useful for your local SEO and helps if you are looking to attract nearby customers to your location or offering some professional service that’s geographically-inclined, you should list your business on local business listing sites like Yahoo Local and Google Local.
They offer ways to list and verify your business information, providing public details such as your company’s address for Google Maps appearances, store hours and other information related to your business. Ensure that you keep this information accurate and up-to-date.
16. Use press releases to communicate important company news or events
Involve the use of Press releases in your marketing via platforms like Help a Reporter, or PR Web, these might not get you the result initially but long term, you will get it.
However, a press release that’s well-written and has a healthy link profile can assist you marginally with SEO, but it can also allow you to communicate important company news or events that you can then use to actively pursue media outlets with through the proper PR channels.
17. Give a talk at a professional conference or on a webinar.
You need to be known as an authority in your field. you may try give a talk at a professional conference or webinar. Involve in TED Talks at professional conferences, or even webinars conducted online.
When it comes to online marketing, webinars are one of the most powerful tools for selling nearly anything to a highly-engaged audience. If you have a larger audience, the more likely you’ll be able to sell your products or services.
18. Implement the 80-20 rule to identify and market to high-value clients
The 80-20 rule, also known as the Pareto Principle, is an aphorism which asserts that 80% of outcomes (or outputs) result from 20% of all causes (or inputs) for any given event.
In essence, it’s only a small portion of what we do that actually produces results. However, this can be applied to sales, which means that 80 percent of your revenue comes from 20 percent of your clients.
You may need to identify which of your clients are giving you the most income for your business, you can scale your sales out by sending them additional offers and discounts for other services and products.
19. Create a branded email signature
This method is not that popular but can be exploited to getting your business more result online. Place your links and other accolades your company might have received directly into your email signature. This helps to passively promote your business to people that you’re in contact with on a daily basis.
20. Co-sponsor an award or giveaway in a contest
This is what can be used for big or medium scale businesses. Small businesses too can leverage this technique. You can find what you can give away or co-sponsor an award or contest with another company, group or professional in your field. You can involve the use tools like LinkedIn and Facebook to network with others, and locate another like-minded company or professional willing to conduct an award or giveaway with you.
21. Post photos and videos with relevant hashtags on Pinterest, Flickr, Tumblr, Twitter and Instagram.
There are numerous amounts of high-domain authority sites that you can post photos and videos on to build a following. Pintrest, Flickr, Tumblr and Instagram come to mind first. We recommend you use relevant hashtags and descriptions to properly categorize what you’re posting about, and follow others in your industry or niche posting with those hashtags.
No matter what method selected for marketing your business on the web, ensure that you’re providing value and you’re implementing the proper set of marketing habits, you will definitely get rewarded for your work over time. understand that this won’t happen overnight. See the methods to promote your business online — in both the short and long term — for driving traffic to your site and pages online.
In cnclusion, we can see that the online marketing tips itemised and explained above a marketing technique that can obtain instant sales or even instant traffic for you. Most are long term steps designed to definitely get you the desired result as long as you’re adding value and you’re passionate about what you’re doing. Another unspoken way to get some forms of result is to comment, like and engage with other people’s posts in order to be seen and heard. Please share
