When you decide to set up your own small business, you probably aren’t quite prepared for the sheer amount of things that you have to learn about in order to succeed. You’re going to come face to face with a seemingly never-ending list of tasks that you’re going to have to carry out in order to get things up off the ground and running. But even once you’ve achieved this, the hard work isn’t over. In fact, you could say that it’s only just begun, as now you have to ensure that the consumer market is aware of the products and services that you have on offer and want to purchase them, thus making you a healthy profit and keeping your business out of the red and in the black. One of the most effective ways to achieve this is to create astounding marketing campaigns. For now, let’s focus on online marketing. Here are a few different types for you to consider!
Why Focus on Online Marketing?
Increasing numbers of people are now taking their businesses online. Whether this means starting up as an online-only business, making the move from brick and mortar business to an online-only business, or operating online at the same time as running a brick and mortar company – the majority of companies have some sort of online presence. This makes sense. After all, operating online means that you open your products and services up to a worldwide audience. If you create a branded website, anyone who has access to an internet connection anywhere in the world can access your page, browse your products and (if you offer international shipping) start making purchases. It also means that you are open for business around the clock. While a standard store requires constant supervision during opening hours and will generally operate between nine in the morning and five in the evening, web users can use your webpage at any time of the day or night, making orders around the clock. But if you’ve put a whole lot of work into developing a website, you can’t automatically expect that people will find their way to it. In fact, many business owners don’t thoroughly consider how they’re going to direct traffic to their page and end up feeling disappointed when they have few hits when they launch their site. If this sounds familiar, don’t worry. You just need to engage with a little online marketing.
Social Media Marketing
Thanks to the rise of smartphones and apps, the majority of us now engage with social media on a daily basis. The main three platforms that people tend to use at the moment are Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. At the moment, Facebook is estimated to have over one billion active users, Instagram is said to be used by at least one hundred million individuals every single month, and Twitter has an average of three hundred and thirty million users online every month. Though you may initially think that social media is for purely personal use, any good business person will be able to tell you that you need to place yourself wherever the mass market are focusing their attention. So, it’s time to engage with social media if you aren’t already! The easiest way to do this is to make use of a reliable digital marketing specialist like the professionals at https://www.microdinc.com/digital-marketing/. They will help to show you how having social media profiles and a large social media presence can be extremely beneficial for your small business.
SEO Campaigns
Another popular form of online marketing at the moment is SEO. Chances are that you’ve heard this term flung around quite a bit lately, as it’s a hot topic in business and something that many business owners are focusing on wholeheartedly at the moment. SEO stands for “search engine optimisation”, and is the widely used business practice of directing as much traffic to your webpage through search engine links as possible. When consumers search for a product or service, they are likely to input some key terms into a search engine and browse the results until they find what they’re looking for. The higher your results appear, the more likely people are going to click on your webpage first, putting you in a superior position above your competitors. The best way to rank highly in results is to outsource to a reliable SEO agency who will be able to optimise your site and input keywords into all aspects of your website’s design.
Mailing Lists
Once someone has reached your site, you want to be able to keep in touch with them. This goes for visitors who have merely browsed your items and customers who have processed sales alike. After all, just because someone hasn’t bought something the first time they’ve been on your site doesn’t mean that they won’t add future releases to their basket. This is why every small business website should have a mailing list. A mailing list is a list of people who give you their contact details in order to be alerted to new releases, special events, or other announcements from your brand. There are various ways that you can incorporate a mailing list into your web design. It could potentially appear as a permanent box at the bottom of each page, or could alternatively appear as a pop up on your landing page, inviting visitors to input their information and sign up. This will keep your brand in contact with them at all times and can encourage them to return to your page to make further purchases in the future. You may want to offer some sort of incentive for people signing up, as they’re unlikely to hand over their email address for no reason.
While this may not be a comprehensive list of every single type of marketing you can carry out online, we’ve highlighted the most popular and effective options out there. So, give them a go and see how they can truly benefit your small business!
