Online Marketing Guide For Large Or Small Business Online Marketing

Online Marketing

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
If you never do anything in terms of Online Marketing, you should at least optimize your web site to rank better on search engines. You can read our whole section about Search Engine Marketing Here.

Pay Per Click Advertising
Pay Per Click advertising is paid advertising that you the advertiser only pay for if your link is clicked on by potential customers. Google has made Pay Per Click or "PPC" most famous among internet advertisers. Pay Per Click is a quick and effective way to have your website in front of the general population in literally a few minutes. Pay Per Click is great for short term goals, but for long term online marketing success you should optimize your website. Read more about our Pay Per Click Consultations Here.

Forums & Online Communities
Search For Forums and user communities where people talk about the types of products or services you offer. Forums are also a good place to display your expertise. Most online forums have "moderator" opportunities. Forum Moderators monitor the posts that are added to the forum for content and are generally viewd as "experts" in that specific section of the forum. Also, when available don't miss out on Banner Advertisements on forum pages. Banner Ads on forums are usually easy on the marketing budget and if the forum attracts alot of users this method can translate into more traffic and business.

Online Business Directories
Online Business Directories are good places to list your business. There are several directories on the internet that are FREE to list on and are also search engine friendly. Most directories are general directories that have listings from automobiles to pets, however there are directories that only list specific categories and business types. A good example of a well known business directory is Christianbizz.net.

E-mail Newsletters
Never underestimate the power of an e-mail newsletter. In an age where SP@M is at an all time high, you might think that e-mail has lost it's usefullness, however if you utilize your e-mail newsletter wisely it can still have an impact. If you have a newsletter sign up box on your website, the customer or potential customer has given you permission to send e-mail newsletters or product offers to their inbox. E-mail newsletters should be concise and to the point highlighting a new product, service, or event that you are offering specific to your business.
Key Note: Anytime, you make a sale or a contact ALWAYS get an e-mail address of your customer or interested potential customer. Keep all your collected e-mails on file for future use when sending e-mail newsletters.

Bookmarks and Tell-A-Friend Options
Internet Bookmarks - When applicable, you need to incorporate a "Bookmark Our Site" link or button on your site. Bookmarking may seem like a small option, however if they bookmark your site it will always show up in the web users favorites or bookmarked files on their browser. This is an effective tool for branding your site and they may come back to check your site updates at a later date, which could turn into repeat business.
Tell-A-Friend Script - I can't stress enough how much a Tell-A-Friend script will promote internet "word of mouth" free promotion for your site. Again, this may seem like a small addition to your website, however anytime you can provide an interested potential customer or customers an avenue to promote your site to friends and family...you should incorporate that into your online marketing tactics. By providing a Tell-A-Friend option to those who visit your site, you are keeping them "in-house" and they will not have to go outside of your website to share information with others. When we say "in-house", we mean that they do not have to send your link via another e-mail application. Tell-A-Friend scripts are push button options on your site that is user friendly and does all the work without involving any external e-mail or web mail applications.

Coupons and Special Offers
When applicable, give the customer an incentive to use your products or services. Use this tactic to bring people in the door and generate repeat business. A few examples of this would "buy one get one free", "10% off of your next purchase" or "10% off of purchase of 100$ or more". Think anything that would add value for your customer in turn for repeat business.

Link Exchange
In order to have a successful link exchange program, you will need a highlighted page on your site that contains links of all kinds. The links page is generally an area where they website owner post links to other informative web sites that are not in direct competition with their own products or services. Once you have a Links page, you will need to create an easy way to allow others to link to you. A good idea would be to create the actual code that the other website partner will need to display your link on their site. Provide the "text link" code as well as a "banner link" in efforts to provide the potential linking partner with options. Last but not least, ensure that the link page has a link to your contact form so that the linking partner can easily contact you to include their link in your links pages.

Online Contests
A good way to ensure repeat traffic is to create an online contest for your website. You could do a new contest every month or every quarter, it is up to you how big of a contest you want or the frequency of how often you offer the contest. A good example of a contest would be "Win a Free T-Shirt!", all you have to do is sign up for our e-mail newsletter. Think outside of the box when you put a contest together and you will get more people to sign up for your contest. If you have a store front, make sure you tell in-store customer's about the contest as well.

Testimonials
GET CUSTOMER FEEDBACK! When at all possible get customer feedback and apply those comments to your website! A Good testimonial would consist of the Actual Testimonial, Customer First Name with Last Initial, City and State. When a customer compliments your business you should ask that customer "Do you mind if we use your testimonial on our web site"? The customer will 99% of the time allow you to use their testimonial...it is a form of flattery to think enough of a person to use their comments! If you have a customer focused business, make sure you show that customer focus online as well.