We all know that the advent of Internet has revolutionized the world. Many difficult and complex processes of earlier times have now become simple and easy due to the Internet. Internet has certainly offered immense convenience and ease to the people at large.
Among everyone, the business class people have emerged significantly to effectively reap the advantages of this powerful global medium. Internet offers with a huge opportunity to exploit its resources effectively not only to the corporate houses but also to the small businesses.
It provides with numerous amount of totally free and extremely easy to use web platforms for business promotion which deliver measurable results. Thus, small businesses have an enormous opportunity of promoting their business using the Internet.
Are you an entrepreneur running a small business? Are you looking for ways to promote your business online? Do you want to establish a significant online business presence? If so, then go on to read this article to solve all your queries regarding online business promotion.
How To Promote Your Small Business Using the Internet?
Following are the 7 most effective ways in which you can promote your small business using the Internet:
1. Launch Your Business Website:
You may think this suggestion as a little weird as it is the most obvious step to establish an online presence. But stats suggest that still more than 55% of the businesses in America do not have their own website or if they have, it is outdated.
So, as a first step of establishing your online presence, you need to launch your business website on the Internet. For this, firstly, decide an appropriate domain name with a .com or .net extension and get it registered.
Now, get a professional website created which reflects your brand image and stands as a hub platform for all other marketing campaigns. You can get it created from a reliable web development company as per your budget and the type of website you want.
Make sure to provide all the necessary information about your business in a professional manner in your website. Take care that the website has an easy navigational structure and it provides value to your customers. This will ensure that you receive good traffic with high conversion rate.
Now, get your website hosted on a server provided by a reliable and trustworthy web hosting service provider. Make sure from your web developer and the web hosting company that your website loads as fast as possible. A website loading quickly avails numerous benefits.
Also, get a mobile friendly version of your website prepared as now more and more people are moving towards mobile surfing. As per a study by Search Engine Watch, 50% of all mobile searches are conducted in hopes of finding local results, and 61% of those searches result in a purchase.
2. Follow Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Measures:
After you complete the primary and main step of creating a proficient website, the rest of the steps include promoting it. As the second step, you should implement all the necessary measures to make your website SEO friendly.
You should apply all those strategies that are necessary to get a high ranking of your website at the SERPs. You can use the services of a web promotion or SEO company to implement the necessary SEO measures for your website.
According to a study by Interconnected World, related to shopping and personal finance, 44% of online shoppers begin by using a search engine. The more and clear information your provide the search engines about your website, the greater are the chances of receiving more traffic from them.
3. Use Pay-Per-Click Advertising:
You can advertise about your business using the pay-per-click advertising method. This method has enabled many businesses thrive or at least survive on the Internet. According to this method, you need to decide a certain fix amount, which you will pay every time a user clicks on your ad and not otherwise. You can also cancel and re-start your ads at any time based on your decision.
Use the Google AdSense program to enable you to publish such ads. You can even use ‘sidebar ads’ which displays ads while people are playing games. Also, consider expanding and publishing your ads on apps for smartphones and tablets. You should even take care about the ads, which are being published on your website. Ensure that your competitor’s ads are not published there.
4. Utilize The Advantage Of Social Media:
Social Media is the latest and most productive way of marketing your business online. According to a recent study, Facebook currently has 25 million active small business pages. So, get on and create your business profile on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram and YouTube.
Upload the necessary information about your business along with photos on them. Keep you profile updated regularly by publishing new and interesting news and facts about your business. Support it duly by posting likable images along with them.
Moreover, connect all these networks with each other and with your main website. By doing so, you will be able to easily manage your profiles on each of these networks. You will also be able to expand your networks immensely on each of these social media sites.
By using social media, you will able to directly connect with thousands of fans and followers of your business located worldwide. You should also be ready to actively engage in a conversation with them and answer any of their questions or queries.
5. Start Blogging And Make It A High Priority:
Wouldn’t you like to interact with your prospects as an expert in your field? If yes, then blogging is the right way to do it. Create a blog for your business and start updating it with quality posts about your business regularly.
A blog is an excellent marketing tool for businesses. It not only enables you to establish as an expert in your industry but also helps in communicating directly with your audience. The benefits of a blog increase manifold times as you increase your publishing frequency.
According to the studies, businesses that blog regularly are more than two times as likely to generate leads via their website as businesses that don’t. It also enables to establish customer trust in your business.
Moreover, do not forget to connect your blog with your main website and all the social media profiles. This will enable all your audience to remain updated with the latest blog posts. It will also help them to share your content easily with others.
6. Upload Multimedia on Flickr and YouTube:
One of the improved ways of promoting your small business online is to create a Flickr profile and upload your business snapshots on it. By doing so, you will be able to create an additional creative platform to showcase your business image effectively.
At the same time, it is advisable to create a quality video relevant to your business or its products and upload it on YouTube. Based on a study by Social Media Today, YouTube has become the 2nd Largest Search Engine – bigger than Bing, Yahoo, Ask & AOL combined. Thus, you have a great publicity potential by uploading a quality business video on YouTube.
You should also embed it on your main website to increase your product sales. Studies have revealed that customers are more likely to buy, when they see a video on the landing page of your website.
7. Participate in On-line Communities and Directories:
Register your business with the local search engines and B2B web portals. This will provide you with a unique opportunity of displaying your business in the high ranking of search results. Your business will also gain popularity among users surfing these sites.
You should actively engage on various online communities and forums on different websites and social media networks. By doing so, you can effectively exploit the online networking opportunity and expand your network immensely.
By joining such communities, you can introduce yourself and your business, meet new prospects, do business promotion, see the competition level in the market and establish your independent identity among people. You should also consider taking active part in online events to promote your business effectively.
Conclusion:
You need to have an effective Internet marketing strategy to efficiently promote your business online. Initially, it may take time to get online audience, but with consistent efforts you are sure to reap many marketing benefits. By implementing the 7 online marketing ways suggested above, you can grow your business significantly even with a low budget and minimum efforts.
So, what other ways do you suggest to promote a small business effectively on the Internet?
very interesting. I am zealous to do it but I need help.