Small business internet marketing
Internet marketing is a business vital because the Internet is an irreversible and unstoppable development. Even if you have a traditional "brick-and-mortar" business, you'll lose valuable customers without an online presence.
Instead of picking up the yellow pages people routinely search for goods and services with their computers. Customers will likely choose another company to do small business internet marketing with if your business isn't on the Web.
Also, online advertising is cheap. If you want an ad that has any presence on the page, Adverting in the phone book or a newspaper can be expensive. You can put links directing customers to your Web site for more information as an ad in an small business internet marketing directory is generally free. And because you can provide customers with a wealth of information, they no longer have to pick up the phone to get their questions answered.
Your marketing efforts will be much more effective if you have your own site although you don't need a Web site to register your site in an online directory. The first thing to do is register a domain name. The name of your company is more often than not a good place to begin because it can help build your brand and will be effortless for customers to remember. If that's not available, you may have to settle for another name. Give your domain name serious consideration before you commit; the name you choose will be your company's online identity for years to come.
Youll need to build a professional Web site If you haven't already. You can use templates provided by your Web host, hire a Web designer to develop your site, or use software to design it your self.
Differentiating yourself from your competition and rising above the crowd is the difficult part. This is where a well thought out small business internet marketing plan can help. Of any good online marketing plan here are the main components:
Registering your site with search engines and directories
Optimizing your site for search engines
Sponsoring search engine keywords
Building a database of customer email addresses
Sending email newsletters
Buying online ads
If you want to have an online charisma, you need more than a few basic technology tools at your disposal to warranty that you will be triumphant with your Internet marketing plan. It will be difficult to successfully market your business on the Web Without the following in place:
Web site: You must have a Web site to successfully market your company on the Web. And you need a domain name that mirrors your company's individuality and brand. Using your company name as a domain name is a good place to start.
Check out your competition: You will find that Web sites have varying
degrees of sophistication. Make sure that yours reflects your industry. If you are a designer, for instance, you cannot get away with a low-tech text-heavy Web site.
Reliable ISP or Web host: The shortfalls of your service provider will come across to clients as shortfalls of your company. Make sure you research potential Web hosts and do your homework first. Connection speed, site uptime, spam policies and support are the key factors in choosing a provider. In addition, watch for hidden costs.
Also, make sure that certain technologies are available to you should you need them. For example, to include on your site you may want to run server-side scripts to extract information from your database. Many basic Web hosting programs do not include such functionality.
Email: Customers need to be able to contact you by email. All employees should have an email address. Train your employees to use email for customer service. And make sure your email address is easy to find on your Web site and your marketing material.
Email newsletter: An email newsletter can be a key component of successful online marketing. It is helpful to have a strategy and set up your Web site with that in mind as its success hinges on the number of customer email addresses you successfully collect.
Check the AllBusiness.com Sales & Marketing Center and Internet & Technology Center, which provide articles that can steer you in the right direction and for specifics on setting up a Web site and an Internet marketing plan.
The success of an Internet marketing campaign can be measured by its conversion rate. Depending on your site and your category of business, your translation rate may be based on compelling readers to become subscribers, encouraging people to buy something, or enticing prospective customers from another site with an ad. The best way to convert users is to provide them with all the information they need to make an informed decision.
You need to encourage the customer to act as online marketing is direct response marketing. And action is determined by letting customers know what and why they should click. They need a compelling differentiated benefit.
Compelling because it sparks them to act.
Differentiated because your offer is different from what they can get elsewhere.
Benefit because they have to get value out of it.
With a discount on your service you may try to lure customers to your site. You advertise the discount in an email newsletter. A potential customer is attracted to the discount that you're offering and exposed to the email link. When probable consumers click on the link, they need to go to a particular page that will school them about the discount and entice them to sign up for your service. If the link takes people to a page without the information they need or, even worse, your home page odds are you'll lose the customer. In terms of purchasing home pages have the lowest conversion rate.
In addition, you can easily measure the conversion rate by sending people to a specific page to learn more about your offer the percentages who sign up for your offer compared with the total visitors to that page. Keep in mind that to convert them it often takes people more than one visit to a site.
The Web has come a long way from its military/academic origins. Today, the Web is a hugely profit-making medium, contributing a plenty in ways to make money. And your best strategy is to raise as many cash cows as possible because the Web is still defining itself. You can milk the others to make sure your companys Web site pays off even if some run dry.
Sell advertising and sponsorships for your site. This is the classic Web business model, selling "eyeballs" to advertisers who want to reach the audience your site attracts.
For companies selling banner ads, times are tough -- the rates businesses can charge for ads on their sites as response rates drop -- but this is still the most common way businesses try to make money from their Web sites.
Sell products and services from your site. These days, commerce is king on the Web, as everyone scrambles to enable e-commerce on their Web sites. Online merchants can rack up impressive sales despite the competition. Be warned, though: doing it right is harder than it looks.
Point people to other sites. The Associates Program at Amazon.com and other online retailers may be simplest and easiest way to make money with your site. Merely point visitors to your site to an associated book or other product on Amazon.com, for example, and you collect a commission on anything the user buys.
Collect and sell information. Creating a database of your users isnt just a good idea -- its good business. Demographic information about your users is a potential gold mine, and specific information about a users preferences and interests is even more valuable. Always respect your users privacy by not sacrificing your credibility with customers for a quick buck and never sell personal information without their permission.
Charge a fee to access your site -- or at least part of your site. Even though the Web offers a cornucopia of free content, if your content is unique and valuable, you can make money charging for it online. If youre not comfortable charging for all of your content, offer a premium area, or sell critical bits piece by piece. Some newspapers, for example, offer free online access to their daily editions but charge to view their archives.
Do email marketing. Remember, theres more to the small business internet marketing than just the World Wide Web. Email is an even more lucrative revenue source than the Web in many ways. You can use targeted emails to alert customers about special deals or new products and sell ads on email newsletters. Make sure that a customer wants your email before you send it, just lay off the spam, please.
Rent software online. A few small business internet marketing now deliver software on a "pay per use" basis. Instead of licensing software on a permanent basis, users can run it over the Net, whenever they need it, from your servers. Rented applications mean no boxes to lug home, no bloated files to download, and no high prices to pay for applications users use only occasionally. The fulfillment costs associated with standard software sales dont have to be paid by Businesses that rent software, and they also enjoy the benefits of an ongoing relationship with their customers.
Other Articles
