by George Chaisson
While the rise of the Internet brought a world of customers to your company’s doorstep, it has also pitted you against thousands or even millions of new competitors. Many of these companies have the funds and expertise to create a limitless online presence, whereas smaller and start-up companies have more modest resources. Fortunately, there are many opportunities to market your company online in a way that is both effective and affordable.
Have a clear goal in your mind about what you hope to accomplish with your site. You may want to sell widgets, for example, but you have to know who you want to sell them to. You have to know what kind of returns you expect and how much you expect to spend in advertising costs. By getting a clear vision of what you want to do with your site, it is easier to start figuring out how to make it happen because there’s a framework in place.
Reward customers who buy things from you repeatedly. People who keep coming back to you deserve your praise and your respect. Providing incentives to repeat customers makes them feel good and allows you to give back a little bit. Without repeat customers, you would not be doing well, so they deserve any break you want to give them.
Young adults use social networking to learn about new products and have access to discounts more than other age groups. Create profiles on Facebook, Twitter and any other site that is popular among your target audience. Your different profiles should be consistent and updated regularly. Post updates about discounts and limited offers, new products and any topic of interest to your audience (sports, internship positions, new movie or music releases,…). Make sure you have a good understanding of what your audience is interested in. Organize contests and giveaways on social networks: encourage people to send you pictures of themselves using your products for instance or to share your page with their friends.
You might also want to relay your business message via animated videos. Discover the best software, free or otherwise, that can help you with your video creating needs: Windows Video Editor, How to Use Windows Movie Maker
Get as many back-links as possible on related site. Find out which sites your audience visits regularly and get in touch with the webmasters of these sites. Exchange links or pay to have an ad or a banner on these sites. You can also get back-links by getting your content syndicated on other sites and blogs. Get in touch with magazine and newspaper editors, and ask if your articles can be featured online or in print. Post comments on news articles and message boards with a link to your site. Make sure you use strong keywords for the anchor text of your links and that you do more research about SEO to create a good marketing campaign.
When you are trying to select keywords to use on your site, do not forget to use the word “fast.” Nobody likes to wait and letting someone know that they can expect something right away is very appealing. Whether you are advertising the product as being fast acting or the shipment time as being fast, make sure to use that word as much as possible.
Do as much research as you can. Learn everything you can about optimizing your website for the search engines, how to price your products, and how to build a relationship with your customers. Spend time finding the most cost effective ways to run ads, and where to send your content so you will get new visitors to your site.
Even if your company has limited financial resources, there are many low-cost and no-cost online marketing solutions. Developing a solid understanding of these principles helps to create a foundation for future marketing efforts and a time when you have more money at your disposal. Until then, get your foot in the door with the guidelines from this article.