How Do I Advertise My Business Online?

Not every single business will need a website of their own, but almost all of them will benefit from some sort of online presence. The internet is where your customers are hanging out, interacting, shopping and being entertained.

And that’s why, when used properly, online marketing can be a powerful tool for promoting your business and finding new clients.

Here’s our quick guide to raising awareness of your business on the web.

Be easy to find

While it’s often the biggest and most well-known companies and brands that appear at the top of a web search, this doesn’t mean you can’t grab a place on that first page too. These companies are there because their websites or social media pages are updated regularly and they’ve invested time building their strategy. Not because they’re necessarily the best in their market.

So what should you do? Well, if you have a website, look into Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). This is a process with a lot of moving parts, ultimately resulting in your webpages appearing as a search result before your competitors. If this sounds like witchcraft (and it can be), then this might be a job to outsource.

But if you don’t have, or need, a website for your business, then social media and online networking sites are your friend. Be where your customers are, and produce the sort of content they like to see.

Get social

This doesn’t mean you have to go outside where the people are. Just take your time to research the best ways to use social media for your business.

Find your target audience, tag your content, and adapt it for different platforms. Most platforms have guidance pages on how business can make the best use of them.

Don’t try to do too much too soon unless you’re employing or hiring someone to manage your accounts. Start on one platform and build from there. If you’re managing the social media yourself, acquaint yourself with the apps and tools available to schedule and automate posting, saving you precious time.

Remember: this is SOCIAL media. Nobody wants their feed swamped with hard sell advertising. This is a place to entertain, connect and inform. Of course, you can mention your sales and special promotions; of course, you can link to your website content and blog posts (and you should).

But people will want to see more from you than continual, ‘We’re great, buy this’ messages. They might not think it’s great.

Advertising

Simply having a presence isn’t always enough, so you might decide to spend some budget on pushing yourself infront of people. This might be a directory or trade association listing, providing content and blog posts for other sites, bidding on ads in search results, YouTube advertising, or something else entirely.

You might even decide it’s time to be in the Yellow Pages, if that’s what your clients are still using. Our point is that you’ll find a host of local and national trade directories, specialised interest sites, and forums that offer the chance to list your business or advertise. Just make sure it’s worth the ad spend.

Reach out via email

Give existing customers and leads the option to adjust email frequency and the type of emails they want to receive when they sign up. If their inboxes fill up with pushy promotional emails from you every day, they’ll soon unsubscribe anyway.

Consider the seasons, any holidays or upcoming events, and try to build your offers, articles and emails around these things, offering relevant discounts or product promotions.

Supermarkets email us with offers on beer and sausages as soon as the sun makes the briefest of appearances, followed by sun tan lotion offers and then, before you can blink, promotions on school uniform and stationery. It’s not a bad example to follow. Adapt it for your industry though, obviously. It might make things a bit weird otherwise.

You could also consider personalising some of your emails based on which products or services a particular customer (or group of customers) have used before, enticing them back with the most relevant promotions and information.

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