A Healthy Balance of Online Marketing

Online marketing is not rocket science. As a small business owner, you know you should promote your business in some way both offline and online. The biggest questions are what, how, when, and how it can all work together.

A business needs a balance of different types of marketing to be successful. You let one slide, and the business will be malnourished.

So let's look at how to feed the beast.

Be when your customers are.

No, that isn't a typo. It is important to be visible when your customers need you. Search engines are the best for this since people use search engines to look for products and services they are interested in buying.

People search for products when in a competitor's store. They are checking on price and availability. If you arent there, you just lost a customer.

How to get in search results?

First off, the second page of the search engines is a graveyard page one is where the action is.

There are two ways to get listed in the search results; organic and pay-to-play or PPC.

Organic rankings depend on many things that would take a few more articles to explain, but here it is in a nutshell.

• The content on your website.
• The authority of your domain name.
• The number and quality of links that are coming into your website.

Ranking organically is not overnight, and it takes a qualified hand to achieve results.
Paying your way isn't that easy either. Depending on your competition and your budget getting yourself in the top 2 -3 positions takes a little know-how as well as budget.

Blogs are ways to improve your expertise in your industry. Learn more on why a blog is an important part of your website.

Email Marketing

Email addresses and permission to send to them are like a gold mine. Most email companies allow you to set up different lists so you can organize your contacts. This allows you to send the right message to the right people.

Social Media

Again, it will take more than this article to explain it all but here are a few key takeaways.

• You should be there.
• No, you shouldn't be everywhere.
• Yes, you need to post often.

Yeah, there is a lot more to it than that for sure, but those are the key questions we get asked. What networks you focus on and when you post to them will depend on your target market.

Getting Likes and Followers

This part is a little tricky. One you need likes to show that you are a recognized business, but you need actual followers to see a good ROI on social media. So it is important to ask your customers to follow you and to get potential customers into your social media funnel.

Geo-Fencing

Geofencing is a fairly new technology that creeps people out. Here is how it works. You are waiting in line for a table at a restaurant. On your phone, a message pops up that another restaurant around the corner has tables with no waiting and even offers a free appetizer if you mention you saw the ad. The other restaurant created a fence around the competitor's location to show their ad.

This technique is great for many business types other than restaurants.

Content Marketing

Another fairly new concept for many is content marketing. You are using high-quality, informative articles to attract your customers to you. So if you sell widgets, you would write articles about how those widgets help solve a problem, product demos, and other things that are of interest to your customer that have a relation to your widgets.

Often you will hear the term content marketing with search engine optimization. This marketing method provides high-quality content on your website that can help you rank better. Look at it this way, high-quality content that provides information for your customers is what the search engines AND your customers want and are looking for. So give it to them.

Offline Networking

In the beginning, I mentioned offline methods of marketing your business. If you are a national company, this may be seminars, booking a booth at a conference. If you are a local company, you will attend chamber events, networking groups, and participate in community events.

The key is that you can use offline contacts to help feed your online marketing funnel.

• Connect with people you meet at events on social media.
• When you do people, get a business card and ask if it is okay if you can email them from time to time.
• Share a recent article you did that might address an issue they shared with you.

It all works!

Marketing your business is a full-time job. It takes time, energy, and often money to stand out and accomplish the goals you have for your business. Working with an agency can help bridge the learning curve and can allow you to devote the time and energy to working your business and serving your customers.

If you have a question about how to market your business, we would be glad to help.