The online arena is one area where the smarter small business can go toe to toe with the big boys – and win. Even the tiniest, work from home business can set up a digital presence that feels every bit as slick and professional as the website of a FTSE giant. A good website still needs to be marketed – below we look at some insightful web marketing tips with the smaller business budget in mind.
1. SEO Remains A Key Way Of Getting Free Traffic. While tapping into new social media marketing avenues, the SME should not ignore the traffic that Google and other search engines can provide. The key with search engine optimization is to always remain current. A strategy that worked last year will almost not be quite as effective today, and in fact might harm your search engine placements. Google tends to change what it wants to see from websites on a regular basis – which means the SME marketer needs to always be on top of his game as far as SEO goes. Leverage the free advice and tips available from SEO specific sites such as SEO Journal. These sites tend to have experts sharing ideas and discuss the latest Google changes that webmasters need to be aware of. Consider spending an hour or so of your time every week just seeing what’s new in the SEO world, and how it might impact your sites.
2. Incorporate Testimonials Within Your Website. Gold dust. That’s what genuine and lavish testimonials are to a website. Doing business online is all about creating an air of perceived credibility. Your leads and visitors really don’t know you from Adam, but having an accolade of genuine testimonials can help create an aura of credibility which means your site visitors are more likely to trust you, and take positive action. Good testimonials need to be convincing – it shouldn’t be something that appears like it could just as easily have been made up. For example, “This is a good product – It really helped me. Bob”, is a poor example of a testimonial. It says nothing detailed about the product or the problem it solved and is signed with just a first name. A useful testimonial is one that will include a detailed paragraph or two about the products USP and benefit, and include a real name and perhaps even an image of the person making the testimonial.
3. Tap Into Viral Marketing To Get Leads Over A Long Period Of Time. Viral marketing can produce a great ROI when done right. Viral traffic can really snowball and reap traffic dividends over months if not years. It relies on the website offering a valuable digital product for free, which may be downloaded and distributed at will. A good example is a free ebook or an Ecourse on a particular subject that your target niche will find useful. So for example, you might give away an ebook called “10 Ways To Start A Home Business” that will appeal to the home business crowd. Within the book you would include your website link and some discreet information about your products and services. So long as the content is good, the book is likely to be distributed among the home business crowd, leading to viral traffic over the months and years. Other sources of viral traffic can come from images, infographics, videos and even software.