Optimizing Search Engine Results
Research search terms that are relevant to your business and industry. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an organic marketing strategy driven by the keywords that search engines like Google and Bing use in their algorithms to populate search results. Search engines rank websites based on the keywords relevant to the search. Use search engines like Google to look at search terms that are used by companies or products that are similar to your own. This can be done by looking at the suggested keyword dropdown on the search bar, the People Also Ask dropdown, also suggested queries at the bottom of page 1. Make a list of search terms that are commonly used for similar products and services. Look at what your competitors use and see search terms that they have not used and utilise them. Look at the related searches when you plug in a keyword to get ideas for search terms and to modify your own to fit popular search terms. For example: Greek restaurant in Alabama, the best chicken sandwich store in New York, etc.
Optimize your website by putting keywords in your website URLs. A URL is the address of a web page. One of the best ways to insert keywords into your website is to put them into the URLs so your pages are the top results for those keywords whenever a potential customer searches for it on a search engine. For example, if you’re selling a sports calendar, the URL for your page selling sports calendar could be: “www.yourbusiness.com/sports_calendar.” If you use a more broad keyword, your page may not appear in specific searches from people. If you sell a sports calendar but do not use the word “calendar” in your URL, your page may not appear for people searching for a sports calendar. Use URLs that are easy to remember so a customer can find you again.
Use keywords in title tags and meta descriptions of your web pages. A title tag is the name of the web page link that appears in a search result from a search engine. A meta description is a 2-3 line short description under the title tag that you can see when you run a Google search. Both of these are great places to use keywords to help your page rise to the top of the results of a search engine. Incorporate keywords organically so they look genuine and legitimate, rather than just jamming as many keywords as you can, which can drive people away from your page. For example, if you owned a beauty salon, you would want the meta description of your salon’s website to include words like “beauty, salon, treatments, facials, and manicures” included in your meta description to help your website appear in Google searches. Use Google and Bing webmaster tools to revise your title tag and meta descriptions. A title tag is also the hyperlink that people will click on to go to your page.Tip: Google allows a maximum of 155 characters to use in your meta description, so use them wisely.
Include keywords in the content of your website. Try to use the keywords relevant to your business as often as you can on your website. That includes any product descriptions, blog posts, and page titles. But be careful not fall into “keyword stuffing” which makes your page look unprofessional and spammy. Search engines like Google and Bing could penalize your website and cause it to not appear in any search results.
Creating Marketing Content
Capture the attention of potential customers with content marketing. Content marketing is a marketing strategy that involves the creation and sharing of online materials like social media posts, images, videos, and blog posts to stimulate interest in a brand. Rather than pitching your products or services, content marketing seeks to earn the trust of your audience, which will result in greater sales and web traffic for your business. The goal is to create content that will promote brand awareness, increase audience engagement with your company, create loyal customers, and increase sales. The content needs to be relevant to your target audience, appealing to them based on their interests. Content marketing can also reduce your total marketing costs, because you’re spending your marketing budget much more efficiently when you’ve effectively delivered content to your target audiences.
Establish the audience for your content. Before you create content to market with, you need to know who the content is intended for. Research data for the demographics you plan to target. Use analytics from social media, email marketing campaigns, and market research to find the interests and concerns of your target audience. Get feedback from your customers to shape your marketing message. You can hire a marketing strategist to help you hone your marketing strategy. Marketing content is meant to capture attention and educate your audience about your products and services.
Create quality content to use in your marketing efforts. Use striking images, catchy videos, funny quotes, and other quality content to engage your audience. Rather than pumping out a continuous supply of content, focus on quality over quantity. People who visit your site after seeing your content do it because they feel a connection and they trust your brand. Use programs like Photoshop or Canva to make graphics that are visually appealing and project your brand. Use video editing software to make short advertisements to use.Warning: Be careful not to use copyrighted images or content in your ads!
Maintain an online blog to engage with your customers. An online blog is a great place to post photos and videos, write longer posts, and inform people about developments with your company, your products, or your services. It’s a great place to share industry related news or to connect on a personal level by writing autobiographical content about you and your life. Use a blog to post regular content that your readers want to keep coming back to see. Blogs can be professional or they can be intimate, or a combination of the two. Funny and engaging content that isn’t necessarily related to your business can help connect you with your customers on a personal level.
Test your content by checking the analytics analytics to see what works. Analytics refers to information resulting from the analysis of data or statistics. Anytime you use your marketing content, track the analytics so you can see what is successful and what isn’t. Advertising can be expensive so you don’t want to waste your budget on ads using content that isn’t working. Use the content that works as a model for any future content you create.
Advertising on Social Media
Use social media to target a specific audience. Social media refers to websites and applications that allow users to create and share content as well as participate in social networking with other users. Before you begin paying to advertise on social media, you should decide who your potential customers are because you would use different content to advertise to a 24-year-old white male in Toledo than you would for a 43-year-old African-American woman in Tallahassee. One of the best things about advertising on social media platforms is how much you can customize what audience will see your advertisements. You can target by categories like age, location, gender, interests, even people’s internet search history. Social media advertising is cost-effective and often results in increased sales because the people who see your ads are people who are likely to purchase your goods or services.
Publish a press release. Press releases can help you publish articles about your services on hundreds of relevant news sites. The beneficial part about this is that relevant news sites can get millions of readers, making it easy for you to spread the word about your business.
Create a Facebook business page to promote your products or services. A business page on Facebook is free and makes it easier for people to find and connect with your or your business. You can display information about your business, your contact info, location, and hours of operation. You can also receive and respond to messages from current or potential customers. You can also post content to your business page that can be shared by other people. So if you’re running a flash-sale or special, Facebook is a great place to get the word out.Tip: Boost Facebook posts to advertise to your target audiences. Click the “Boost Post” icon next to one of your posts to choose your audience, then decide how much you want to spend per day and when you want the post to appear in your audience's newsfeed.
Make an Instagram account for your business to advertise visually. Instagram is a social media platform used to share photographs and videos. Visually striking content can be used as advertisements on Instagram much in the way boosted posts on Facebook can target specific groups of people. Instagram offers tools to help you target and engage your potential customers. Facebook owns Instagram, so you can link your Instagram account to your Facebook account and post simultaneously to both platforms.
Make a Twitter Account to advertise new products and special sales. Twitter is a social networking site where people communicate quickly with short messages called “tweets.” Twitter is fast-paced and is a great place for you to advertise a flash-sale, a limited edition product, or the launch of a new product. Create a Twitter account for your business and “follow” other accounts that are relevant to your industry and business to start building a following of people who are interested in your products and services. You can tweet about industry news or a sale to keep engagement up with your followers. Use hashtags (#) to link your posts to other posts that also contain the hashtagged word. For example, if you owned a shoe store, and you wanted to advertise a flash online sale, you could post the sale information on Twitter and use hashtags like #shoesforsale, #shoesaddict, #sneakers, and #footwear to get your post into a larger group of posts related to shoe sales.
Join LinkedIn to build your business network. LinkedIn is a social platform designed for career and business professionals to connect. It’s a great tool for you to use to build the brand of your business and form strong business connections. You can use it to stay current with trends in your industry, share industry content, and connect with influential people and companies in your industry. LinkedIn is also a great social platform to search for potential employees. If you owned a company selling life insurance policies, you could post a job listing seeking young professionals to join your sales team. Applicants can respond to the listing through the platform, send you their resume, even complete a questionnaire to help you narrow down your candidates.
Manage your accounts with a social media management program. If you have several accounts on different social media platforms, you can use a program to keep all of your accounts together and better handle your posts and advertisements. Programs like Hootsuite, SocialOomph, and Loomly allow you to schedule and monitor your ads across multiple platforms. Management programs take the hassle out of using each individual account to advertise your business. Many programs offer free versions that have limited options but can still be used to manage your social media accounts. Management programs also have analytics and data that will tell you how much people click on or respond to a particular post or advertisement, which allows you to spend your money on ads that work.
Marketing Through Email
Utilize email marketing to reach a larger audience easily. Email marketing refers to the use of email to promote your business. Nearly every internet user has an active email account, so you can reach a larger portion of the internet who may not be on social media. Email marketing is also very cheap because you don’t have to spend any money to send an email. Because everything is trackable with marketing software, you can get easily get data that will tell you the success of your email campaigns. The return on investment (ROI) with email marketing is very high because you can only send emails to people who have provided you with their email address, and are therefore likely to be interested in your products and services. It’s also free to create an email account for your business.
Create email lists of your business contacts and customers. To do an email marketing campaign, you first need a list of people you can email! Make it a practice to obtain people’s email address whenever they purchase something from you or you make a business connection. Create a link or option to subscribe for emails on your website and social media platforms to build your mailing lists. Be sure you have permission to email someone. Spamming someone’s email with ads or messages they don’t want is a surefire way to drive them away.Tip: Use a “lead magnet” to attract people to sign up for your email list. A lead magnet could be a free offer or a special discount if you sign up for the list.
Start a regular newsletter to send to your customers. A consistent newsletter is a great way to stay in touch with your customers and make them aware of any new products or developments with your business. If you include good and relevant content that your subscribers are interested in, they will look forward to your newsletter and may share it with others. Decide on whether you want to do a daily, weekly, or monthly newsletter and stay consistent. Be sure to include lots of links in your newsletter that will drive readers to your website, social media platforms, and products.
Create a targeted email marketing campaign using your mailing lists. If you are launching a new product, sale, or want to make an announcement, sending an email to relevant contacts is an easy way to disseminate information. Since everyone in your mailing lists has given permission to receive emails from you, you have a much higher probability of them opening the email and clicking on any links. Think about who in your contacts are the audience you’re targeting and tailor your content and information to pique their interest.
Use email marketing software to send and monitor email campaigns. Companies like MailChimp and Constant Contact use software and tools to make email marketing simple and easy. They allow you to upload your lists of contacts and schedule mass emails. They also provide data and analytics to help see click-through rates, open rates, bounce backs, and whenever someone clicks on a link in the email. You can tailor your campaigns to be more effective. Many email marketing services allow you to upload your own newsletter or use their templates to create one.
Using Pay Per Click Advertising
Try pay per click advertising to bring people to your website. Pay Per Click (PPC) ads appear when specific search phrases are used or on websites that have a specific audience. You also only have to pay for them when someone clicks on them, so they can be a cost-effective way to drive internet traffic to your website. If your ad content looks good, PPC can be a great tool to drive people to your page. PPC allows small businesses to appear in Google searches for a great value because you only pay for clicks, which means that someone is looking at your website or products. You can also monitor the performance of your ads so you can change them or remove less successful ads.
Bid on Google AdWords for your ad to appear in Google searches. Google AdWords works by using a bidding system to determine where your ad will be positioned on the page, which can determine how many clicks you’ll get. If you run an ad on a specific keyword or search term and there are no other ads using that keyword, then yours will display at the top of the page. If other companies start bidding on the keyword, your ad could be moved down unless you spend more money to bid for space on the page.Tip: You can bid manually or use the automated feature which allows you to enter a maximum daily budget for your ad placement.
Target a specific audience for your ads with Facebook Advertising. Facebook also offers PPC but they allow you to tailor the audience who will see your ads to a much greater degree. You can target people based on many combinations of factors so your ad is being seen by people who are interested in your business. The ads appear around the page and can drive people to your website or to a specific product page. Facebook also utilizes a bidding system to schedule when and where your ad will appear on the page.
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