You might be excited about promoting your business, but do you know where to begin? Startups and existing companies often fail to thrive because they hope for the best outcomes instead of finding out about the best marketing practices. These valuable digital marketing tips will help you navigate through the minefield of online business promotion.
Establish a clean digital presence
Your website’s landing page and blog posts need to be easy to navigate and crisp. Potential customers will be put off by clutter, so leave as much white space as possible while providing relevant content.
If your sidebar is confusing you might start there. Keeping white space at the sides of prominently placed data – the middle of the page is best – will be a breath of fresh air for readers.
If you aren’t sure if you’ve completed your task, view your site as if you’re reading a book. Can you spot relevant information? Is the page a mess or streamlined to perfection? Potential clients will enjoy exploring your content when all pages are user-friendly and uncluttered.
Integrity indicators
No one knows who you are when you start an online business. People who view your website need to know it’s worth sticking around and seeing what you have to offer. If they have no idea whether you’re qualified, experienced, and reliable, they are likely to go elsewhere to find services and product providers who can meet their needs.
You might display proof of your credibility on your site’s landing page – a mini bio will do with a professional head-shot. Also, dedicate an entire page to demonstrating your authority that can be reached via clicking on an ‘about us’ page header near the top of your front page.
Copies of certificates and awards will be helpful, plus, social proof, such as a photograph of you shaking a customer’s hand as though you’ve just struck a deal, or of you speaking in public in front of a crowd. Likewise, collect customer testimonials to display on your website. Building credibility will show you’re dependable, trustworthy, and competent.
Start small
Digital startups often make the mistake of expanding before establishing roots. Just like plants with nothing to hold them in the ground, they are likely to lose their grip. Offering more than you can provide will ruin your reputation. Plus, providing too much data too soon confuses people. You have to build your credibility one step at a time if you want to be successful.
Begin by attending to a small niche market. As you build roots, you can gradually expand your niche with the money you earn. Progressively growing will give you time to gather a customer base and prove you’re an authority in your industry.
Publish fresh quality content
Not publishing new material is a mistake. Your website will rank better and generate more traffic if you provide regular, high-quality content. Aim to add articles and enticing information weekly, or even daily if possible.
If you can’t create content, get professional writers to do so for you. Small budget? Provide payment you can afford and ad revenue share for writers. Plus give them the option to promote themselves via a short bio that clicks through to their website.
Guest blogging is another way to generate fresh content. Approach people who can bring an audience with them to write for your website to spawn traffic and further credibility. Regular quality content will help you attract readership and become known as an expert faster than if you rarely publish new articles.
Be data driven
You need to know your hard work pays off, which means recognizing what you do that generates traffic and sales, and what holds you back or is a waste of time. Mastering analytics will help you understand the measures to continue or stop carrying out.
Once you recognize what works, you can capitalize on it and get rid of practices that are no good, thus saving time and helping you make money. Google Analytics provides the free services you need to get started.
Optimize for SEO
Excellent SEO improves ranking on search engines and is a must if you want to get ahead. However, be wise: use white hat, rather than black hat strategies. The term black hat is often used to describe virus creators and computer hackers, but it also refers to unethical digital artists who manipulate the system to their advantage.
Black hat tactics, like sly redirects and article spinning, are high-risk and could get you into trouble, whereas white hat strategies are rewarded by search engines which are busily trying to get rid of unethical digital users.
SEO is sometimes mystified by its practitioners but, besides the technical requirements of SEO that we’ll leave for another post (make sure to subscribe if you don’t want to miss it), we recommend thinking hard about the usability of the site and the quality of the content it provides. Site users signals, such as quick bounces, are used by Google to determine the relevance of your content to the search phrase that lead to it.
You might want to take a look at the state of SEO today and in the year to come by one of its most respected thought leaders.
Include visual media
Customers like visual media as well as articles these days, and especially enjoy videos. Plus, some folks can’t read the tiny print on their small-screen smart-phones; videos are a terrific solution since no reading’s involved when your media is viewed.
Pictures accompanying written content are also favored compared to displaying only articles. You can pay for photographs or search for royalty-free HD pictures on sites such as Unsplash or Pexels.
Automate procedures
Initially, you might place content on the internet personally, and doing so will help you understand what the process entails. Continually putting digital material online, though, will take up too much time when your business gets off the ground.
IFTTT is useful for automating media for sites such as Facebook; it can apply formulas on your behalf. SocialOomph or Hootsuite are convenient for automating media to other social networks like Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.
Study industry front-runners
Who are the leaders in your chosen industry and how do they operate? Find out, and you can benefit from their successes and time spent researching effective marketing methods. Observing relevant thriving businesses will show you the best tactics to use for success.
Find out the type of content they favor, and the ways they promote their authority and gain customers. Copying practices that work will help prevent you from making an unnecessary effort in the wrong direction.
Deliver quality
Take advantage of the popularity-boost word of mouth provides by delivering quality services or products. Over-delivering will give you an excellent reputation, so go out of your way to please. Traffic and sales will come your way if happy customers recommend your work to their friends and families.
Satisfied clients will help promote you, which means you can spend less money on advertising. Plus, people trust those they know well, and if former customers endorse your business, you’ll be more successful.
Many businesses fail because they bumble along without considering digital marketing best practices. Follow the advice herein to leverage battle-tested digital marketing knowledge.
