Every new business, from a local mom and pop corner store to a nationwide e-commerce brand needs to market online from day one.
There are plenty of options, making it somewhat overwhelming for a new business owner, especially with all of the other pressure and stress that comes with a new business venture.
Here are some online marketing strategies that a new business should consider implementing.
Build an email list from day one.
“You should start collecting email addresses from the start, as it allows you to constantly market to that list. With PPC and Facebook ads, you have to pay for each click and you don’t know if that person will even be interested in your offer.
Your email list is full of people that are either pasty buyers or have a strong interest in what you offer. Being able to put an offer in front of these people at any time without the additional cost can deliver a huge ROI.” — Jeannie Hill, Hill Web Marketing
Use PPC to identify the best keywords to target with SEO.
“SEO can be costly and it also takes time, so it’s a good idea to use PPC to test keywords because you can drive traffic right away without the wait time that SEO entails.
Once you know that a particular keyword not only attracts traffic, but also converts at a high rate, you can then throw money at SEO and try to rank organically for that term. It can help you save time as well as money.” — Oliver James, Perth Web Design
Be active on the social media platforms your audience uses.
“A lot of business owners think they have to be active on all of the social media platforms, but it’s better to master one or two and do them right, than try to be on them all, when your customer base might not even be active there.
If you are marketing a kids product, then Snapchat might be worth exploring, where Pinterest would be a complete waste of time. In the same sense, if you are selling a cooking product to middle-age women, then Pinterest would be ideal and Snapchat would be a total waste of time. If you are tying to market to those interested in soccer then you might want to run a Facebook campaign targeting those that follow some of the largest soccer themed pages. Figure out where your target customer is active on social media and master those platforms.” — Chris Moberg, Slumber Search
Complete all of the major authority directory listings.
“Local business directories can be a good source of traffic and they are also good for SEO. The major search engines use these major directories as authority and trust signals, so it’s important that you are listed on them and that your business information is accurate and consistent.
The major ones are Facebook, Yelp, Google, Bing, Yahoo, Yellow Pages, BBB, etc. There are also industry specific directories you should consider as well.” — Karen Anderson, The Probate Law House
Launch a blog and start consistently publishing content.
“Publishing content gives you such a great opportunity to not only connect with your visitors, but also help advance your SEO effort. The sooner you start publishing content, the sooner you can start to benefit from organic traffic.
I would focus on creating blog posts that answer common questions. This is a good way to get some natural content out there that has the potential to rank for search terms and phrases related to what it is that your product or service does. Focus on creating helpful posts at first before you worry about keywords.” — Darryl Howard, Blogger Tips
Implement a plan to attract reviews.
“Reviews play a large part in SEO, but more importantly they help to attract consumer confidence, so the more positive reviews you can gather in the beginning, the better.
This is a quick way to grab a large piece of the time, even if your business is fairly new. Consumers are going to naturally favor the business with more positive reviews. That’s just the way it is. Send email reminders, manually reach out to past customers, etc. You can even offer discounts and specials to those that take the time to review your business.” — April Gillmore, ClickFirst Marketing
Run a Facebook ads campaign to generate instant sales and conversions.
“A new business often needs to start generating sales and revenue quickly in order to survive, and Facebook ads gives you the opportunity to deploy ads and convert customers the day you launch. Facebook is such a large platform and the targeting options allows you to reach any demographics you want in any corner of the world.
You have to be willing to spend money to make money, and while Facebook ads has a little learning curve, you can start with a small budget and scale up as you figure it out. Even if you can only swing $10 or $20 a day, learn Facebook ads right away because it can be the biggest source of sales when you figure it out.” — Andrew Tran, Therapy Blanket
Image: Pexels
