If you are a small business owner, how are you currently advertising or promoting your business? Are you using the yellow pages? Are you running an ad in the local newspaper? Are you putting flyers around town? That might have worked well in the past, but times have changed. Your customers are NOW online, and you need to be there!
Below I have listed four ways to help market your business effectively online:
- Search Engines – Your customers are using search engines a lot more than any other directory to look up products or services. You need to make sure your business website has a strong presence on the most popular search engines. The most popular search engines are : Google, Bing, andYahoo. Google, however, has 80% of the search market and you need to focus your search engine efforts there. Make sure you have completely created your Google Places page.
- Social Media – Create a social media account on these four sites: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn. Use them to share tips, ideas, and information about your business. This will help form a personal relationship with your business.
- Citations – Citations are local directories where you can list your business. Citations include Yelp, Citysearch, Yahoo Local, and more. They are important, because they create quality organic back links to your website. Being able to have your business name, address, and phone number all over the internet consistently will help add credibility, and help your search rankings.
- Blogs – In 2013, content is king! When it comes to search engine optimization, the content you write on your blog is extremely important for your business. Use your blog to share tips, ideas, information about your business, and help your customers. This will bring in internet traffic from search engines and the traffic will be directed to your website. Having a blog helps establish your credibility and builds trust with the reader.
The tips above will help increase traffic to your website, and increase the number of customers in your door. Make sure you have created goals and a plan for your internet marketing strategy before you move forward.
If you have any questions about online marketing, please contact us at help@repairshopwebsites.com or 1-866-665-1605 Option 2.