3 Ways to Market Your Company Online
If you’re launching a brand new website, here are the first 3 ways to market your company online before doing anything else, check them out.
The world is increasingly connected via the internet, and businesses are no exception. In fact, it’s all but mandatory for a business to have an online presence, and the internet has also enabled many private citizens to find a professional foothold online. Therefore, creating a quality online presence is an important step in spreading public awareness of your brand. There are a number of ways to do this, and it’s generally recommended you mix and match multiple online platforms for maximum reach. Here are some tips on how to take your business online.
Design a Website
While the average spends much more time on social media, a website for your brand is an essential part of your business’s online presence. The reason for this is simple; your company’s website will be easier to find than your social media accounts, and your website can provide access to those social media platforms. Likewise, social media platforms can link customers to your website. A company website remains essential because it functions as a hub to which all of your various online iterations connect.
The process of building a website entails a number of decisions, however. For instance, what is TLS? TLS is a method of encryption and description that protects user data. While one might expect this kind of service to be baked into every internet browser, this is not the case. Instead, individual websites must make the decision to incorporate this technology into their framework, and it’s a particularly good idea where business is concerned, as it protects users when they make online purchases, among other things.
You don’t have to be blessed with a back link from the website that refers to you for it to count as an official citation. For instance, a common example of a local business citation might be an online directory where the name of your company is listed, although there’s no link to your online presence. Similarly, citations can be located on pages for your local chamber of commerce, or on an association page including your company information. The possibilities are actually endless.
1. Start Building Local Business Citations
You may already know that having a good search engine ranking is important. But when you have a small local business, you may benefit more from improving your local rank, than your ranking worldwide. Citations are a key factor for local search rankings, and the more you get, the more you can establish yourself as a reputable company within your niche. More often than not, a company with a large number of citations will rank much higher than businesses with fewer citations.
However, it’s important to remember that although citations can be useful, not all citations are created equal. There is a significant amount of variation between the values of different citations presented by different websites.
The following are just some of the things that a citation may, or may not include:
- The company name and nothing else
- The phone number and name of the company
- The phone number, address, and name of the company
- The phone number, address, name of the company, and link to website
The following are the first Top 50 Business Citation Sources You Should Get Set Up On:
https://appleid.apple.com/account#!&page=create
https://www.facebook.com
https://business.google.com/add/info
http://yelp.com
http://bing.com
http://foursquare.com
https://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/local
https://www.bizjournals.com/
https://www.bbb.org/
http://mapquest.com
http://yellowpages.com
https://www.here.com/
http://angieslist.com
https://www.tomtom.com/en_gb/
http://manta.com
http://www.citysearch.com/world
http://merchantcircle.com
https://www.superpages.com
https://www.thumbtack.com/
http://yellowbook.com
https://www.local.com/
http://insiderpages.com/
https://www.infobel.com
https://www.dandb.com/
https://www.dexknows.com/
http://chamberofcommerce.com
http://hotfrog.com
https://www.factual.com/
http://local.botw.org
http://brownbook.net
https://www.elocal.com/
http://ezlocal.com
http://www.showmelocal.com/businessregistration.aspx
http://cylex.us.com
http://www.salespider.com/
http://www.cybo.com
https://www.neustarlocaleze.biz/
https://citysquares.com/
https://www.yasabe.com/
https://www.getfave.com/
https://www.2findlocal.com/
https://www.tuugo.us/
https://www.n49.com/
https://www.b2byellowpages.com/
https://threebestrated.com/
https://www.opendi.us/
http://myhuckleberry.com/
http://www.tupalo.co/
https://www.fyple.com/
http://www.bizvotes.com/
If you get overwhelmed trying to tackle this yourself, just ask us about hands free citation building.
2. Engage In Social Media
As mentioned above, the average internet user makes heavy use of social media, and they often occupy more than one platform at any given time. Therefore, a great way to increase the public’s awareness of your business is the use of social media across these multiple platforms.
The use of social media not only offers your brand a method of proliferating among the masses, but also offers you a more consistent and more casual method of branding your company than traditional advertising and press releases. The casual and approachable nature of social media is best taken advantage of in order to craft the narrative of your brand as down to earth and relatable. It has been proven that relatability is among the most desirable characteristics among modern businesses of all kinds.
As mentioned above, a given company should utilize multiple methods of online presentation, but one should also use multiple social media platforms. However, this can require dedicated personnel for larger, more prolific businesses. However, this is largely thought of as a cost that pays for itself rather quickly by virtue of getting your business into the public eye and keeping it there.
3. Pay For Online Advertising
Online advertising is the new normal. With fewer people watching TV or listening to radio and more people browsing the internet, this is again a matter of finding the largest possible audience. Online advertising also takes a wider variety of forms than other methods. For example, video ads are common primarily on websites that host video content. Likewise, podcasts are a popular place to advertise in an audio format. On the other hand, any given web page may include banner ads, which are comparable to advertising in newspapers or magazines. This all encompassing method of advertising combined with the mass appeal of the internet as a service contributes to the efficacy of advertising online.
Targeted advertising is quickly becoming one of the most popular forms of online advertising. The premise of targeted ads is that a user’s browsing data can be analyzed by an algorithm in order to find the ad that is most likely to be effective for that specific user based on their internet habits.
Many small businesses find it hard to justify spending money on paid advertising solutions, viewing them as a financial black hole. While there are many advertising platforms that will drain your budget, others can have the opposite effect by attracting customers and generating sales. Google AdWords, for instance, is one of the most cost-effective advertising platforms for small businesses, and here’s why.
Let’s start with this interesting fact; Google owns 71% of the search market share. (Netmarketshare.com). It should go without saying that if you want your business in front of your customers online, then Google Adwords is the place to start.
2.7% Average Conversion Rate
According to a study conducted by SearchEngineWatch, the average conversion rate on Google AdWords (search network) is 2.7%. That’s a substantial amount higher than conversion rates found on other advertising platforms. Of course, certain industries can expect an even higher conversion rate, with insurance and finance at 7.19% and consumer services at 5%.
The internet has come to be a defining feature of the modern era that has radically changed the way people live and conduct business, typically for the better. However, the ubiquity of the internet raises the bar, as it simultaneously tears down the barrier to entry of various facets of life and commerce. Therefore, utilizing the internet to the fullest extent possible is required for success and these 3 ways to market your company online are the key starting points.
