If you are a small business, you probably lack a big budget to blow on expensive marketing campaigns, so what resources you do have will need to be spent wisely. Fortunately, there are lots of ways to market your website that can have a great effect, without costing a fortune.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Know your budget and goals
Crucial for any business, but more so for smaller ones, knowing what your goals are and how much money you have to spend on achieving them is a key starting point in any online marketing strategy. According to Forbes Magazine the good thing about online marketing is that you can be successful even when on a tight budget. A lot of platforms are free, but for the optimum results do not just stick to free forms of online marketing.
Social media
Make use of social media to get your brand name out there. Not only is it free but you have a large audience at your fingertips. Make use of the sites that your target audience is likely to frequent. If your customers are more likely to use LinkedIn than Twitter, focus on LinkedIn as a starting point, for instance. Equally, if your product is highly visual, make sure to regularly post images on sites such as Pinterest or Instagram.
Blogs
Blogging is a really good way to get people interested in your website, and the more content you add, and keep updated, the more visitors will come to your site. Search engines also like websites that frequently add relevant content to their sites, so you are more likely to find yourself climbing the search engine rankings if you add blogs to your site.
Consider also blogging on niche sites. According to Entrepreneur identify three to five blogs that target your market then contact the creator and offer a few ideas of how you could bring value to their readers. This can increase awareness of your brand, by providing a link back to your website.
If content planning and creation is something that you have not done before, consider gaining expert advice from agencies, who offer content and web design.
Make videos
You do not need to buy expensive equipment to make effective videos that can be uploaded to your website or to YouTube, but having video content can be a successful strategy for any business, no matter what its size. Video makes content easier to understand, and you can use it in all sorts of ways. As well as demonstrating how products work, you can use it to conduct interviews or behind-the-scenes guides of how something is made.
Interact with others
No matter what method of online marketing you use, make sure that you interact with your target audience. Nobody likes a faceless website, no matter how great the content is, so show your human side by commenting on posts people make, offering tips, ideas and suggestions, asking for opinions and building an online community of followers.