subject: Online Marketing For The City Girl [print this page] Ever wonder how some businesses become successful through online marketing?.
You don't have to be a web guru or marketing genius to successfully market your business online, however you do need a lot of patience and a great marketing plan.There are several ways you can effectively market your company online, using message boards/forums, pay per click advertising programs, link exchanges, social media sites, blogs, video sharing sites and search engine optimization (SEO). As a rule of the thumb, it is recommended you apply one or more of these methods in order to increase your chances of success.
Online Forums(free) - Online message boards otherwise known as "online forums" are a community of internet users who discuss common interests and activities with each other. Some online forums allow each user to have a unique image, text, or other graphics that is always tagged to each of their posts, these are referred to as signatures. If someone clicks on your signature link they will be redirected to your website or online store. The more you post, the more exposure you get.
Pay Per Click Advertising (paid) - Another option for marketing your online business is using pay per click advertising programs such as Google Adwords or Yahoo Search Marketing. A clear benefit to these programs is that you pay only when someone clicks on your link, just as the name "pay per click" suggests. I would not recommend this method if you are just starting out. If you have a limited budget and have no clue what you are doing, you may want to save this type of marketing for later. PPC can get very expensive very quickly.
Link Exchange (free) - One popular method of advertising online is called link exchange. Just as the name suggest, you exchange links with other websites to gain exposure, you post your links on their website and in exchange, they post their links on your website. This is a great option for entrepreneurs with a limited budget because it is free of charge. You want to make sure though that the companies you exchange links with are not your competitors, as it will generate more exposure or income for them.
Social Networking Sites (free) - Social Networking has become and essential part of online marketing, websites like Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin can significantly increase traffic to your site if used correctly. Social Networking helps promote your site by sending you direct traffic and by generating awareness. With Social Networking people are encouraged to interact with each other and with companies, so you want to make sure you ads are appealing enough to generate some interest.
Blogs (free) - Uses of blogs in marketing has really evolved and companies are finding that is a less costly way of promoting their products and services. You can use your blog to create dialogue with the customers and to explain features of your products or services. If you have incredible, original content on your blog and comment regularly on other relevant blogs, people are likely to link to it, increasing your site's PageRank.
Video Sharing Sites (free) - Videos can be a very powerful marketing tool and you should consider it an important part of your marketing campaign . You should also optimize it so it can be ranked high enough to help you. For example, if you were to get a top-ranking video on Youtube that mentions your site, it could drive a lot of traffic to your site. Entertaining videos can quickly become viral, being passed around by hundreds of thousands of people, most of them connected through online social networks like Facebook. A great example is the Diet Coke & Mentos video on Youtube, this video was seen by millions of people around the world. The great thing about that video was that it wasn't even produced by the Coca Cola Company or Mentos, but it had a significant impact on both companies. If a company were to pay for that type of exposure, they would most likely have to pay a ridiculous amount of money.
Search Engine Optimization (paid) - Search engine optimization (SEO) is a way of optimizing your website to be more search engine friendly in order to increase traffic. The keywords and metatags yo choose are very important.Content is the heart of SEO as your website needs to be saturated with keywords that search engines can pick up. As standard internet searches play a large part in generating traffic, SEO is an essential part of online marketing. Some businesses prefer to hire SEO specialists for this purpose, however if you are just starting out, I would not recommend you do this as it can be a little pricey.
Remember when you launch your small business, it is always better to start small. Always try to refrain from investing money in things that you can either do or get for free.
