subject: Content For Online Marketing [print this page] Small businesses are recognizing what a fruitful tool the internet can be to market to its current customers and potential future clients. It is a no cost or low cost way to reach more people than before the prevalence of the internet, and traditionally only larger companies with the budget to buy a TV commercial spot were able to get in front of that many people. As small business venture into the unchartered territory of online advertising, they need to consider what content to create that would be deemed valuable, relevant information to customers.
Many internet users use search engines like Bing, Google, and Yahoo! to find a business. Small businesses must understand search engine optimization in order to design their website content. Search engines rank the results, and if a business shows up on page 30 of a thousand results, then they have slim chances of getting noticed by the internet browser. The intent would be to show up in the top 3 ranked websites to get clicked on and viewed. Some of the search engines give higher ranking to websites that provide original, unique content, so a small business should keep that in mind when designing the content of its site.
There are ways to also stay connected to customers like email mailings or Facebook fan pages. These are only as successful as the content is good. If a Facebook fan page isnt updated regularly, why would anyone sign up just to say they are a fan? If the Facebook fan page doesnt provide relevant information, why would you check it? If the Facebook fan page doesnt provide something unique, why would a customer choose that site over another site. All of this is true for email mailings. Perhaps a small business could set up a regular update that goes out at the same time every week.
So, every Monday morning, an email with the deal of the week would be sent out. Every Friday afternoon, the Facebook page would be updated with some new information about a new product or idea. Staying fresh and current with a sites content is crucial.
When you run out of ideas for content, you can even seek ideas from your followers. You can ask your customers, what would they like to see from you or what deals would interest them the most? It is free market research that will help you create the right content for your online marketing campaign.
