By Christine Caddell
Recently I stumbled across the $100 MBA Podcast, which broadcasts daily 10 minute business lessons for the real world. If you haven't checked it out yet, I highly recommend. A recent episode with guest speaker Adam Franklin summarized the world of web marketing extremely well and thought I would share.
As a small business owner, yes you have a website but do you really know the key elements of your web marketing strategy? It can be overwhelming, but really there are only 2 main things to focus on:
As a small business owner, yes you have a website but do you really know the key elements of your web marketing strategy? It can be overwhelming, but really there are only 2 main things to focus on:
- Your website
- Getting people to visit your site
1. How good is your website?
This is your 'piece of land' that you own in the Internet universe, a virtual place where people can get to know you, trust you and eventually buy from you. First impressions are important. A hideous unusable website shows a lack of quality so make sure your 'house' is in order and properly represents you before you invite people over.
- How do they get to know you?
- Website look/feel:
- Website usability: remember 60% of web traffic is mobile now
- How will they learn to like you more, trust you?
- Your blog... free no risk valuable content,
- Lead magnet (i.e. eBook, template): create a landing page to capture email addresses in exchange for your eBook
- Email marketing: most effective way to stay connected with people
- Once they know/like you, they start to trust you more and are more likely to "buy" from you i.e. become a customer
2. How do you get people to your website (in-bound web marketing)?
If you build it they will come? I often chat with small business owners who are disappointed to learn that after investing a bunch of time/money on their website, their website traffic is still very low. There are millions and millions of websites, so how do you help people find yours?
- Google : optimize your website for relevant keyword phrases (SEO)
- Backlinks (inbound links) : this is a link on somebody else's website that points to your website. Links from popular, credible websites is a powerful signal to Google that your website is trustworthy and has authority and thus Google ranks your website higher in search results
- Social media / content marketing : this includes Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, Periscope, even Podcasts, email marketing. These are all types of social media platforms, different ways to publish and distribute content..... i.e. share the content you've created on your blog to which attracts people back to your website which allows them to know, like, trust and buy from you.
So to recap the 2 key elements of web marketing:
- Website: so people can get to know, like, trust you
- InBound Links: Google, Backlinks, Social Media / Content Marketing