3 Ways To Market Your Business Online In 2012

So 2011 came and went. You didn’t get your website done because you had other things going on and didn’t think you could afford it. Meanwhile, your competitors who did got a leg up on you. Well now we’re in 2012 so let’s do some stuff we didn’t do last year…like put together some easy ways to market your business online.

One of the main reasons I love online marketing and advertising is that they’re accountable. Every click on an ad and visit to a website can be counted. Can you imagine asking a radio station “How many people heard my ad this week and then bought my product?” and getting a real answer? You won’t. Here’s how you can get started.

Blog

What’s a blog? Well this (what you’re reading here). Simply put, it’s an easy way to add short articles (called posts) to your website. You can create blog posts about different types of things related to your business and your industry. Here’s what adding a blog will do for your website.

You’ll get targeted traffic coming to your website. When people search for the type of information that you write about, if you’ve optimized your site, there’s a chance they’ll find you.

Visitors will see that you’re an expert at what you do. If you produce great, relevant content, people will see that you’re an expert at what you do, that you know what you’re talking about.

They’ll begin to see you (and your business) as the go-to people to provide a solution to their problem.

Email Newsletter

An email newsletter is a great, low-cost way to keep in regular contact with all your leads and customers while sharing information with them.

Some small business people I’ve spoken with have said they prefer phone and site visits but in my experience, those are just to say “would you like a refill on that widget X?”. With an email newsletter, you can support those calls and visits with helpful, actionable information.

With your newsletter, you can share links to your blog posts, your social media profiles and other things going on with your business. A perfect example of a monthly newsletter is this one by Janus Conflict Management Services.

Google Adwords

Have you ever searched for something on Google and saw ads at the top and sides of the results page? Those ads are placed there using Google’s ad program called Adwords.

Adwords can be a source of cheap, targeted, relevant and advertising when set up properly. I use it to advertise my own business and I’m seeing more and more Trinidad & Tobago businesses using it. Whether they’re doing it right or not is another story, but at least they’re open to it. (See this and this.)

So think about it and then contact imarketSB to get your blog, newsletter and Google Adwords up and running.

*Image courtesy danielmoyle