The fact is that with most businesses going global, small business owners can’t afford to stand by their computers and watch good business just pass by.
Here are some basic pointers that can help you hitch your business to the virtual superhighway.
- Build A Great Website:
The first action that you need to take is to hire a group of creative web designers and writers to build an interactive website that will showcase your business in a dynamic way.
Your website name can be the same as your business name. Your company history should be mentioned in an ‘About Us’ section, especially if you have been in that business for a long time.
This builds up trust in the eyes of visitors.
If possible, load photos of your products on your site with a short description next to each of them. You can also have separate segments on your site where visitors can post their inquiries, orders or comments.
Form partnerships with major credit card companies or their service providers, so that you can accept online payments.
- Provide (and get!) Quality Links:
You can provide links to industry associations or even other businesses that are related to your industry. Just make sure that you do not directly compete with them.
You should also swap (trade) links with other related companies – this way, you will increase your chances of driving targeted traffic to your website.
If you can manage to get one-way links to high PageRank (PR) websites and authority sites (such as DMOZ, .gov, .mil and .edu sites), your ranking in the search results will increase.
- Get On Top Of The Search Engines:
Your writers, along with search engine optimization [SEO] experts, should ensure that they integrate search-related quality keywords into your small business website.
This is to ensure that your website climbs up and lands on the top of all related searches.
This will result in more visitors coming to your website which means more business and more exposure for your small business.
- Develop an Online Marketing Campaign:
Once your website is up and running, you need to advertise in order to let people know of your online existence.
Promote your website by printing the web address in bold letters on all your office stationery, invoices, business cards and brochures. You can start a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising campaign using Google Adwords, Yahoo! Search Marketing or on MSN.
You can also entice new visitors to your site by announcing an online contest with attractive prizes in the ads.
- Use Online Articles:
Write articles related to your industry or get them written by a copywriter.
These can be forwarded to different article directories that will post them for free. Your website link should be provided at the bottom of each article, along with one of your special offers.
These basic but powerful internet marketing tips can help you to get your targeted audience to not only visit your website, but to browse more, linger longer and make purchases.
Internet marketing is a must for all small businesses, no matter what product or service they sell.
