Your Online Marketing Campaign: Take the Right Approach.

Today online marketing is a necessity for most businesses, because consumers search for most of the things they purchase online. But before investing money into a new (or your first) online marketing campaign, you should set some priorities, to achieve optimal results. Let’s dive in.

First, today consumers expect every business to have a website, (and not just a social media page.) People want to see a site that represents your organization and brand, a place they can quickly learn about your business’s products and services, 24-7. A business without a website will be viewed by consumers as not being “serious”.

Since the Internet is people’s first stop to find and learn about your business, this first impression is critical to your online marketing success. If you want potential customers to choose you over your competitor in their first encounter, make sure you position your business professionally through YOUR website, preferably a responsive website. A site that you have custom-designed for your unique business, a site that speaks to your customers in a way that only you can. If you have a business and have no website, your first priority is clear: get one.

Second, there are two kinds of Internet audiences that will go through your website and its content (your human audience, and also the search engines’ spiders). Your website needs to “perform” well when people search for your type of business. To perform well, your site needs Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Using smart, strategic keywords and providing high quality content (articles, videos, graphics) related to what you offer will help search engines index and crawl your site efficiently and provide quality, relevant content to the people who search for the keywords related to your business. To do effective SEO, you should hire an Internet marketing firm. Once you’ve got a quality site up, and it’s optimized for search engines, you’re ready for the next step.

Third, in most cases (though not all) we advocate establishing social media pages for your business on Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus. Create a link from your website connecting to each of your social media pages. Then participate regularly on social media to build networks of friends and fans for your web pages. If you don’t have time for this, you can hire a web design firm to manage your social media marketing for you. To find out how your business can benefit from using social media, contact us at (612) 590-8080 for a free consultation.

If you are new to online marketing and need help with how to maximize your investment, following the three steps above will get you started with an effective online marketing campaign. I hope you find this article helpful; if you do, please share it with your friends. Thank you!