Great product or service? Check. Top-notch management team and staff? Check. Respectable online presence? Ch…oh, wait. Sound familiar? Friendly employees and high-quality goods and services are important, yes — but they aren’t always enough to draw in potential customers. If your sales aren’t where you’d like them to be just yet, don’t panic. Develop an effective online marketing campaign or revamp your existing plan.
CREATE A WEBSITE.
Customers want information, and they want it now — whether it’s 4 p.m. or 4 a.m. That doesn’t mean you can just slap some information on a basic page and call it a company website, though. Hire a professional if you aren’t tech-savvy, and shell out a few extra bucks for a unique domain name. Include photos, product descriptions, prices, coupons and contact information.
START A BUSINESS BLOG.
Let’s be realistic for a moment: there’s no way you can update your website every single day. Keep customers and clients in the loop with a business blog. Provide information about new products, discontinued items, sales and promotions. You can also use your business blog to introduce readers to your staff and promote your business at the same time. Write posts about the favorite products and services of your employees, as well as what they like about the company. Make your blog easily accessible by adding it to your company’s website.
JUMP ON THE SOCIAL NETWORKING TRAIN.
The train is coming, and everybody without a ticket will be stuck at the station. Your customers are already on the train, so grab a seat next to them after you create a clever Facebook fan page and a buzz-worthy Twitter account. MySpace is old news, so cross that off of your social networking list. Social networking is so popular these days that many marketing experts now encourage businesses to focus on Search Media Optimization (SMO) rather than Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Post status updates and Tweets at least once a day, but don’t go overboard. Aim for 3 to 5 Facebook updates and Tweets per day. Too much interaction looks spammy and drives fans away, but they’ll also lose interest if they never hear from you.
LAUNCH A CONTEST OR PROMOTION.
People love to win free stuff, whether it’s a packet of coupons or a $500 gift card. Appeal to the competitive nature of your customers with a well-executed online contest. Encourage fans to post photos with their favorite product on Facebook, Tweet about why they love your business or submit ideas for a new product they’d like to see. Consider allowing fans to vote on contest entries — this is an easy way to increase traffic to your website.
PLACE ADS ON POPULAR SITES AND FORUMS.
Figure out where your customers are and then get their attention with an interesting ad. Keep it simple — web surfers don’t read, they skim. Facebook launches targeted ads based on profile information and status updates. YouTube is another place where you can find online visitors of all ages and demographics. No matter what you sell, there’s a niche forum or blog that’s perfect for your company. If you don’t know where your customers are, ask them. Conduct a brief survey about online activities, and provide a coupon or promotional code as a participation incentive.
Don’t wait too long to execute your online marketing plan. Your competitors are busy creating their own online presence as you read this. Why are you still here? Grab a notebook and develop an online marketing plan today. Your customers will only wait for so long.
Hello my name is Nisha Sandhu I am 26 years old and I am an Editor at merchant account forum, whom I have been working with for 2 years now. I love to write and give online business advice to new and growing businesses.
This article is exclusive to Entrepinoy Bank (http://entrebankph.com).
nice, tips.
thanks, nisha and eleazar!