Internet Marketing Tips for Beginners

At this point in commerce, communication and marketing there are two vital factors to getting your business attention and building prestige. First, a solid reputation for great customer service and word of mouth has, and will continue to be, an asset to any successful business. Secondly, having a presence on the Internet and knowing how to successfully orchestrate it, is now a necessity. There are almost 30 billion websites on the Internet. How is your site going to reach the screens of target viewers and turn them into customers? In this article I’d like to share with you three effective steps for using the web to create awareness and begin internet marketing.

Planning Your Site

1. Website design and maintenance is expensive so take time to map out, coordinate and execute your site. Hint: Have other members of the team and department put in suggestions as to what features they would like to be included. A website should benefit the entire company. Next, have a meeting where all options and opinions are discussed and make sure your site designer is there, he/she can tell you what is/isn’t possible or what’s just a dumb idea.

2. Research your customers; know what they’re looking for and what trends are around the corner. Hint: Find out what characteristics they have in common, as human beings. You want them to feel like you’re talking or writing directly to them. Besides a service they are also looking for a company they feel drawn to or connected with.

3. The aesthetics of your site have a huge impact on many psychological levels. Carefully plan out color combinations and fonts. You need to find a balance between bold (attention getting) and straightforward (business boring.) Hint: Get your ideas together like a decorator would, with samples, swatches, and font styles, then lay them out, arrange and rearrange them. Be open to the opinions of everyone. Also, refrain from including excessive data; pictures, icons, font styles, links and colors make a site seem amateurish. It should be easy on the eyes, flow, navigate smoothly and actually have information the customers can use.

5. Include elements that help build trust and instill a feeling of familiarity. Bios and pictures are often used to exhibit experience and professionalism. Hint: Adding elements of personality and humanity to these bios can show the potential customers you also have an approachable side. Consider including favorite quotes, hobbies, etc. But again, keep it short.

Getting Them To Your Site

1. The most basic tool to get visitors is SEO (Search Engine Optimization.) In essence it’s strategic planning to get your site to receive a good ranking on the search engines. Research keywords and pay-per-clicks. When choosing your words, do not pick to many, 100-150 is advised, otherwise you waste your money and clicks on users not in your customer market. For instance Google AdWords has the ability to show statistics on the clicks certain words attract. Hint: Take the data Google gives you and analyze it. Calculate which ones will not be worth the cost because they are too popular or lead to a ranking list where you’ll be up against too stiff of competition.

2. Consider going old-school. Become involved in the local community and within industry circles. Write articles for a local paper or magazine. Offer to sit in on a local radio show and give advice to listeners. Hint: Advertising in magazines, newspapers, direct mail or radio is a proven device for driving people to your site. Significant visitors who get to your web site will do so having heard your URL somewhere besides online. Many will recognize you and your business name, stimulating word of mouth advertising.

3. Links to your site from affiliates and related organizations draw not only clicks, but search engines see links to your site as a sign of stability. In general the more links you build, the better your search ranking. Hint: In my opinion having a whole page dedicated to links is very off-putting. We have found that unless it’s carefully planned and positioned, many of these pages seem cluttered, loud and ineffective.

4. Writing a blog will not only increase your ranking on search engines, but will offer potential customers your expert, trustworthy advice. Choose a consistent posting schedule and make your writing good….really good. Utilize RSS feeds and link your blog to related sites, which will bring in new readers and potential customers. Hint: Do not advertise, write about what you know, forecast trends, be enlightening.

Getting Them To Return To Your Site

You must maintain their attention and keep them coming back to turn them into customers.

1. Consider having a video featured on one or several of your pages. This not only helps build credibility and trust, but grabs and maintains attention. Whether straightforward or tinged with an element of humor, well made videos humanize the business and create a sense of familiarity. Use them as tutorials for customers and clients or as a sales tool. Hint: Do not have them auto-play and try having videos of varying lengths to use for multiple purposes; they can be displayed on your site to show examples of your work, emailed to potential customers, shown at trade booths and handed out in the form of a small business card sized disc. You can even send them embedded in eNewsletters. Its amazing how many clicks and customers some companies received because of this!

2. Insert an Opt-In form to get their contact information. The Opt-In list will supply you with a way to stay in touch with them. Find a service to assist you with sending out eNewsletters, eVideos or ePostCards. This way you can mail your out updates, videos, sales info, or press releases and your expert blog, which will, of course, all link back to your site.

These steps and tips, as well as some others, I’ll keep up my sleeve for now, are guaranteed to build your business and help sales. Diligence and patience pays off. Usually within 1 to 2 months you’ll begin seeing results. So get started and let me know how it works. Your feedback only helps to fine tune these methods!