How to promote your small business online

eMarketer magazine estimated that by 2021 digital ad spending would swell to 129.3 billion dollars. A big proportion of digital marketing is made up of social media, search engines, and video. Marketers are navigating the unchartered territory of promoting businesses online. Coincidentally, small businesses have to figure out ways to capture the eyes of customers online. 

SEO IS A SCIENCE

Targeted paid advertising via Facebook and Google are effective ways to get the word out about your business. But there are also lots of free ways to promote your business online. In this article, we’ll cover a little bit of both as we discuss the best ways to promote your business online.  

List your business 

If you have not already done this, it’s the first thing you should do. List yourself on Google Places, Bing Places, and Yahoo! Places. Most of these listings are free to do, but they give customers information about your business if you have a physical store. It’s extremely useful if you would like your business to have a local following. There’s a simple form to fill and a confirmation that gets done relatively quickly. 

Social media 

This one encompasses so much. Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn are some big names that come to mind. But there’s also Reddit and Quora, which are gold mines of useful information about customers. It’s not enough to just post anything you feel like on social media. Unlike your personal social media, your business social media has to be part of a strategy. You need to decide in advance the goals of your social media forays for your business. 

Search engine optimisation (SEO) 

SEO is the practice of increasing the organic (i.e., non-paid) visibility of your web page. It works through a combination of techniques that includes analysing and using keywords. SEO ensures visitors who are looking for your products or services find your website in the sea of competition out there. 

With successful SEO optimisation, you should be able to increase both the quality and quantity of traffic to your website. You’ll have more site visitors, and they are more likely to be people who are actually interested in your product or service. 

Start a blog 

According to WordPress data, over 409 million people read over 23 billion blog posts on WordPress each month. That’s lots of content and lots of site visitors. If your site does not have a blog, you must consider starting one as soon as possible. Do not stuff it with useless factory assembly line style words just lined up in sentences that say nothing worth saying. 

Your blog posts must contain value. When you give your visitors value, they learn that they can trust you.  

Forum participation 

If there’s a niche forum that’s interested in your product or service, sign yourself up and regularly contribute. Not only are forums a way to get in touch with your customers, but the main benefit of them is also how unfiltered a view they can give you. 

Reddit and Quora have many threads that you can contribute to, providing your valuable expertise. An added bonus is that you can list your position on Quora as an expert. Try not to be too promotional since forums are about gathering information. Don’t be surprised, though, when the customers come a-knocking. 

Guest posts 

Once your own blog is developed to an extent, you can gain even more traction by guest posting on someone else’s blog. Look at content curation online platforms like Forbes and Entrepreneur magazine. This will drive a lot of traffic to your website. 

Tie up with an influencer 

Most influencers will be willing to talk about your product on their platform. Send them a free sample of your product and get them to film a review to share with their followers. Research has shown that people are more than 70% more likely to purchase a product if it has been referred to them by a social media influencer they like. Some influencers may demand a commission arrangement, whereas some may be happy to promote your product for free. 

Picking the best method 

When it comes to marketing your business, the best method might  not necessarily be that from a big well-known successful brand.

Pick the method that gives you big gains but also plays well into your long-term business strategy. Some of these methods are highly advisable if you want to survive in the new world of business, which is now majorly online.  

Promoting your business, like any other business activity, can be subject to risks. Small businesses can mitigate their risk by considering different types of business insurance. Check out what this website has to offer for your small business.  

*As with any insurance, cover will be subject to the terms, conditions and exclusions contained in the policy wording. The information contained on this web page is general only and should not be relied upon as advice.