When it comes to marketing online, there are a lot of services out there that you can invest in from web development to SEO. Whilst some of these are indeed useful, such services do require splashing a lot of cash, which you may not have if you’re only a small business or a startup.
Fortunately, not all digital marketing has to be handled by a professional. There are many ways to do it yourself cheaply and effectively, as the below methods showcase.
Design your own website
Website developers aren’t cheap. Fortunately, there are now many easy ways to build your own website. WordPress is becoming a more popular tool amongst small business owners, requiring no coding knowledge whilst giving you a professional-looking website.
Many hosting services have WordPress built in as a content management system and will guide you through the whole process.
Get involved with social media
Facebook and Twitter are great free online marketing methods connecting you to millions of potential customers across the world. By creating pages on these social media platforms you can then start to lure in your audience through creative posts.
Facebook and Twitter both allow you to pay small amounts for an advertising campaign. This will get your social media page and business out to strangers across the globe.
Start blogging and vlogging
Adding regular blog posts to your website can have many positive effects. Blog posts keep your website active and expand its content, naturally improve its search engine rankings allowing potential customers to find it easier.
Most business owners will generally dedicate blog posts to advice within their field – this can give you a sense of authority and show that you know what you’re talking about within your trade.
Vlogging is similar, instead relying on video content on sites such as Youtube. Through instructional or motivational videos, you can help inform others about your trade, further promoting your brand and image for free.
Encourage reviews
Some businesses will actively try to prevent reviews in case they get negative press, but this is the worst thing you can do. Lots of reviews online increases your internet presence and makes your brand bigger.
Some may be negative, but the majority will be positive. Besides, there’s nothing to stop you getting friends and family members to write their own positive reviews on sites such as Trip Advisor and Google Plus to outweigh the bad ones.
Also make sure that you collect testimonials from happy clients and post them on your website – visitors read these testimonials from happy businesses and trust you more.
Data analysis on a budget
Data analysis is a new field which involves accumulating huge amounts of data and putting them in graphs. In the marketing world, it can be used to see who is visiting your website and buying your product, where they are coming from and what demographic they belong to (gender, age, country).
Tools such as Google Analytics can be installed onto your website for free allowing you to see all these graphs and get a clear picture of who your audience are.
This can help you target your marketing more by tailoring your social media posts, blog content and services to these demographics.
1 comment
Encouraging reviews is a massive tip. Thanks Thomas. It’s a virtuous circle because you prove you are a transparent business and at the same time people are suggesting others about why they should sign up.
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