How to Promote Your Business Online and Get More Clients?
The wave of digitization has swept the world off its feet. Gone are the days when people had to go to physical places to get things done. The Internet has not just found multitudinous applications in every walk of life but has radically transformed the world.
Be it healthcare, education, or business. The dynamics of how typical industries used to work are changed for good.
For instance, there was a time when doing business meant investing in capital, a large number of employees, infrastructure, and more. When it came to marketing, all companies had been traditional approaches such as door to door marketing, billboard banners, television advertisements.
But then came the age of e-commerce, where business went online. All one needed to be in e-commerce was a platform to sell online with some inventory at hand. With little investment, no hassle of a physical store, the perks of an online business were many.
One of the best benefits of selling online was access to a broad audience across the globe. Online businesses could reach to all these people and make profits by selling to them. Even as a small business, it was easy to make it big. The only thing required was efficient marketing practices that asked for little to no investment. With smart promotion strategies, online businesses not just make huge sales but earn a reputation among their customers.
As exciting as it sounds, promoting your business online can be one of the best decisions you ever make. Here’s everything you need to know about it.
Why Promote Your Business Online?
Promoting your business online means harnessing the power of the Internet to advertise your goods and services. While you may feel content with the sales you are making with the traditional marketing practices, you would be amused with the benefits of promoting your business online.
According to the latest market research, nearly 90 percent of small businesses use online marketing and traditional marketing to promote their business. On the other hand, 58 percent of them exclusively channelize online marketing for their brands.
In another instance, nearly 95 percent of businesses are committed to increasing their digital marketing spends for the coming year. Unless promoting a business online is turning fruitful for companies across the world, there is no other reason why they are ready to invest in more of it.
All these facts point to one direction- online marketing is here to stay. The sooner you realize it, the faster you start capitalizing on it.
Global Reach as Well as Local Reach
Marketing your business online opens it to a broad base of customers, both locally and globally.
With more and more people using the Internet every day, companies possess a vast opportunity to reach out to them and sell their products. The more you rigorously launch your campaigns on different online platforms, the more people will see it. A lot of these will be your potential customers who need exactly what you’re selling.
Lower Cost Than Other Forms of Promotion
Traditional marketing channels like television advertisements, billboard hoardings, etc. cost a lot of money. As a small business, you may not have that kind of budget to splurge on conventional marketing options.
Promoting your business online through landing pages, websites, etc. however, has lower costs than any other form of promotion. By embracing online promotion strategies like content marketing etc. even small businesses can carve a niche for themselves in the least amount of time.
Ease of Personalization
With online promotion, it is much easier for businesses to understand the likes and dislikes of their customers. Once they have this information, they can model their campaigns likewise to suit the needs of their target audience.
Similarly, using online marketing channels, you can also personalize the communication with your clients. This practice will help you to make a strong bond between you and your customer.
Non Intrusive and Informational
Customers hate it when someone intrudes on their space and presents them with unwelcomed information. This usually happens with traditional promotion. But, when you promote your business online, you precisely discover the customers who want to view your campaigns and the ones who don’t.
This way, you can advance to a well-targeted audience, without being intrusive.
Who Should Promote Their Business Online?
While you may find all kinds of businesses online, it is imperative to note that some of these outperform the others. This leads us to think whether promoting a business online is everyone’s cup of tea.
To everyone’s surprise, it is not. For the starters, you need to have relevant keywords in your field for better SEO ranking. That being said, you must be able to rank well in these keywords and grab eyeballs with them. Here are a few businesses who should promote themselves online-
Companies That Have a Well-Defined Target Audience
Businesses who have a well-defined target audience for apps, different services, or restaurants can leverage online marketing at its best. For example, when you know your audience is looking for restaurants nearby, you can easily send them promotions online and draw their attention.
Solution Providers for Various Problems Searched Online
Google is the go-to platform for all kinds of solutions. With the growing use of the Internet, people rush to Google even with their slightest issues. And the businesses that provide a solution for these are the best ones to benefit from online promotion.
Advisory Firms
As surprising as it sounds, law firms are the most to benefit by promoting their businesses online. Statistics suggest that 96 percent of the people seeking law advice start online. Therefore, a rock-solid blog or a website with high-quality content can establish you as an expert and catch the attention of potential clients.
Healthcare Firms
Research indicated that people who booked healthcare appointments performed 3X more searches as compared to people who didn’t. Moreover, as many as 60 percents of the customers before scheduling an appointment. This gives healthcare firms an upper hand when promoting their business online since customers are already looking for them. All they need to focus on is providing value to them.
Entertainment and Media Companies
The entertainment and media industry has always been about engaging users. A report by Deloitte suggests that video and audio generate 89 percent of the customer’s Internet data traffic. Moreover, as the entertainment industry is centered around these kinds of content, there is no better way to promote it than digital marketing.
Various Ways to Promote Your Business Online
The online world provides you a plethora of platforms to promote your business and get more clients. All you need to know is where to look.
Things You Need Before Start The Promotions
1. A Professional Website
A website is the backbone of any business. Gone are the days when people used to have a normal looking website and still attracted a lot of clients.
Now a customer judges any business just by seeing the design of the websites. This is something that differentiates you from the crowd. We at Gsquare Web Tech are committed to create stunning websites for any business which attracts more buyers and boost your business.
Suggested Read: – How to Quickly Start an Online Store
2. A Marketing Funnel
Almost all businesses these days have a marketing funnel. With the proper funnel in place, you can make more money with the same product or services you offer.
3. A Landing Page
This is the most crucial page to attract new clients. Such pages are always created as a separate page where you can run a promotion and track the conversions.
You might have seen such landing pages created by various companies where you land on specific pages rather than the homepage.
There are many elements on a landing page which makes it high converting and convince people to buy or try your products.
Suggested Read: – Complete Guide of Website Landing Page Design
Here Are The Top Nine Ways To Promote Your Business Online
#1 Social Media Promotions
Social media has evolved far beyond being a platform to connect. Now companies from all across the world are tapping into its potential to gain exposure and get more clients. Various platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter can be used to establish direct communication with the customers as well as provide offers on products and services. According to a recent survey, social media was ranked as the top promotion channel for businesses on the Internet.
While a lot of promotion is FREE on social media, you can use paid advertisements to reach out to even more clients. These paid promotions cost a small amount of money but come with tremendous benefits. Any post that appears in your news feed with the ‘Sponsored’ tag is an example of paid social media promotions. When you post as your page without investing any money, it counts as an organic promotion. On the other hand, if you boost that post with some money or create lead generation forms, video ads, etc. they become paid promotions.
Facebook is one social media platform where paid promotion in the form of ads can be of enormous advantage when done in the right manner. Not only does Facebook help you reach out to the customers, but it also lets the traffic land on your website or designated landing page. Make sure you do have a professional website for the best results.
Suggested Read: – How to Remove Or Disable Official Facebook Page Reviews
#2 Blogging With Relevant Content
Promoting your content online can be one of the most effective ways of getting more clients. Content is the central part of doing business online. If your audience doesn’t know that you exist, selling to them might not be as lucrative as it sounds.
Statistics suggest that content marketing gets 3X the leads per dollar spent as compared to efforts invested in paid search. Content is, therefore, not just a way to get your name out there but also establish a relationship with your customer, which is why creating valuable content for the target audience becomes the need of the hour.
Start by getting a website made by professional developers. This helps build the customer’s trust in your business. While 6 out of 10 small businesses don’t have a website today, 83 percent of those who have a website believe they have a competitive advantage over the others.
This means if you don’t have a web presence in today’s world, you are not just losing out on customers but also limiting your business’s potential. In spite of owning a website, many companies do not leverage content marketing.
Therefore, they are not able to maximize their sales as compared to a business that creates engaging blog posts for the customer regularly.
The motto of your content must be to provide informative solutions to the problems that your target audience is facing. Make sure your content is SEO Optimized and has relevant keywords so that people can find you when they search a string on Google. Interlinking your content to your social media handles is also one of the best practices of online promotion. This provides you a maximum outreach and helps your customers stay in touch with you across all platforms.
Alternatively, you can also create sales-oriented landing pages. Landing pages are not just convincing when a customer wants to make a purchase decision but also triggers sales. Having a perfectly designed landing page with proper conversion elements can multiply your sales.
#3 Use Local Listing Sites
The local listing provides an edge to the businesses by increasing their visibility. For example, when you register your business on Google Places, it allows your brand to be easily found on Google searches. Similarly, your business also reflects on Google Maps. So, when a customer is searching for services that your business is selling, they get to see you in Google’s very own apps, imparting a sense of authenticity.
It is quite easy to register yourself in local listing services such as Google Places, Foursquare, and Bing. All you have to do is fill out the respective forms and verify your details through a confirmation email or call. Since it’s FREE of cost, it is easy to register.
The importance of local listings helps improve a brand’s visibility and gives it an upper hand in search engine optimization. It is vital because Google displays your (NAP) business name, address, and phone number in local search result pages.
#4 Reach Out Programs on Platforms Like Quora
Quora is the world’s top question-answer platform with 300 million monthly active users. A smart strategy to promote your business online is joining a relevant community like Quora and contributing there.
When users post related questions from your niche, you can answer them and leave quality backlinks to your website, landing pages as well as blogs. This helps in raising awareness for your brand and driving traffic to your website and content.
Alternatively, you can also use platforms like Medium to post informative articles and create your image as an industry leader.
#5 Influencer Marketing
Out of the many users that have joined Instagram, some are content creators themselves. We are talking about influencer marketing, which is one of the most significant sources of getting clients through online business promotion.
Influencer marketing works because people follow others on social media because they like their content. Overtime when a person garners a broad base of followers, they become influencers.
Businesses can reach out to these influencers in their niche and capitalize on a large number of customers. Influencers posting about your brand adds to your brand value and drives conversions. For example, the famous fitness influencer Laura Kasperzak helped a brand promote themselves and share their exclusive discount code with followers.
Statistics suggest that companies will spend 65 percent more on influencer marketing in the coming year. While some big influencers charge a lot of money for promotions, local businesses can utilize local influencers. Local influencers have more active followers. So, when they post your content, it contributes to their reputation as much as it does to your brand. It’s a win-win for everyone.
#6 Use LinkedIn
LinkedIn is an ideal online promotion platform for B2B service and solution providers. You can easily find a professional network of business managers who are eager to connect with like-minded people.
On the one hand, LinkedIn can be used to organically generate brand value and establish a reputation as a business. On the other hand, LinkedIn Premium, which is a paid service by the platform, can help you be taken seriously among the community.
Statistics suggest that as many as 45 percents of LinkedIn users are in upper management. This means, if you are a B2B business, you can join LinkedIn groups, follow like-minded people, and send personalized messages to your target audience.
#7 Create a YouTube Channel to Establish Brand Value
According to a recent statistic, every day, people watch one billion hours of YouTube videos and generate billions of views. Since videos have much higher retention than any other form of content, they are most impactful to an audience.
As a business, you can put relevant content from your niche on YouTube that your people want to view.
There are various ways that a business can leverage the power of YouTube. In one way, you can create a YouTube channel and share updates with your audience or interact with them and solve their queries and concerns. Let’s say you sell products online on your website. You can add product videos to YouTube and provide a link to your store in the caption area.
Make sure your videos give value to your users, instead of being blunt sales pitches.
In yet another research, 62 percent of the businesses are already using YouTube as a channel to post video content. Thus, as YouTube continues to grow as a video platform, it’s relevancy for business keeps on increasing.
As a business, you can easily tap into video insights on YouTube to know when your audience is most active on the platform. Based on this and other crucial information, you can personalize your campaigns and upload them at a time when they will be seen by most of your target audience.
#8 Email Marketing is Evergreen
Email is still the old school gem that continues to shine in the modern world. No matter how many apps or engaging platforms people use, email marketing still works when practised correctly.
In case you are too distracted by contemporary promotion strategies, you must halt and take a look back at the classic email. It might sound astonishing, but email has the power to generate as much as 3800 percent return on investment, which is why they are one of the most cost-effective online promotion platforms.
Email marketing can help you generate leads, drive conversions and keep your users engaged. You can lead your emails to blogs, content, and other relevant solution-focused landing pages that can help your target audience find some value.
When it comes to relationship building, emails are the go-to promotion for all brands. Research indicates that 73 percent of the Millenials prefer communications from business to go via emails. This fact gives you a huge opportunity to build a personal relationship with the client.
Just make sure that your emails do not contain spam words and are optimized for viewing on mobile devices. It is essential to focus on the experience; otherwise, your emails will either start landing in spam folders or not be opened by your audience.
#9 Webinars and Podcasts
Webinars and Podcasts are an instant way to connect to a live target audience. If you are a leader in your niche or have a good reputation among a large number of customers, you can utilize webinars and podcasts to promote your business further.
While only 41 percent of the marketers have hosted webinars, they are found to be quite useful in engaging the user. Webinars can help you build thought leadership in an industry, reach out to more possible prospects and get more clients for your business. With useful and well-strategized webinars where your audience is engaged with your brand, you can sell almost anything to them.
Webinars are also an effective way of humanizing your company. While a small business can host a Q and A session to answer people’s queries about their brands and products, large enterprises can share their knowledge and expertise with potential customers. Since webinars are not a costly affair, no matter the size of your business, you can always build a strategy around getting more clients and get started.
Conclusion
Promoting your business online might seem like a tough nut to crack. But, with the right platforms and strategies, companies can ace it, no matter how big or small they are. However, when choosing a platform to promote your business online, make sure you consider these factors-
- The budget for online promotion
- The resources you’re willing to devote
- Your short term and long term goals
- The ease of scaling operations
Once you figure these out for your business, you can easily find a platform and build strategies around them. With the changing dynamics of the business sector, all kinds of companies need online promotion and marketing to stay afloat. The key is to start early and make the most of it.