Anyone who?s been involved in internet marketing for small businesses over the last few years will have been excited about the huge array of opportunities available for attracting customers. From Pay per Click advertising, Blogging, search engine marketing, online advertising, email marketing and of course social media, the number of internet marketing strategies at a Marketer?s disposal is staggering.
With those changes, technology has also given the ability to the end user to take more time to learn, compare and contrast similar offerings online and more importantly with the people they know and trust.
The most profitable small businesses are no longer the ones with most advertising dollars (although that does help!). They are the ones who can build and manage online communities that turn consumers into brand evangelists for their companies? experience.
If you want your business to be at the forefront of these changes then read these;
1. Inbound Marketing Rules
Tim Berners Lee designed the internet as a global information sharing platform ? a communications tool.
Traditionally, internet marketing for small businesses was based on the assumption that Companies were the main source of information about their brand and that potential customers could be attracted by advertising and direct marketing; this is known as outbound marketing.
The Internet and social media has changed that, because consumers in general are now so bombarded by advertising messages they have become more adept at filtering out everything except what interests them the most. This is where attraction marketing comes in to its own, if you can engage people?s interest with your marketing, and then they will come to you.
2. Build Trust
Big, Bold, Brash headlines are par for the course on the internet. With millions and millions of competing websites you have to make your small business website or blog stand out from the crowd.
However once you have grabbed that person?s attention it is not about moving in for the kill and hitting them over the head with sales message after sales message. It is about providing compelling content that keep the reader engaged and hungry for more.
Credibility goes hand in hand with trust if your content is over the top and full of hype you will lose the respect of your audience and they will not come back.
3. Develop Mutually Beneficial Relationships
Online marketing for small business is not just about building strong customer relationships it is also about building relationships with other marketers and business owners. Why? Because the more relationships you develop the greater the chance you have of your content being shared far and wide across the internet. The more eyeballs will see the content and the greater the chance you have of potential clients finding your business.
It is not necessarily what you know, it is who you know. Find a group of likeminded individuals such as business owners or entrepreneurs who share the same values as you and offer to share their content in exchange for the same treatment.
Think of it like traditional word of mouth marketing; if you mention someone else to someone you know then because of the bond that person has with you, they spend a little more time reviewing that business then they would normally. Likewise the same will happen when that business owner shares your work.
4. Earn Social Proof
Google, Facebook and HubPage?s have different ranking algorithms that determine how credible the content you share is. For example if you go to Facebook and share one piece of content a day and don?t do anything else, no comments, no likes, no videos, then in the eyes of Facebook you are not participating, you will not have a high authority accredited to you and you will have little to no social proof. Meaning your content will only be visible to a small portion of users.
Google?s search algorithm updates in 2012 and moving forward are about tailoring the results based on social proof. The more people that are talking about, sharing and discussing your online content, the more social proof you have and therefore your content will be deemed more valuable.
To learn more read this post Social Media for Small Business ? Less of the Marketing More of the Social
To get that social proof you need to work hard to produce top quality content that warrants being shared. Not only that, you also need to take the time to share other people?s content.
5. Concentrate on Conversion Optimization.
Many business owners wrongly assume that internet marketing for small businesses is all about getting your products or services in front of the eyes of new customers.
Driving lead generation as a large part of it but it is not the be all and end all. Internet marketing is about providing an experience for both new and existing customers. Existing customers already trust you; they have already put their hands into their wallets and invested in your experience. What is stopping you making them buy again and again and again?
It is far better to have 20% of 100 people visiting your site making a purchase or taking the next step in the sales cycle than 1% of 1,000 people. Why inadvertently waste resource on the 900 people who aren?t interested, when you could be focussing that resource on delivering results from 100 people.
Internet marketing for small businesses is maturing, it is becoming more and more like traditional business where relationships and customer experience count toward ongoing success. If your business is not willing to accept that Internet marketing is about communication, listening and sharing, then you may well find that you simply get left behind.
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