Internet marketing is a very popular, and important, form of marketing these days. To truly compete, you need to utilize multiple Internet marketing techniques. Sounds like this could be pricy, right? It doesn’t have to be. There are things you can do to increase your company’s Internet presence that cost nothing and yet have amazing results. Start with the tips below to get your business booming online.
Optimize your website to land the best possible search engine rankings. Search engine optimization (SEO) is something that many vendors specialize in, but you can do it yourself. There are many websites and books out there that can teach you the principles of SEO, but at its basic core it boils down to defining the best keywords (search terms) for your content, layering those keywords selectively into your web pages, and building backlink opportunities (links to your content from external websites). There is much more to it, but these three activities are enough to jumpstart your website in terms of search engine rankings. Best of all, all three of these SEO tactics can be done for free. Use Google’s AdWords Keyword Tool to define proper keywords, layer them in manually yourself and promote your content via social media to build up link sharing by your followers.
Build quality content and generate a following. Content is king on the Internet, and there is nothing from stopping you from writing engaging, original and relevant content to be shared with the world. This quality content, with the proper use of keywords, has the SEO benefit mentioned above, but it also positions you as a thought leader in your industry. It builds trust between your company and your visitors, making them more apt to take further actions with your company. That may be subscribing to a newsletter, joining a forum or becoming a loyal purchaser of goods. These are the relationships that you need to foster, and quality content can help do that for you with no out of pocket expenses.
Complete a competitive analysis; mirror best practices and avoid worst practices. Your competitors are already out there, either becoming Internet mavens or making costly mistakes. Learn from them. Take some time to study their Internet marketing tactics, their search engine keywords and their content strategies. Look for what appears to drive the most traffic and what seems to have fallen flat. This free exercise gives you a landscape of which tools work well in your market and which don’t, so you don’t need to take the hard knocks yourself. Some of what you discover may need a financial investment, but many other things will be best practices that cost nothing to do.
Interact and network on social media, don’t just announce products. Social media is the most actively-used underutilized tool. Everyone knows that social media is a relatively strong announcement tool, but at its center social media is what its name says: social. You need to interact and network to get the most out of it. When you do that, you’ll build awareness for your company and discover amazing new opportunities. If you simply announce, you’ll see only marginal results.
Now you know that you don’t need a major cash reserve to begin with Internet marketing. These tips above are perfect places to start, but continue to invest time in learning more. There are quite a few marketing options out there that won’t break the bank.