by Michelle Strassburg
Wood and Beyond Ltd

To succeed in business nowadays, you really should have some sort of online reach, preferably in the shape of a website. You can use your website to refer potential clients who are looking to learn more about your business, to become an authority figure by posting solid advice, and, of course, you can also use your website to win new clients. Marketing your website online might seem daunting at first. It might also seem that everyone uses an external resource such as an agency. However, that is rarely the case. You as the business owner are the perfect person to take on this task, and I hope this article will get you pointed in the right direction.

Tips to Market Your Business Online

Step 1)

Invest Wisely. Marketing your business online is going to incur costs, either directly, with an online service you might use, or indirectly, with your time. Investing wisely on the build of your website relates to launching it with the bare minimum in terms of the website functionality so you have enough funds to market it later on.

Step 2)

Lead With Great Content: If you have not already done so, sit down and write a few high quality content pages for your website. When it comes to marketing your website online, content is king. Adding high quality unique content in the shape of blog post, how-to guides, advice articles and even elaborate FAQs will have two positive affects. Firstly, it will increase the number potential clients referred to the website by the search engines; and secondly, it will position your business as an authority in your industry, thereby increasing the likelihood of winning more business.

Step 3)

Create Instant Trust Between You and Website Visitors: If you believe the statistics, you have 8 seconds to capture the visitor's attention. When you meet a potential client face to face, trust is based on your level of knowledge, reputation, accreditation and professional appearance. In order to achieve the same result on your website, list full contact information of the business, including physical address and phone number. List your privacy policy clearly, double-check spelling to find those pesky typos, and visibly show any business accreditation.

Step 4)

Work On Increasing Visitors Numbers: When it comes to winning more business through the world wide web the formula is simple.  The more qualified visitors reaching your website, the more likely you are to win new business. ‘Qualified’ visitors is the potential of those visitors to need and order your services. If your product is consultancy services but the vast majority of your website visitors are not looking to hire a consultant, they represent non-qualified visitors.

To increase qualified visitors to your site, there are two main options:

Option A) Use Paid Search Web Adverts. The major search engines will allow you to bid on certain keywords which will then trigger your advert. Because you can choose precisely which keywords to bid on, the level of qualified visits is high, but at a price. Each keyword has a different click price and to convert your visitors into clients you really need to bid on the right keywords. If you are new to paid search, Google AdWords (the paid search arm of Google) conducts free AdWords university courses throughout the year which are free to join and offers a free multimedia course online.

Option B) Work On Non Paid Web Traffic. Visitors coming to your site through the non-paid channel are also known as organic traffic because you do not pay for those visits (unlike paid search). There are many ways to increase the quantity of organic web traffic to your website, but two ways really stand above the rest. The first, as pointed out in step 2 above, is to focus on creating high quality content. The second is increasing the number of websites linking to your website. To increase the number of links, register your site on industry related directories, submit professional articles to article directories, contribute articles and ask your suppliers and business partners to link to your website.

Step 5)

Enjoy Your Work. Marketing your own business should be fun. You will discover new marketing ways, meet new people and learn new skills.

I hope this article will get you pointed in the right direction.