In today’s world, having a physical presence isn’t enough to get in front of potential customers. If you want to succeed as a business owner, you’ll need to learn how to market your business online. Thankfully, there are tools out there to help you automate the process, making it much easier to get started.
Find Your Niche
If you’re reading this, I assume you’re either already creating content to draw in potential customers, or you’re close to doing so. This is a great place to start when you’re looking for ways to improve your online marketing efforts. Once you’ve established your blog, the next step is to focus on establishing yourself as an expert in your niche. Start by identifying your niche, and then create content that resonates with your target audience.
Niche is a term used for describing a segment of the overall population (i.e., your target audience) that has a shared interest in a specific area. For example, if you are an interior designer specializing in homes with children, your niche may be described as working with parents to create the perfect space for their offspring. Once you’ve identified your niche, you can develop content that will speak directly to your target audience. For example, if you are a vegan interior decorator, why not write a blog post about vegan food that you experience as a designer? Or if you are a pet-lover who wants to share tips on how to decorate your home with animals, you can do so in an article about pet-friendly decor.
Once you’ve established your blog, why not write a series of how-to guides on the different aspects of blogging? Or what about creating a cheat sheet for novices? You can even take it one step further and develop a free weekly newsletter to provide helpful tips and tricks to your blog readers.
Build Your Brand
Establishing yourself as an expert in your niche doesn’t mean you need to become an expert in every topic imaginable. Keep your niche narrow but deep, and you’ll be able to speak directly to your target audience without becoming over-saturated in information.
To create trust with potential customers, you must deliver value. Fortunately, there are easy ways of doing this. Why not write a guide that teaches readers how to use certain software tools, or how to navigate an interior design site? By offering helpful tips on how to use a site like Houzz, an interior design firm can establish trust with potential customers because they are providing authoritative information about a subject matter that they are an expert in.
If your business is already generating leads, why not develop a landing page that will convert those leads into paying customers? A landing page is a type of website that usually hosts an opt-in form which allows a website visitor to subscribe to a newsletter or sign up for a mailing list. If you run an interior design firm, you could create a landing page that provides information about your upcoming events or showcases a recent project you’ve completed.
You should also look into other ways of generating leads, such as social media, display ads, and affiliate marketing. Once you have leads, establish yourself as an expert in your field by creating bite-sized chunks of content that are beneficial to your audience. For example, you could create a blog post about the benefits of natural lighting or the ins and outs of photography for bloggers. These types of posts aren’t as easy to create as you’d think, but with a little bit of research, they’re worth it.
Make Money Online
Now that you have a blog that is slowly but surely generating traffic, you can explore ways to make money from it. There are numerous affiliate marketing opportunities available, but you must be careful to avoid becoming a spammer. Make sure that you are legitimately trying to generate sales for a reputable company.
If you have a blog that is well-curated and informative, you can explore affiliate marketing opportunities that are tied to a brand or product that you’ve mentioned on your blog. For example, if you’ve talked about how much you like Juicy Couture’s products, you can explore affiliate marketing opportunities related to the brand. You’ll need to make sure that your blog posts don’t contain blatant or repeated advertisements, and you’ll also need to create unique content that is valuable to your audience. If you follow these guidelines, you won’t go wrong.
If you’re looking for an alternative to traditional advertising, you can explore banner advertising, which is commonly found on blogs and websites. This type of advertising allows you to prominently display a message about a product or service within a web browser. While this type of advertising is easy to implement, it’s also quite intrusive, reducing the amount of content that readers can actually enjoy. If you’re looking for a less intrusive and more effective way to market your business, consider exploring affiliate marketing opportunities.
Vary Your Content
Having a mix of content on your blog can be lucrative if handled properly. For example, you could have a curated list of luxury brands and their product lines, matched with detailed descriptions and photos. On the other hand, you could also have a list of furniture brands and their styles, accompanied by similar description.
The key is to vary your content so that it’s not boring and tedious for your readers. If they’ve grown accustomed to reading one type of content, you might lose a few loyal readers if you don’t keep things fresh. For instance, a furniture brand that is known for their modern styles might decide to experiment with a more rustic theme for 2019.
Use Technology
If you’re reading this, I assume you’re either already utilizing technology in some way to market your business or are very close to doing so. If you’ve identified a particularly useful tool, now is the time to make the most of it.
When it comes to effectively marketing an online business, many companies underestimate the power of technology. Although the internet was once considered a sort of catch-all for web content, anyone can now create a professional-looking website, blog or social media page with minimal effort. Simply put, the tools to build a decent-looking website or blog are readily available for anyone who wants to try it.
As a business owner, you no doubt appreciate the ease of using technology to market your business. When implemented wisely, marketing technology can do much to establish your expertise, grow your audience, and ultimately, make you money.
To get started, simply identify the technology that you deem most useful when marketing your business, and then find companies that offer a business solution for that technology. This way, you can be sure that you’re getting the best possible tool to meet your needs. Don’t hesitate to walk away from a deal that doesn’t feel right to you, no matter what the salesperson tries to convince you otherwise.