Tips on online marketing

Having been involved in sales and marketing in one form or another for most of my working life, it still amazes me that “marketing” is still commonly considered to be another term for sales promotion and advertising, and in the online age the definition seems to be shrinking still further. In reality, marketing consists of a wide range of activities that touch almost every part of any business, and in this blog I want to cover marketing for small business.

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What business are you really in? Many companies define themselves almost completely through the products or services they offer. This is a common approach, especially if the very reason for the business existing has been a new product or service. However, taking a product based approach can seriously narrow your focus, particularly with regard to understanding your chosen market and your customers' needs.

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It's no great secret that psychology plays an important part in the determination of how your customers react to your website content or its products. Considerations such as colour, imagery, pricing and so on, all need to be carefully planned if you want to capture and retain a buyer's attention.

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Back in August we started a series of articles looking closely at the likes of Twitter, as well as blogging for your business. Since we launched our new website in May 2010 and began our own social media campaigns we've seen a steady increase in enquiries from both existing clients and new "leads" alike. So, do social media campaigns really work?

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Your focus should be on introducing at least some form of VIP Club Membership, whether it's access to special information, special product offers, special pricing, etc. Because if you don't offer your customers something special and beyond the norm, your competitors most certainly will.

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On the back of some very informal research, it seems that many businesses don’t actively promote their websites on their hard copy promotional material or via other media channels that they might have access to.

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After the telephone, I can't think of a better way to connect and communicate with customers than an email newsletter. If you've taken the time to learn about your subscribers and provide them with regular and informative information, you'll be rewarded with loyalty and a constant, steady flow of traffic to your website. This newsletter discusses how to create special interest groups and then target those groups with information of particular interest to the subscribers within. The success of your email campaigns rely heavily on the 'Open' rate for your emails. This list is a focus on how to get and maintain respectable Open rates campaign after campaign.

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Online business and the importance of keeping an open mind. I’m always staggered when the annual e-Business report from Sensis is released, it still shows year after year that more than half of all businesses don’t have a website, and that’s even when all the data shows that more than half of all buying decisions are made after online research.

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It wasn’t so long ago that the hardest part about selling websites was convincing the business owner or manager why they needed a website at all. In 2010, a web site is no longer a luxury or something that sits on the periphery of a business marketing plan, it’s a “must have” for any small business in the digital age. The conversation we have with business owners these days is not about whether to have a website or not, it’s about how to make a website effective, so this blog provides 15 Essential tips for your online marketing strategy.

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