Most small business owners are very busy people. Unfortunately, this leaves little time to take advantage of the wonderful marketing tool that is the Internet. If you’re one of the “I don’t have time for that stuff” group, you’re likely to discover that it is well worth your while to make the time to develop an Internet presence for your small business.
Why not set aside just 2 hours a week to explore, learn and increase your Internet presence? Seriously, you can split your efforts into 10 minute sessons while you’re drinking your cuppa.
Here are some simple tasks to keep you busy:
THE WEB CAN HAVE A BIG IMPACT ON YOUR BUSINESS
If you don’t have a website, get one. I really don’t think it’s optional for the majority of businesses anymore. Without one, your online opportunities are very limited. Our main site was recently redesigned by the team at Bergan Blue. If you’re not confident (or simply lack the time) to DIY, give them a call.
If you have a website but you don’t know who or how many people visit it, you need to sign up for a Google Analytics account so that you have all that information at your fingertips. It’s fast, free and informative – what more could you ask for?
Next, you’ll want to increase the number of people that visit your website to look at what you have to offer. There are numerous ways to accomplish that which I’ll cover in more detail in later posts. Some ideas that jump to mind include:
- Pay per click advertising – Google, Yahoo and other search engines will advertise your business on a pay per click basis. You can set up your own account and do this yourself, or you can pay an online marketing firm to do it for you. You can set a budget too so your costs will be under control. Personally, I don’t use PPC advertising on any of my sites, so I’m not in a position to comment on its effectiveness.
- Add your website address to all your existing stationery – letterheads, business cards, other advertising material, and newspaper ads. If appropriate, consider putting your website address on the rear window of your vehicle. It’s easier to recall than a phone number.
- Join social networking sites like FaceBook and Twitter. Tweet your special offers and if you have time, have a chat to like minded people and make some friends. Word of mouth business can flow from social networking online.
- Join forums that interest you and particularly, any that relate to your business. Not only are forums a wealth of information, but most allow you to place your business name and website address in your “signature” when you make a post in a forum – free advertising. Obviously, you’ll want to make a worthwhile contribution to the discussion while you’re there and not simply spam the board with your marketing messge.
- Are you an expert in your field? Not only can you help out forum members with information, you might be able to write some guest blog posts for other site owners or offer a whitepaper for downlaod. Doing that usually results in a link back to your website, and of course, free advertising of your expertise!
- Start your own blog! There are plenty of terrific free blogging platforms out there. Pass on your knowledge to the world and notify your visitors of any special offers or new products you may have. Keep it professional and business related for the best results. This has the added advantage of adding relevant content to your site and if you add content to your blog regularly it can help improve your search engine rankings and increase traffic.
The opportunities are out there – grabbing hold of them is entirely up to you!
The methods you choose to build your online presence will largely be determined by the type of business you operate and how much time you have to devote to exploring the opportunities.
I truly do believe that building your Internet presence can have a major impact on your business. Anyone who has forked out for a colour advert in the Yellow Pages knows what a huge ongoing financial commmitment it can be. We ventured online with our business at the same time we started utilising the Yellow Pages, sponsoring various causes and sporting teams, and utilising a few other campaigns, such as Shop-a-Docket (again, not cheap). We decided from day one to track the results in order to concentrate our main efforts where we were seeing returns. After word of mouth, our most impressive return on investment has come simply by cultivating an online presence…. in my spare time! Yes, there are likely to be some small financial outlay along with your investment in time, but the dividends can be surprisingly healthy.
Article by Christie Lewis
Christie is Practice Manager at Alan Lewis Accountants . Besides accounting, her passion is for all things small business (and blogging, of course). You can contact Christie directly at christie@lewistaxation.com.au.
Christie has written 811 awesome articles for us at Alan Lewis Accountants – BLOG
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