How to Get New Customers - Online Marketing For Small Business
- By Salvatore McDonagh
- Published 12/29/2011
- Marketing
- Unrated
Your business needs new customers, and you know you should be using the internet to attract more sales. But what do you do first? And how can you be sure that you are not wasting your money?
I'll answer these questions in a minute, but first let me explain a few things about the search engines, and about Google in particular - because Google is the giant in the industry, with the lions share of the search market.
Google also owns Youtube, and Youtube is the number 2 search engine. Yes, you read that that right - more people use Youtube to search for information online than Yahoo or Bing.
Right now, people are looking for your products or services online, using one of the search engines. Over 80% of adults in the USA, UK and Ireland use Google to search for local products and services - even if they decide to buy offline.
But how does Google know what results to show them? And how can you help Google to find your business, and to know that it is relevant to the prospective customers search?
Here's how it works: Google sends out spiders - software programs - that read web pages, and follow the links on those pages. These spiders (Google spider is called "googlebot") send the information back to Google, and it is stored in their massive database.
Lets say you decide to look for a Search Engine Marketing Consultant to help you with your online marketing. You go to Google search, and type in "search engine marketing consultant".
Google then looks in it's database, and tries to find the most relevant results. There may be millions and millions of web pages containing this search term, or "keywords". But Googles secret algorithm will give you back a page of the top ten most relevant results within less than a second. (An algorithm is just a recipe, or list of instructions, that a computer uses to calculate an answer, or give a result of a search)
Googles algorithm looks for web pages that:
a) contain the exact phrase you used
b) have other related words on the page
c) are linked to by other webpages with related content
d) are owned by or are about somebody near you
e) if you go to one of these websites, and stay there, Google measures this, and uses it to score that website so that it shows it again, the next time you or anyone else uses the same keywords.
f) Google takes over 200 measurements into account in it's search algorithm.
So how does this information help you to get your business found on the internet by prospective customers? If you re-read the paragraphs above you will see four important concepts that you need to keep in mind when planning your online marketing campaign. Did you spot them?
1) The first principle - the "golden rule" - for getting Google to rank your web page high in the search results - is so obvious that most people miss it. Make sure that the CONTENT of your web page is RELEVANT to what your customers are searching for online. So make sure that you use the words your customers would use to describe your products and services (the "keywords" - remember this, it's very, very important). Think about it - they may not know that they need a "data analyst" or a "web analytics consultant" - they only know about the problem they are trying to solve. Your website should educate them - it must show them that your product or service solves their problem.
2) The second concept is one that is also in your control is that the structure of your website - the links between the web pages - needs to make logical sense and be easy for the googlebot spider to follow. You need to make sure that the pages each answer a specific question, or solve a particular problem. Don't make your website one long page which tries to answer everything - have a structure that is easy for people and google to read, understand, and follow. Your site navigation - how people and spiders find their way from one page to another, should be obvious, foolproof, easy to use.
3) The third concept is that the googlebots (and people browsing the web) need to be able to find your website via links from other websites. So you need to somehow get other people to put links on their web pages that lead people (and spiders) to your web pages. How?
Here are four ways of building incoming links:
a) You can get incoming links by asking people who own websites with complementary (but not competing) businesses to link to your website. Talk to your suppliers and customers first - you can reciprocate by putting a link to their website on your website, if it will be of benefit to your website visitors.
b) You can get your business, and your website, listed in online directories. These list businesses in a particular industry, or a local area, or may be general directories like the online Yellow Pages. Sometimes it may be worth spending money for a listing - Yahoo's business directory may bring you more business than the Yellow pages, for less money.
c) Make the content of your web pages so useful that people want to share it - and make it easy for them. Let them copy your content, so long as they acknowledge where they got it, and link back to the web page on your site. Put a Facebook "Like" button on each page, so people can let their Facebook friends that your website is worth visiting - this puts a link to your web page on their Facebook feed.
d) Write an article which helps people to understand your service or product and how it solves a specific problem, and publish it online to multiple article directories.
I've written this article to explain what I do for businesses to help them get more customers using the internet. You may be reading this on the isnare.com article sharing website, or one of the hundreds of other article websites that isnare will distribute it to for just $2.
At the bottom of the article you can include an authors "bio box" which contains a link back to your website. Look at my bio box below for an example of how to encourage your readers to take action and visit your website by offering something of irresistible value to them.
4) The fourth concept is the web page visitors behavior that Google will watch - and that you should always measure on your own website.
You need to convince the visitor to stay - by giving them what they are looking for. Relevant content is the biggest factor here, but you can also make their visit last longer by starting a conversation. Ask them what they were looking for, and if they found it. Ask them for their opinions. Ask them to call you.
Get them to take some action, and reward them with a discount, a free sample, more information, a personal response - what you would offer if they actually stepped into your shop in person, in real life, in the real world.
Remember - each visitor is a real person, unique, one of a kind, with a specific problem they need solved. Find out more about them, more about their particular problem, and what it means to them to be able to fix it. Then show that your service - or your product - is the solution.
If you have been in business for any length of time, then this should all sound very familiar - it is old fashioned, common-sense marketing and public relations adapted for the internet. Online marketing is very similar to offline marketing. It is all about getting people to talk to you, and to talk to each other, about your solution to their problem.
How can you make sure you are investing your time and money wisely in your website? You need to measure the results of everything you do. If you advertise online, measure how many visitors arrived on your web page from that ad, and how many of those visitors became paying customers. If it was profitable, advertise more. If not, change tactics.
Consider hiring a search engine marketing consultant to help you plan and manage your online marketing campaign - a professional will be able to justify their fee by making sure your website is profitable.
I'll answer these questions in a minute, but first let me explain a few things about the search engines, and about Google in particular - because Google is the giant in the industry, with the lions share of the search market.
Google also owns Youtube, and Youtube is the number 2 search engine. Yes, you read that that right - more people use Youtube to search for information online than Yahoo or Bing.
Right now, people are looking for your products or services online, using one of the search engines. Over 80% of adults in the USA, UK and Ireland use Google to search for local products and services - even if they decide to buy offline.
But how does Google know what results to show them? And how can you help Google to find your business, and to know that it is relevant to the prospective customers search?
Here's how it works: Google sends out spiders - software programs - that read web pages, and follow the links on those pages. These spiders (Google spider is called "googlebot") send the information back to Google, and it is stored in their massive database.
Lets say you decide to look for a Search Engine Marketing Consultant to help you with your online marketing. You go to Google search, and type in "search engine marketing consultant".
Google then looks in it's database, and tries to find the most relevant results. There may be millions and millions of web pages containing this search term, or "keywords". But Googles secret algorithm will give you back a page of the top ten most relevant results within less than a second. (An algorithm is just a recipe, or list of instructions, that a computer uses to calculate an answer, or give a result of a search)
Googles algorithm looks for web pages that:
a) contain the exact phrase you used
b) have other related words on the page
c) are linked to by other webpages with related content
d) are owned by or are about somebody near you
e) if you go to one of these websites, and stay there, Google measures this, and uses it to score that website so that it shows it again, the next time you or anyone else uses the same keywords.
f) Google takes over 200 measurements into account in it's search algorithm.
So how does this information help you to get your business found on the internet by prospective customers? If you re-read the paragraphs above you will see four important concepts that you need to keep in mind when planning your online marketing campaign. Did you spot them?
1) The first principle - the "golden rule" - for getting Google to rank your web page high in the search results - is so obvious that most people miss it. Make sure that the CONTENT of your web page is RELEVANT to what your customers are searching for online. So make sure that you use the words your customers would use to describe your products and services (the "keywords" - remember this, it's very, very important). Think about it - they may not know that they need a "data analyst" or a "web analytics consultant" - they only know about the problem they are trying to solve. Your website should educate them - it must show them that your product or service solves their problem.
2) The second concept is one that is also in your control is that the structure of your website - the links between the web pages - needs to make logical sense and be easy for the googlebot spider to follow. You need to make sure that the pages each answer a specific question, or solve a particular problem. Don't make your website one long page which tries to answer everything - have a structure that is easy for people and google to read, understand, and follow. Your site navigation - how people and spiders find their way from one page to another, should be obvious, foolproof, easy to use.
3) The third concept is that the googlebots (and people browsing the web) need to be able to find your website via links from other websites. So you need to somehow get other people to put links on their web pages that lead people (and spiders) to your web pages. How?
Here are four ways of building incoming links:
a) You can get incoming links by asking people who own websites with complementary (but not competing) businesses to link to your website. Talk to your suppliers and customers first - you can reciprocate by putting a link to their website on your website, if it will be of benefit to your website visitors.
b) You can get your business, and your website, listed in online directories. These list businesses in a particular industry, or a local area, or may be general directories like the online Yellow Pages. Sometimes it may be worth spending money for a listing - Yahoo's business directory may bring you more business than the Yellow pages, for less money.
c) Make the content of your web pages so useful that people want to share it - and make it easy for them. Let them copy your content, so long as they acknowledge where they got it, and link back to the web page on your site. Put a Facebook "Like" button on each page, so people can let their Facebook friends that your website is worth visiting - this puts a link to your web page on their Facebook feed.
d) Write an article which helps people to understand your service or product and how it solves a specific problem, and publish it online to multiple article directories.
I've written this article to explain what I do for businesses to help them get more customers using the internet. You may be reading this on the isnare.com article sharing website, or one of the hundreds of other article websites that isnare will distribute it to for just $2.
At the bottom of the article you can include an authors "bio box" which contains a link back to your website. Look at my bio box below for an example of how to encourage your readers to take action and visit your website by offering something of irresistible value to them.
4) The fourth concept is the web page visitors behavior that Google will watch - and that you should always measure on your own website.
You need to convince the visitor to stay - by giving them what they are looking for. Relevant content is the biggest factor here, but you can also make their visit last longer by starting a conversation. Ask them what they were looking for, and if they found it. Ask them for their opinions. Ask them to call you.
Get them to take some action, and reward them with a discount, a free sample, more information, a personal response - what you would offer if they actually stepped into your shop in person, in real life, in the real world.
Remember - each visitor is a real person, unique, one of a kind, with a specific problem they need solved. Find out more about them, more about their particular problem, and what it means to them to be able to fix it. Then show that your service - or your product - is the solution.
If you have been in business for any length of time, then this should all sound very familiar - it is old fashioned, common-sense marketing and public relations adapted for the internet. Online marketing is very similar to offline marketing. It is all about getting people to talk to you, and to talk to each other, about your solution to their problem.
How can you make sure you are investing your time and money wisely in your website? You need to measure the results of everything you do. If you advertise online, measure how many visitors arrived on your web page from that ad, and how many of those visitors became paying customers. If it was profitable, advertise more. If not, change tactics.
Consider hiring a search engine marketing consultant to help you plan and manage your online marketing campaign - a professional will be able to justify their fee by making sure your website is profitable.
Salvatore McDonagh
If you'd like to talk to the author - Salvatore McDonagh - a Search Engine Marketing Consultant based in Ireland - about getting your business found by new customers on the internet, visit http://webmarketingireland.com to arrange your free consultation.
View all articles by Salvatore McDonagh