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Online Marketing – Back to Basics

get your word out back to basics

Recently I've heard from others how confused they are about the whole process of promoting their message to others on the internet.  There is so much information out there they don't know where to start or what is important.This set me thinking let's go back to basics and help with a step by step guide to marketing online.

Where to Start

Where to start! Many people start with social media. Social Media does play an important part in promoting your message to others, assessing opinions, the support out there, and the demand for your products and services. However, social media should not be where you stay. You need your own ‘platform' online. Your own ‘piece of real estate', as I like to call it, on the internet. Third party platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, You Tube, Pinterest, Instagram are all owned by other people who can at any time change their minds about how they will run them. Too many people have had their accounts shut down for something they have said or done. This can have devastating affects if they have been too reliant on them to ‘get their word out'.

Build a website

Where you should start is with your own website. Your ‘piece of real estate' that you control. You can decide what to write about and include on your own website without the danger of being shut down. Once you have your own website set up you can share your content such as blog posts, videos, audios, and more with social media platforms and offline to attract others to what you have to offer. When you meet with prospective clients online and offline you have a home online where you can send them to find out more about you. A place that you can set up how you like and not a design dictated by others.

Become Visible to Others

We shall be looking at how to set up your website in a later blog post but for now let's assume it is now up and running. The next step is becoming visible to others. There are so many websites out there the question now becomes how to become visible to others. How to attract people who may be interested in what you have to offer. This is when you have to decide who you want to attract. Who is your ‘target audience' as we marketers call it. Have you ever thought about who is your ideal prospect?  It's time to take action and work this out. In order to be visible online these days you need to be clear on who you are trying to attract. Then you can write and produce content that is directed at them and promote your message to those wanting to hear what you have to say.

In an upcoming blog post I shall be looking at how to find your target audience, your ideal prospect. People who are more likely to want to hear what you have to say or buy the products and services you have to offer them. In the meantime why not think about how you want your website to look.

Until next time

Look after yourself

Anne

I'm small business mentor and marketing strategist, Anne Elizabeth Perez and would love to connect with you. If you are new to the world of business ownership please check out my training on boost your visibilityand discover how to increase the size of your audience

How attractive is your website?

The internet has grown up. It's been more than 20 years since the first website was created by Tim Berners-Lee in 1991. There are now over a billion websites online!! The first site was text only and looked like this:

It can be seen at http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html. When it first came out the barebones website was designed to explain the World Wide Web to newcomers. It was considered amazing in those days. A website which looked like this today would not however get much attention.

Websites can be cold and uninviting unless you offer viewers treats and inspiring content. You have only a few seconds to attract people to stay. However, you can turn your website into a favourite stop on the internet by adding rich content that makes your site useful, interesting and fun to visit.

In some respects you can apply the human attraction characteristics to what makes attractive websites. The website should have a pleasing ―personality for example. It should be inviting and easy to interact with. You should be able to understand what it is saying.

It is frustrating to visit a website you know has good information and be unable to find it. It doesn‘t take long for people to abandon a site they can‘t manoeuvre through or around easily. Links should be well-placed and obvious. Did you know that the space a link occupies can affect your sales? Move a link from the bottom corner of a page to the top of the page (above the fold) where it‘s eye level and sales will rise.

Here are a few more tips to consider when creating your website.

  • Include high quality content
  • Keep instruction simple because viewers aren‘t going to read an instruction manual to learn how to click around the website
  • Make it easy for customers to find the important links like product listing or descriptions
  • Make sure the background and text colors mix well and that text is easily readable
  • Keep opt-in forms or subscriber boxes very basic
  • Writing should be grammatically correct and error free
  • Don‘t try to be cute because it annoys people who are just trying to find and buy what they need and want to get the job done as quickly as possible
  • Keep the website fairly simple and don‘t let it get too busy looking or too ―stuffed‖
  • Make sure all the links on the website work properly

If you want to “Get your word out” using a website make sure it is attractive and functional and place on the internet that visitors want to stop by.

I'm small business mentor and marketing strategist, Anne Elizabeth Perez and would love to connect with you. If you are new to the world of business ownership please check out my training on boost your visibilityand discover how to increase the size of your audience

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