How to promote and grow your business online?
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In the digital landscape, every organization, no matter how big or small, is making its way online for the sake of expanding its business’ reach. Growing your business online is the best way you can offer your services globally and increase brand awareness as well. In case you are still figuring out, what next, and how to grow an online business, keep reading!
Well, if we were living in the early days of the internet, I could say that it would have been way easier for your business to be found online. But, eventually, the internet and people have come a long way, where there is a high surge in the number of businesses present online. A few years back, businesses used to pay for per click ads and social media promotions to engage more customers on their websites. But nowadays there are more ways to connect with new customers through several online promotion techniques. Google and Facebook ads keep changing their ads technology and provide more customizable and traceable ad performance.
Not to forget, that doing promotion for your business and leveraging the internet for advertising may not work well enough for you if you don’t make use of some great and specific tactics. But here’s the good news: growing your business online can be super cost-efficient! Yes, you heard it right. It is commonly accepted that business promotions require a huge investment. It’s not true if you have the right strategies in place.
In case you are just starting with the idea of growing your online business by promoting it on the internet, here are some exclusive tips for you, so that you can make the internet work for you!
Submit and Optimize your online business on search engines to grow your business online
The first thing you will need to do is submit your eCommerce website on search engines so that the search engines will get aware of your business. By submitting your website on search engines the probability of your business showing up in search results increases when any search related to your targeted keyword is done.
Well when people want to buy some product or service they make use of search engines, they see results regarding that and analyze the information. So if customers find your product/service on top of the search results and get engaged with your product then you’ve done a good job with SEO of your business.
According to Nine Stats, the organic listings receive over 70% of search engine traffic. Here are some other stats related to Search Engine Optimisation.
Some Tips That You Can Follow:
Let me tell you how you can help your website grow faster just by ensuring some steps. Below are the tactics for your website, that can help you grow your business online:
- Ensure that your website takes a lesser amount of time to load. Let me tell you one fact, your online website is an exact representation of your business and it’s vision.
- According to Outerboxdesign, more than 75% of smartphone users make online purchases via mobile. Not just this, around 40% of the total E-Commerce purchases were made on a mobile phone. I think I don’t need to describe anything further, the statistics say that all itself. Having a mobile-friendly web site is the most important step of the journey of growing your business online.
- Make sure that your online website is SEO friendly. Like I said in the above section, in order to grow your business online, it is very essential for your website to be recognized by the popular search engines so that you can receive traffic on your website. What you can do is to provide as much information about your products and services as you can, and the rest is up to the search engines. They will bring your target audience to you.
- Do not forget to adopt a responsive web design which will ultimately make your online website easily accessible on different screens.
Source: Nine Stats
Also Read: Steps to take your business online
Make a blog and post with top-notch content consistently
Content marketing is one of the top promotion strategies using which you can ride the waves of success. Once you learn how to make use of content marketing the internet is all yours. Well, let me give you an example to understand how content marketing helps in growing your business online. Just like you are reading this content about the topmost strategies, you are simply spending more time with us. As a result, you’re able to get the info you need through this content, and I’m getting more engagement on my website as you are spending more time on it. I’m sure now you got the message I’m trying to convey.
One of the most essential ways you can promote your business online is by assembling a blog where you can post and offer astounding substance that adds a high amount of value on a regular basis. This is unquestionably a long haul procedure, and it won’t satisfy the medium-term, however, every business person needs to comprehend the significance of grasping this online promotion technique.
It is not enough to create a blog or drive traffic by optimizing it well on search engines, but your blog also needs to establish authority. If you can turn into an expert in your industry, you’ll earn the consideration of buyers, the media, and entrepreneurs alike.
Also Read: How to create an effective and engaging marketing strategy?
Below is an image that shows content marketing is the best way to convert your customers. More people think that content marketing builds a relationship between you and your customer.
Source: LYFE Marketing
Also Read: Benefits of Having Business Online
Take help of business listings for promotion of your online business
There’s a review from searchenginewatch.com that shows 71% of clients explore and affirm a business’ area before leaving to visit that business and 22% utilize their cell phone to query the area while they’re en route.
When individual searches about any business on search engines, Google analyses that search and show results that are custom-fitted for your area. It shows the location of your business. Along these lines, it has nearly turned out to be an absolute requirement for a business to get recorded on Google Nearby.
The below stat shows that 3 / 4 of local searches on business listings turn into a purchase and people don’t prefer those businesses whose listings are incomplete.
Source: 301 Interactive Marketing
Google has made it simple to include and deal with your location on the map. Simply make a beeline for Google My Business and list your business. On the off chance that you don’t have a physical shop, you can even include your office area and give insights regarding your business.
Use Facebook and Google advertisement for promotion of your business
Promotion of your business on Google and Facebook is not free but it offers an extraordinary opportunity for achieving the correct demographics for your business. For whatever length of time that you realize your client well, you can utilize measurements like interests, geographic area, age, and numerous others, to find potential customers to send to focused landing pages.
Below is a stat from Statista that shows the share of global online advertising of Google and Facebook.
Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram can also help you a lot in growing your business online. Do you want to know how? Well, in today’s generation social media networks have millions of users on it. Simply, you can make use of social media to reach out to millions of users.
You can run targeted social media campaigns, you can make use of content marketing, you can post valuable content on a regular basis. It will eventually increase engagement on your online website. This way you will also gradually build up your online reputation and brand image.
But when we are talking about building the image of your brand on a social media platform, we must not forget that there are equal chances of deterioration. Don’t worry, all you need to do is to protect your brand image just by taking some precautionary measures by monitoring the activities on your social media account, replying to the queries of your users and being responsive towards any complaint or bad review.
Source: statista.com
Make valuable instructional videos on YouTube
Youtube offers incredible media for showcasing your business online. While you may discover some grinding at the beginning for building your group of onlookers, on the off chance that you center around making helpful instructional videos, then, eventually, you’ll achieve a huge number of subscribers in less time.
You can see some of the stats related to youtube like how people use it and how it impacts your brand.
Source: mashable.com
YouTube is an incredible asset for instructional exercises since you can show individuals pretty much anything in a straightforward arrangement. Regardless of whether you’re screen-sharing to show a technical thing, or you’re catching something in reality, simply guarantee that the nature of the account and the general substance is high. Additionally, make sure to drop a link inside the description back to pertinent substance on your site.
Use free email marketing tools for the promotion of your online business platform
As you can see in the below image a large number of consumers check their mail regularly or every day. You can promote your online business platform well with the help of email marketing. It’s one of the top ways with which you can easily and freely promote your business. You can create a free account on Mailchimp and you will get up to 12,000 messages for every month and 2,000 subscribers.
Also Read: What is Email Marketing?
Promotion of your Online Business Platform Through Email Marketing
Source: OptinMonster
Market Your Content
In case you have a domain that is not older than 2 years with a little authority builder, what you must do then is to market your content on different platforms like Quora or Medium. But my point here is that getting some early traffic on your website is never a bad option. You can make use of platforms like Medium and Quora to earn that extra traffic with the help of your content. In order to promote your business, online, content marketing is always a good option to go for.
For marketing your content on websites like Medium and Quora, your content needs to be high-quality, keyword centric, well-researched, and insightful so that it can be helpful to the users. Once the user finds your article helpful or insightful, they surely would like to visit your website and that’s how it works.
How does it help? Once you link that article to the primary article on your website, you will be able to earn more traffic and increase your ranking on Google SERP. And that will ultimately benefit your website.
Also Read: Online Business Vs Offline Business
Leverage Instagram
Out of all the social media platforms, Instagram is the one which is most popular these days and it shortly can help you promote your business. Let me tell you how!
The power of social media in today’s generation is completely undeniable. And when it comes to the point of making use of social media to promote your business, there are many things that you need to know. Social media platforms can instantly help you to drive huge traffic to your website. But this is only possible when your content on social media platforms is engaging and creative.
But as a beginner how do you reach out to those millions of people who are on social media networks? The algorithms and visibility of Instagram will not work in your favor when you don’t have the reach. In that case, you can make use of social media influencers which can be also termed as amplifiers. They will simply amplify your reach by promoting your content on social media with their millions of followers. This promotion won’t be free but it will help you reach a wider selection of audiences in a lesser period of time.
Make Use of Rich Snippets
In order to get some early exposure, you can simply make use of rich snippets like AMP (Accelerated Mobile Page) and FIA (Facebook Instant Articles), to earn a little grip through your content.
How do the rich snippets work?
Rich snippets are only applicable to a number of blogs and articles through the AMP specification, local business, recipes, movies, videos, TV, and reviews. In a nutshell, utilizing rich snippets will increase your Google ranking and your visibility.
Also Read: Checklist to start an eCommerce business
Apply the 80-20 Rule to grow your business online
The Pareto principle which is also known as the 80 20 rule basically states that 80% of the results can be derived by 20% of the efforts. What it means is that the result we achieve is only derived from the small fraction of our efforts.
But there is another scenario of this rule which applies to sales marketing, where 80% of the revenue is derived from 20% of the clients.
All you need to do as a business is to identify those clients who are contributing the most in your income. As a result, you will be simply able to scale your business by sending those clients additional offers and discounts on the products and services. While growing your business online, implementing the 80/20 rule is a beneficial move.
Sell to the Existing Customers
It’s never a bad option to increase the trust and interest of your existing customers. In fact, it is even more affordable and easy as compared to finding new customers and approaching them. With the existing customers who once already had tried your products, it becomes easy to make them by your other products and services.
You can start by simply offering or free shipping to your existing customers. Not just this, you can even reward their loyalty with your brand as a gesture via customer loyalty cards. It’s a common technique that really works in boosting the sales and profits of an organization. So, in order to grow your business online, you must make use of it.
Target Other Groups
When we say marketing we must include every activity that can increase your customer base. It’s good to focus on your target audience but it’s not good to only focus on your target audience. As a business, you must make efforts to expand your customer reach and look for new customers from other domains or groups as well.
To grow your business online, you must think or sell your products and services to even those customers who have the slightest chance of buying it.
Grow your online business by Affiliate Marketing
Never forget to add affiliate marketing to your online marketing strategy. It is one of the best ways to increase sales on your online store.
Understanding affiliate marketing is very simple. Whenever an affiliate brings you the sale, you reward them which makes affiliate marketing a performance-based marketing strategy. In order to create an affiliate strategy for your business, you must need an affiliate software. It will make management easy for you and will save you time.
Partnership With Other Local Businesses
Increasing the scope of your business is a very important practice for the growth of your online business. It will not only drive you more traffic but will also increase the visibility of your business.
Out of several marketing strategies partnering with local businesses is the most efficient and effective one. It will enrich your customer base by bringing the customers from your partner’s business website as well.
Optimize your website for M-Commerce
As a business, you must know that more than 75% of internet users now own a smartphone. If you are lacking in M-commerce, then the impact can be real use on your business. We are in the year 2020, and by now if your online website is not mobile responsive then you seriously need to worry.
According to estimation, more than 50% of e-commerce sales by the end of the year 2020 will be made via mobile. Ultimately, I’m trying to convey that you must optimize your website for M-commerce so that there is no hindrance between your business and your potential customer.
From successfully building your business online from scratch and taking it to the next level, team Cedcommerce does it all. We provide a wide variety of solutions and services which ensure the smooth operation of your entire selling campaign. Our expert service includes – eCommerce website development, PWA solution, store speed optimization, migration from one platform to another, custom extension development, consultation service, digital marketing and SEO, building personalized solutions based on seller’s need, theme customization and much more.
More than 11,000 sellers from all around the world trust CEDCOMMERCE solutions and services. So what’s stopping you?
Conclusion:
There can be more methods for promoting your business online. You can promote the reviews of your clients to build more trust in your visitors. Do guest blogging and collaborate with influencers that will help you in promoting your business. Some of the strategies referenced above will yield results right away and some of them may take long stretches of time before you begin getting results.
Do you have such thoughts? Don’t hesitate to impart it to other readers in the remarks underneath.