A few years ago, marketing online didn’t exist for most people. Now it seems that everyone is trying to figure out how to market their website or business on a larger scale. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by all of the tips and tricks, so here are my top five ways to win in internet marketing.
1.) Start with what you know
This sounds crazy I know, but starting from where you are already is one of the best things you can do as an entrepreneur. You will save a lot of time if you start with something simple like posting updates on social media or writing some content for your site.
2) Don’t be too hard on yourself
We all make mistakes sometimes. That’s totally normal! Mistakes help us grow though, because they teach us about different areas of the field. For example, when I started blogging I made lots of errors and omissions that cost me money at first. But now I have learned enough about SEO (search engine optimization) and digital marketing to fix those problems.
3) Use free resources available to you
There are always new tools coming onto the market, and almost every major company offers a student or professional account where you can access them for free. This is great because not only does it give you the tool, but also training on how to use it properly.
Starting your own business comes with its share of costs, but most of them are online expenses. You will need a domain name for your site, hosting, and WordPress, which is the platform that works best with lots of free plugins and tools you can add to make it more functional and versatile.
Hosting is what sites live on so that they have space to store information and files about the site, as well as access to resources such as Google or other search engines where people can find the site.
It’s totally okay to use free web hosts while you're in the beginning stages, but it's better to get your own domain name and hosting later on when your site has seen some success.
You'll want to pick a host that offers good customer service and easy to navigate interfaces. Find one that's close to you and go from there!
Google loves mobile friendly websites (sites that work well on mobile devices) so making yours an up-to-date mobile version is important too. Fortunately, most hosts these days offer ways to do this.
After you have mastered how to update your website, it is time to move onto another important element of running a successful business — marketing! This includes creating an online profile on all major social networking sites as well as any other websites that can help spread your brand’s message.
You should definitely be using at least one of these platforms for promoting your business, but chances are you don’t even know what ones exist or how to use them effectively. That is why this article will talk about some ways to promote your business through social media.
Start with making your own account on just one site first, then work from there. You do not need to devote significant amounts of time to each site, so feel free to focus most of your energy on only a few at a time.
Marketing your blog is not free, nor does it come with a set price tag like, say, hosting your website or buying some color-themed tights for your wardrobe. In fact, marketer of blogs do not have a standard way of talking about how much money they spend to promote their site.
But you can create effective campaigns that cost little to no money. This article will go into detail on some ways to do this. If you’re already using some types of advertising, then you can add one or more of these strategies to boost your online presence even more!
There are many different types of advertisements you can use to grow your audience.
A well-respected way to gain exposure for your business is to create content that other people can put their link or mention of your product or service. This is called guest blogging.
By writing an article targeted at your audience, you are creating content they will read and linking to someone else’s material – which both adds value to them and helps their favorite writer's website get more attention in return.
It is not enough to simply write an article and publish it - you must actively market it.
That means putting up posters and ads, promoting it on social media, and gathering some feedback from others. If you're too busy to do all of these things, then you could hire out marketing services instead. It's worth the investment if you have the resources.
But even if you don't, there are many ways to boost your online presence through creative marketing.
One of the best ways to market your blog is by encouraging people to come back and read it daily or even weekly! This will create an interactive stream of information for your site, which can increase traffic and engagement.
By leaving comments on other sites you’re drawing attention to their content, not theirs – boosting their exposure. People may also share your articles with others, creating more exposure too.
To really reap the benefits of this, though, you need to be persistent in your comments and shares. If you always have to ask permission first before doing either, they won’t happen as frequently.
And don’t just comment for comments - add value. Tell the person something about yourself, talk about the topic at hand, or what they wrote that inspired you.
One of the most important ways to market your blogging career is by linking your website with others. This can be through sharing your blog posts on social media, creating free blogs or using paid sites to promote for you.
There are many ways to link your site! You can use third-party applications to do it for you, or you can take control and create your own links.
Having an excellent, well-designed website is great, but if no one looks at it, it’s useless. Therefore, you should make sure that your design is attractive so people will want to look more in depth at your site.
As with any marketing tactic, pictures are key here. You can use still photos or videos, but make sure they clearly illustrate what you want to get across.
If there’s something about your business that sets it apart from competitors, include this information in your picture. For example, if your product is good quality bedsheets, put up some examples of nice, soft sheet material.
Your potential customers can then compare the texture and feel between yours and others’ to determine which ones are better for them. If there’t anything special about your company, skip this and just emphasize how easy it is to purchase your products and take advantage of various discounts.
A lot of people start blogging at this stage because they want an online platform where they can share their thoughts and experiences with the world. While that is a great reason to begin writing, it’s not the only one!
Some people start writing blogs to make money. Sure, you could probably do that by offering low-quality content and marketing yourself as an expert, but investing in quality content that addresses important issues will ensure that your hard work actually pays off.
Writing a blog about how to bake the best oatmeal cookies might earn you some cash, but writing about how to improve your personal relationship skills or making fun gummy bear recipes will likely reap much greater rewards.
The more you write towards your goal, the better you will get at it. So, don’t feel like you have to stick to your initial idea of what kind of blogger you want to be!
If you already have a passion or profession that involves creating content, then using that content as your template and revamping it to match your goals is totally fine! You are still writing, you just wrote about something you were passionate about before now.
