6 Easy Ways to Market Your Small Business Website
Published on 22nd February 2018
For small businesses, attracting more people onto your website is often the most cost-effective way to promote your products and services, create local brand awareness, and show potential customers what you can offer them.
Fortunately, there are many quick and easy ways to market your website – and therefore your products and services - for free.
Here are our top methods for promoting your small business website and reaching more customers online:
1. Marketing materials
Always ensure that your web address is clearly displayed on all marketing materials that you have created, whether printed or digital. This includes leaflets, PDF documents, and business cards that may find their way to potential customers.
It is also advisable to include the website address at the end of email signatures, so whomever you are in communication with has easy access to your website.
2. Social media
Social media is perhaps the most popular form of online marketing, since it is free and relatively easy to use. Therefore, it is advisable to have accounts such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and sometimes even Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, and Snapchat, depending on the industry you are in. You can find more information about how to choose the right social media network for your business in our post all about social media marketing.
In order to direct traffic back to your website, your posts should include website links as often as possible – these could take the form of blog posts that you have recently published, product pages, information about your team, and more.
Relevant hashtags and keywords are also useful for directing your target customer base back to your website.
3. Emails
Email is one of the most widely used forms of online marketing, and almost all businesses have a mailing list compiled of people interested in their company.
It is vital to utilise this list and, if you do not have one yet, be sure to make one.
Emails can lead to regular correspondence with a customer base via newsletters and updates, and this can result in an increase in web traffic if you regularly include links to your website within these emails.
Similarly, you can increase the number of subscribers to these emails by including a sign-up form on your website if it integrates with an email marketing service such as MailChimp, as our Max and Commerce websites do.
In addition, email is a classic form of online communication and appeals to people from all age groups, in ways that all social media accounts do not.
Just make sure you have your email recipients’ permission to send them regular communication, in order to keep your business GDPR compliant.
4. Forums
Participation in forums allows you to meet like-minded people and engage with them about your business, whether as a fellow entrepreneur or as the provider of a service.
Popular forums such as Reddit and Quora are completely free and have a vast following, and posting as yourself with the URL of your website included is almost guaranteed to increase traffic to your website. Facebook and LinkedIn groups can also be utilised in a similar way and have the advantage of being on popular social media websites which means there is a bigger chance of your posts reaching the target audience.
Again, it is necessary here to use the appropriate forum for your brand. Companies with more serious goals and products may choose LinkedIn as their prime platform, whereas brands which seek to promote the individual behind the product as well as the product itself may choose Facebook or Quora.
5. Online listings
Listing your business, alongside your website address, online is another great way to encourage people to visit your site and discover your company.
The most effective place to get your business listed is on Google My Business. All you need to do is create a free account and fill out your business details, and then once verified, your business will start to appear on Google Maps and in search results when people look for a local business. Your customers can also leave you reviews through Google My Business – the more positive reviews you receive, the more people are likely to click through to your website.
You should also get your business listed in as many local and national online directories and relevant online trade directories as possible to increase the chances of people seeing your business. By including a link to your website in every listing, you’ll benefit from potential customers who are already searching for services like yours visiting your website to find out more information.
6. Partnerships
Another popular way to boost your website’s visibility is to align yourself with similar or complementary businesses and form partnerships, which will ultimately benefit both of you in the long run.
You can offer a discount on a combination of products and even guest post on each other’s blogs with links back to your own websites. For example, a holiday resort could join with a car-rental company to provide transport packages for people who book with their hotel. This way, website traffic for both businesses will go up.
Website marketing doesn’t have to be expensive, difficult, or even overly time-consuming. With these 6 simple steps, you should be able to encourage more potential customers to visit your website and engage with your business no matter the size of your marketing budget.
If attracting new visitors onto your small business website isn’t the issue, but keeping them on your website is, it may be time for a much-needed update. Talk to our team today to find out how we can help you reach new customers with a professionally designed and affordable new website.
Tagged as: online marketing, social media marketing
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