Marketing your product or service on the Internet is no longer a simple matter of having an effective website that is a top "hit" in web searches. If it ever was that simple!
The Internet and other electronic communication offer you a wide array of marketing tools via social networking websites and email. Each of these tools can build your presence online. If used effectively, they can drive visitors to your website, independent of a Web search.
In an ideal situation, you will have a strategy for using each of these tools to build your business's presence online.
From a marketing perspective, the two most commonly used social media sites are LinkedIn and Facebook. At a minimum, your business should have a presence on both.
That presence should include a graphic or photo that has the same look and feel as your website, a brief promotional statement about your business and a link to your home page. But what else can you do to take advantage of these two social media sites?
LinkedIn has a business orientation, and your business should appear there. You and your key employees should also have a LinkedIn presence. Anything you post in your profile or your company's profile should focus on your business or industry.
Keep the information short and succinct. Update the LinkedIn profile as frequently as you can. Add new information and content to your company's website, rather than adding it to a social media site.
Keep your LinkedIn content current by updating the business profile whenever you add content to your website or are mentioned on another website. Here are some suggestions about useful updates to your LinkedIn content:
• Links to new information on your website
• Highlights of your blogs
• "News briefs" when you or your business appear in the press
• Links to other websites where you or your business is mentioned
• Links to your guest blogs on other websites
Facebook has a much more informal look and feel. Although your business should have a presence there, it should have a more personal look and feel. Some businesses create promotions that are oriented to Facebook. Facebook is also a good place to maintain appropriate information about you and your employees.
In addition to social media, e-mails are an effective way to keep in touch with your client and encourage them to visit your website or business location. Research suggests that emails are more effective at getting people to the website than any other electronic tool.
It's a good idea to build your own e-mail list. This gives you a way to gauge visits to your website and to identify people who are interested in your products or services. You can regularly let people know when you have news or updated content. You can also make special offers to drive people to the business or create an e-newsletter that you send regularly to your customers.
Stay tuned to future blog for more specific ideas about using the Web's many electronic tools to build and market your business.
As always, you can help us assure that every blog post in this series provides you with tangible suggestions and ideas for building or improving your website. Please share your ideas, comments, questions and suggestions with us. Feel free to leave comments below or email Judy at
[email protected].
Judy Cobb is an independent writer and business writing coach whose clients have included Parsons Engineering, Mattel Toys, The Los Angeles Times and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She has specialized in developing training materials for instructor-led courses as well as interactive online courses and websites. She holds advanced degrees from Columbia University and Stanford as well as an MBA from UCLA's Anderson Graduate School of Management.
Thanks for reading. Jason.
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