This is the age of digitalization. With the rapid increase in the usage of the Internet over the years, it has created many business opportunities.

 

Each and every person is using the Internet which makes it the best place for marketing your stuff. It is said, “Be there, where your customers are.” Large Scale Businesses are already using digital space for increasing their traffic but small businesses still afraid to come online and market themselves. They are not realizing the advantage of their exposure to the online world. 

 

If you wish to generate good revenue through your business then it is advised to expand your business digitally. In today’s time, people don’t think you are reliable if you are not on a digital platform.

 

A lot of small businesses register themselves on the marketplace and sell their products. Similarly, Bulb and Key help it’s creators to get a platform through which they get their orders and are able to market themselves. This helps them to save their time, money and effort.

 

In traditional marketing, a lot of money and time is wasted on advertisements and other marketing strategies, but they don’t know which customers will respond to them. You just keep on marketing everything to everyone.

 

The advantage that online marketing brings is that you can actually analyze your potential customers and then invest your money and time only for them.

 

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So, below are a few pointers that have to be kept in mind when promoting your small business online.

 

1. Know Your Target Audience

 

 

The biggest advantage that online marketing gives is that you can analyze the customers and know who your target audience is. Target Audience is the set of people who are potential customers for your business.

 

When you know your target audience right, it helps you to come up with better strategies for your business. The analysis of your target audience can be on the basis of age, location, gender, income and so on.

 

2. Do Competitor Analysis

 

 

To be ahead in the race, you must know what your competitors are doing. You should have a keen eye on the business strategies they are following. This helps you understand their idea of business. You and your competitors generally have the same target audience, so you have to know where you are lagging behind and how others are doing better than you.

 

3. Your Website Should Be User-Friendly

 

 

The user entering in your website could be anyone. He may not know technical jargon of your industry and even would not know how to properly access a website. You should always think from your customer’s point of view.

 

Your website should be that friendly that whichever user comes in, he should be able to understand everything what your trying to tell. If the user doesn’t have a good experience, he is not going to come back and also won’t refer it to anyone else. A user friendly interface is a must for growing your business online

 

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4. Creative And Engaging About Us Page

 

 

When someone wants to know about your business, the first thing they will do is landing on your About Us Page. Make your About Us page more authentic, so that people can actually believe you. The first thing that you do is to analyze your target audience and then start writing your content. The content should be easy to read, understandable and humble. You can make it as creative as possible but don’t lose the essence of your story.

 

5. Give Strong Call To Action

 

 

Call To Action is something that user clicks when he is convinced by your work and wants to associate with you. This is the purpose of driving traffic to your platform. CTAs in a way helps the user to engage with the business platform. You can design it creatively so that user is bound to click it.

 

The most common types of CTAs are:

 

• Forms – It helps in the conversion of customers into leads.
• Leads – Most of the websites have newsletters etc. through which the business get user’s information
• Service Discovery
• Share (Mostly on social media platforms)
• Event Alerts
• Continue Reading

 

6. Make Effective Strategies For Business

 

 

You should regularly update your strategies for business and know the latest trends in the market. Everything changes rapidly in the business world and you should be ready to upgrade your strategies or else you will be left out in the market.

 

Read:- Competitive Analysis For Your Small And Home-Based Business

 

7. Push Quality Content

 

 

Quality is always preferred over quantity. The same goes with online content as well. People have a very short attention span on digital platforms. They are not bound to read anything which they don’t find attractive. Content always has to be unique and engaging.

 

No one likes to read and share invaluable content. Content like blogs, website content, social media captions, videos, articles about your business helps to generate a lot of traffic on your platform. Use of proper hashtags on social media is also very important for getting relevant traffic.

 

8. Increase Your Social Media Presence

 

 

When you are taking your business online, it is a must to have your presence on various social media platforms. Social media helps to directly connect with people. Social media is the most popular platform for promoting business. You get feedback from the audience which helps you to grow better.

 

Social Media Marketing brings the following advantages.

 

• Better Search Engine Rankings – It helps you to rank better on Google.
• More interaction with the audience – You can interact with people and can know their opinions about your business.
• Brand Awareness – Through social media, you get a wider reach of audience.
• Increased Conversion Rates – It helps to improve conversions for your business.

 

9. Email Marketing

 

 

More than 55% of marketers says, “Email Marketing is one of the most cost effective ways of online marketing.” This comes under permission based marketing where you ask people to send them mail and when they agree you tell them about your business. Tools like Mail chimp are used for sending out mail to customers.

 

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10. Use Free Marketing Tools

 

 

There are numerous free marketing tools available out there. You should learn these tools and become a master of your game. Below are some of the tools that will help you do online marketing better.

 

• Canva
• BuzzSumo
• Tweriod
• Spyfu
• Grammarly

 

11. Try To Increase Word Of Mouth

 

 

For any person, the most reliable source is the other person’s opinion. He will believe people more than any About Us page or Social Media pages. So, word of mouth plays a very essential role in marketing.

 

It’s very important to know what people are talking about you in the online market. When people say good things about you, your business automatically becomes a ‘talk of the town’. This is one of the traditional but most effective strategies for marketing.

 

12. Improve Customer Support Experience

 

 

Everyone likes people who help them. Similarly, users who are using your products and services will definitely want that if they get stuck somewhere, you should be available to solve their queries and problems. This is the best way to build rapport with them. If they are happy with your service, there are high chances that they will come back to you and will also recommend to others. So, always keep in mind, treat your customers well and go out of the way to solve their problems. This will surely help in growing your business.

 

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Conclusion

 

When you run a small business, you don’t really think that you can have a wider reach of audience. You somewhat get comfortable in your own zone and are afraid to expand your business online. For all those, it’s a good opportunity to realize that you can reach out to a lot of people who may be interested in your products and services.

 

More than 70% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations from real people. This is the power of online marketing of your business.

 

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