How to Find More Customers and Increase Your Online Business

If your business has an Internet presence (and let’s face it, for most businesses it’s an essential requirement these days), you should constantly be on the lookout for new and innovative ways to increase your customer base.

Here are some simple ideas for winning new customers:

Discover Your Target Customers’ Other Interests:

If you are selling health-related products, for example, you probably already market via health forums, health blogs and other places where ‘health’ is the main topic of conversation. This is all well and good, but remember this is where your competitors will be concentrating their main marketing efforts too. So this time ask yourself: “What might my ideal customers’ other interests be?”

Although your customers are interested in staying healthy, they could also be avid sports fans, or movie buffs, or pet lovers, or DIY enthusiasts, so it’s worth casting your net further afield so that other potential customers get to hear about you and your products or services. Bear in mind also that people with the same interests tend to group together, whether that’s in the real world or the virtual one!

Vary Your Offering:

You know you provide a great product or service, but getting more people to try it can be a challenge, even for larger companies. Every now and then, a ‘household name’ will change the look of a product’s packaging (even though the product itself hasn’t changed) to appeal to a wider audience, or a different market sector. You could do the same.

If you are selling an ebook, you could turn it into a downloadable podcast for those who would rather listen to the spoken word than read your content. Again if you use video as a marketing tool, you could enable your site visitors to upload it to their MP3s so they can listen to it anywhere they want. By providing these additional options, people can choose how they connect with you.

Offer Free Stuff

Whilst you might not be ready to launch your own Freemium (free premium magazine) as seen on a recent episode of The Apprentice! giving away free content is a time-proven marketing tool for pulling in more customers.

If used correctly, this strategy may be all you need to get people to pick up that phone
and call you, or subscribe to your online newsletter.

If you are an estate agent, you could create a free report about "How to get more value from your home sale."

By creating content around a specific title like in the above example, you will primarily attract people who are considering selling their property. In building a rapport with your target audience, while establishing yourself as an expert in your field, who do you think your followers are going to ask to market their home for them?

Other freebies you could offer depending on the nature of your business:

 Free shipping
 Free sample of your products
 Free trials
 Free estimates
 Free DVD tutorials
 Free personalised stuff (with your company name on, naturally).


Use Social Networking to Attract More Customers:

There’s nothing more tedious than companies banging on about themselves and their achievements all the time. Savvy social networkers on the other hand provide entertainment without the hard sell. Innocent smoothies, with their amusing anecdotes and off-the-wall humour, are a prime example of how to do social networking right.

Think about how powerful these social networks are in spreading news and information. So be the source that influences other people. How do you do it? Look for the "in thing" or the "hottest trends" that could interest your potential customers and share it with them. Use Google Reader to glean this information.

Website

Most importantly you should have a website which matches or over delivers your potential customer's expectations. Using a professional Lutterworth Website Design team could help you to increase your web presence and sales.

Making the Most of Internet Marketing

To gain as much exposure for your business as possible you will need to consider internet marketing. This article provides you with information on a few key areas that you might like to consider.

Marketing a home business has never been easier, with so many different options for advertising available. Internet marketing has helped many small businesses become successful and profitable in their own right and provides a quick and easy way to speak to your target audience no matter where they live. If you do not have the budget for a more costly, larger marketing campaign such as TV and radio, then you may wish to try internet marketing. There are a number of different options available so pick the one which is most suited to your type of business and budget and that will help you reach your customers.

1.Google AdSense

This is simply a program that will let you generate income by placing text or image ads from other companies onto your website and in turn you advertise on the pages of other sites. Be sure to choose sites that are related to the products or service that you offer. It will also allow you to filter out ads from your competition which could otherwise hinder your success.

AdSense will place your ads over the web and will then generate back links to your site to help improve your search engine ranking. You should be aware that these are not the annoying pop up ads that often appear when you visit a website but are actually placed on the site itself.

2. Banner Ads

This type of internet marketing often takes the form of animated or visually appealing graphics that appear across the top of a web page. These ads will be linked back to your website so that if someone clicks on them they will be taken straight there. Be sure to make them eye catching and offer an incentive for them to click; however be warned that many find these annoying so keep them relatively simple.

3. Online magazines

This type of internet marketing will offer you ad space, normally for a fee but this will depend upon how popular the magazine is and the cost will vary depending on how big your ad is. This can be a great way to advertise since you can find a magazine related to your business area so you know that those reading will have an interest in what it is you do.

How to make Banner Ads work for you!

Banner ads are a great way to gain attention for your website by attracting people to click on your ad links. This short article will give you some areas to consider in order to get started.

These days advertising your business using internet marketing is not only incredibly popular but is also one of the best ways to find new custom. One method of marketing that has been around for some time and still proves popular is using banner ads or web banners. This type of marketing is still amongst the most efficient ways of advertising when it comes to internet marketing.

You will no doubt have seen the many banner ads at the top of websites and forums that you have visited and you may have even clicked on these yourself. They can really help to catch people’s attention and once they are clicked on they will quickly and simply take you straight to that company’s website. Many businesses add special offers and discounts on their ads to help encourage people to click and visit so this could be worth considering.

1. Areas to Consider

If you want to get the best out of your internet marketing then you need to think carefully about exactly where and how you place you ads and which websites to use. It is vital that the site you choose to place your ad on has a similar target audience so that they will be likely to have an interest in what it is you do or sell.

Make sure that when you work out the budget for your business you also factor in the costs of internet marketing as this is an important consideration. Placing one of your ads in a prime position at the top of a popular website is not going to be cheap, but it may well help you gain a large number of customers which will in turn increase your income. Remember that every time a visitor clicks to your website it greatly improves your chances of a sale.

2. Getting the most from your Banner Ads

By creating and using banner ads effectively you should find that you enhance traffic, sales, and profits from your site. However you will need to make sure that the content of your ad provides the correct information and really helps to encourage visitors to use your business but without being annoying! Be sure to spend your marketing budget wisely and choose sites that attract a lot of visitors already and are likely to be used by your target audience to increase your exposure. Also make sure that your ad fits in with the style and image of the website that you have chosen

Different Methods of Online Marketing

With so many different options for marketing online it is important that you choose the one that is right for your business. This short article outlines a few of the main types that you may like to consider.

There are a huge number of options available to you regarding the marketing of your business. To begin with you might like to try some of the free methods alongside the paying options to allow you to put your money into other areas of the business. Listed below are just some of the marketing options that are available to you along with a brief explanation of how these will work.

1.Article Marketing

With this method of marketing you need to write and then submit articles to various online web article directories. This allows you to talk about what it is you do and related areas that others may find interesting. Within the article you will often find a box allowing you to write a little about yourself in which you can also include a back link to your website. This allows you to promote your website and drive traffic to it quickly and easily as well as increasing your search engine ranking. The majority of sites are free to use although some may require payment.

2.Forum Marketing

Another great free method of marketing is using forums related to your line of business. These allow you to join in discussions, talk about what it is you do with like minded people and also promote your website. Be sure to integrate yourself into the community first to avoid alienating people. This can be a great way to generate traffic towards your website.

3.Pay Per Click Advertising

This type of marketing is a paid service in which you pay the service provider when your link is clicked. It has proved to be very popular and effective and there are a number of sites to choose from including Google and Yahoo.

4.Viral Marketing

With viral marketing you are required to have something useful or interesting that can be passed onto others via email. This could be something like an e-book or a piece of software; as long as it is something that others will want. By doing this it can help to spread links to your website as well as promoting your business with minimum effort.

5.Press Releases

This is a similar method of marketing to writing articles as you are required to create a press release to promote and inform others of your business. You can then submit them to one or more press release sites online, many of which are free to use. This can be a great way to really explain to potential customers what it is you do as well as promoting any offers you are running and creating back links to your website.

All of these can be time consuming and so it may be something you cold look to outsource to a business consultant to manage for you.

How to get the most out of Forum Marketing

Forum marketing is a great way to speak directly to those most interested in what it is your offer or sell. However you need to make sure that you approach this type of marketing with care.

Marketing your business is an important consideration if you want it to be as successful and profitable as possible. There are a number of different ways that you can approach this but just one of the more modern methods is using forums as a platform for your marketing. Forum marketing can be an incredibly profitable exercise for those that have just set up their business as they allow you to attract traffic to your website for free! For those just starting out this is a key factor as it means you can invest more money into other areas. Once you begin to make a profit you can then consider other methods of marketing that may require some sort of payment.

1.Making Forum Marketing Work

It is vital that you do adequate research as to which forums you should use as if you target the wrong forums you could be wasting a lot of time and effort. Spend some time trying to find those that are related to what it is you do or sell so that you are attracting the right people who may be interested. Some simple research which could be useful to you can be outsourced to a marketing consultant.

Once you have found several forums it is important that you do not launch straight into marketing yourself and your business. In order to make this type of marketing work for you it is vital to first become an established member and build up your credibility. If you tend to just spam the forum you will either be ignored or deleted so try to post on a regular basis and provide useful information and responses to other members in order to establish a good reputation.

You will no doubt discover that many forums allow you to have a signature of some sort that appears after your posts. This is crucial for your successful marketing as it lets others know about your website and what you do. Spend some time making one that is eye catching and appealing but that will not annoy others or take a long time to load as you may be asked to remove it. Be sure to include a link that will take the person straight to your website as the easier it is for them the more likely they are to visit. By having links on a number of forums you should find that it helps to boost your search engine rankings. Try to post regularly on different forums and you should soon be able to drive targeted visitors to your site!

How to Make Pay Per Click Marketing Work for you

You may not have considered pay per click marketing before but it can be a great way to get people to your website. Read on to find out how to approach this for maximum success.

If you are looking for a way of marketing your business but want something a little different then you could consider Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising. This is said to help to direct large volumes of traffic towards your website to help spread the word about your business. In recent times it has been promoted mainly through the use of Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, programs and many businesses will now devote much of their marketing budget to advertising in this way since it can be so profitable.

1.Getting Started

In order to get the most out of PPC marketing you will need to have a good understanding of your client base and the keywords that they will use in order to search for what you offer. Using keywords is the ideal way to optimize your PPC campaign so it is worth considering certain long tailed keywords that are perhaps not as competitive and therefore less costly for your business. Ultimately this will help to generate traffic that is targeted to your business and will therefore hopefully provide you with higher click through rates and sales.

If you would like to make it easier to discover the keywords that your competitors use and how well these work then it is possible to use free PPC web spy software. By doing this you will be able to trace the keywords that are being used by successful businesses which can save you a lot of time and effort in the long run.

2.Managing your PPC Marketing

The overall success of your marketing will of course depend upon how well you manage your PPC campaign and how you keep track of those that visit your site afterwards. If you leave it to just do its own thing you may find that you miss out generating even more traffic, so be sure to make sure it is working effectively.

3.PPC Marketing Programs

There are a range of PPC advertising programs available for you to use but perhaps the most widely used are Google AdWords and Yahoo Search Marketing. Setting up a PPC campaign does need to be carefully undertaken or it can be costly a business consultant should be able to help you with this.
The benefit of PPC marketing is that it reaches the target audience quickly and really helps to generate sales leads. However in some cases it can be costly and its worth does depend upon leads that are converted to sales. For this reason be sure to choose the right keywords and include these in all parts of your PPC ads for maximum effect.

RSS Marketing Explained

RSS marketing is not particularly well known and many overlook this great way of advertising their business. This short article explains what RSS marketing is and how best to approach it.

If you are looking for a way of marketing your business online for free then you could try Really Simple Syndication, or RSS. Many people these days have blogs of some sort but are not necessarily quick to realize the importance of RSS feeds and just how good they can be for driving traffic to your business website. As with a standard newsletter the person must decide to opt in as a way to receive the feed and will then receive updates as you make them. For many this is a quick and easy way of keeping up to date with sites that interest them and can therefore be a great marketing tool.

1.Why Use RSS?

There are a number of reasons why you should use RSS as part of your marketing, including that it is a simple and free method of advertising. It is an ideal way to make sure that people do not forget about you as once they have subscribed they will always receive your new posts and articles which helps keep your business fresh in their minds. It also means they do not need to subscribe and receive yet more emails in their inbox; although it is a good idea to also offer your feed by email as another option as some may prefer this.

You will also find that using RSS marketing will help to drive more traffic towards your website as well as increasing your ranking with search engines. It can be a great way to build a relationship with potential customers or distributors since they begin to get to know you as a person. RSS feeds can help you to earn the trust of your subscribers who may then decide to buy or use your service later.

2.Setting up your RSS feed

The simplest way to get started is to create a blog dedicated to what it is you do and which provides information on topics related to your business. Once you have done this and activated the feed setup you will need to make sure that the content you post is regular, informative, interesting and well written to make others want to subscribe to you. Remember that the aim of a blog is to interact with others and provide them with information so try to get your readers involved if possible and offer discounts or offers to subscribers as an incentive. There are a number of good blog sites available including blogger and WordPress which will make setting up an RSS marketing feed quick and easy!
If you need assistance on RSS marketing speak to a marketing consultant and they will be able to help you.