Getting your business found online can be difficult, but is key to success in today’s marketplace. With more people being at home, businesses have shifted online, and if you haven’t made that transition successfully it can be hard for customers to find your products and services.
Luckily, adding an online presence to your traditional storefront is easier than ever. Google My Business helps you connect with local customers by having your location show up in Google Maps for local searches, and can provide information for customers who are looking for what you have to offer.
In addition to Google My Business, creating a website, running some ads, and connecting with potential customers can help build credibility for your brick and mortar locations as well.
To help you make that transition and ensuring that your business can be found online, here are some tips that will help:
1 – Identify your resources
Are you a one-person show that spends your whole day providing a service or do you have enough staff so that some can spend part of their time working on marketing? It really comes down to how much time and resources you have available, and how many people you have on your team.
If you don’t have a massive budget it can be a good idea to focus on those areas where you can get the best results without investing too much money and time. A simple website can be built fairly easily, and running some ads can work as your 24/7 salesperson.
2- Define your target customers
By understanding exactly who your customers are, you will be in the best position to present your website to them.
One method of defining your typical customer is to create a persona that represents that person.
Once you have this “perfect customer” defined when you are writing advertising material or doing promotion, you can make sure you are speaking directly to your customers.
3 – Create a list of keywords related to your customers
Now that you have figured out who your customer is, you can create a list of keywords associated with their needs. You can use these words as part of your research in the next step, to ensure that you focus on those that will help yield the biggest return for your efforts.
Google Keyword Planner is a free tool that will help you search for new keywords, get search volume, and understand recent trends. This list of keywords can also be used when you are writing content for your website to help show up in search results and broaden your reach.
4 – Research and analyze
You know who they are, you also have started to build up a list of things they are interested in. Now you can now find out where the majority of these people are spending their time online. It could be Facebook, LinkedIn, or websites specific to your local area.
One of the most effective ways to find where your customers are is to join related Facebook and LinkedIn Groups, search Twitter and just keep on researching until you get a feel for where your customers tend to spend their time online.
The more information you can find out about your customers, the better focused your efforts will be.
5 – Set up a blog
Another great way to attract visibility is by setting up a blog on your website. Write authoritative and helpful articles related to your products and services. Over time this is a proven method of increasing traffic to your website.
Blogging on topics related to the search terms your customers are using is also a great way to help your website’s SEO.
If you are struggling for blog topics, OptinMonster has a great list of blog posts that are proven to work.
6- Start using Google Ads
The quickest way to bring customers to your website is to use pay per click marketing. Google Ads allows you to set your keywords so that you bring the most highly qualified traffic to your website based on what they are looking for.
Because this is a paid platform, you will want to ensure that you have tightly focused campaigns that target the right people, your highest ROI search terms, the right geographic area, and offer your most attractive products or services.
Google Ads only costs you money when someone clicks your ad, you are able to limit how much you spend per click, and can set daily budgets. All of these will help make sure that you stay on budget and don’t waste your marketing dollars.
If you aren’t sure if Google Ads is for you, contact us for a free consult to discuss how online marketing can work for your business.
Don’t be invisible
It doesn’t matter how great your website and products are if your potential customers are not able to find you online when they are looking for your products and services.
If you aren’t sure how to get started, or simply don’t have the time in the day to make the transition online, please reach out for a free consult – we want to help. We also have a website and marketing package that provides you with our full digital marketing services, plus we’ll build your website for no additional cost. To get the full details visit our marketing package page and get in touch.
