It is not until you start your own business that you realize just how much goes into it. How much you need to know, and how many skills you actually need.
Marketing is something that catches many hopeful yet naive new entrepreneurs out, as they are firmly of the belief that if you build it, they will come. They open their digital doors and wait for the custom to come flooding in and their products to fly into baskets – and it just does not happen. They scratch their heads and cannot figure out why, since what they are selling is good quality and useful and is priced fairly.
Of course, what they are missing is marketing and promotion, and it is such a huge element of succeeding in business.
Regardless of what you do or what you sell, there will be other companies out there doing the same (or at least something similar) so competition is fierce. Not only do you need to get your business out there to be seen by the right people, but you also need to persuade them why they should buy from you, as opposed to your more established competitors. You need to have some understanding of marketing, even if you are planning on outsourcing and not tackling the job yourself.
Here are some of the basics that are well worth knowing.
SEO – Organic Search Results
SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process of getting buyers through organic/ natural search results. It is the process of using a linking strategy and the right keywords, so that when a customer searches for businesses or products like yours, yours will be one of the first to show.
Research has shown repeatedly that most traffic is gained through the top few results in search engines. If your business is way down at the bottom of page one, or not showing on page one at all then you are going to be missing on the majority of customers.
You can improve the SEO of your website in a number of ways; the first is to write a blog. Integrating a blog with a website means each time new content is going out, it’s a chance to be indexed by search engines crawlers. You can use keywords that people are likely to be searching for when they’re looking for a business like yours, but take the guesswork out of it by using Google’s keyword planner (if you pick longtail keywords there will be less competition).
Remember, blog posts should always be written for readers and not for search engines. Keyword stuffing and creating poor content just to try to get it to rank highly will actually hinder your efforts and can see you penalized. Work on creating a blog that’s informative and interesting and that people are likely to share. Link to your own products in a natural way, using them more as reference links rather than being directly promotional. Tactics like ‘buy our stuff!’ just don’t work; people don’t want things forced down their throat. You have to go about things in a more tactical way, for example, if you sell clothes you could talk about celebrity outfits. If you sell something that’s similar to what a celeb wore, you could link to it as a budget alternative.
SEM – Paid or Promotional Methods
SEM is the process of gaining web traffic by purchasing ads on search engines. Take Google’s AdWords for example, this great platform enables you to show your ads to certain kinds of people (those that your research has told you are buying your product). Choose keywords that connect your business to words that people will be searching for, again, Google keyword planner will come in useful here. Building great ads is something that takes proper planning, you’ll need to highlight your USP and include prices and promotions. You’ll want to use a ‘call to action’ in the ad, this is a button that says something like ‘shop now’ or ‘speak to an advisor’ so that the customer can directly get to where they’re going. Ensure that the landing page is correct here, you’ll want to link to where the call of action has stated and not just your homepage. You can find advanced automations for Google Ads to make things easier if you’re not sure, and generally make your ads the best they can be without as much effort.
Search Engine Marketing was once an umbrella term used to describe both SEO and paid activities for gaining traffic. However, it’s now defined as paid methods only. Therefore, the difference between SEO and SEM is that one is paid, and the other is organic. You will need to understand and utilize both methods when it comes to successfully promoting your business.