In today’s digital age, having robust strategies for promoting your online business is essential if you want to succeed.
Why? Because the only way to sell your products or services online is if you’ve established a strong web presence. It is key to building brand awareness and generating leads that will eventually turn into customers.
With over 2.14 billion people buying goods and services online, being visible online is the only way to stay ahead of your competition. But the question is: how do you do that?
Here are the top four effective online business promotion strategies you can try:
1. Leverage SEO
When people are looking for products or services on search engines, you want your website to be one of the first ones they see. And the best way to do that is through SEO.
SEO helps your website rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs), increasing its visibility to potential customers.
Some common tactics that can help you rank higher in SERPs include:
Keyword research
You need to conduct keyword research to find ones that are relevant to your business, have low competition, and a good search volume (i.e., a lot of people are searching for them). Include these in your web pages or content. Doing so will ensure that your pages rank for the right set of keywords and can also improve their ranks in the SERPs.
Keyword research tools like Ahrefs, Semrush and Ubersuggest shown below, can help you find the right keywords for your business:
Image via Ahrefs
For example, if you offer dropshipping services, you can enter a specific keyword, such as “Shopify dropshipping.” This will give you a list of related keywords, their monthly search volume, and difficulty level. You can then choose the right one from those.
On-page optimization
Once you’ve identified the right keywords, you need to make sure they’re included at appropriate places on your website. This includes your title tags, meta descriptions, header tags, and body.
Link building
Google also looks at the number of high-quality links pointing to your website when determining your ranking. So, you’ll want to focus on building links from other websites and creating great content that people will want to link to.
You can build backlinks by guest blogging, submitting articles to directories, and participating in forums and discussion boards.
Create high-quality content
You need high-quality, keyword-rich content for your website to rank higher in SERPs. This means writing articles, blog posts, and product descriptions that are informative and relevant to your target audience.
While there are various content formats to choose from, always ensure that as you write, you are relevant and that you appeal to the consumer’s pain points. This way, they’ll keep coming back to you for valuable information.
2. Use social media to spread the word
Social media is a powerful tool that can be used to promote your online business.
With over 4.62 billion active users, social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram provide a wide reach for your business.
However, to use social media to promote your online business, you can:
- Post engaging content: This could be anything from blog posts to infographics and videos. Whatever content you post, ensure it’s exciting and relevant to your target audience.
- Post right time: You need to post your content on the right time to get more good results. You can use a social media scheduling tool to schedule your post as per the time zone of your target audience.
- Run social media ads: Social media platforms offer a variety of ad options that can be used to promote your online business. For example, Facebook Ads allow you to create ads that can drive product purchases. These ads can direct people to your product page from where they can buy your product by making the required payment. Similarly, you can use ads to drive lead generation.
- Host social media contests: Contests allow you to simultaneously engage your social media followers and promote your online business. Make sure the prize is valuable to attract a huge audience.
3. Use email marketing to promote your brand
Email marketing is one of the oldest digital marketing strategies out there, but it’s also one of the most effective strategies for promoting online businesses today.
When done right, email marketing can help you nurture leads, build relationships with them, close sales, and generate recurring sales.
To get started with email marketing, you need to:
Build an email list
The first step is to build an email list of people who have permitted you to contact them. You can do this by creating a sign-up form on your website and adding it to your blog posts and other web pages. Lead magnets such as e-books, cheat sheets, or discount codes are also helpful.
If you sell online courses, for instance, you can use a free mini-course or a free video lesson as a lead magnet to entice readers into trying out your services or providing their contact details to access the first lesson.
Create engaging email newsletters
Once you have a list of subscribers, you need to create engaging email newsletters that they’ll want to read.
The newsletter should include links to your website and social media pages. It should also feature a mix of content, such as:
- Articles and blog posts
- Product announcements
- Special offers and coupons
- Industry news
This way, readers will have something to look forward to in each email. They may even choose to check some of your products out and buy them. Here’s a list of the best email marketing tools to help you get started with email marketing today.
4. Run paid search ads
One of the quickest and most effective online business promotion strategies is running paid search ads. These ads appear at the top of the SERPs when someone types in a relevant keyword or phrase, as shown here:
Image via Google
When done correctly, paid search can be an extremely effective way to promote your online business and generate leads.
You’ll need to choose the right keywords relevant to your business and products or services to get started. Then create your ad campaigns and start bidding on those keywords.
You can use Google Keyword Planner to help you with keyword research and choosing the right ones for your business.
Once you’ve chosen the right keywords, ensure that your ad copy is well-written and includes a strong call-to-action (CTA).
Once your ad is published, constantly analyze its metrics like click-through rate (CTR) and conversion rate to see how well it’s performing.
If you’re unhappy with the results, you can try changing your ad copy, keyword bid, or target audience. A/B testing can also be helpful to see what works best.
Need more online business promotion strategies?
While these online business promotion strategies are not exhaustive, they are a great place to start if you’re looking to generate quality leads, drive sales, and enhance your brand reach online.
You can combine these strategies with your PR and content marketing efforts to create a well-rounded promotional approach that will help you achieve your business goals.
Remember, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to promoting a business online, so don’t be afraid to try new things and see what works best for you.
