Online Marketing

Successful online marketing is challenging. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of websites, e-books, real books and newsletters vying to get you to part with your hard earned money and teach you how to market online.

Since basic marketing principles that apply offline also apply online (with some subtle differences), save some money and buy yourself a good college textbook or two on marketing. Take notes as you read the books and keep them on your desk for handy reference.

Build a website.

Countless businesses out there don't have a website. If you've got a phone number, you need a website. And your website name is likely to be easier to remember than your phone number. It's also easier to update and is always open for business. The language of the Internet, HTML, is fairly easy to learn and is not too technical. Don't want to learn code? Hire a designer. You'll only need to spend a few hundred dollars to get a basic site up and running.

At minimum, you'll need:

• A home page, listing your services
• A "contact us" page
• Your portfolio samples
• An e-mail address with your domain name (skip the @hotmail and @yahoo, since clients won't take you seriously).

The design of your website should be geared towards the market you are trying to serve: official looking for the corporate crowd, a little more friendly for the local community, and even more personality when going after non-profits. Expand and add content as needed.

Whether you are setting up a new website or already have one, review the following:

• What is your website's main purpose? Is it to gather leads? Showcase your work? Write out a few sentences describing your purpose so you'll stay focused.
• Did you plan the design of your website into logical sections? Use pencil and paper to draw a layout. One good rule of thumb is to make no single web page more than three layers deep from the homepage.
• Avoid using frames (a method of dividing the web page into separate sections, each of which is really a different web page. Division by frames is not advantageous because search engines typically cannot find all the frames, and thus only list a part of your website). Learn to build tables (an improved way to section off your website, arranging your data is arranged in rows and columns, much like a spreadsheet) instead.
• Is your HTML code search engine friendly? We all know content rules on the Internet, but search engines also look for the following:
  • A short, but descriptive title for each page. "Contact MyWebsite.com, the copywriting specialists" is better than "Contact Us".
  • Use of H1, H2 and H3 headline tags. These tags, with H1 being the largest and H6 being the smallest, are like headlines in direct mail copywriting. They tell the search engine the text surrounded by these tags is important, ranked by size.
  • Use of Meta descriptions and Meta keywords (keep both to around 250 characters, including punctuation and spaces). Meta is a computer science word that means "about". It tells the search engine what to expect on your website.
  • Generous, but conversational use of your keywords and key phrases throughout your body copy. Never try to trick a search engine with keyword stuffing (a method where you needlessly place your search terms or search phrases throughout your website without any relevance to the content)!

Test with text based advertising.

Your copywriting clients are going to test out your copy, so why shouldn't you test the way you get clients? The most cost effective way is to test with text based advertising. Fire up your browser, open up Google and search for any term you'd like. See a bunch of boxes to the right side of your browser window? Those are examples of text based advertising. Set up an account at Google or at any of the other leading pay per click search engines and test market your website's main purpose. You don't need to spend a lot of money, just enough to get a decent set of results. Don't always shoot for the #1 position. Top 5 will be similar in results and cost less. Consider using a local search - you'll find clients within your service area.

Don't build or participate in a link farm.

More and more search engines base part of their search result rankings on inbound links to your website. The more legitimate, relevant links pointing to your website, the higher your website will be ranked. Too many newbie's think listing on a link farm (a page filled with hundreds, even thousands, of irrelevant links) is a good thing. A link farm to search engines is like the spam in your inbox. It rarely works and only tells the search engines you don't know what you are doing. While you can't prevent people from linking to you, you can control where you attempt to get links. Find and get listed on relevant directories and benefit from real links.

Promote your website.

There are many easy ways to promote your website. Tell your friends. Tell your family. Tell anyone who will listen why you have a website. Remember, your URL is easier to remember than a phone number. Imprint it on pens or pencils and 'leave' them at coffee shops, libraries, stores, etc. You can tack up your business card at grocery store bulletin-boards; even get letters printed that stick to your car. Be creative and you'll be found.

What is your website telling your customers?

Just because information flows so freely doesn't mean you can cut corners. Would you visit a store whose sign was spelled wrong, had dirt on the floor and had associates that were unfriendly? Like a brick and mortar store, design your site with storefront appeal. Keep your website clutter free and make it easy to navigate. Constantly adding fresh content makes your visitors want to come back for more.

About the Author

Brian J. Farrell – Marketing Consultant, helps small business owners find new customers and make more sales in 30 days or less — guaranteed! Call or contact Brian today for a confidential analysis of your business marketing plan and he'll uncover assets you can capitalize on right now, without spending more money on advertising.