How to Market a Business Online

The Web can be thought of as a city with millions of residents. Run a search on your favorite search engine for any product or service and countless pages can be found. The challenge for every online business is to market the company to attract new customers in a world of competition. A good marketing plan and some traditional methods can help you increase your presence online. Some methods to market a business online are free and others require an investment of funds.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

1. Update your website to make it as visitor friendly as possible. Make sure information is up to date, relevant and easy to find on the website.
2. Make your website search engine friendly by providing relevant text with keywords people typically use when searching for the type of business you operate.
3. Trade links with everyone you know who has a website or personal blog. You may want to create a small banner or use your logo with a hyperlink to your website. You will need to add your friends' links to your business website as well.
4. Join the local Chamber of Commerce and other relevant business associations that will list your business and provide a link to your website on their informative sites.
5. Place an ad in the phone books of locales in which you want to market your business and highlight your website address. Many phone book companies also add your links to their websites.
6. Run occasional ads with your website address in bold type in newspapers in cities where people would want to use your goods and services. Make sure the newspaper will include the ad and a link to your website in online editions of the paper.
7. Use word of mouth by having satisfied customers write positive reviews of your company on their blogs and at consumer review websites like Epinions (see Resources below).
8. Purchase ad space on search engines to have your business listed at the top or on the side of the page when people search in your business area. You will pay a small price for each person who clicks the link to visit your website.

Tips & Warnings

• Ask a few friends to review your website and give you honest feedback on how easy the site was to use, what they learned about the business and how attractive the site looks.
• Make sure you budget for online marketing as you do for other forms of marketing for your business.