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Marketing Online
Why You Need to Be Online
If you're not promoting your business online you will probably severely limit the growth of your company. These days searching for products and service is done online by a large percentage of people. Yellow Pages, Print and Broadcast advertising and other forms of offline advertising are being used less and less as a source of information. Take a look at these stats!
Australia is the second highest user of the internet (per capita), in the world
Despite the second highest internet usage rate (per capita) in the world,
we are still the smallest user (due to our small population)
Source: www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm
No matter what business you are in, you can't afford NOT to be promoting your products or services on the internet.
Even if you're a one person show operating only in your local area - you need to be online. You need to have a website which tells potential clients about your business and yourself and gives them several ways to contact you.
For example: I recently conducted an online survey about how ladies would go about searching for an Image Consultant. 56% said they'd look on the internet. 44% would ask friends. So, this immediately lets us know that Image Consultants would do well to invest their marketing dollars in a website, and in a referral program.
There's several ways to get online, and advantages and pitfalls with each method.
1. Create your own website - using Dreamweaver, Front Page, or other web design software. Or install a content management system.
2. Hire a website designer to do it for you - A better choice if you don't have the skills or knowledge. However can be very expensive. Beware too - most web designers do not have internet marketing skills, so could end up with an expensive pretty site which breaks all the online marketing design rules.
3. Join in to a community website - most regions have a community website where you can put up one page (sometimes more) about your business. These are usually restrictive in terms of layout and features though. So you may not be able to add photos, change content regularly or add shopping cart features etc, but it's a good way to make a start.
How to Get Online Yourself
Creating your own website can be a lot of fun, but there's quite a bit to it.
Click on this link to see the services we recommend for building and promoting your website
How We Can Help You
When you join one of our specialist marketing coaching programs you get access to our heavily discounted web design and development services. You also receive coaching and mentoring in all aspects of online marketing, so that you have the knowledge you need to make informed decisions. We've built hundreds of websites and have all the resources and skills to help you learn the right way to go about it.
Here's just a few of the discounted services you'll have access to:
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domain name purchasing and hosting - cheap but very reliable
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email setup - as many email addresses as you need
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website design and build - custom designed to suit your target audience and built to comply with effective website design rules
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content management system (the easy way for you to change and add things to your site)
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blogs - the best way to quickly develop a following and drive traffic to your main site
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video and audio development - why and how to do" advice, finishing services and upload services
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the latest online marketing strategies so people find your site
Internet Marketing Secrets
When you join one of our exclusive marketing coaching programs you'll receive step by step instructions in the latest online marketing strategies and techniques. You'll learn
Search Engine Optimisation - what you need to do to your site to get it ranked higher in Google or Yahoo searches. The ideal position is to be on page 1 (or at worst page 2) when someone types one of your keywords or key phrases. Eg: Someone searches for "Beauty Therapists in Newcastle" and a link to your website appears on the first or second page.
Google Adwords advertising - one of the quickest ways to drive traffic to your site is to use Google's ads. These are the small 4 line ads on the right hand side of search engine results. But beware, unless you understand Google's rules, this could quickly become a very expensive exercise.
Videos - Did you know that millions and millions of people search for videos every day and they've become one of the best methods of driving traffic to your website? Yes, even business videos work well.
Podcasting - Podcasts are audio files - like an audio book or radio broadast. Podcasting is also a brilliant way to build your credibility as an expert and drive traffic to your website.
Blogging - A great way to communicate your message, receive feedback and get ranked high in search engines, not to mention drive traffic to your main website. We can set a blog up for you, customise it and show you how to use it, or where to find low cost help to keep it active for you.
Articles - Now you can write an article and guarantee that it will be published! This is an excellent traffic driving method which doesn't take long, is free, and continues to drive traffic to your site for months (even years) after you first put the article online.
Social Networks - In addition to Facebook and Myspace there are many useful business and social networks you can join for free and start spreading the word. Some offer advertising, most allow you to join or setup groups of common interest people. For Example - if you're selling aromatherapy products, you could join into the discussions on one or several of the specialist groups which are comprised of your target audience - beauty, health, mums, women etc. There's a lot to choose from. However there are ways to go about it and definitely things to avoid doing.
Want to know more?
Check out our exclusive marketing coaching programs.
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