Are You Marketing Your Business Correctly?

October 23, 2015

When you run your own business, investing in a great marketing strategy is really important for getting your company noticed. There are many fantastic marketing techniques that you can employ. However, if you aren’t a marketing expert, it can be difficult to know where to begin. Try some of these great methods to get you started and see how quickly you can boost your traffic.
PPC
PPC, or pay per click, is a form of paid marketing. It works by presenting you as a part of Google’s search results. If you think about it, when you Google something, chances are you will only click on one of the top links. PPC allows you to pay for specific keywords so that when people search for these, you appear at the top of the ranking. From that, you only pay for the number of people who click on your advert. This is a great way of reaching the correct audience if you target the right keywords. However, doing PPC yourself can be tricky and you can end up spending a lot if you don’t fully understand what you are doing. A lot of the time is it worth hiring a PPC agency to get you started. They will talk you through the right keywords and suggest methods.
Collaborate with your partners
Think about a strategic venture with people who operate within your industry. This is a great way to market your business to people who will be interested in your products. Running a competition together is a great way to attract their customers and show them what you do. Furthermore, things like guest blogging can get your name out to the right audience. A guest blog will show your expertise and, with a backlink to your website, can entice customers onwards to learn more about you.
Social Media
Social media is a really great tool for connecting with your customers. There is a multitude of social media networks including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. The trick to using social media correctly is to think about what sort of network your audience will be using and to set up an account for these. Whichever network you choose, communicate effectively with your target market. The chances are that their followers will also be interested in the same things as them. Therefore, if you are posting valuable information that they like, they will retweet it to their own followers. This can open you up to a whole new set of people. Furthermore, you can also pay for advertising on Facebook and Twitter, again reaching people who don’t yet know about you.
Press Releases
Every time your business has some notable news it is worth firing off a press release. It may not get picked up, but if journalists see some relevance in it, they may very well be intrigued by it. You would be surprised by the amount of traffic you can generate from one press release alone. But remember, if something doesn’t take off immediately, keep going and try again.

Mark Asquith

That British podcast guy, Mark is co-founder of Captivate.fm, the world's only growth-oriented podcast host. A Harvard, TEDx, Podcast Movement and Podfest speaker (amongst many more!), he's a wildly approachable Brit and Star Wars/DC Comics geek.

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