A step by step guide for online marketing

Isnt it great to setup something of your own. I believe your own business is like your baby which needs to be taken care of, nurtured and disciplined. Anyway, this blog is about marketing small businesses online and let me just concentrate on the same. But the question is why online? Why not press ads, radio, TV or any other medium.

Why Online?
Keeping all the statistics and reports aside, the simple truth remains -----> Online allows you to reach your audience WHEN they are looking for you. This means the chances of you hitting the bull's eye or able to complete a sale is much higher when your TG sees your ad on the move or while having a family dinner.

How?
Did you know that when you use Google ads you can narrow down your ad on the basis of:
1. Location
2. Keyword

So, your home delivery is only in 5 km radius of your store. No problems my friend! Just use Google ads and you can target the exact location of your choice. Not more, neither less.

Hence, If I am a Pizza store located in the suburbs and want to target people in a certain location (where i am located) I have to:
1. Search for the keywords by which my prospect customers might be looking for me
2. Narrow down the location which I am targeting.

So, what are the steps involved?

1. Optimize your website:
When I say optimize your website, i mean optimize from each and every angle - Social Media, Search engine and User perspective. Let me reiterate what i keep saying in every post. Your website is equal to your online store. Your prospective customers who cannot walk into your store because of the heat/rain/cold/traffic outside and searching for you online. You might have built a beautiful ambience inside your store but what about the customer who just checked your website. Is it good enough? or should I say will he even be able to reach you? Optimize your website from the search engine point of view to make sure you are easily accessible.

2. Define your keywords: What is a keyword? Its is the word which comes in your customers mind when he's looking for you. It can be a short sentence too but in google adwords (advertising), we will still call it keyWORD. (yeah, thats the jargon). So, how would you know what is in your customers mind. You might suggest market research, interviewing customers, etc and i will suggest using the Google keyword tools. It gives you a list of keywords which are related to your product/ service and also the amount of search happening on that keyword. Hence, you also come to know the competition on each type/category of keyword.

3. Online advertising:
Now that our website is optimised and the keywords have been defined, lets begin advertising online. Pen down 10-15 advertisements (or get some help from anyone who knows a little bit about Google advertising) and chose whether you wish to go for PPC or PPM type of advertising. Once that is done publish your ads and keep monitoring them.

4. Analysing your website and monitoring your ads:
Google analytics and Google adwords are two strong tools to which help you understand how your website is performing and how your ads can be tweeked for better results. Link them and you have a complete package which helps control your overall spending also guides you about the trends on your website.

5. Landing pages:
Let me introduce the concept of landing pages to you. These are the pages your customers reach once they see our ads online. In a way they are the reception area of an office or checking in area of a mall. Landing pages can truly make or break business for your website. My suggestion is to keep your landing pages neat and give lots of options to your customers so that they are curious to explore more.

6. Reward and give freebies - Be in useful information, daily deals, discounts or special promotions, give your your online audience an incentive to visit you online. What are you sharing?

7. Respect each lead - Once your advertising starts, you will start getting calls, e-mail and information requests. Its important that your staff is trained well to handle the sudden inflow of customers (Amen! that it shall happen). Many a times, small store owners focus only on the online part and take offline for granted. Dont repeat that mistake.

8. Can people find you on the web?
One important thing i forgot to mention is finding your address online, Make sure you are listed on Google maps and other online directories in order to be found and reached easily.

8 tips on how to increase your website rank on Google

I went through a lot of website articles and tried to find out what everyone was saying about increasing website rankings. Then , i sat down and penned my experiences regarding the same. Here is what I got:

1. Keep it neat: Even if you decide to make your website flashy, awesome, wonderful (or any other term you wish to add), remember to keep your webpage neat. Imagine if your customers walk into your store/office and keep bumping into wrong products/people. Its the same for your website. Make sure the navigation layout is well thought of and the website visitors know where to find what.
2. Site search : I've come across so many websites which do not have a site search option. Really? Why? In your office you have the receptionist to guide people, in your store you have customer service executives, then why not have site search on your website? 
3. Breadcrumbs: Remember hansle and gratel and how they dropped breadcrumbs on their way to get back home? It's the same for your customers. Always allow them to navigate back to the starting point. It increases the time spent on your page, gives your customers the ease to navigate and also lets you know which webpage is being a hit among your visitors. How? check the next point.
4. Check website analytics: So, you think checking google insights on your website is a waste of time. Why dont you stop analyzing your revenue, customers and marketing campaigns. Because, website analytics does all this work for you in the online world. if you're not tracking the developments happening on your website, its like ignoring a commotion that just happened in your store.
5. The key is the keyword: What defines you? what defines your company or your industry? If a customer is looking for you what would be the words in his mind? These very words are the key to increasing your business on the internet. Make a list and find out the competition on these keywords using google adwords keyword tool. Target both the less famous keywords and highly competitive keyword. So, you might want to start from less competitive keywords to more competitive ones. How would you do that? check the next point...
6. Get keyword rich content - Lets avoid talking about rainbows if we sell clouds. The content on your website should talk about your products, services, knowledge and experience. But they all must revolve around 10 - 20 most important keywords which you are targeting. But also, dont spam the content with keyword. It can result in your page getting boring and uncomfortable. and google will detect this anyway. 
7. Give title to your page - imagine entering a store with no name or a name that does not make sense. Similarly, it's important that your website has the a name which clearly communicated what it stands for. 
8. Get Linked: Linking your site to other websites is like making connections in the offline world. You can expect to get more footfalls / traffic through these connections / links and hence, can increase your google rankings.