Web Marketing for Professionals, Small Business, Start Up … but I really need? All you should know and do to get results?
We clarify first of all certain elements …
If you are a freelancer, a consultant, you’re throwing your Start Up or drive a Small Business you are part of one of those categories that hardly is able to acquire new customers by, for example, cold calls. Because? Why not endure it when you get it, you do not know how to do to get results and, above all, do not want to do.
You probably are not even sure of e-mail marketing. Because? Because it annoys you receive emails from people you’ve never granted permission to do so, you do not love someone invades your mailbox, you are convinced that the majority of people do not read or delete them and, above all, you’ll likely do not know how to make a successful e-mail marketing.
You may be among those who would like to do a TV commercial but have not high budget that would serve to make it happen … not to mention how much would you need to make you the least visible.
Maybe you have even tried, or know someone who has spent a lot of money to do advertising campaigns through Google AdWords and Facebook Ads without getting even a new contact.
That said, you need new customers and probably does not have a large budget available … what can you do? What solutions do you have available?
Instead you should have at least one clear your marketing strategy, one of the Web Marketing for Professionals, Consultants, Start Up and Small Enterprise tools that best combine the need to find new customers spending as little as possible, it is certainly the Inbound Marketing.
The Inbound marketing can do for you personally because it allows you to be found by potential customers more naturally than aggression such as a banner ad that appears on the right side of the computer …
I propose to make you two simple questions to reason in Inbound marketing: Who do you think would be more likely to buy a house? A person who has received a type advertising message “buy this house!” Or a person who has sought and found the house on their own?
We both know what the right answer is!
This happens in every sphere, many analyzes clearly show that people who choose to get in touch and spontaneously interact with a company, a professional, a counselor or a small business, they are more likely to buy products or use the services offered by those actors.
If you think what I have written so far it is plausible and that the Inbound marketing can help you find new customers, look at this 4 items at cost (almost zero) of which an effective strategy Inbound Marketing needs …
1) SEO
SEO (search engine optimization) is the process of indexing and content optimization of your website / blog and is useful to make you get organic placement in the first pages of search engine results.
Having a website or even better a quality Blog and SEO optimized content can afford to be identified properly by Google. If this happens, you can be found “free” from all of your potential customers who make a specific search.
SEO is a critical element because if potential customers cannot find you … they will turn to others.
When it comes to SEO, citing things like keywords, tags, meta descriptions, link-building … and all this for you may already be excessive. In fact, all of this may seem very complicated.
As a result, what should focus on?
Start by identifying and using the most important keywords for your potential customer and for your products / services / solutions / accomplishments. To be up to you, your potential customer what should write to the Google search bar?
Mind you, I am an entrepreneur who finds customers with Inbound Marketing, are certainly not a guru of SEO. I say this only because you can find a ton of free online resources to read up on this aspect and improve the positioning of your website or your blog.
2) Content Marketing
If you had guests for dinner, would you serve them a cocktail, right? The same applies to visitors to your site or your blog. Now that you have taken them through SEO, you need to provide them with something to drink, in other words, the interesting content.
Anyone involved in web marketing think that content is the only major component to the success of an inbound marketing strategy. The truth is that it is certainly not the only aspect, but it is certainly a very critical aspect.
Without interesting and useful content, there is no chance to convert a visitor into a contact or a buyer. The content can be offered in many forms, but the basic, should have the objective of helping the visitor to answer a question or solve a problem.
The key to content marketing is that the content is able to emerge and stand out from the mass of information circulating on the web. The content must be substantial to be appreciated.
It does not suffice just to produce content, your content needs to educate, inspire and entertain the visitor. It’s happening to you right now?
The best vehicle to communicate valuable content is certainly a blog. A quality blog is one of the most effective ways to find new customers and grow a business. Content can help to attract new visitors, bring back old visitors and convince the hottest contacts to buy from you or avail of your services.
A blog is a meeting place where you can keep informed about your potential customers and show them your expertise or your experience. You can prove to be among the best, a true leader in your industry or, even better authority.
This blog for example, helps me to represent you precisely this element. You are there? Personally, I provide interesting content to my potential customers through Linkedin Pulse.
You can also create guides, e-books and other downloadable content: This will help to “feed” your contacts and when they are ready to buy products / services / solutions such as those that you propose, will certainly be available to evaluate you very carefully, or , they will have already put high on their preferences.
You can gather testimonials from your clients or show cases of interesting study through a blog or a site. This will increase the level of trust towards you.
It considers, however, that a blog does not cost but you have to publish quality content regularly.
3) Social Media
After you’ve positioned thanks to SEO and you’ve created interesting content on your site or blog, you can lie down, relax and wait for customers to rush to you?
Let’s say that you hope so but it is more likely that you have yet to communicate, promote and share all that you have created through the “right” social media. Therefore, you see, the creation of the content is just one piece of the puzzle. The company must come into play to help make sure your content reach the people concerned.
This is Inbound marketing, because only people who are interested in your content will follow you. The company must therefore help to generate organic traffic if you do not have budget and if you are not well positioned on search engines.
I tell you something…. believe it or not … all your potential clients are on social media …
Some on Facebook, others on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram or, more likely, they are multi-channel company.
Determine which platforms are most relevant and used by your potential customer is so crucial because this will also depend on your presence and your commitment on these social. I can assure you, it is that many of your potential customers are already spending a significant part of their time on social.
If you are a Professional, a consultant, one Startupper or drive a Small Business must therefore not spending time on social pure “fooling around” or to have a disappointing fan page on Facebook on which places every 6 months …
The company may be for you vehicle for the promotion of content at no cost , and when individuals content that are particularly appreciated by your target audience, then you may also choose to invest a few euro to give that information even more relevance and resonance through the ” righteous “company. All clear?
4) Landing Pages
We speak of the landing page, that is, the page (or pages) which should get your potential customer to be “captured.” This and the last but not the least element of your web marketing strategy.
Whether it’s a page dedicated to a product, a service, leading to fill out a data form, to download content or to purchase a product / service, you must think this is a page built flawlessly. If not, you may jeopardize all the work done in the three previous steps.
You may also like to read another article on Heygom: Why brands and businesses have no choice but to adapt them to Omnichannel?
These are some key factors to be taken into account:
Pertinence
It is necessary that the target page has absolute relevance on the grounds for which it was requested to the potential customer decide to visit it (call to action).
Simply put, what would you think if you writing about Google “birthday cakes” and clicking on a link that appears to you as “Best birthday cakes,” I went back to a landing page that sells pantone?
To simplify it was still clear?
Focus
What is the goal of your landing page?
It is subscribe newsletter” or “Download this free e-book” or “Leave your details here and we will contact”?
Every landing page should have a single goal. Avoid then, unless necessary or useful, to put in a landing page any links to other pages or offer more opportunities to “output.” You have to bring the customer to do a single action, the one you want and one that may be more useful for him.
Layout
The structure of the landing page is important because it has to guide the visitor up to the objective and to do this is to keep him busy. The use of video or images certainly helps, as well as the authentic, because it generates confidence.
How to tell if a landing page effective?
Simple, it converts it if, in other words, if you get the desired result. So you have to test, modify, test, modify, test, until the conversion rate is not satisfactory.
Then no ads? Nothing facebook ads or google adwords? Nothing until your web / blog site does not meet the first 4 items. Then…
Technically, the search for a fee visitors can be part of a good web marketing strategy but should also here from what I can produce better results, namely the use of tools that can intercept your target customer.
Ads related to the Google search network are certainly among these, because searches made through a certain phrase (keywords) determine intent.
With the results related to the paid search, you are able to achieve good or better placement bidding on specific keywords to intercept qualified visitors (your potential customers).
Of course, you have control over the budget that you have available, you can pause your ads during periods irrelevant, you can easily measure the ROI of your campaigns and the list goes on …
So how can it be effective Facebook Ads conducting campaigns on a particular type of professions or interests.
In both cases, to get results from your web marketing strategy, you have to now use of a further element is called “Remarketing”.
Remarketing is a sort of stalker of the browser, that is, once you have visited a page by clicking on an ad for a fee, will continue to be haunted by that same ad. You know? Has it ever happened to you?
Why use Remarketing? Because the goal is to repeatedly return to your potential customer on a given page.
Why? What are the benefits?
The main reason is that very few who “act” at the first visit. Whether you download something, buying or leaving data, often per achieve this need to return the visitor several times on the same page . You are there?
The so Re-marketing, follows around the web your potential customer, proportionality the same (or similar) announcement to try to get him back on the page you want.
Since it is an additional cost, as you can do re-marketing effectively
It is not advisable to set up re-marketing campaigns to chase anyone who has generally been to your site. Much better to show a specific ad only to visitors who are already on a given page (post a blog or landing page, for example), to bring them back on the same page and lead them to action or to take them for example on a page that offers a product / service that has a bearing on the previous visit. For example of a landing page that offers the solution to a problem, you told in a blog post.
Great, we come to conclusions …
We have said that you should have your own marketing strategy in which the web marketing is one of the components.
We have made it clear why one of the Web Marketing for Professionals, Consultants tools, Start Up and Small Businesses that best combines the need to find new customers spending as little as possible, is the Inbound Marketing.
You clear that with paid ads, you can get a placement “forced” rather than appear organically.
You should therefore pay even if you appear organically? The right answer is: Never pay if and when you can get good placement organically.
Also, if you pay, you must have very clear that the visitor has to “land” still on a very interesting content or of an effective landing page, otherwise you spend only money unnecessarily …
Conversely, the SEO, you should always consider that:
- You have much less control over when and how you appear in the page of search results;
- A small change of the search engine algorithms can penalize any time your organic positioning;
- Get results often requires (much) time and never have absolute certainty on the maintenance of acquired positions.
Moral of the story
If you are a Professional, a consultant, one Startupper or drive a Small Business, always and above all an organic search ranking through the 4 elements described above and only where this is not sufficient or if you serve speed (e.g. The launch of a new product / service) you resort to paid tools.
What is then always the difference? Simple, the level of interest that arouses your content and the effectiveness of your landing pages.
