Market Your Website Properly
With the New Year round the corner, comes a new start, new challenges, and new opportunities. This is especially the case in the world of business, where 2017 is expected to offer us a number of new and exciting ways to market our businesses. – Specifically to market your website.
A good online website presence had become a staple for any up and coming business in 2013, and yet as we go into the New Year, many business owners remain blissfully unaware of how important and how beneficial it can be to market their website. Others will have only recently created their website, again with no real efforts towards marketing.
Here at GB Design Studio we’ve compiled a list of the 15 most effective techniques for marketing your new website, all of which are guaranteed to drive successful sales, build your online presence, or improve your brand identity recognition.
Keep your branding consistent
Your brand identity is what improves recognition of your company, while setting you and your website apart from your competitors in the minds of your target audience. From a choice of colour scheme to tone of voice, all of your company’s output should resonate with your brand image. Your website is no exception, and neither are the articles or videos which you post on it, or the social media updates which link back to it.
Use search engine optimisation (SEO)
Search engine optimisation involves making overt and covert changes to your website to improve your page rankings. Regular practice includes using relevant keywords, inserting internal links, creating a site map, and regularly uploading unique content. The second part of SEO is offsite work. Basically getting links to your site which are relevant. You can also use analytics to review your performance and ensure your website remains fully optimised at all times.
Create a calendar to improve and monitor your SEO
With so much competition in the market, and so many businesses developing websites and creating content, it can be quick and easy to undo the good work which you put into your website marketing, especially from an SEO perspective. Create a schedule for uploading content, assessing your website analytics, sharing content on social networking websites, and any other tasks. In order to achieve the best ROI you’ll need to remain consistent with your efforts.
Start blogging
At GB Design Studio we practice what we preach, which is why you’re reading this article on our blog. A regularly updated blog can convey your professionalism and trustworthiness to customers, while interesting and informative copy will give them a reason to head back to your website. A blog can also do wonders for your search engine optimisation plans, as you’re given the opportunity to include relevant keywords while increasing the likelihood of back-links and sharing on other websites.
Use video marketing
Videos are becoming an increasingly popular method for the marketing of websites, products and services. Use YouTube or share on your own website, and give your customers something more exciting and engaging than a block of text. Videos are also preferable to users browsing on smartphones with smaller screen resolutions, where reading large paragraphs can be particularly time-consuming. Also, YouTube videos do get listed on the main Google results page so in theory you could get listed twice on the same google page result.
Make sure you’re mobile-friendly
Statistics from September 2013 showed that nearly 18% of the United Kingdom’s internet users connect through a smartphone or tablet, so it’s essential that your website displays and functions properly on all devices, like the Apple iPhone or Google Nexus. Ever-growing numbers of us are using our phones or tablets for work and social browsing, so a mobile-optimised website ensures you aren’t alienating a portion of your potential audience. Also, Google gives priority rankings to mobile specific websites on its mobile search feature.
Partner with larger industry blogs
There are popular blogs for reviews and news articles from all number of industries, all of which have the potential to improve your brand recognition and drive traffic to your website. Why not contact some blogs from your respective industry and discuss the possibility of a review, news update, or even a guest post?
Attend local networking events
Business networking events allow you to meet with representatives from other industries, offer a small pitch about your products or services, and exchange business cards. This will open your website and business up to a new potential audience, as other attendees may require your services themselves, or pass the information on to others.
Make the most of your content
Although duplicate written content can deter visitors and negatively affect your search engine optimisation, you can still make the most of the time and money spent on unique content by uploading it in a number of formats. You could create podcasts or videos to accompany your articles, providing a second option for users with a particular preference or accessibility issues.
Use free social media tools.
Over 53% of us use Facebook in the United Kingdom, with a further 34 million on Twitter. Social networking is an effective way to share your unique content and bring fresh traffic to your website, but also to encourage discussion by sharing articles or videos on your industry as a whole. You’ll be able to directly interact with potential customers and other individuals, by responding to queries, retweeting, sharing, and so on.
…And paid for social media advertising
The likes of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube all offer paid advertising, which can be of particular benefit for smaller businesses without an online presence or large following. You can set daily or lifetime budgets, to ensure you potentially reach millions of customers while still remaining under budget. Whichever social networking platform you choose, you’ll be able to specify exactly what you’re paying for – from pay per view to pay per click, to featured Tweets or featured profiles.
Build an email mailing list
Email marketing is one of the most cost-effective but far-reaching methods of communicating with customers, with no printing costs or postal errors. Correspondence is sent directly to the inboxes of your customers, complete with links back to your website or social media profiles. Offer an incentive for customers to join your mailing list such as a promotional offer or a particularly engaging or interesting piece of content.
Use regular calls to action
Make sure that calls to action are present throughout your website, your social media profiles and nay other marketing material. A call to action draws users to your website, encouraging them to click and proceed further down the conversion funnel. The result is not only an increased online presence but also a better chance of a successful sale.
Offer web-only deals or discounts
Many businesses offer unique online-only deals and promotions to increase traffic to their websites. Customers may not follow through with the deal, but increasing numbers of them are likely to visit your website and browse your products or services. You could even promote your special offers on your social networking profiles or mailing list.
Finally – Get help from the experts
Perhaps the most beneficial piece of advice we can give is to consult experts for your website marketing. Despite the initial investment, the return upon investment is usually much higher which ultimately means that it is usually cost-effective to enlist the help of SEO trained web designers or a specialist larger digital marketing agency like GB Design Studio who can provide you with expert-level assistance for search engine optimisation and internet marketing advertising, as well as connect you with and train you into using analytics to assess your website’s performance
If you’d like assistance with either web design, SEO, branding or any of our other services why not get in touch with us today for a free no obligation initial quote/chat.