Is Your Message Being Heard?

Promotions are a part of every small business’ marketing plan. They are a way of encouraging purchases from past clients, reeling in new customers and boosting sales during slow periods. However, traditional marketing can be expensive for a small business…that’s where Internet marketing comes in!

Internet marketing is a great way for small businesses to market their offers to a larger public. The Internet creates a level playing field where products and services can be promoted to millions of people every day at relatively low or non-existent costs!

YOUR WEBSITE

When running a promotion you should create a dedicated “offer page” on your website. This page will act as a headquarters for your offer and include those super important SEO keywords as well as all of the information you need to tell your potential customers, for example:

• Explaining what your offer is and what it includes EXACTLY:
• Explaining why your customers should use or purchase what you are offering.
• How much it is going to cost.
• How to book or buy your offer.

It is important to keep this page current as out of date offers can put potential clients off or make you appear inactive.

YOUR BLOG AND SOCIAL MEDIA PROFILES

When approaching social media and blog marketing it’s best to act in four stages. These include:

• A blog post dedicated to your offer. This adds another place for you to be found by potential customers and is great for boosting your search engine optimisation. Equally, this method may well be the best way to attract loyal customers who keep up to date with your work via your blog rather than your website.
• Promoting that blog post on your social media networks. This is a way of casting the net even further and giving millions of people the opportunity to see your promotion.
• Using a blog snippet to remind customers about the offer. A blog snippet is literally an enticing snippet of text from the original blog post. It is used to encourage more views, click-throughs and extend interest in your post. It’s best to post this a few hours after the initial blog promotion or a couple of days later to make sure you are not spamming.
• Using a promo. This is simply a status such as “Give Mum the perfect gift this year with a beautiful portrait session! #mothersday”.

Obviously, each business should take into account that these stages may suit certain social networks better than others and therefore should be adjusted accordingly.

YOUR EMAIL

Attaching a promotional banner to the header of your email is another free and easy marketing method. Having your current promotion attached to every email you send to clients means that you are effortlessly keeping an area of your customer base informed. This banner can be made to link through to your dedicated offer page when clicked.

There are so many ways of marketing your business that it can seem overwhelming. Follow the links to find out more about marketing strategies and how to get the message out there!