But if you're not an SEO junkie or a technologically advanced person, if you're just a "regular" small business person with an average amount of internet savvy, how in the world do you bridge the gap between where you are right now and a thriving, bustling website?
The thought of learning how to "drive traffic to a website" or "ranking higher in Google" is daunting for most folks, but please rest assured that you don't need to be an internet mastermind to have a successful website.
Business owners with a moderate understanding of how the internet works can market their websites effectively with the help of the simple and entirely approachable online marketing tool called Article Marketing.
What is Article Marketing?
Article Marketing is when you write educational articles on your area of expertise, and then submit those articles to article directories.
When your article is published on an article directory, it can be seen by a limitless number of people who may decide to reprint your article on their own website.
The idea with article marketing is to get your article reprinted on as many websites as possible, because each article that you send out into the big wide world of the internet is like a virtual sales person who is mingling about the net trying to draw people back to your website.
How do articles draw people back to your website?
Along with each article that you submit, you will include an author resource box, which is a short author bio that also includes a link back to your website. That link back to your website is paramount - after seeing and reading your article on a website, the visitor clicks this link and is sent to your website.
When someone clicks the link in your resource box and then reaches your website, you are building "targeted traffic".
Targeted traffic simply means that the people who are visiting your website are actually interested in your services or products. These are not random visitors--they are people who were motivated enough to read your article, who found value in it, and who read your resource box and felt compelled to click the link and see what other value you offered at your website.
When you're trying to get visitors to your website, you are going for targeted traffic, and article marketing is a widely known favorite marketing tool for effectively building targeted traffic over the long term.
We just talked about how your website can receive targeted traffic when readers click the link in your resource box, but there is another way that your website can receive targeted traffic--through Google.
Imagine a potential customer going to Google and searching for information on your area of expertise.
They type their query into Google, and a list of results pops up, listing websites that Google deems will have the greatest chance of satisfying the searcher.
What if someone did a search for your area of business and your website popped up as the top result in the list?
You would have a much greater chance of that searcher clicking through to your website and becoming a new customer!
When your articles are reprinted all over the internet with the precious link in your resource box going back to your website, it sends Google a message that your website is important, and you have a greater chance of ranking higher in the search results.
Additionally, when you do article marketing your articles themselves may start turning up in the search results in Google. Once a person has clicked through to one of your helpful articles, they can click the link in your resource leading them back to your website.
We've just talked about 3 ways that article marketing can help drive targeted traffic to your website:
1) When someone reads one of your articles and then clicks the link to your website in your resource box.
2) When your website ranks higher in the search engines (like Google)
3) When a person does a Google search and your articles appear in the search results
By doing article marketing, it's like you're sending out sales representatives who keep popping up in the places where your potential customers are likely to be hanging out.
Article marketing is a trusted and effective method for marketing a website, and to top if off, it's easy! You don't have to be an internet mastermind--just start writing and submitting articles, and you're well on your way!
Perhaps the most important quality for your small business marketing materials is that they are different. If you do nothing else right in your small business marketing, at least be different.
Why is differentiation so important? Because, in most industries, there are hundreds – if not thousands or millions – of other businesses that claim to provide the same service or sell the same product as you do. If you don’t differentiate your business from all those others, the chances that you’ll get many customers are pretty slim.
Some common ways to differentiate your business are: •Superior service •Greater product availability •Higher quality •Better performance •Greater durability •Prestige •Technology leadership •Satisfaction guarantee •Lower cost •Faster delivery •More customer support
But even if you are very different than your competitors – you offer superior service, greater durability, or a satisfaction guarantee that beats all others – it won’t matter unless your prospective customers know about it.
That’s where your small business marketing strategy comes in. Businesses have been using their small business marketing strategies to announce how they’re different from their competitors as long as they have been using small business marketing strategies. Think Maxwell House’s “Good to the last drop," Campbell’s Soup’s “Mmm, mmm good," or WalMart’s “Always low prices." Those highly successful taglines not only get prospective customers to remember the company name, but also convey a message about the difference between that company and others.
To make differentiation a part of your small business marketing strategy, you first need to understand your competitors – you can only explain how you’re different from them once you know what they’re like. Learn what your competitors offer, how they differentiate themselves, and – most importantly – what your prospective customers think about them (if you know what qualities your prospective customers see as shortcomings in the other companies in the market, you’ll have a good idea of the market gap you can fill).
Once you’ve decided how you are different from your competitors, you need to tell your prospective customers about it. Building that differentiation into your tagline can be a very effective start. Then include that tagline, along with your logo, on every piece of small business marketing collateral you have. Another small business marketing way to publicize your differences is to write a press release. Explain how you’re filling a need in the market that no other company has filled.
Once you’ve differentiated your company and used your small business marketing tools to publicize your differences, you have to follow through on your promises. If you say that you’re the cheapest – or the highest quality, or the friendliest, or whatever – then you better be just that (nothing turns away a customer like a failed promise).
Both Steve Shaw & Brandt Stohr are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Steve Shaw has sinced written about articles on various topics from Article Writing, SEO Articles and Build Online Business. Why not make article marketing even easier by having your articles submitted automatically, saving time and increasing your article exposure? Steve Shaw created the web's first ever 100% automated. Steve Shaw's top article generates over 14800 views. to your Favourites.
Brandt Stohr has sinced written about articles on various topics from SEO Articles, Business Loans and Marketing. Brandt Stohr, The Small Business Marketing Genius has brought startup one man operations to billion dollar corporations by using creative marketing techniques rather then investors and capital. Brandt Stohr has been helped hundreds of entrepr. Brandt Stohr's top article generates over 27100 views. to your Favourites.