Spend less get more out of your marketing

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Online marketing can be a great way to boost traffic to your website and therefore increase your enquiries and /or sales. Many companies already have a website but not all of them then market that website, and even less market their site in the correct way.

Some companies like to keep everything in house and therefor will employ a person or team to be responsible for the marketing of the company. Other businesses will task an employee with the job of updating the site and advertising it, even if they do not have much experience. This can be a dangerous idea, as not only can it cost you additional staff time and money but you could actually end up causing more damage to your online marketing than good.

I would always strongly advise a business to either employ highly qualified online marketing experts or to outsource their marketing to a specialist marketing company. A good marketing agency will pay for itself, meaning that you will make more in sales than the amount you pay them to advertise, although this may take a few weeks / months to start seeing the results.

 

Where to start with online marketing

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For those businesses that are fairly new to the world of online marketing it can be hard to know where to start. There are so many different areas that you can invest it and you can easily end up spending a small fortune with little results if you’re not careful. Many marketing companies or individuals claim to be the best and will guarantee you increased sales / enquiries but unfortunately not all will deliver.

I get inundated with emails on a daily basis from marketing companies claiming to get me number one spot on Google organic listings within a month, but the truth is no one can guarantee you this except Google.

Using a local marketing company that has a vast experience in online marketing and can show you results is always a good bet. They should be able to give you specific examples of how they have helped companies grow and what they have achieved in terms of online population.

 

Managing all of your social media accounts

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If you have a businesses that uses social media to advertise your company then you will probably be aware of home much time it can take up posting on each one and replying to comments etc. Although this is a very important part of social media marketing, some businesses simply do not have the time to spend on these sites and therefore the social media marketing doesn’t appear to work. If this is the case, then it may be time to either outsource your social media account marketing or invest in some software that allows you to manage all of them under one roof. That means when you create a post you can chose whether to duplicate that post on other social media accounts.

The cost of outsourcing your social media marketing varies usually dependant on the number of accounts you have and the time spent on each of them. You can expect to pay a minimum of £60 per month upwards.

 

Facebook – paying for advertising

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Facebook is a fantastic marketing tool if used correctly, and if you have already got a free profile for your business you may want to explore paid for advertising. Similar to Google Adwords, you can create an ad hat clicks through to your page. You can add an image, brief description and chose specific towns and cities or select the whole of the UK. You can then set a daily budget and chose a period of time to show your ads such as 7 days, 14 days, 30 days or ongoing.

These ads will gain clicks through to your Facebook page where you can explain more about your business, link to your website and upload images / videos to show what services or products you offer. For as little as £7 per week you could get upwards of 5 clicks a day through to your page, even if one of these turns in to an enquiry it should more than pay for itself.

 

Facebook for marketing

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Facebook was first seen as a way individuals could connect with past and current friends but since then it has evolved in to something that now many businesses use for marketing purposes. Facebook can work for a number of types of businesses especially if it is a business to consumer type.

When creating a profile for your business on the social media sites such as Facebook, you should ensure that you set it up correct so it is easy for customers to understand what you do. You will need to add images to your profile which should reflect your business and what you do.

Once you have an active profile you need to start gaining followers, the best way to do this is to promote the link to your Facebook profile in as many places as possible such as on your own website, on any promotional material such as leaflets and sign written cars / vans.

Knowing what to write on your Facebook business account can be hard, there are some great online marketing companies out there that will advise you on frequency and content to use.