7 Essential Marketing Tips!

Siobhan from the sales team here! Feel free to chat to me on Twitter @34SPSiobhan @34SP or like us on  our 34SP.com Facebook page!

I’m here today to make you aware of 7 essential marketing tips, that will help your business grow. This applies not just to the hosting and web design world but to businesses in general. These 7 tips should be embraced daily, in order to succeed in today’s digital world.

 

1. Google Analytics – install it! There are plenty of analytical software applications out there, but Google Analytics is the market leader (its also free!). Once installed, it will provide you with data on how your website’s visitors interact with your website. For example Google Analytics tells 34SP.com that one of the most visited pages on our website is our billing page. As a result, we use this page to position small advertisements or special offer etc. Anything we want to communicate to our customers, we make sure it’s on that page. Many websites use Google Analytics. It’s free and can be found here: www.google.com/analytics.

2. Social Media – Okay so social media can be time consuming but it’s soooo worth it! We have a culture now of people who blog or tweet about anything and everything online, and it’s important to become part of that conversation. Make sure your online presence is felt in social media. Be active on Twitter and Facebook. Ideally, you need to be blogging at least 3 times a week, as well as scanning though forums and discussion boards to gauge online opinion.

3. Lead Generation – The most important thing as a business is to never miss an opportunity. Often potential customers may be interested in your products or services – but not all customers are forthright or have made the decision that they want to contact you. Therefore, you need to make it as easy as possible for them to get in touch with you. This could be along the lines of a ‘Request a callback‘ box, it could be a Livechat or newsletter box.

4. Device Capable Website – Your website should be accessible and easy to use  from any device. The rise of smart phones and tablets means if your website is not optimised for these platforms, you are not giving the highest quality customer experience. Having a mobile ready website isn’t just about having a small version of your website that works on a smart phone. It is important to consider the usability issues using a small touch screen involved, including menu and text size, as well considering what features will work on a mobile device and what features won’t.

5. CMA – SEO and link building are still massively important. Be sure to use keywords rich, structured content. You can use clients like Tweetdeck/Hootsuite/Netvibes and Google keyword planner to find the keywords that will work for your website. The more relevant and popular words you have the better.

6. Research – There is no ‘one’ way to grow your company. Whats works for others may not work for you, so the key here is research. Take the time to look around at companies in the same industry as you, your competitors and other companies or organisations you admire. Lots company information is free and easy to access these days, you can look at how well other companies are doing and research into them.

7. Language – I don’t mean French, English, German, by language I mean the language of your customers. Listen to what language they use and mimic it. Consider how are you coming across to others, or whether people find your language intimidating or too jargon-heavy? When you are explaining a product, take the time to listen and your customer and consider if you’ve answered all their questions in a language they understand? Don’t make assumptions that your customer is well-versed or inexperienced.

 

-Siobhan @34SPSiobhan