Online Advertising

Online advertising is using the internet or world wide web to advertise a business or service. This can be do through an increasing number of ways:

Websites are the best way of advertising your company. Using Search Engine Optimisation will get your website towards the top of search results for relevant keywords.

Adverts on other websites and links can help raise the profile of your website further. Banner adverts is an embedded advert on a website and are seen on many websites.

Social networking websites are very popular and a small advert or “fan page” could help raise awareness of you and your business.

Online classifieds are a cheap way to place yourself across the market.

E-mail marketing is a form of direct mail that is used to communicate commercial messages to various audiences. This can be effective if you are e-mailing previous customers and reminding them of your products and services. You do have to careful in unsolicited e-mails / spamming people. They don’t like it and it’s very highly regulated now.

You should consider trying every marketing channel you can think of. Different types of marketing work for different businesses, so trying as many marketing strategies as you can: website, blogs, newsletters, telesales, online advertising. This will help you decide which ones work best, and which ones suit your business best. You must be systematic about your marketing strategies; you can’t decide which marketing strategy works best for you just because you like the colour of your advert in the newspaper or because you like talking on the phone. Look at the statistics. Which strategy produced the most potential customers? Where did more people hear about your business: Internet search engine? Newspaper advertisement? Don’t forget that a website is a crucial part of marketing your business. At some point or another someone will search the internet looking for the service you provide or the products you sell.

The first thing to remember is that you’re not selling a product or a service, you’re selling the benefits the product or service will bring the buyer. Write a list of the benefits your product or service offers, such as saving money, saving time or making your customers feel good. Then, thinking from the customers’ point of view, write a list of why your product or service is better than the competitors. Try to turn any negative thoughts you or anyone else has, into positive thoughts. If you think your product is too expensive, state why it’s more expensive than your competing products due to its added benefits. If there are no added benefits, consider reducing the cost. Take this into account with any negative views you may have about your product.

No matter how good or bad you are at forward planning, a solid business plan is the most important business-related document you will ever create. It’s highly recommended for anyone starting a new business, as a way of guaranteeing you plan the kind of business you want to create. If ever there was a key skill to starting your own business: it’s planning. Things to think about are: what do you want to achieve from your business? How many other businesses offer the same service and what makes you different? Who are your potential customers? What must happen to make your business a success? Making sure you answer all these questions thoroughly will lead you on your way to starting to build your business.

Setting up a small business involves a number of important steps if you want to get things right first time. First of all, make sure it’s the life for you before taking the plunge; Setting up your own business requires a lot of hard work. Work out which business structure would suit you best: sole proprietor, limited company, partnership or LLP. Make sure you choose a good name for your company, making sure you make it future proof and being aware of which legal issues, such as copyright. The main thing is that like your company name, your name should be memorable and catchy.