Accidentally or Intentionally? How are you marketing online?
Take a moment to think about how you would really answer this question. If given enough thought just
about any business owner who utilizes the Internet for any purpose will likely find that whether or not
they intentionally organized an Internet marketing campaign, they may already be marketing their
products and services on the Internet.
This article will examine some subtle ways business owners may already be marketing their business on
the Internet and 4 tips to easily do more through setting an intention to get a particular result, leading
to the growth of business and revenue.
Are you like most business owners and have a website for your business? Those who answer yes to this
question are already marketing their products or services online just by virtue of the fact that they have
a website. Having a live website means there is the potential for curious Internet users to access your
website, find out more about you and possibly connect.
You may not be actively promoting your website and you may still find that your website generates
interest in your products despite the lack of promotional endeavors. This is a form of passive marketing
and while it may not take much of your time, it also won’t bring you revenue . I call it ‘accidental’
marketing because the intention is only to have a website, not to use the website to help you grow
business.
“Accidental Marketing is passive marketing. It’s having a website without the intention for it to be used
as a tool in the growth of your business. Don’t be accidental. Be intentional.” -V. Lynn Hawkins
Marketing Tip #1 – Use Your Website More Intentionally Connecting to Your Social Media Outreach
With marketing in a more intentional way, you’ve increased the value of your website and without much
more effort. By at least creating a Facebook business page and posting periodically (optimally on a
scheduled basis at least once per week) sharing information of value and including a link to your
website, you’ve increased the value of your website and the opportunity to attract more because of
search capabilities. You can expand this idea by also posting to LinkedIn, creating a video and posting it
on your YouTube Channel. This is just a little for starters and a small investment of time or money.
Already doing this, consider the next level of intentional outreach that can attract more to find their way
to your website.
Do you participate in message boards and include a link to your website in your signature? Do you
belong to social media groups or community groups where you can use your website in your
communications? Again, business owners who answer yes to either of these questions are already
marketing their website online. Savvy business owners realize the importance of participation in
industry related message boards and groups to create an interest in their products and services,
establish themselves as knowledgeable and authorities about the industry and they offer a link to their
own website even if it is in the signature line of their posts.
Business owners who do not realize this may be inadvertently enjoying the benefits of Internet
marketing which result from message board participation just by doing something they enjoy. This is
especially true when they may be doing this as a form of leisure activity. Participation by sharing your
wisdom and commenting on others posts in any group always has its rewards, however, it also has a
downside when you’re not optimizing the advantages of being a part of these groups by participating
with intention.
Marketing Tip #2 – Connect in Groups and Become a Value Contributor
Connect and participate by first sharing value. Whether it’s a message board or a group on Facebook or
LinkedIn, sharing value will have a return that can only be imagined. Set the intention to do this type of
participating and measure the results in traffic and leads, through to closing a new sale or client.
Next, do you include keywords that are relevant to your business in the content of your website?
Business owners who answer yes to this question are also already marketing on the Internet and
optimizing their website with these keywords. Search engine optimization (SEO) affects websites
whether or not business owners are even aware of the concept of keyword density and how it can help
with SEO.
Business owners will likely use certain words often depending on the type of products and services they
offer just because it is natural and logical to do so. This tendency, however, can result in search engines
boosting your website rankings because of these particular keywords.
The downside is that if you aren’t capitalizing on this knowledge and do this intentionally, you could be
missing out on added business or optimizing your connections. The concept of SEO is much more
involved and complex than simply using keywords frequently, but business owners can gain some
benefit just by naturally applying relevant keywords to their website.
Marketing Tip #3 – Optimize your Online Presence Applying Keywords and SEO
Content will always be king, whether written or in video. Intentionally create your content using
keywords and with SEO in mind and you will create a flow of information that will always lead back to
you, some great connections and a sale, or two, or three, or hundreds!
Now, do you solicit feedback from your customers online? This is yet another example of how business
owners may be accidentally marketing their business on the Internet. Most business owners realize the
importance of soliciting feedback from customers for business purposes.
Business owners who offer products online might solicit feedback in the form of online surveys.
Although the business owners may be doing this simply for the purpose of receiving the feedback, the
fact that it is done online makes it fall into the category of Internet marketing and done with a little
more intention, could be used to increase traffic and thus increase sales.
Marketing Tip #4 – Solicit Feedback from Your Customers
Obtaining feedback from your customers is one of the best ways to gauge what your audience wants
more of. Be intentional about soliciting feedback by asking the next question, something like: What else
would you benefit from knowing, having or seeing from us that could help you? Not only will you get the
feedback, you’ll get what could be your next product, course, book, or service offer.
While we have already discussed several ways business owners may already be marketing online, the
question becomes … are you marketing accidentally, or intentionally?
Are you a business owner who has products or services and want to have an increased online presence?
It’s time to take the no marketing, or accidentally marketing and transform it into intentional marketing
by creating a strategy to launch a full-scale Internet marketing campaign with a purpose. The best way
to do this is to hire a consultant with experience in Internet marketing to assist you in creating a
campaign which is effective for your target audience.
Don’t wait. Get It Done! Every day you are not doing it, someone else is a step ahead. Take your
marketing from none or accidental to intentional. Do it with intention, with a social enterprise focus and
track those results.
Need help? Get your Complimentary Rapid Results Business Assessment to find out the possibilities of
what you can be doing. While you’re at it, inquire about how we might be able to help with your social
media marketing.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: V. Lynn Hawkins is a certified business acceleration coach, consultant and small
business funding strategist, specializing in helping entrepreneurs with online marketing to grow business
and revenue. As CEO/Founder of the P3 Academy of Social Entrepreneurship, she coaches her signature
5 Tiers of Accelerated Business Development, courses and programs her audience is asking for. Lynn
teaches how to raise capital using crowdfunding and is host of the Crowdfunding Hacker Show. She is an
author, speaker and an advocate for growing women entrepreneurs and their businesses and is often
caught saying “when you earn more revenue, you can do more good in the world”. She believes in
creating a living legacy through your work. Her “ Goddesspreneur DIAMOND Mastermind ” and “Women
Empowering Women” live events help women express their vision, vibe, voice, and visibility to live
victorious legacy lives, creating and growing legacy businesses.
