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.
