If you're a small business owner, you've probably heard a lot about how advertising online could benefit you. Online advertising is certainly an effective way of attracting new customers, and, if done correctly, it can be an inexpensive promotion method too. However, for newcomers to the world of Internet marketing, there are a lot of pitfalls.
This guide will help you to get started with online marketing, and help you avoid the most common mistakes.
Why Market Online?
The first thing you need to ask yourself is why you want to market online. If your answer is "I got a letter from an online marketing company and the prospect of reaching millions of customers sounds cool", then maybe you should re-examine your reasons. Online marketing works really well for mail order companies, companies that offer virtual goods, and people that sell a service that can be delivered remotely. It can also work well for events, if you start marketing early enough, but it's not a magical answer for every single business.
Do you know which customers you want to reach? Does it matter whether those customers are local to you? Can you serve people in the same country? Can you ship your product abroad? Figure out who you want to reach and where they need to be located before you start working on advertisements.
Choosing Who To Advertise With
For your first foray into online advertising, there are two companies that are safe bets. One is Facebook, and the other is Google. Facebook advertising is a good option if you're advertising games, music, entertainment, or anything aimed at people in the teenage and twenty-something range.
Google Adwords can reach a wider range of people than Facebook ads, and there are lots of Google Adwords consultants that can offer advice to novices, and even manage campaigns for you. Adwords are context sensitive, so if you set up a campaign promoting a personal training business, your ad will automatically appear on sites that promote personal training. This makes sure that your ad will reach the right people.
There are other companies that offer advertising, and a good online marketing company may be able to advise you about advertising companies that are aimed specifically at your niche, but Facebook and Google are good bets for most people.
Running Your Campaign
There's more to running a campaign than just picking a few keywords, writing the ad, and funding your account. The Google adwords interface allows you to set up "negative campaigns", for example. This feature allows you to ensure that your advertisement for a personal training business won't appear when someone searches for "How to become a personal trainer", it will only appear to people who are looking to hire one.
Another useful feature is geo-targeting. This allows you to restrict the countries that will see your advertisement. This means that if you know you can ship to the USA, Canada, and America, but can't ship to Iceland or Japan, you can prevent the advertisement from being shown to the later two countries.
If you aren't confident in setting up those features, then there are lots of Google Adwords consultants that would be happy to help you get started.
This post was written by James Harper of Boom Online Marketing. James enjoys working in the busy environment of an online marketing company.
Do you like this article? Please let me know by using the comments section below.
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Until my next post, have a wonderful Easter!
This guide will help you to get started with online marketing, and help you avoid the most common mistakes.
Why Market Online?
The first thing you need to ask yourself is why you want to market online. If your answer is "I got a letter from an online marketing company and the prospect of reaching millions of customers sounds cool", then maybe you should re-examine your reasons. Online marketing works really well for mail order companies, companies that offer virtual goods, and people that sell a service that can be delivered remotely. It can also work well for events, if you start marketing early enough, but it's not a magical answer for every single business.
Do you know which customers you want to reach? Does it matter whether those customers are local to you? Can you serve people in the same country? Can you ship your product abroad? Figure out who you want to reach and where they need to be located before you start working on advertisements.
Choosing Who To Advertise With
For your first foray into online advertising, there are two companies that are safe bets. One is Facebook, and the other is Google. Facebook advertising is a good option if you're advertising games, music, entertainment, or anything aimed at people in the teenage and twenty-something range.
Google Adwords can reach a wider range of people than Facebook ads, and there are lots of Google Adwords consultants that can offer advice to novices, and even manage campaigns for you. Adwords are context sensitive, so if you set up a campaign promoting a personal training business, your ad will automatically appear on sites that promote personal training. This makes sure that your ad will reach the right people.
There are other companies that offer advertising, and a good online marketing company may be able to advise you about advertising companies that are aimed specifically at your niche, but Facebook and Google are good bets for most people.
Running Your Campaign
There's more to running a campaign than just picking a few keywords, writing the ad, and funding your account. The Google adwords interface allows you to set up "negative campaigns", for example. This feature allows you to ensure that your advertisement for a personal training business won't appear when someone searches for "How to become a personal trainer", it will only appear to people who are looking to hire one.
Another useful feature is geo-targeting. This allows you to restrict the countries that will see your advertisement. This means that if you know you can ship to the USA, Canada, and America, but can't ship to Iceland or Japan, you can prevent the advertisement from being shown to the later two countries.
If you aren't confident in setting up those features, then there are lots of Google Adwords consultants that would be happy to help you get started.
This post was written by James Harper of Boom Online Marketing. James enjoys working in the busy environment of an online marketing company.
Do you like this article? Please let me know by using the comments section below.
If you found this or any of my other posts helpful, don't forget to +1 or share the posts to your favourite networks using the toolbar below or by using the "+1" and "Share" buttons located at the bottom of each post.
As ever, if you want to stay up to date with the latest blog posts, don't forget to follow via Google Friend Connect (button on sidebar), on NetworkedBlogs, via Email (maximum of one email per day), on Facebook and Google+ or by subscribing to our blog feed at:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/DereksHomeAndBusinessBlog
You can also follow me on Twitter @djones1509, Google+ and on Facebook at:
http://www.facebook.com/djones1509
https://plus.google.com/104849975941505117776
Until my next post, have a wonderful Easter!
Thinking about using Facebook ads so very helpful article.
ReplyDeleteThis is one of the good articles you can find in the net explaining everything in detail regarding the topic. I thank you for taking your time sharing your thoughts and ideas to a lot of readers out there.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments, I'm glad you found this article useful.
ReplyDeleteIt was great to go through your post. The information here is very useful and informative.
ReplyDeleteHi Derek, thanks for the great information. This is definitely a great guide for those who are planning to start their internet businesses. Apart from investing in Google Adwords, beginners should also have knowledge about SEO, which is one of the most important element to succeed in internet marketing.
ReplyDeleteHi Derek, thanks for the great information. This is definitely a great guide for those who are planning to start their internet businesses.
ReplyDelete