In its basic, online advertising is everything about being seen at places where it matters. What about search engine result pages? Well, it's not easy to consistently rank high for all webpages for relevant search terms. If so, what then are ways for small business websites to establish their brands? Here are some suggestions. Read on.
As in offline world, online advertising too is a game of being seen at places. It's a sustained effort involving thoughtful planning and executing accordingly.
The benefit of getting noticed repeatedly is rarely felt immediately. But impression remains for fairly long while, and the familiarity matters a great deal when a customer is on the verge of making a purchase. Which is why familiar brands sell more.
Which is also perhaps the reason that bigger brands or those that want to make a splash in a short time in online advertising choose large banner ads instead of simple text ads when going through Google AdWords.
I've been looking at some suggestions by Brendon Sinclair of SitePoint. Being a marketer, his tips on online advertising are very succinct. By way of example as to how apparently insignificant visuals influence our day-to-day lives, he mentions the excellent video by Derren Brown. Here it is:
Following up on his suggestions, Brendon explains thus:
You can apply this approach to your online advertising campaigns -- the benefit from having a top rank in Google, for example, doesn't always come from an immediate sale. A very significant branding benefit comes from being seen at the top. That branding benefit can equate to many sales over an extended period of time.
However, despite Brendon's tips, the question remains as to how small business websites can hopefully attain top search ranks as part of online advertising strategy. Today's competition is too fierce to make this happen on a platter. As time passes, competition will only get fiercer.
Perhaps he meant ranking at top for paid ads. Even there, no place is granted nor asked for.
That being so, is there no decent cost-effective chance for small business owners to take advantage of online advertising, or brand recalling if you prefer? While I've a few in my mind that does work, it'll be a pleasure to hear from my readers what they feel about it.
Here are my takes:
Brand Name In Title Tag
Notice all page titles of this site start with a mandatory 'Words2Content'. Why? Since organic search results have the clickable title tags in the heading, it is a good thing to have that starting with your brand name.
As time passes, and if you can indeed manage ranking of your web pages for various search terms on the very first page of SERP, you're engraving your brand name in the minds of countless web visitors. Who knows, many of them may soon turn your customers!
Writing Articles
Ah that, you might say. There is such a deluge of article writing suggestion that it nearly chokes. But wake up, take article writing seriously. There is an immense latent benefit to be had from it as I've come to discover over time.
What is important in such content writing, especially the ones you'll submit to article directory, is to maintain a focus and not dabble in too many topics. I've seen people writing on curing acne as well as on reciprocal linking.
Whoever suggested them to write as diverse as that, it's obvious the ploy as an online advertising strategy just doesn't work.
That being so, what about the article byline, or resource box as it is popularly known? Once again, it is better not to go overboard. Remember, the objective is to gently place your brand in the minds of viewers. So a subtly persuasive message is preferable.
One more thing of importance about articles is to write frequently. Okay, the creative juice may not flow as fast as to write several articles each week. But perhaps one can be written in a week's time, just so your brand name doesn't fade away soon.
Social Networking
Social media optimization or SMO is my third preference as a cost-effective online advertising. For example, allow your visitors to freely comment on your posts while letting them digg, furl or stumble-upon among other alternatives.
What else? Become 'socially' active by uploading relevant videos to Google Video or YouTube and posting them on your website (why not!) like the one above.
There are many other ways of online advertising through social networking. It's constantly evolving you see.
Write Well
This one is very dear to me. Nothing beats the most effective online advertising than writing well. Not everyone is gifted with this virtue, but she who has it in her won't remain undiscovered for long.
If you do not count yourself as someone who can dish out decent articles ever so often, take heart. Many people lacking the quality take recourse to hiring ghost writers, which is perfectly okay.
One advantage of having others writing for you is to make use of occasional press release, which is an oft-used means of online advertising, and one that requires skill to produce optimum result.
But suppose you can write well. Even then you'll find hiring a writer is a win-win situation, for you'll be freed of time to chart the course of your website as you want while getting the service at reasonable cost.
Whichever course you choose, let there be no loosing sight of establishing your brand bit by bit as an effective long-term way of online advertising.
