Internet Marketing Basics For Your Home Business

Internet Marketing Basics forYour Home Business

Internet Marketing Basics for Your Home BusinessStarting a business out of your home is a brilliant idea for creating new income streams orpivoting to a new career path. If you can master the art of internet marketing, your livingroom or home o ce can be just as good a place for generating personal wealth as anyskyrise office building.You have a ton of digital marketing tools at your disposal, too. A few of them areabsolutely 100% necessary, while others you can pick and choose based on your uniqueneeds.To help you get started, here is a quick guide to the basics of internet marketing, what youneed to effectively earn leads, and what optional tools could help you along the way.Internet Marketing Basics for Your Home Business

Internet Marketing Basics for Your Home BusinessThe Absolute Essential: A Google My Business ProfileJust a few months ago we might have listed a website as the #1 priority for a small, homerun business, but claiming a Google My Business (GMB) listing is now even moreimportant by far.Why? Well, for one, you can create a mini website through your GMB listing. Thatbarebones site might not get you as far as a legitimate website with its own custom domainname (web address), but the fact that you can have your GMB listing site up and runninglightning fast means there’s no reason to put it off for even a second.Even more importantly, the mini-site is already mobile optimized — which is critical forreasons we’ll delve into in just a moment.So what is Google My Business? Simply put: it’s a business listing that shows up whenpeople search for your business or things related to your service areas on Google.Internet Marketing Basics for Your Home Business

Internet Marketing Basics for Your Home BusinessA GMB profile:Reveals your business location on Google Maps, which is incredibly important ifpeople are meeting you at your home officeLists your phone number and/or an email contact formShows a button that can quickly take search engine users to your websiteDisplays business information, such as your hours, service category, and a shortdescription of what your business doesAllows you and others to upload photos of your businessEnables customers to leave online reviewsCreates the above-mentioned mini-website that loads quickly and looks great inmobileThe simple fact is that millions of people use Google Search as their rst step when lookingfor goods or services. With a GMB created, you can ensure that they see the correctinformation while giving your business a visibility boost compared to those who didn’tbother to create their own listing.Claiming or creating a new GMB listing is easy, too. Google provides all the steps you needwhen you hit “Start Now” on their GMB page.Internet Marketing Basics for Your Home Business

Internet Marketing Basics for Your Home BusinessA Website: Your Virtual Business OfficeA website is another essential element to any business run out of the home. Customers andpotential leads will want to see a website before they can feel like your business islegitimate. 75% of people want to see a quality website design before they will evenconsider a business credible!Internet Marketing Basics for Your Home Business

Internet Marketing Basics for Your Home BusinessWebsites give your business an environment that you can control to create that allimportant rst impression. You can present your services in a persuasive, easy tounderstand way.And, you can also give people reasons to go ahead and start interacting with your businessso that they are more likely to return as a paying customer. For instance, you can create abusiness blog full of helpful tips your typical clients or customers might love to read. Or,you can o er them free information, free content, or a chance to learn more about youwith a simple email form.Harping on that last point, don’t expect too many customers to email you out of the blue.Even if they are highly interested in what you have to o er, they may hesitate if you makegetting in touch with you too difficult.To make capturing emails and earning new lead opportunities easy, give your website anemail submission form that:Shows up before people have to scroll (above the fold)Has as few entry forms as possible, preferably just one for their email addressHas a design that’s consistent with your brandingUses a call-to-action promising some sort of bene t to people who sign up, such as“Get started today!” or “Get insider tips delivered right to your inbox!”Having a form like this makes it easy to convert casual clicks into genuine customer leads,so test different designs to see what works best.Internet Marketing Basics for Your Home Business

Internet Marketing Basics for Your Home BusinessA Social Media Page: Your Digital Home Away From HomeSocial media is used by 69% of all American adults and 83% of adults under the age of 50.Many people will also spend most of their time online exclusively in a social media app.This trend means that if your business isn’t on social media, you may be invisible tothousands of potential leads.Very few businesses need to be active on more than a few social media platforms, though.You should review which ones your target audiences use to ensure you aren’t wastingefforts on pitching your business to people who aren’t really there.For instance, Snapchat is incredibly popular with people under between 18-24, whereasLinkedIn is more popular with adult professionals in the 30-49 age. Some businesses, likestudioSPACEnyc, even conduct most of their business activities through social mediarather than their website. “If we look at the analytics of the website and how many peopleview my Instagram account, we’ll see 200 a day on Instagram and 15 on my website,” saysCEO Jacob Fisher.No matter what platform you choose, give a professional touch to everything you do. Adda branded logo and header image to your pages. Share only content that is consistent withyour brand voice and your customers’ values. Post at least once a week, and de nitelydon’t ignore people who directly try to ask you a question or start a conversation.In fact, social media could be a great source of customer leads considering that one out ofthree people say they would rather contact a business through social compared totelephone or email.So, remember that social media is more than just a place to share silly cat photos andinspirational quotes. Give people good reasons to interact with your brand, and keep anear out for anyone trying to use the platform to engage with you directly.Internet Marketing Basics for Your Home Business

Internet Marketing Basics for Your Home BusinessEmail Marketing: Essential to Small Business InternetMarketingSetting up a two-way email conversation is about more than just business-as-usual. True,you can handle client interactions or send things like appointment reminders over email.But email is more special than that!That’s because email inboxes are much less cluttered than the typical search engine resultspage or social media newsfeed. As a result, when you send people something throughemail, such as a newsletter or a personalized o er, they are much more likely to actually seethose messages compared to an online ad.For many home-based small business owners, their email list is their most precious resourcewhen it comes to drumming up business. It serves as their modern Rolodex, letting themknow just how many leads they have, how many are past customers, and whichopportunities are about to convert into a sale.Internet Marketing Basics for Your Home Business

Internet Marketing Basics for Your Home BusinessCultivate your email list carefully, and strongly consider creating a good reason for peopleto open content from you in their inbox at least once a month to keep your business topof-mind.Learning About Search Engine Optimization (SEO)Search engine optimization (SEO) is the bridge between simply creating things online andpriming the pump for those things to create actual leads.What, exactly, is SEO? Simply put: SEO is paying attention to the factors that help yourbusiness rank when someone searches for a term related to your goods or services. Forinstance, if your home business o ers event photography in the Phoenix, AZ region, youprobably want to rank for search terms like “wedding photographers in phoenix” or“phoenix event photographers”.Internet Marketing Basics for Your Home Business

Internet Marketing Basics for Your Home BusinessMaking this happen is the subject of another blog, but the trick is to ensure that key searchterms like the ones listed above and their related terms appear both within your websitecontent and in the code you create behind-the-scenes. To get you started, take a look at thehelpful Beginner’s Guide to SEO from Moz.In the meantime, focus on setting up the rest of your internet marketing channels listedabove. Your goal should basically be to not be embarrassed or feel the need to make excusesshould anyone search for your business online, visit your website, nd you on socialmedia, or expect professional-grade email correspondence.Good luck, and get in touch with us if you need any help! We are experts in getting smallbusiness owners o the ground and ensuring they have all the elements they need to earncustomers and grow their company.Internet Marketing Basics for Your Home Business

Internet Marketing Basics for Your Home Business. Internet Marketing Basics for Your Home Business A Social Media Page: Your Digital Home Away From Home Social media is used by 69% of all American adults and 83% of adults under the age of 50. Many people will also spend most of their time online exclusively in a social media app.