How to Market a New Business Online

Did you just start a new local business? Congrats! You’ve made the first step toward becoming a successful small business owner. But the next step can be the hardest: how are you going to market your new business so people know you’re out there?

Here are some simple suggestions about how to show your local customers that you’re “Open for Business.”

1. Define Your Market

The only way you’ll be able to attract, serve and satisfy your customers is if you know who they are. Who are your products and services designed for? What’s your competition like for those customers? How do you reach them with the right offer at the right time?

Knowing your customers — and their needs — is as important as knowing your trade.

2. Brand Your Business

To give your business credibility and help customers remember you, you need to create a recognizable brand. While widespread brand recognition is the long-term goal, start small with a logo (that’s clear and legible on screens of every size, especially mobile) and a tagline. Think about your company values, the value you provide to your customers (who you’ve now defined clearly), and what will resonate with them.

Remember that your “brand” is more than just your logo or packaging. It’s the entire experience of doing business with you, from your marketing materials to your face-to-face interactions to your followup with your customers.

3. Create Your Website

This is the key to developing your online brand — which is often the first impression your customers will have of your business. Your site needs to be search engine optimized, mobile friendly, easy to use, and tell your visitors what they want to know: who you are, what you do, how to reach you, and what makes you better than your competition.

Since you’ve already defined your audience and developed your brand, you should know if you’re faster / more affordable / more reliable / more available than your competitors — and which of those really stand out to your ideal customer.

4. Promote Your Website (and Your Business)

Your business website is your digital “brick and mortar” — your storefront along the Web’s Main Street. But how will your customers find you there? What roads and vehicles will they use to reach you?

To market your new business, you need to take advantage of all the different channels that lead to you online: social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and more), online directories, email marketing and yes, even print advertising. There are a lot of ways to promote your business online and offline, and while you don’t have to do all of them — not every channel is right for every business, of course — you do need to make sure you’re doing enough to help your customers find you wherever, whenever, and however they decide to look for you.

Ready to start marketing your new local business? Call us today at 855-771-7858 (or let us know a good time to talk) to get a search engine-optimized, mobile-friendly small business website…set up your Social Media profiles…and make sure your business information is correct across the Web.