What’s that? You managed to launch a profitable business WITHOUT a web presence? What are you selling, buggy whips?
Regardless of your business’s standing in a given industry, you can still benefit from an increased presence on the net. Even if your business HAS a heavily promoted website, there are other ways for you to design a specialized corporate internet marketing strategy to drive sales even higher.
Here are some ideas to consider:
- Create an ebook (informational product) with basic information about your industry. LOAD the ebook with links to your more information (your website and sales pages!) establish an “affiliate” program for potential salesmen on a performance-basis. you only pay if they sell your product!
- Start a blog, giving out the latest news and updates from your company or industry. Create interest in aspects of your company OTHER than the product itself. If you have a great blog or ebook that satisfies a potential customer’s desire for education, where do you think he’s going to look for more when he’s done? That’s right, YOUR SITE. Once he does, see if you can slip in some sales copy about your product or service.
- Create a YouTube channel for your company. Add videos relevant to your company’s field or industry. Update viewers about new products, services or any ground-breaking research your company might be doing.
While every business is different, the rules remain the same for each: expand, make more than you spend, and you stay in the game. For an organization with a corporate structure, often times these decisions are not carried out by those on lower levels.
Mid to large size companies have the potential to systematically dominate their industry-specific keywords, and oftentimes they do. While this will get them quite a bit of traffic from Google, it does relatively nothing to encourage users to arrive to the site from other means.
For example, take the soft drink giant Pepsi. Because they are so large, they can afford to buy Super Bowl commercials, sponsor major sporting events, and hire high profile celebrities to promote their product.
More money doesn’t always equal better marketing
Probably not, and I’ll tell you why. To those who Pepsi is marketing TO (us), it offers nothing of value other than a 30 second distraction from our otherwise bland lives. The advertisement is forgotten as soon as the commercial ends.
What if, however, Pepsi were to run a YouTube contest where people compete to make the best 30 second Pepsi commercial?
It would generate a HUGE amount of buzz across all forms of media and be virtually free to promote (nothing more than a well placed press release). This flexibility in the creative process is the major advantage small business owners have over their corporate competitors.