Marketing Toolbox: 20+ Great Ways to Promote your Business Online
Ken Burgin
Websites and information for the Workshop at Manly Warringah Community College and Sydney Community College.
Understanding Keywords and Google Searching
It's important to understand how your page is read or 'indexed' by search engines. They place high priority on the words in the title bar of the page (up the very top - in the frame of this page it reads: 'Marketing Toolbox: 20 Great Ways to Promote your Business Online') and what is in headings on a page eg the bold blue heading text 1,2, 3 etc on this page.
Search engine robots are blind - they can only go on the text contents and how it's laid out to understand what a page is really about. So make sure your title bars don't just read 'Home' or 'Untitled' - each one should describe the contents of that particular page.
Within the body of your pages you need plenty of descriptive words about what you do and offer. Pictures are important, but not enough by themselves - there's nothing for Google to 'read' and understand. It's another reason to avoid too much Flash on home pages - moving pictures and music can look good, but often block Google searches and there are no actual words for it to index.
To understand how people search online - Google, Yahoo or MSN, see Google Suggest and use the Keyword Tool. The best tool for tracking website traffic (how people find you and the most popular pages), is the excellent and free Google Analytics - make sure your web-person installs it for you.
Establish a Personal Profile Online
This should be done on the 'About' page if you have a website, and by using other social media services.
LinkedIn has very good business credibility for networking, and free membership is sufficient.
If you're after a younger demographic, make sure you are active on MySpace.
Promote your Products & Services
Advertise using Google's AdWords - plenty of information here on how to get started. Your ad would appear on Google's search site or someone else's website like these below (colours and shapes vary but the wording is always as you wrote it):
Email customers and potential clients: I highly recommend the online service Constant Contact. I have used it for my weekly email for 4 years - very reliable and inexpensive. Have a go with their 60-day free trial - they have easy tutorials to walk you through it.
To check the 'spam score' of your email newsletter (and potential for being blocked), use the very useful free SpamDance service.
Google Maps has just added full featured searching to Australia, so if you want a cafe in Avalon, directions to the beach or the location of another business, it's as easy as a regular Google search. Try it. Google is constantly adding map tools and it's becoming a very powerful business tool eg 'My Maps' - let you create a map of features that interest you or promote your business eg My Sydney Cafe Collection.
Now is also the time to add a free Google local listing with a description of what you offer, hours, website, phone number etc.
Find out what industry directories there are that will list you - usually basic information for free and fuller listings at a price eg I-Do for the wedding industry.
Make sure you have plenty of information on your About Us and Contact Us pages and always have your phone number on the home page!
It's best not to have your email address visible, as it will be 'scraped' by spammers. Much better to have a Contact form like the Contact Us page on this site.
A free website builder you can experiment with is Webnode - here's an example: Learn to Cook. I recommend Sitesuite for excellent sites you can edit yourself (they are also very good web designers) or NetRegistry for low-cost build-it-yourself.
You can also create a free web presence and share your expertise using Squidoo. Here's one for my business. This is excellent practice for writing content and seeing how it looks on the web, and it starts building your Google links.
If you want to build a shared page with public information eg for a neighbourhood group or educational group, WIKIS are an excellent tool. These are like websites that are edited by a number of people - you control who can edit or read the content. See the tour for Wikispaces, one of the leading free wikis available.
Register your .com domain name at Godaddy and your .com.au domain name at MelbourneIT or NetRegistry. These services also have templates for setting up your own website at low cost - worth checking.
As a no-cost option for a web site, you could register your domain name and have it 're-directed' to your blog - this can be done on the domain registrar's site.
Display Pictures of Your Products & Services
Download and use Picasa, Google's free picture software for Windows. It links with Picasa Album.
Flickr is another excellent album tool. Here's an example of the great food photography you can find on the site. Here's an excellent Beginner's Guide for Flickr. If you need quality photos for your website, check iStockPhoto - very cheap and enormous range.
SlideShow is a great way to show off your photos - you could put it onto your blog:
[Flash software required (free): if you can't see this, download it from Adobe]
Place your events online with Google Calendar to publicly show events online and to privately organise your event bookings. Excellent for when you want several people working jointly on a calendar.
An example of how a Google Calendar would appear on your site:
Contribute your course or events to other online event calendars such as Meetup and Upcoming.
Share your Ideas: use Blogger to start your own 'blog' or online diary. A blog is your voice, and a website is your presence. Here is an example of what you could do Cafe Troppo and Deano42 selling knots and lanyards [thanks Samuel].
Allow customers to share opinions in your own Google Group: here's an example used by educators. You can make it open or closed access. You may also find Google Groups, Yahoo Groups and other online forums on your special topic - contribute to them.
Want people to download a document (that might be too large to email), catalogue or report? Use the free Box.net to host it. If you want to turn your work into a PDF file for downloading or sharing, use the Mac's free PDF facility when you Print, or on a PC use the free PDF995 or similar.
Place a PowerPoint online for people to see, using SlideShare. Sign up and use for free at SlideShare. [Google now also has an online presentation service].
Find blogs in your area of interest using Google's Blog Search. Once you find some blogs, many of them refer to other blogs in their side panels - you will find hundreds! How to keep up with all this?
Use a News Reader programme, either web based or software to keep track of your favourite blogs. Time to understand the little RSS symbol - read about it in this article.
Other Resources...
Keep track of your reputation and topics of particular interest (even competitors) with Google Alerts. To find yourself in a Google search, make sure you put the name in double quotes like this: "Your Name".
Ask your webmaster to install Google Analytics on your site - it's a free service that gives you an enormous amount of information about visitors and the popularity of different pages. You can also analyse the strength and popularity of your site with these free tools.
Try searching for yourself or your business now:
Use Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia for information on every type of service and product. For example, do a search for 'chocolate', 'acupuncture' or 'celestial navigation' - any subject you're training about. Add references to your online information eg blog.
Add a little humour to your blog by adding a YouTube video. We all need a laugh!
Would it help to have a translation service on your web pages? If you deal with overseas inquiries or anyone who uses English as a second language, there could be advantages. If so, add a Google Translation button to your site - click and try it (then click your back arrow to return to the original page):
For more information and follow-up, please send me an email or phone 02-93694558.
Restaurant Management
