As the old saying goes, it takes money to make money, and that certainly applies to an online business. The one advantage that a brick-and-mortar merchant has is their physical presence, especially in a shopping mall environment. It’s not quite as simple for an online merchant.
While word of mouth certainly can bring business, it’s imperative that you make your presence known through other means. Those means involve marketing, and just about any marketing campaign that’s going to yield results is going to cost money.
When it comes to investing in marketing online, you want to be wise. You especially want to make sure that you’re doing business with established, reputable companies. Too often, people “take the money and run”, leaving you without that money, and without the services for which you paid.
Here are some key areas where you’ll want to invest:
- Relevant search engine advertising– This can be accomplished by placing targeted ads through services such as Google Adsense.
- Banner ads– Purchasing banner ads on relevant sites (like WebHostingTalk if you host websites) can yield favorable results.
- Text ads– You may wish to purchase ads on sites such as Facebook, using keywords that are relevant to your business.
The key word here is “relevant”. After all, you wouldn’t want to advertise your web design service on a site for expectant mothers. Don’t advertise for the sake of advertising. While it may be “cool” to advertise on a popular forum because it’s popular, it won’t do you any good if your target audience isn’t reading.
The idea is to target your specific audience, based on your business, and advertise on sites and within search engine results that your target audience is likely to use. You’ll also want to ensure that you stay within a pre-determined advertising budget. While it does take money to make money, you won’t be doing yourself any favours by overshooting your budget in the hopes of gaining paying clients.
Starting up and running an online business can be tough. It can be challenging budget-wise, too. Still, setting aside money each month specifically for advertising is a wise move, because if you place your ads wisely, you will be more likely to attract and retain customers, bringing you a return on that investment, and revenue to boot.
Need more useful advice? Sign up to our free weekly marketing tips newsletter and get them straight to your inbox.
