Online marketing – love it or hate it, if you’re a business owner you have to get to grips with it.
As the vast majority of the population use the internet to search for products and services these days, if you you don’t have an online presence you will be missing out on a massive marketplace.
But that doesn’t mean you can just lob any old website into cyber space and people will come running with open wallets.
Being online badly can seriously damage your business
The first thing to remember when starting out in the online world is that the internet isn’t a static entity.
It changes at an alarming rate so you must get to understand it and keep up to date with the latest thinking, ideas and pitfalls.
Being successful on the web will take time, patience and money. If you chuck any old thing together on the cheap you’ll do yourself more harm than good. After all if you had a High Street store you would make sure your window display was attractive and enticed people in the door.
Your website is your virtual High Street store so it must be professional, appealing and tailored to your business needs.
One of my favourite blogs is Copyblogger. A post appeared on there a while ago by Mel Brennan called 6 Online Marketing Mistakes that Will Kill Your Business. Mel takes you by the hand and leads you through the 6 no-nos of internet marketing.
Grab a coffee and have a read. Whether you think you’re web savvy or not, it’s worth taking a few minutes to check it out and make sure you’re not committing any of these cardinal sins.
Sally Ormond – freelance copywriter