Website Marketing for Small Businesses: The Ultimate Guide

If you want to delve deeper into your customers so you can make more informed decisions about how to market your product, then it’s a good one Idea to create user personas.

User personas are representations of your customers. This includes information such as:

• Objectives
• Pain points (issues)
• Behaviour
• Demographics

If you really want to dig deep, this template should inspire you to discover who your ideal customer is:

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Important reading: our guide to user personas with tips, examples and templates.

What content would your audience be interested in

Now you have an idea of ​​who you are writing for and what they want. Now is the time to create or update content that these people want.

Here are the types of content you can create:

• Blog posts
• Landing (sales) pages
• Social media posts
• Infographics
• Charts or graphs
• Whitepapers
• eBooks
• Case studies
• Webinars

Don’t have a lot of content to choose from yet? Are you just starting out? Click here to continue.

Find your best performing content

Creating content can take a while to research, to write, to edit, publish and promote.

So if you have existing content that is already getting a lot of website visitors, you can easily convert it to another format.

See also: How to effortlessly create a website for free with GitHub Pages (even if you dont know what youre doing)

Or you can possibly use this top-performing content to do it inspire to write similar blog posts, etc.

Task: Look through your blog posts from the past year and find the content your audience loves.

How do you do this? As mentioned above, you need to look under the hood of your website using a tool like W3Counter or Google Analytics.

You can see , which pages are visited most often and which keywords users use most often on Google to find your website. This is perfect for figuring out which pages to update or which topics to write more about.

Here’s an example on W3Counter:

Landing Pages are the first “Landing Pages” of website visitors. Country” most common. “Keywords” are the words that users use on Google or other search engines to find your website.

Task: Take a look at your most popular social media posts .

How do you do this? You can scroll through your feed and see which ones got the most likes, shares and comments.

Or use a tool like BuzzSumo. Enter your domain into their content research tool and see which posts got the most engagement (likes, etc.) across all your social media accounts.

The Most Liked report shows you what content has reached the most people on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Pinterest. This will help you decide what to post about on social media and other platforms like your blog.

I entered my domain and filtered by “last year” and “English”. . And voila – here is my most engaging content by social media channel!

Check what your competitors are doing

This is a great strategy for new ones Business owners who don’t have much (or any) content to watch. But anyone doing website marketing will benefit.

Make a list of your top three competitors. Check out their blogs and social media channels. Write down what they post about most.

What can you add to the conversation or how can you improve it? This is where your unique expertise comes into play. Many blog posts are also dry and boring. I’m adding tips below for adding amazing visuals to help your posts stand out from the crowd.

It’s okay to write about the same topics as your competitors – of course, don’t copy and paste their work Add your own unique perspective.

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Basic reading: Our guide to competitor analysis reports will help you with a formal review of your competitors .

Research what your customers are looking for

Ideally, you’ll get an idea from your surveys, online research, phone calls, etc. But you can do something, too make an educated guess about what your customers are searching for online.

Let’s say you run a local baby and children’s store in Toronto. Clothes, toys and so on.

Open your browser (I like Chrome) and start typing words related to your business. As you type, more options will appear in the drop-down menu – these are related search terms that people are searching for. Gold!

I started with the location (Toronto), then typed in “Baby” and lo and behold:

Now you can start planning your social media digitally -Posts start with newsletters, blog posts, etc. around popular topics like Baby Baskets and Baby Clothes.

Or just type in what your company goes. lawn care? Enter it. Lawn care services are an option, so type “services” and you’ll see even more specific options:

Some ideas from this:

• Create a page on your website with the Name “Lawn Care Services List” and list all your services
• Write a blog post titled “How Much Should Lawn Care Services Cost?”

I’ll give you some Show search options. The “keyword” is a word directly related to your business.

• Keyword only, e.g. e.g.: lawn care
• Location + keyword, e.g. B. Plumber in Houston
• New + keyword, e.g. e.g.: new pet food
• Keyword + delivery, e.g. B. book delivery
• Keyword + tips, e.g. B. Lawn Care Tips

There are some great free tools to help you dig deeper into what your prospects are looking for:

• Answer the Public: Enter a keyword like “painting” and get topics like “Is painting tax deductible” and “What makes a good house painter?”.
• Keywords Everywhere: This Chrome extension works inside Google. It shows related keywords like “home painting colors” and “home painting ideas”. You’ll need to upgrade to see how many people (on average) search for these terms per month.

Find trending keywords

Consumer behavior has changed significantly during this pandemic. Search trends change on the fly.

In this case, Google Trends is your friend. It’s a free tool from Google that sees which search terms are currently more popular. You can also filter the results by location and time frame.

I’ve searched “landscaping” in Arizona in the last 30 days:

Shrubs are a popular topic. So maybe you could write a blog post about top shrubs suited to the Arizona climate. You can even see which regions of Arizona are most popular for landscaping!

6. Website Graphics: Create Stunning Visualizations

Visuals such as infographics, screenshots, stock photos, videos, graphs and charts make the content on your website easier to read and digest. It’s an easy solution to improve your website’s design.

Need some inspiration on how to use website graphics? Check out this post!

Infographics

Don’t underestimate the power of visual communication. Visuals such as infographics, data visualizations, videos, and charts allow your customers to understand what you are communicating faster. They also keep people on the page longer.

In fact, 40% of marketers agreed that infographics performed best of all their content in 2019.

Infographics are particularly useful , because you can use them in different ways:

1. At the beginning of your blog posts to summarize your post and get people to share it.
2. On social media, especially Pinterest where a longer graphic works better and you can link to your website.
3. To target other websites: guest posts and infographics.
4. On your sales page to show your summarize offers.
5. On your company’s About page to explain your company story or mission.

Here are some templates to use as website graphics can:

Company About Page

Use these timeline infographics to show a visual history of your company.

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Blog Post Infographic

Edit this template to summarize the key findings of your blog post.

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Design Tip: Click one of the icons to open our in-editor library. Select a new option and the editor will automatically replace the old icon.

Social media infographic

Publish tips about your business on Pinterest, e.g . B. “Plumbing tips for new homeowners.” Pinterest isn’t just a social media platform. It is a search engine and can drive a lot of traffic to your website.

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Design Tip: Our take on the formula for the perfect Pinterest infographic will help you master this platform. You can also join this 1-hour free master class from Pinterest expert Jenna Kutcher.

Guest Posts Infographic

Guest Posts on Sites Your Ideal Customers Visit, are a great way to not only gain visibility for your business and get links to your website.

Getting links from websites can also get you on the first page of Google search results.

Why is that? Here’s how the magic works:

1. Let’s say you run a dog walking business.
2. You search Google for “dog walking tips”, there this is a subject on which you are obviously an authority.
3. Puppy Leaks is the number one result. It’s obviously a reputable site.
4. You’re presenting and writing a guest post for Puppy Leaks on a different topic, maybe “how to walk a pulling dog”. You include a link back to your site in the guest post.
5. Google sees this and decides that if an authoritative site like Puppy Leaks links to your site, your site is likely authoritative too!
6. You may see your website rank higher in Google search results for keywords related to your business.

Make your guest post more attractive by suggesting to add a custom infographic to the post, summarizing your key points.

These templates make it easy to summarize your key takeaways:

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Design tip: With our business plan, you can apply your corporate colors to any template with one click by importing it from your website. The feature is called My Brand Kit.

Sales Page Infographic

Use this flyer template to show what your company offers and add add them to your sales page. Skip coding and use ready-made website graphics that you can easily import as images.

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Design Tip : You can easily change the stock image in this template. Just click on it, click replace, then search our in-editor library of free stock images for business. Make your selection and we’ll replace and auto-size the image for you.

Important Reading: My post on how to create viral infographics that boost backlinks and mentions cause in the press.

Sales Pages

Your sales page is a perfect opportunity to showcase what features or services you offer, including a demo video , listing positive reviews, etc. The whole goal is to get the visitor to take an action: sign up for a demo, a free consultation, a trial plan, or just buy, buy, buy.

Here’s a template you can use to create an engaging sales page:

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Design tip: Click on any of the photos to replace them – we have thousands of free, professional stock images to choose from in our in-editor library. Or you can upload your own photos. Add your brand colors, change text, swap icons and more.

This simple sales website graphic can be added to an existing landing page:

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Browse more sales page templates.

Case Studies

Case studies are a great way to show potential customers how others do Customers use your product or service to achieve their goals.

It pays to create an impressive case study that you can download from your website. This is one of our favorite case study templates:

See also: How to Make a Website Quickly: Your Easy 6-Step Guide

Design tip: Apply your brand colors to this template with My Brand Kit in one click (business plan required).

Search our post on professional case study examples for more templates and advice.

Webinars

Webinars are a great tactic to start new to reach target groups. You can promote them via a banner on your website, social media ads, or ask other companies to promote them through their newsletters (and you can do the same for them).

However, webinars require a lot of the Prep work, which is why you should use a slide template to make your work easier. It will also help to keep attendees’ attention.

Edit this webinar template to make it on any topic:

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Design Tip: If you don’t like the gradient color, you can choose other gradients in our online editor. Or choose a solid color or a variety of background patterns.

Branding

Think branding is just a fancy exercise for big companies that make big bucks have?

Think again. Studies show that consistent online branding can increase sales by 23%.

So it pays to make sure your website, your social media channels, and everywhere else you are online are thriving , have the same look and style.

Create your brand by choosing three styles:

• Corporate Colors
• Fonts
• A logo

You can click on any of the links above to read our authoritative guides on the subject (with templates).

No time? In this video we explain branding in three minutes:

Blog Header

If you don’t have time to design an infographic for your blog post, Just add a header instead. This also allows the header image to show up in Google searches.

Here’s a simple blog header that you can customize for any topic:

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Design Tip: Change the background color in one click by clicking “Background” in the Editor and choosing a color. Then click on the text box to edit it and click on the typewriter icon to choose a different icon from our library if you like.

You don’t have to be in the travel industry to view this blog – Use banners. Swap photos and text to match your theme. It’s an easy way to add graphics to your website without much fuss.

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Design Tip: Click on the photo in the template and then “Replace” and upload your own photo or select a photo from our free stock photo library.

7. Website SEO Marketing: Optimize Your Website To Be On The First Page Of Google

The next step is to optimize your website for search, which is known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO ) or website SEO marketing.

You now have a list of keywords that your customers search for most often. You may already have a rank for some of these keywords. And some you won’t. You can’t find out unless you google these keywords yourself.

Make sure you’re using Incognito mode in Google so your personal search history doesn’t affect the options!

I personally use Ahrefs’ Site Explorer tool to check my rankings. It’s a bit more advanced, but it saves you from scrolling through endless Google search results. It’s not cheap, but you can get a seven-day trial for $7 and do all your research at once.

Split the keywords into two lists:

• Keywords you already rank for that you need to optimize for
• Keywords you don’t rank for you need to write new content for

I’ll take care of each task separately.

Higher ranking for existing keywords

Let’s take Toronto Dog Walking, a company I don’t deal with which I’ve never tried.

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I checked out their homepage in Ahrefs and they rank for some great keywords like “dog walker toronto.”

But if there are other keywords they don’t rank for, such as For example, “Dog Walker North york” and “Dog walkers near me.”

I used Keywords Everywhere (a free browser plugin) to find these other keywords:

You’ll probably want to add these words to the text on your homepage to start ranking for them.

Here are some simple benefits of adding keywords in a way that Google recognizes:

1. Use the keyword in the title and meta description.
   1. This is the title and description you see on Google. Yoast is a WordPress plugin that will help you with that. Or Google “tools to change meta description + host of your website”
   2. SERP simulator will help you not to make your title and meta as long as they are truncated.
2. Two or more headings on the page should contain the keyword.
3. The URL of the page should contain the main keyword that you want to rank for if possible.
   1. For example, the target keyword for this post is “website marketing” and the URL is: venngage.com/blog/website marketing
   2. Obviously is not possible for your primary domain!
4. Include links to popular industry or news sites in your content (blog posts work best for this).
5. Add links to other pages on your site. It helps page rank.
6. Make sure your image’s alt text and descriptions contain the target keyword. Yoast has a good guide if that sounds Greek to you.
7. Don’t create multiple pages that cover the same topics and the same keywords. You split your traffic in half and pull both pages down in Google.

Seems like a lot of work? This simple checklist should help. You can also customize it to add your own notes and priorities:

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Design Tip: Click and drag to select multiple text boxes to edit or delete.Then click “Settings” at the top right of the editor to resize the page if you want.

Get links to your website

Pages ranked number one in Google search results get five to 14.5% more links from new sites each month, according to a recent Ahrefs study.

So if you’re looking to drive more traffic to your site, need more links to your site.

You can search for links to your:

• homepage sales page
• blog post

If a website that is well-known in your niche or directly related to your business’s niche links to your website, Google considers your content valuable and your website is likely to rank higher in search results bring.

The more relevant links you get, the higher your website should rank – as long as you create valuable content with the right keywords t have.

Here’s how you can get more links to your site:

• Guest posting on sites targeting a simil ar audience and write about your area of ​​expertise.
  • For example, my target audience is small and medium-sized businesses in the United States. I wrote a guest post for DIY marketers about search engine optimization for small businesses and linked to our homepage with the words “infographic maker” because that’s a Google search term we’re competing for. And yes, we’re #1 for that term!
• Create infographics and place them on websites that cater to your niche. This is a great strategy for getting links to your sales page that may be harder to come by.
• Work with influencers in your niche and let them link to your content in their blog content insert. You can try Mention for free to find these influencers more easily.
• Make sure you’re listed on business directories like Business.com and Google Places for Business.
• Discover the Brand mentions by googling your brand name. If the website mentions your business but doesn’t actually link to your website, don’t be shy! Click the Contact Us button on the website and ask for a link.

8. Website Marketing Examples

Trust Building or “Social Proof”

Jobber’s blog post on the 10 Best Arborist Website Examples covers a very specific issue: how professional arborists can show potential clients that they can be trusted.

This means they need a website that showcases client reviews and testimonials, their business accreditations, insurance, etc.

Jobber’s post has a handy arborist specific checklist and real examples of working arborist websites with screenshots:

Value added content

Melinda Emerson is a Philadelphia-based entrepreneur and author who runs a marketing consulting firm. She is a go-to resource for small business advice and has been featured on MSNBC, The Wall Street Journal, Fox News, Fortune and more.

Her advice on the best website marketing strategy:

The best way to market a website is with quality content that is published regularly.

And the proof is Melinda’s website: successasyourownboss.com. When you enter their website, a pop-up appears with an offer that their audience will find very useful: an eBook for small business owners on how to weather a recession:

Once you click the download button , you are taken to a landing page telling you that your PDF is arriving via email. It also suggests blog posts to read that will help your new visitor invest even more in your site.

Why this works: A direct sales pitch is for a new one Visitors too much to your site. Instead, build loyalty with useful and interesting content. Plus, with one download, you can collect an email address and receive a series of automated emails introducing herself, her company, her top tips… and her selling point.

Offering Free Consultation to help with a problem

Terri Levine is the founder of Heart-repreneur and a business and executive coaching professional who has served over 6,000 clients has coached for 25 years. This is her advice on website marketing:

There is so much noise these days when trying to build your business presence and attract potential customers. While a website is essential, blogging is a free way to drive traffic to your site and generate quality leads. Blogging IS marketing for your website.

Upon entering Terri’s homepage, you’ll immediately see a big, friendly picture of Terri and a call to action promising to deliver new leads for your service business.

Click Work your way through and you’ll get a landing page with free training that comes with rave reviews and media mentions.

Why this works: The training addresses how to drive massive growth with an online business during a recession – something your small business owner audience is likely struggling with.

Content that meets a need

Here’s an example from Red Stag Fulfillment, a US-based company that stores online orders for online retailers t, picked, packed and shipped. These retailers operate across state lines, and when the pandemic struck, they needed to know which states identified which companies as essential.

So Red Stag created an interactive map that brings all of this data together in an interactive format . The data comes from a spreadsheet that is constantly updated with new details.

You can do the same with this template to show data by state in the US:

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Design Tip: Click on the map and a table will open. Enter your data or import an Excel spreadsheet. The states are colored according to the results. Or check out our map templates for other states and countries.

Website Marketing: The Key Takeaway

Website marketing is ultimately about that , create content that your customers want and need then work to ensure that as many potential customers learn about that content over time.

The strategies I’ve listed above won’t go over Make the night a success.

What you need to do Take the time to research your customers’ pain points and create content that addresses those issues in a thorough, highly useful, and unique way—and for the Google search optimized.

But if you do the background research and don’t grope in the dark. You will surely start attracting the right kind of customers to your website – and more of them.

See also: What is Email Virus?

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