Not sure where to start with advertising online? Aside from having a website with clear call to action (CTA), e.g. phone us, email us, purchase a product / service, fill in a form, it is vital to lay the groundwork for advertising. However, what does laying the groundwork actually mean?
READ: Why Your Website Needs A Website?
- First, review your value to the market; e.g. what will set you apart / give you that competitive edge; is it the products / services that you offer, the availability (e.g. the fact they are in stock), prices (e.g. cheaper than competitors), shipping (e.g. free shipping, express shipping, etc.) and so on – this will be your Unique Selling Point (USP) when going up against competitors
- Setup and ensure Google Analytics is working; this will give us insight into current behavior, best-selling items, etc.
- Google Analytics is free analytics software to tell you how users are interacting with your website, e.g. what they are clicking on, how long they spend on the website, etc.
- Create a product feed (if you have products / services to sell) – this effectively links your products to other channels, e.g. Google Ads, Facebook, eBay, etc. so you can easily advertise them on multiple platforms
- Create a new account for Google Merchant Center & Google Ads – you’re likely to get a good new customer offer if you haven’t already got an account
- Google Merchant Center is to connect the products / services you sell from your website to Google
- Google Ads is where you actually advertising these products
- Create a new account for Bing Ads – people often forget about Microsoft’s search engine, Bing; it does still exist and people do still use it, whether it’s a choice they make or whether it’s pre-installed on their laptop / phone, it is still utilized with some reports suggesting 1.3bn worldwide visits to Bing.com
- Additionally, there are other Pay Per Click (PPC) search engines for advertising to try
- Create an eBay seller account and an Amazon seller account – both having huge amounts of visitors that are in the market to buy – however, it does come at a cost… usually to list your products is free… but they will tend to take a cut of 10-14% of each sale. It’s a great way to advertise in a marketplace where there is demand, especially when you are just getting started.
- Create and set up accounts for Google Search Console & Bing Webmaster Tools – this will allow you to track (and improve) your SEO (free) presence
- Expand your organic presence with directory listing; these websites have a huge amount of traffic still – think of yellow pages and the phone book… but just online. Here are the top 17 free UK business directories for 2024
- Of course, last but not least, get social… there’s a host of social networks out there in 2024 from Facebook to TikTok – but before you do, make sure you can commit to posting new content as regularly as possible. If you can’t, then I would refrain from starting but there’s no harm in setting up accounts to ensure you have the right account handles (e.g. @digitaldomeuk) for when you do decide to start