Online marketing can seem very intimidating to people who aren’t in the field. There is so much to handle between SEO, social media, web design, and email marketing. Many entrepreneurs don’t know where to start. Some companies decide to go to a company that deals with SEO to get it done professionally. If this is something that you are interested in then you might want to check out someone like Tokyo SEO Webguru, although they specialise more with a Japanese audience they can show you what a SEO company might be able to do for you. There are many different kinds of SEO companies, it all depends on what you want to focus on. They do this especially if there is a company that specialises in that industry as they know exactly what their customers are looking for. For example, this company makes it easy for dentists to grow their practices because they only work with dentists.
If you are in start-up mode and don’t have a lot of capital, you probably find yourself in charge of all the online marketing. The good news is that online marketing is an extremely powerful tool that can make your business grow exponentially. Not only that, but it doesn’t have to be overwhelming and you don’t have to spend as much time  on it as you might think.
The types of online marketing we'll look at relate to your website, analytics, search engine optimization (SEO), social media, and email marketing. Breaking it down, once everything is set up you only need to spend a few hours a month on it! This will allow you to use all channels in order to watch your traffic and revenue increase.
Website
Once the website is up and you have content on it (we recommend WordPress for your website), don’t just let it sit there. Keep it updated. Post on your blog.
Take 1 hour a month to write a blog post. Write about something going on in your business. Something that potential customers will find useful, interesting, or inspiring.
Analytics
Google Analytics is not only free, but integrates well with WordPress. Start tracking your website visitors. With analytics you can see where your visitors are coming from, how many you have, how long they stay, what pages they view, and more!
Set up emails to receive a report on your website once a week and once a month. Â When the emails come, take 5 minutes (30 minutes a month) to look at your stats and make sure they are increasing.
SEO
If you do search engine optimization right, it can bring you 70% of your traffic! SEO is extremely important. Note that you can’t have traffic without a website, and you can’t tell it comes from search engines if you don’t have analytics, which is why we placed SEO 3rd.
Knowing the basics of SEO is important. Before you invest in any online marketing, make sure you have your keywords and on-site SEO set up correctly. Without this, you'll waste a lot of time and money.
Don’t know the basics? Digest Online Marketing is offering a free seo tutorial to get you started.
Once you have your keywords and know what to do with them on the site, you can start link building. Take 30 minutes a week, or 2 hours a month to do it. You will see your traffic slowly grow over time.
Social Media
Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest can be great for reaching out to potential and current customers. However, they can be huge time wasters as well. So it is important not to go overboard on social media and ignore the rest of your online marketing.
Facebook and Twitter are the largest platforms, and you can connect your Facebook page to your twitter account. So when you post on Facebook, it goes on Twitter.
Then, just spend 5 minutes a day to post something on Facebook. That is about 30 minutes a week, or 2 hours a month.
Keep in mind that you should reply to anybody who interacts with you on each social media platform. If you are on twitter, make sure you respond to legitimate mentions and direct messages. If you are on Facebook, monitor your wall and respond to comments.
Email Marketing
Email is a great way to reach out to customers. Tell them about your special deals, offers, or sales. Get them to come back for more. Send customers a monthly newsletter letting them know what is going on with you or your business.
Mailchimp is a great free program you can use for professional emails. Email your list once a month in a form of a newsletter, and once a month in the form of a special offer. Take one hour on each email (so 2 hours a month total). Look at your analytics to see what traffic you get and track your purchases. You will see it start to work over time!
Last notes…
As long as you balance everything out, you'll be able to get a lot done in the 24 hours a month that you focus on internet marketing and your online presence. You will see how invaluable the internet is for your business. There are plenty of online marketing courses for you to learn about internet marketing. So start putting your ideas and knowledge into action!
Guest Post By Hilary St Jonn of DigestOnlineMarketing
