Nowadays, there are a plethora of different ways to grow your business online. Some options, such as paid search or social media advertising, require an investment but produce faster results. Other strategies, such as search engine optimization, can be done for next to nothing but could take longer to show significant results. Although it may seem easier to focus on one marketing tactic at a time, the most effective campaigns actually utilize a combination of different marketing approaches at the same time. By using multiple digital marketing tactics in tandem, you can increase brand awareness, drive more traffic to your website, and convert more leads into sales all from the comfort of your home. Here are some of the best ways to grow your business online so you can figure out what combination is best for your company.

Start Marketing/Advertising on Social Media

Social media marketing is an excellent way to increase brand awareness, acquire more leads, and drive traffic to your website. Through the creation of social profiles and routine posting of compelling content, you can engage with and attract more potential customers. Active social media presences can also spread awareness about your brand, and appeal to consumers on a more personal level.

For faster results, you can invest in social media advertising. Social media advertising involves buying ads on mainstream social media platforms where potential clients are active. Facebook is the most popular social media site for advertising purposes, and offers two options for businesses looking to promote their services. You can either pay a set amount for each click (cost-per-click) or a low rate every time a certain amount of people view your ad (cost-per-impressions).

Social media advertisements are great when you have an ideal audience you want to reach, as you can filter your audience by location, age, gender, language and even relationship status or interests. If you are not familiar with social media platforms, running a social media marketing campaign can be overwhelming. Luckily, there are digital marketing companies well-versed in social media marketing/advertising who can help you develop and implement a social media marketing strategy.

Improve Organic Rankings Through Search Engine Optimization

The most effective way to increase your company's web presence is by optimizing your website to rank higher on search engine result pages. Search engine optimization can help your businesses website achieve a higher quantity and quality of traffic by maximizing your chances to rank on the first page of organic search engine results.

Here are some basic tips for optimizing your website:

• Pay attention to keywords
• Add keywords to titles, image descriptions, tag-lines, alt attributes, blog categories, and directly in page content. However, be careful not to make the mistake of over-saturating your content with keywords known as keyword stuffing
• Update your website frequently
• websites with dynamic content usually ranks higher than static content
• Make sure your websites are indexed in search engines
• Create SEO friendly URLS
• not too long
• hyphens to separate words
• simple and easy to understand
• Clean up your website
• Get rid of any broken links or non-essentials that slow down your website

Although these simple tricks can help, the best way to fully optimize your content is by finding a digital marketing firm that specializes in SEO.

Invest in Paid Search (SEM)

Search engines can also be used to advertise your business. Based around a pay-per-click model, companies can use paid search to gain more traffic and visibility through search engine results page advertisements. Considering the fact that search engines such as Google process over 3.5 billion searches every day, search engine advertisements can be an incredibly lucrative investment. If you are considering investing in paid search, here are some pointers:

• Come up with defined conversion goals
• Set a PPC Budget
• Thoroughly review the SEM strategies of your competition
• Carefully research and choose keywords
• Craft attention-grabbing ad copy
• Link ads back to relevant landing pages

Although this route is more expensive than SEO, it delivers concrete results much faster. However, most experts agree the most effective marketing campaigns utilize a combination of the two, which is why you should find a digital marketing agency adept in both SEO and SEM.

Redesign Your Website

In this digital age, if you don't have a high quality website, then you are missing out on countless leads. Even if your site was considered cutting edge a decade ago, it is definitely outdated now if you haven't been routinely updating it. If you are unsure whether or not your company website needs a redesign, ask yourself the following questions:

• Does your website have effective and specific landing pages?
• Is your website loading quickly?
• Does it contain compelling calls to action?
• Is your website search engine optimized?
• Does your website have a low bounce rate?
• Is your website routinely checked so that any outdated content, broken links, or grainy images are removed?
• Is your website optimized for mobile?
• Does your website still represent your brand and goals?

If you answered "no" to the majority of these questions, then you should reach out to a web design professional to help you give your website a tune-up.

ImageWorks, LLC | CT Digital Marketing

Having trouble driving web traffic to your site? Wondering how to attract more visitors and increase the number of leads your company website generates? Don’t be afraid to call in the experts! Whether you are just starting to design your first website or have an older site in place that needs fine-tuning, ImageWorks can help you enhance your digital footprint to get yourself recognized and generate more business. Market yourself and your brand to the 100’s of millions of online interactive users.

We understand that maintaining and updating your company website can be overwhelming, especially when you have a business to run. If you are looking to boost your online presence and turn your website into a lead generating machine give us a call today for a free strategy session. Let us take care of your digital marketing needs so you have more time to take care of your clients.