5 ways to market your small business online

by James Agate

Jamie Murray Wells and Kevin Cornils are the duo behind the world's largest online retailer of prescription glasses

UK small businesses have more means than ever to market their websites online. It really comes down to budget, target market and resources to mange each channel. Use this guide to determine which activity is suitable for your small business.

1. Pay Per Click – It allows you to bid on certain keywords and drive high levels of web traffic to your site. You can start using pay per click from a very small budget and reach almost any type of customer. It requires time to set up the channel and on going management. Suitable for any type of business, at any stage.

2. Affiliate marketing – This type of marketing channels will reward other websites who drive web traffic which ends up buying. It requires an investment both in time and financial to get it working successfully. More suitable for established brands. If you think affiliate program might be the answer for you, head to Wikipedia to learn more about affiliate marketing

3. Banner Display – The process of displaying banners across other web properties. Normally this type of online marketing is reserved for established brands due to its costs, however AdWords(Google’s Pay Per click service) now allows any type of business to start display advertising via its network of web properties. If done via AdWords, it requires little investment, but might be less effective than normal Pay Per Click.

4. Social media – Types of websites which fall under this category are numerous, from social networking websites to photo sharing websites. Unlike the channels we reviewed so far, it does not require any financial investment, but does require a lot of your time. Online marketing aside, social media activity is fantastic for online branding and for engaging with your target market in ways which weren’t possible just couple of years ago. Definitely a recommended channel for any type of business.

5. Email marketing – Using the medium of emails, it’s possible to send targeted communication to your leads. It requires software to send out the emails and more importantly a good message. The key for getting this channel to work successfully is to make people want to read the communication (for example, announcing a sale now on message) and to only target customers or leads which have opted in to receive your communication.

Good luck with your online marketing.

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Glasses Direct was founded by young entrepreneur Jamie Murray Wells who started the company whilst at University and has grown the business to become the largest online retailer of prescription glasses and sunglasses in the world.