Marketing is like the icing on the cake to a business. It’s what makes people who don’t yet know the value of a business develop an interest in it and want to discover what it has to offer. Without marketing, businesses would take a very long time to peak if they ever get noticed at all. For this reason, there are advertisements everywhere.
As a business, you’ve got to be known; especially when introducing yourself online. The internet is a vast place. In fact, the internet is like the Universe itself; its true size will never be known and the only thing we are sure about it is that it keeps and will keep expanding. In such a vast place, the only way to be visible is by finding a way to shine like the brightest stars. And marketing is the secret to make yourself conspicuous as a business.
Why Is Online Business Marketing So Important?
For starters, you already know that the main reason to market your business is to get known. I don’t think more needs to be written about that. The reason you want to get known then is to get more customers. Once people are aware of your existence and the value of your existence, they will want to do business with you. Clients will want to try out your products or services or both. If they get satisfied, they will come back for more and even recommend you to others.
Marketing helps you understand your market. By presenting your products and services to prospects, you’ll be able to see how they react to them before buying. You’ll be able to tell whether the products or services you offer are those that sell or if they are those that need state of the art marketing techniques to get people to buy them. The former is preferable. Products and services of value will require the least effort to market. And marketing is what will let you know the kind of products or services you are offering.
Furthermore, through marketing, you get to discover areas of improvement. If you’ve implemented the best marketing strategies in existence and your products or services are not yielding anything, then that’s a clue that the product you are offering is of no value to most people. There are times when you change your marketing strategies and there are times when you change the product you are selling. A deep understanding of the value of marketing will enable you to distinguish between those times. Business marketing will enable you to discover the loopholes in your industry, areas you need to improve as an enterprise, and it may even lead to the development of new products and services.
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The Importance of Local Directories
Considering that the internet is an incredibly large place, it’s only natural that as a business, you may be overwhelmed by its magnitude and wonder how you are ever going to get noticed. Yes, as long as you are online, search engines will be able to find you; but who will discover you when most people only look at the results that show up on the first page of the search engine results, and your website is listed in, perhaps the third or even thirtieth page?
That’s a big challenge. Nonetheless, don’t lose heart. The key is in learning the secrets of the internet. You’ll have to invest in SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategies.
SEO is all about making your business as noticeable as possible online. Your goal as a business is to secure yourself a spot on the first page of the search engine results.
If you run a business Google My Business or Bing Places for Business are the starting points.
Why these two online places? Google is the king of search engines and Google My Business is one of its major tools for ranking websites. By listing your site in this tool, you’ll have a far much better chance of showing up on the first page of Google’s search engine results when someone searches for your brand’s name. The same is also true about Bing Places for Business.
Bing is today the second major search engine after Google. I don’t think you need any further explanation as to why you should also list your website with its Bing Places for the Business tool. Okay, I’ll tell you anyway. It’s simple; if your business has good rankings on both these two major search engines, then there is nowhere in the internet of things where it won’t be visible. It’ll be one of the brightest stars among the billions of stars in the internet sky.
Business Directories: choose the trusted ones!
Business directories are another critical way of securing a spot on the first page of search engine’s results and get some valuable citations. There are various online directories, so you want to go to Google compliant directories. Web directories function through backlinks, which are inbound links on other websites that link back to your site. You don’t have to know the technicalities of how, what, where, and when but for now you just need to get that Google compliant online directories are one of the essential tools for your SEO strategies.
Below are some of the major online directories you should consider:
1) Yelp:
Yelp is considered as a king of all online directories, courtesy of its performance. For local businesses, Yelp listings available are totally free of charge. Business people are allowed to post images and descriptions without paying any fees. This directory not only lets users list businesses but they can also post reviews that assist people to make wise decisions regarding services to avail.
2) Botw.org:
(BOTW) Best of the Web is a general web directory that was established in 1994. This directory is unique in that it is a directory of directories. Usually, most online directories will contain listings of other websites, but this one also has a listing of other directories. In it, you’ll discover a UK-specific directory, blog directory, and local directory together with the basic general web directory.
3) Justdial:
Having a presence of more than two decades, Justdial offers highly reliable and quick mode to access information thereby bridging the gap between buyers and sellers. The main highlights of Justdial include huge online community to post reviews and highly advanced technology platform. Until the end of the year 2017, the users of Justdial have contributed more than 715,000 reviews for several listings.
4) Hotfrog:
Hotfrog runs directories in more than 30 different countries and is available in 15 different languages. Users can list their business on Hotfrog without paying any fees. The directory helps people to promote their business so as to stand out in the competition. With such a great platform in hand, searching services or products in your locality is extremely easy and quick on Hotfrog.
5) Jasmine Directory:
Established in 2009, Jasmine Directory is an online directory that’s famous for its human-edited standards and high editorial discretion. Site owners have the option to suggest their sites for review after paying a fee. Nevertheless, inclusion is not promised on the off chance the suggested resources don’t agree with the editorial principles. If this is true, the review fee is completely refundable.
6) Entireweb:
Entireweb directory lets users improve search engine ranking and access several backlinks of high quality. Listing your business or blog on this directory is extremely easy and within only a few minutes you can start experiencing the results. Entireweb helps businesses to list their URL on websites which have high DA of 65. This is the reason why Entireweb directory has become one of the preferred choices of many business owners.
7) Alive Directory:
Alive Directory is a long-lasting general directory with strict editorial control to keep the quality of website listings available at the site. Businesses have the option of submitting their websites to both general industry categories and relevant categories within their geographical location. This makes it possible for them to reach out to the relevant prospects.
8) BizSugar:
The time has gone when you had to rely on simply one resource to drive high traffic to your business website. Today, an online free directory such as BizSugar is available to give you outstanding results within short span of time. It is a perfect platform especially for small businesses and bloggers who want to promote their website in budget price.
9) Aviva Directory:
Launched in 2005, Aviva Directory is unique in that it also contains a distinct blog directory. This is ideal because it sets apart readers who are only after content from subscribers from business related websites attempting to sell services and products. Aviva should manage to accommodate your listing regardless of the nature of the website you run.
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Final Words:
All these web directories are old enough, human edited and survived successfully every Google penalty. The reason? Editorial discretion. A few years ago, almost everybody had a web directory. Fortunately, all those directories vanished because they weren’t anything but spam. Nowadays, a Google compliant directory is much like Wikipedia or any other high authority website: the harder you get listed, the better.
As you can see, marketing is a major aspect of the success of any business. The internet is huge, and over the last 10 years marketing has changed drastically, but the significance of it, it’s still the same. Your business still must be known, identified, and discovered. The above is just some of the most effective ways of letting your business be easily discovered online. Make use of them and other online tools you’ll discover to ensure you shine as bright as possible on the internet sky.
