Just having an online presence might already be enough to advertise your business or service on the Internet. There are lots of potential customers that are using the Internet to search for your type of product and your website might just have enough online presence to attrach some of these customers
Just think about it: You may only get a few visitors to your website each day, but you might find that it is enough to generate interest in your products. It is also a form of passive marketing in the sense that even if they do not actively contact you or buy your product or service, you are still building your brand.
You might inadvertently already be advertising your business through your website if you have a link to your website in all sorts of places - such as in your signature at the bottom of your emails. You ARE including your web address in your email signature aren't you?
Other places where you can usefully use your signature are in forums. Forums that are set up for your specific product and/or service offer an invaluable opportunity for two things:
1. To take part in the discussions and offer valuable advice and/or opinions. This will establish you as an expert in your field and you might attract business in that way
2. Most forums allow your signature to contain a link back to your website. Using a website link in your signature is an easy way to get links back to your website which are important to establish credibility in the eyes of the search engines. If you are doing this already you are advertising your website and gaining a better online presence.
Another important question is:Are you updating your website often with good content containing keywords that are relevant to your industry or business sector? If you have answered yes to this question you are miles ahead of other business owners who have simply put up a static website a couple of years ago and have not since updated it with any content. This is over and above the benefit that you will enjoy by having industry related keywords in this content. Using keywords in the content of your website is an important part of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and if you have been doing this naturally you will get the benefits of it through the fact that the search engines will probably give your website a bit of a boost in their results. Please note, however, that using important and relevant keywords in your website content is only one small part of the whole business of SEO and Internet Marketing, but if you ARE doing it, it will definitely be beneficial for your website and your business.
Do you have any way for your customer to contact you online? Do you offer various ways of contacting you to make it easy for customers to do so? We are talking here of online contact forms, your telephone numbers displayed prominently on your website, online survey forms or polls, and even live chat. All of these mechanisms make it easy for your customer to get hold of you and will maximize your online presence, however small it might be.
You might already be marketing your website and your business accidentally if you are executing any of these strategies, but in order to maximize the potential of your website to market your business online, it might be a good idea to contact a professional company that can help you to run a full-scale Internet Marketing campaign.