Assuming you have a website, you can be open for business 24/7 – but you’ll need to market your site if it’s going to be successful. These six tips for marketing your business online will help.

1. Make sure you can be found

Your website should be optimised for keyword searches so that people find it because it shows up in Google searches.

The copy on your home page needs to be attention grabbing, and should solve your prospect’s problems. To optimise the content for search engines, make sure the copy is 400-500 words long with key phases and words in the title, introduction and end section of the page. Do this on every other page of your website too.

To determine which keywords are important for your business, try using Wordtracker or Keyword Discovery.

Another way to get points with Google and increase your visibility is to ask for links from associations you work with or are involved with.

Don’t forget the good old-fashioned methods of getting found either – add your web address to your email signature, signage, advertisements, invitations, and anything else you can.

2. Create a relationship with your customers

Most people don’t buy when they visit a website. In fact, the average customer won’t respond until they’ve seen your message at least seven times. They need to be convinced that what you provide will solve their problems.

You need to create a unique reason for them to come back, and you need to capture their contact details so you can invite them to do so. The value of your business is in this list of prospects and customers.

For best results in building your database, offer something your prospect can use straight away, like a calculator, a checklist or some other valuable resource. You can also build your prospect list through a well-targeted Google AdWords campaign.

Stay connected with your prospects via your email newsletter or an auto-responder campaign, and again, create great content that’s engaging and valuable.

3. Promote your area of expertise

Create an article about your area of expertise on your website and then send it out via PRWire so it can be picked up online by the media. If you put the article on your website first, this will also give you more links back to your site.

Your website or blog is the perfect place to feature stories, case studies and testimonials. All of these add to your credentials as an expert in your field.

Perhaps you could even add a question forum or discussion board to your website and start a discussion about things your customers want to know. Alternatively, you could start a podcast as a way of sharing your expertise and marketing your business online.

4. Understand your customers

Online surveys are a fantastic way to find out what your customers want and can easily be created using free tools like Survey Monkey.

By finding out what your clients want first, you can tailor your service or event to suit them, and when you launch, you’ll have a far better chance of success.

5. Measure your site’s performance

Is you website just a digital brochure? It could be so much more. Your site also has the capacity to be a online lead generator, and ideally should allow you to close sales either online or after an enquiry.

You need to measure conversion on your website – and lots of other things besides. How many people are downloading from your site, how many are bouncing, how long are people staying and what are they looking at? Google analytics is an easy tool to use for all of these things.

6. Listen, watch and inspire

If you are going to invest in a website or blog then you have to invest the time to continually improve it and keep it up to date. Expect to spend two hours per week updating your web or blog if you want it to have some traction.

Your goals here are to engage with your customers and listen to what they tell you, watch what your competitors are doing online and how customers are responding to that, and inspire your audience with the content and other resources you provide.

How are your online marketing efforts going? Please share your tips for marketing your business online below.