Getting online is a lot more than just getting a website and trusting that "they will come". The internet is a vast ocean in which you can easily drift into oblivion where no one will be able to find you.
So how do you navigate the internet sea to find the continent of your potential clients so you can establish yourself there? I will summarize a few basic principles to help you see the big picture.
Many consumers use search engines and online directories to find information. The main search engines, in order of popularity, are Google (70%), Yahoo (20%), and Bing (4%). Popular online business directories include White Pages, Google Maps, and Yellow Pages.
Therefore, create an online presence that is easily found by the search engines using Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques and paid listings. SEO is applying special techniques in the design and promotion of your web page that makes your page more accessible to search engine crawlers and more easily found by your target searchers. SEO requires considerable time conducting keyword research and back linking. By practicing SEO, you will minimize your paid listings expense in the long run because you will optimize your website and directory listings' visibility in the organic search engine listings.
No online marketing campaign for a hood cleaning business is complete without monitoring your website traffic activity with proper analytics software like Google Analytics or StatCounter. You must also carefully track your conversion rate to monitor the effectiveness of your sales copy in your website. Conversion rate refers to the percentage of visitors to your website that actually made an effort to contact you in some form or fashion. I have found placing a call tracking number on the website to be an invaluable tool in collecting statistical data regarding conversion rate. A normal website conversion rate can be anywhere between 1 and 10%. Data is only helpful if you monitor it regularly.
Finally, after collecting and monitoring data on your online marketing efforts for your hood cleaning business, you need to evaluate that data to determine whether your campaign is effective or not and make adjustments.
Business owners who delve into this area eventually realize that it is a job in itself keeping up with online marketing and may rightfully consider outsourcing that department. Be careful of signing year-long agreements with marketing companies, who claim to guarantee you a certain number of visitors a month to your website, or who try to sell you glorified expensive listings in their online directories. If your website does not know how to "sell" your services, the money you are paying for clicks to your website is wasted. If there are only a handful of hood cleaning companies in your area, then you don't need a glorified expensive listing to be seen. They may even place you in the wrong business category.
Look for online marketing companies that do not lock you into long contracts so you can jump ship if they are not delivering. Make sure you have a meaningful way to monitor the success of their campaign. Make sure they have to send you monthly reports of how things are going. There are scams out there, like someone calling with "Internet Yellow Pages", that pretend to have you already contracted with them, make unheard of claims regarding their results for you and do not have the reports to back up their claims of what they have actually done for you.
It's a big bad world out there, and you have to be careful of what you sign up for. Though they are a legitimate company, especially think twice about year-long contracts with AT&T Yellow Pages online advertising for your hood cleaning company. I had a hood cleaning client who is not internet savvy and contracted with AT&T Yellow Pages for an internet marketing service for his territory. For a while they had him listed under "air duct services", and he could not tell whether the $180 a month he was paying for online advertising was converting into sales calls or not. He also discovered that some other company was attaching a charge for over a year through his AT&T bill for a (badly designed) website he didn't even know existed! Thankfully, for this hood cleaner, EHoodCleaner took over his online marketing campaign and all the discussions with AT&T to sort out these problems and unneeded expenses.
The main lesson here is that you must be an active player in your online marketing campaign especially in dealing with companies who may not be familiar with your industry. Also, if you don't understand what exactly they are doing for you, enlist the expertise of someone who can interpret their services to you or just don't sign up.
At EHoodCleaner, we follow these principles in marketing for hood cleaning businesses. And we love hood cleaners. We are your online advocate on the internet and are committed to your success. As a business owner, if you know you are too busy to do a thorough online marketing campaign for your hood cleaning business, or maybe you don't know how to implement the recommendations above, you can hire EHoodCleaner to work closely with you to run your campaign for you. And there are no long term contracts with us.
Learn more about EHoodCleaner's Epromotion program here.
So how do you navigate the internet sea to find the continent of your potential clients so you can establish yourself there? I will summarize a few basic principles to help you see the big picture.
Many consumers use search engines and online directories to find information. The main search engines, in order of popularity, are Google (70%), Yahoo (20%), and Bing (4%). Popular online business directories include White Pages, Google Maps, and Yellow Pages.
Therefore, create an online presence that is easily found by the search engines using Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques and paid listings. SEO is applying special techniques in the design and promotion of your web page that makes your page more accessible to search engine crawlers and more easily found by your target searchers. SEO requires considerable time conducting keyword research and back linking. By practicing SEO, you will minimize your paid listings expense in the long run because you will optimize your website and directory listings' visibility in the organic search engine listings.
No online marketing campaign for a hood cleaning business is complete without monitoring your website traffic activity with proper analytics software like Google Analytics or StatCounter. You must also carefully track your conversion rate to monitor the effectiveness of your sales copy in your website. Conversion rate refers to the percentage of visitors to your website that actually made an effort to contact you in some form or fashion. I have found placing a call tracking number on the website to be an invaluable tool in collecting statistical data regarding conversion rate. A normal website conversion rate can be anywhere between 1 and 10%. Data is only helpful if you monitor it regularly.
Finally, after collecting and monitoring data on your online marketing efforts for your hood cleaning business, you need to evaluate that data to determine whether your campaign is effective or not and make adjustments.
Business owners who delve into this area eventually realize that it is a job in itself keeping up with online marketing and may rightfully consider outsourcing that department. Be careful of signing year-long agreements with marketing companies, who claim to guarantee you a certain number of visitors a month to your website, or who try to sell you glorified expensive listings in their online directories. If your website does not know how to "sell" your services, the money you are paying for clicks to your website is wasted. If there are only a handful of hood cleaning companies in your area, then you don't need a glorified expensive listing to be seen. They may even place you in the wrong business category.
Look for online marketing companies that do not lock you into long contracts so you can jump ship if they are not delivering. Make sure you have a meaningful way to monitor the success of their campaign. Make sure they have to send you monthly reports of how things are going. There are scams out there, like someone calling with "Internet Yellow Pages", that pretend to have you already contracted with them, make unheard of claims regarding their results for you and do not have the reports to back up their claims of what they have actually done for you.
It's a big bad world out there, and you have to be careful of what you sign up for. Though they are a legitimate company, especially think twice about year-long contracts with AT&T Yellow Pages online advertising for your hood cleaning company. I had a hood cleaning client who is not internet savvy and contracted with AT&T Yellow Pages for an internet marketing service for his territory. For a while they had him listed under "air duct services", and he could not tell whether the $180 a month he was paying for online advertising was converting into sales calls or not. He also discovered that some other company was attaching a charge for over a year through his AT&T bill for a (badly designed) website he didn't even know existed! Thankfully, for this hood cleaner, EHoodCleaner took over his online marketing campaign and all the discussions with AT&T to sort out these problems and unneeded expenses.
The main lesson here is that you must be an active player in your online marketing campaign especially in dealing with companies who may not be familiar with your industry. Also, if you don't understand what exactly they are doing for you, enlist the expertise of someone who can interpret their services to you or just don't sign up.
At EHoodCleaner, we follow these principles in marketing for hood cleaning businesses. And we love hood cleaners. We are your online advocate on the internet and are committed to your success. As a business owner, if you know you are too busy to do a thorough online marketing campaign for your hood cleaning business, or maybe you don't know how to implement the recommendations above, you can hire EHoodCleaner to work closely with you to run your campaign for you. And there are no long term contracts with us.
Learn more about EHoodCleaner's Epromotion program here.