In this blog, we’ll look at marketing for online business. Specifically, we’ll look at how to reach consumers and increase the chances of them becoming loyal customers who value your brand, and the products and services offered online.
For the context of this blog, accounts receivable businesses include organizations who collect payments – rent to own businesses, auto finance, and other firms marketing goods and services to receive payments.
Marketing for Online Business: Reaching Your Ideal Customer
Before you get started marketing your business online, you will always want to identify who it is you want to reach. You want to know who your “ideal customer” is.
In other words, who is it that is going to use your products and services? Knowing the answer to this question is the first step before creating your digital marketing plan.
Without knowing who it is you want to reach; you will not be able to make an effective digital marketing plan.
Website Optimization for Your Accounts Receivable Website
Most business owners and organizations who have a website have heard of Search Engine Optimization or “SEO.” To some, SEO might mean something as simple as writing a blog with the “right keywords.” However, website optimization and SEO are a little more involved.
Site Structure
Without going into too much detail, it’s worth mentioning that site structure is an important piece of website optimization and plays an important role in the success of your digital marketing efforts.
In short, sites should be technically sound and designed in a way that is basically organized. Note, this topic alone is enough for another blog.
User Experience
User experience plays a huge role in building traffic to a website. User experience is a Google ranking factor, as it should be.
Driving traffic to a site that is hard to navigate, has a slow loading time, and is not designed according to industry standards can impact a site’s ranking in search.
Pro tip: Want a great user experience? Ensure that your website loads fast, is easy to navigate and is ADA compliant. Also, ensure that your site is optimized for mobile. According to Statista, mobile devices generated 54.8 percent of all global website traffic in the first quarter of 2021.
Marketing for Online Businesses: Creating Content That Gets a Site Traffic
Publishing highly optimized, original, and quality content is paramount in the world of digital marketing.
But this is the part that gets tricky for many. Content marketing, or blogging, can make or break a business online.
Blogging should start with keyword research. Essentially, you want to blog about topics and keyword phrases that your ideal customer is searching for. And, you want to have the data that shows clearly that the topic you are blogging on will lead to increased traffic to your website.
For example, if you want to reach a customer who is looking for the benefits of an ACH payment plan, you want to find a keyword phrase that matches the search intent of your customer. Basically, you want to blog on a keyword phrase that your ideal customer would search for.
Factors in selecting the right keyword phrase to blog about are a) search volume and b) ranking difficulty.
Search volume simply means, is the keyword phrase being searched? And ranking difficulty equates to how difficult it is to rank for a particular keyword phrase.
In short form, find a keyword phrase that people search for and is relatively “easy” to rank for. Note, what might be “easy” for one marketing website to rank for could be extremely difficult for another. There are several factors that determine this, like domain age, backlinks, etc.
If you are new to digital marketing – blogging, SEO – it might all sound a little overwhelming, but it’s not.
Once you learn the basics of content marketing – blogging – you will quickly see its value and that learning some basics can make all the difference in building organic traffic to your website.
Remember, getting organic traffic to your website can lead to conversions that might otherwise cost money. Organic traffic can be invaluable and one great blog could yield conversions for years to come.
Agency or In-house Marketing?
Using a digital marketing agency is an option for many small businesses. However, you want to make sure that you find an agency with a proven track record and a passion for making your organization a success online.
Digital marketing agencies can be costly. And, this is fine, if they are generating top quality content for your organization.
It’s important to note, that there are plenty of tools out there that will allow for an accounts receivable organization to do their own digital marketing – keyword research, etc.
For keyword research, I’d recommend sites like AHREFs, SEMRush, and UberSuggest which is very cost-effective for smaller organizations.
Pay-Per-Click Ads
Pay-per-click ads are also a huge part of digital marketing. Unlike optimized blogs that can lead to free traffic, pay-per-click ads, as the name implies means that you are paying for traffic. Although PPC ads can cost money, they can be highly effective in generating leads and sales. It’s always a good idea to have some monthly budget to put towards Google Ads.
Pro tip: There is a learning curve when starting out with Google Ads. When implemented the right way, Google Ads can bring in scores of viable leads and sales. But it’s highly recommended that beginners work with a professional, at least when starting out.
Promotion Through Social Channels
Promotion of blogs and establishing a presence on social media is important. It ties into SEO. Google looks at likes, shares, and backlinks to a site as a “vote” on the quality of a blog or web page.
So as you publish new blogs, be sure to share it on your Facebook, Instagram, and elsewhere.
Effective Digital Marketing Requires Consistency
To effectively market your website, you should be consistent in publishing blogs.
Creating a digital marketing plan can be very valuable and is highly recommended.
You’ll want to build out a content calendar. In other words, build a content calendar of blog topics to be written about and published. Again, the keyword phrases should be researched before writing a blog.
Google likes to see new content from a website on a regular basis. So, develop your plan. Decide if you will publish two or four blogs per month and follow your schedule. Consistency is key in building organic traffic.
Marketing Your Online Accounts Receivable Website: A Recap
Successfully marketing an online business is essential for gaining an edge on your competitors and reaching new customers. There are many pieces to marketing an accounts receivable business online. But, doing so can lead to increased sales, brand awareness, and more business.
