With online marketing, there’s a debate raging among experts over which strategy is best to grow your business.  Let’s start by ensuring your understand the difference between the two.
 
Social media marketing: Social media marketing is about building relationships and brand awareness while engaging with your audience on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn.
 
Search engine optimization (SEO): is about showing up in Google search results for your audience's search queries.

Would SEO or social media marketing be the better option?
 
Often, businesses will hire an SEO expert or agency to increase their visibility in the search engines without even thinking about social media and the traffic that it can bring to their business.
 
Similarly, there are those who focus their attention entirely on building a social media following without spending any time on SEO.
 
Let’s compare both strategies to see which option is best.

​Targeting an Audience 
To bring in relevant traffic and sales, it’s important to be able to target a specific audience. It is definitely easier to target an appropriate audience on social media platforms.

Consider these benefits of SEO: 
1. You will see an increase in traffic. As your website becomes more optimized over time, it will start to rank higher in the search engines for various search terms. As this happens, you should see an increase in traffic, or prospects viewing your website. Ultimately, this should increase your sales too.  

2. It will increase the credibility of your business. Your customers are conditioned to believe that the best businesses are those ranked at the top of the search engines, whether that is true or not.  When you rank highly, your prospects perceive your business more favorably, which leads to an increase in sales, conversions, and brand recognition.

3. SEO can lead to long-lasting results. Radio, print, and billboard ads produce short-term rewards. SEO, on the other hand, helps to deliver long-term rewards. By investing in SEO, your online presence increases, resulting in a more profitable return on investment (ROI).

​4.You are in control of the cost. Whether you are building backlinks, creating a social media presence, or creating blog content, you will know how much it will cost beforehand. Once you know what each service will cost, you can determine which you believe would give you a better ROI.

6. SEO helps encourage users to visit a local store. It has been shown in numerous studies that having an online presence can also increase visits to your offline premises. If you have a restaurant, for example, a potential customer could check out your menu or customer reviews before making a reservation. 

7. Your social media following will increase. As your search engine rankings increase, more visitors will arrive at your website. Even if they do not immediately buy from you, they may still end up checking out your social media platforms, follow them, and then become buyers later on.  These new followers can also share your marketing messages, leading to an increase in social traffic and sales.

8. SEO helps put you ahead of your competitors. As you integrate SEO and various other online marketing techniques into your business, you will move ahead of those competitors who have not implemented these techniques.  ​

SEO is incredibly important nowadays, and if you are not implementing it in your own online marketing activities, you are limiting your results, sales, and profits. Look at what your competitors are doing and see what you can do to rise above them. It will be worth your time and effort.

At Altitude Business Solutions we work with you to come up with solutions to your business problems and set a plan for implementation.  It all starts with one of our free  live webinars where you can choose from a number of topics and have the opportunity to ask questions. Queensland Small Business Owners might decide to book a one on one session through the Government Funded Australian Small Business Advisory Services program and if your business can take advantage of discounted services.

To discuss your options with us personally please contact us
Phone: 0419 183 451 
​Email: altitudebusinesssolutions.au@gmail.com

engines will rank your website highly for that search term.
For the highest rankings, go more in-depth than your competitors, provide clear answers, and provide graphics or illustrations to help your reader understand the content clearly.


2. Try to rank for longtail keywords. These are keywords that are niche-specific and may have very little search engine traffic. The reason why you will be aiming to rank for these terms is that there is less competition, so they should be easier to rank highly for.

• Ranking highly for these terms will be easier and maybe quicker to achieve too.
• Plus, if you rank highly for lots of these terms, your overall traffic will increase.  At this point, you may be able to consider ranking for more competitive search terms.

3. Get customer reviews. With local businesses, reviews submitted about your website online can affect your search engine rankings as well.

• For many reasons, it’s worth your time and effort to ensure that you are providing the best service possible for your customers. This will lead to great reviews and more customers!

4. Copy your competitor’s on-page SEO strategy. Visit your competitor’s website and study their content. You may think that creating longer forms of content is best when it comes to ranking. However, this is not always the case. Check whatever pages are ranking for each particular search term.

5.  Build internal links. For each of your longer, authoritative articles, link smaller supporting articles in your website to this main page. This will help your longer page achieve higher rankings.

6.  Ensure that your website is easy to navigate. If your website isn’t easy to navigate, your visitors will just click off your website and go somewhere else. This can lower the time spent on your website and increase the bounce rate. These are both negative SEO factors.

7.  Have a mobile-friendly website. These days, most internet users will access your website through a mobile device. If your website isn’t rendering properly on mobile, this will have a negative impact on user experience, rankings, and sales. So, be sure to optimize your website for mobile devices as well as desktops.

8.  Increase your page speed. Page speed refers to how fast your website page loads, and this affects your rankings.

• A faster-loading website improves the user experience of your visitors. No one wants to be waiting for a website to load. Chances are if they have to wait more than a few seconds, they will leave the website entirely.

​
9.  Get an SSL certificate for your website. It has been shown that having an SSL certificate on your website increases your website rankings.

• These days many search engines will warn its users that a website without this certificate is not secure, which will result in a user leaving the website immediately. This harms your rankings and possibly your reputation as well.

 
If your website is still new and has yet to establish any authority within the niche, or if the competitors in this particular niche have very few backlinks, then it is certainly possible to rank highly for various search terms using these strategies.
 
As your website becomes more competitive, then building backlinks will certainly help you to continue to rank higher.
 
But in the meantime, don’t worry about the backlinks. Draw your visitors to your secure, quick-loading website and provide quality content that they’ll want to engage with and share with others.

At Altitude Business Solutions we work with you to come up with solutions to your business problems and set a plan for implementation.  It all starts with our Discovery call where we will find out more about your business and discuss options for you moving forward.  For Queensland Small Business Owners we will also discuss the Government Funded Australian Small Business Advisory Services program and if your business can take advantage of discounted services.

Contact Us to book in today
Phone: 0419 183 451 
​Email: altitudebusinesssolutions.au@gmail.com

Benefits of online marketing include: 

1. You can see the engagement of your content and promotions. With social media channels, you can physically see what your audience thinks of your brand and marketing. If you’re seeing lots of likes and shares of your content, then surely, you’re doing something right!
   
   
2. It’s easy to track your return on investment (ROI). You can track clicks and sales when using ads online, so you can easily see which ads are the most profitable for you. This will help you to make smart decisions regarding future marketing strategies and campaigns.
   
   
3. You can target specific demographics. With online marketing, it’s possible to drive specific types of people to your offers - people who are more likely to buy your products.

There are also some negatives to using online marketing, such as: 

1. Digital advertisements can be annoying. While it’s certainly clever that advertisers can target ads specifically to you, showing you ads for products that you searched for days previously, they can be highly annoying and even drive you away from a brand.
   
   
2. The ads are fleeting. Unlike a billboard, an online ad can easily be missed or ignored. It’s easy to scroll past an ad and click to the next page without even taking notice.
   
   
3. Online marketing is constantly evolving. Whether it’s the latest social media platform or a change to the search engine algorithm, there’s always something new to learn. If you don’t keep up with important trends, you may find yourself being left behind.

Benefits of offline marketing include: 

1. It can be impactful and easy to understand. A billboard or TV commercial will often become part of a person's daily life, so it will usually be easy to understand and digest.
   
   
2. Printed marketing materials are often permanent. Unless a magazine is recycled or put in the trash, then the advertisements found within will be permanent, so they can still work weeks, or even months, after first being published.
   
   
3. They are memorable. Many offline ads are memorable and likely to be remembered much better than an Instagram ad for example, which is almost instantly forgotten. Think of all the popular Super Bowl ads and other commercials that we all know so well that they become part of our culture.

 
Offline marketing also has some negative aspects, such as: 

1. It’s difficult to measure the success of a campaign. There are ways to measure the success of a campaign, but they are not as in-depth or accurate as those available for online marketing.
   
   
2. It can be expensive. Typically, offline marketing can be expensive. Even a small run in your local newspaper or a single 30-second spot on TV can set you back a considerable amount.
   
   
3. Little feedback from your audience. After running the marketing campaign, you can rarely gauge the reactions from your potential customers.

Which is Better for You? 
Both online and offline marketing have their pros and cons.
 
Offline marketing is seen as more traditional and will be better aimed at the older generation, while online marketing is generally a better option for the younger generation. However, these are only generalities and might not apply to your business.
 
Plus, you don’t have to choose one over the other. Perhaps a combination of online and offline marketing will work best for your business.
 
You will need to understand what you want to achieve marketing-wise, what your budget is, and most importantly who your target audience is. Study your audience and go with what you think will work best with them, keeping your budget in mind. This will get you started.
 
Then, track what you can to determine which campaigns bring you the greatest profits. Run new campaigns and track those. Experience is the best determiner. Analyze as you go and stick with what’s working the best for your company until you find a new campaign that drives even greater profits.

At Altitude Business Solutions we work with you to come up with solutions to your business problems and set a plan for implementation.  It all starts with our Discovery call where we will find out more about your business and discuss options for you moving forward.  For Queensland Small Business Owners we will also discuss the Government Funded Australian Small Business Advisory Services program and if your business can take advantage of discounted services.

Contact Us to book in today
Phone: 0419 183 451 
​Email: altitudebusinesssolutions.au@gmail.com

Here are some free online marketing methods that you may want to consider for your business:
1. Partner up with another expert in your field. Consider joining forces with another brand. You can then offer a more substantial product together than either one of you could offer alone.

•  In addition, you’ll automatically get the attention of both audiences, resulting in more sales and adding more leads to your email list. In the future, these new leads can drive more sales of another one of your products.
• Partnering on even one marketing campaign can bring long-term benefits to both of you.

2. Encourage user-generated content. If you can acquire user-generated content, your website will grow without you having to create your own content. This type of content also increases your website visitors. Enable comments on your website and contribute to the discussions.

• Allow visitors to submit their own articles and encourage guest posts from other experts.

3. Affiliate marketing. When you create an affiliate program for your business, you will be getting other experts in your field and the public to send business your way. This can be mutually beneficial, and you will only be paying commissions (after the sale) if the affiliate makes a sale.

• As with the partnering technique, many of these new visitors will sign up for your email list, even if they don’t buy something right away, bringing you long-term benefits and sales.

4. Be active on social media. There are millions of users visiting the various social media platforms daily, so it makes sense for your business to have a presence there.

• Share funny or interesting images or videos that are relevant to your business.
• Post insights and valuable information.
• Let your audience know when you have a sale on your products. Give your social media followers coupons or discounts.
• Encourage engagement by participating in discussions. Ask questions and answer theirs.
• Run a survey, poll, or contest.
• In turn, these will then be shared by your followers, increasing your reach and ultimately resulting in more sales of your products or services

5. Use free online tools. There are plenty of tools online that can help your business. You can sign up for websites that will enable you to create free surveys, or you can use a free online service to send emails to your customers. You do not have to pay a premium to receive top-notch service.

6. Change and reuse old advertisements. Rather than going through the expensive route of creating new articles with every marketing campaign, try reusing parts of an advertisement that worked well. This will save you time and expense.

• Plus, keeping consistent brand imagery through every ad will help with brand recognition too.

​​

Designing your LinkedIn Profile: 

1. Edit your headline. Start by writing a specific headline. Tell employers what value you add and make them want to learn more. Keep your audience in mind and avoid technical terms that may be unfamiliar to them.
   
   
2. Update your summary. Your summary is where you can add more details and showcase your achievements. Provide statistics to describe your impact. Add multimedia attachments like videos and work samples to help you stand out.
   
   
3. Choose your photo. Pick an image that looks professional and clear. Focus on your face and use flattering natural light.
   
   
4. Add keywords. Help recruiters and automated search tools to find you. Browse through job descriptions and resumes for keywords that are popular in your field and include them in your profile, including the headline and summary.
   
   
5. Choose your URL. LinkedIn gives your profile a URL, but you can change it to something that you like better or might work more effectively for you. If your name is already taken, use a slight variation with your middle initial or hometown.
6. Be consistent. Make sure your information is consistant across different platforms, you want them to be similar enough to avoid causing any confusion.

 

​​3. Encourage others. Think of LinkedIn as a community where you can exchange ideas and support. Comment on posts from other users and share them with your own connections.
4.  Be discreet. While you’re working to raise your visibility, keep in mind that there may be times when you want to keep your job-hunting activities off view from your current boss and HR department. Change your privacy settings so you can control what information you want to make public. 

Optimizing your LinkedIn profile can make it easier for others to find you and help you reach your professional goals. You’ll increase your job satisfaction, and you’ll probably spend more time doing what you love.

At Altitude Business Solutions we work with you to come up with solutions to your business problems and set a plan for implementation.  It all starts with our Discovery call where we will find out more about your business and discuss options for you moving forward.  For Queensland Small Business Owners we will also discuss the Government Funded Australian Small Business Advisory Services program and if your business can take advantage of discounted services.

Contact Us to book in today
Phone: 0419 183 451 
​Email: altitudebusinesssolutions.au@gmail.com

If you work in an office, your day might already be planned out, with your coworkers giving you social interaction and your boss giving you accountability.
 
However, working from home is much different. How can you get work done without any of this help that you would normally receive from coworkers?
 
Try these techniques to stay motivated and be productive: 

1. Wake up early. Think of it like this: When you’re working from home, you’re still going to work, but the commute to your desk is much shorter. Set your alarm and make an effort to get up and get ready for an early start. You may find that you’re more productive earlier in the day, as your mind may be sharper.
   
2. Get dressed. However tempting it is to work in a pair of comfortable sweatpants or pajamas, you may be more productive in regular clothes.  Research has shown that how you dress sends psychological signals, so if you want to get work done, it’s important to dress appropriately.
   
3. Have your own workspace. Setting aside a regular space to work sends a signal to your brain to work whenever you’re in your workspace. Plus, having your own workspace will help keep distractions to a minimum. 
4. Create a schedule. A work schedule also helps to motivate you, get you going each morning, and be more productive while you work. With a schedule, you’ll know what to get started on the moment you sit down to work. Then, you can depend on it to guide you throughout the rest of the day.  Your schedule will depend on your own job, but, for example, if you were a blogger, you might write in the morning, before editing and posting the content in the afternoon.
   
5. Take time to exercise. Set aside some time each day to get some exercise. Regular exercise is good for both your body and mind.  Most office jobs are pretty sedentary but working from home may be even worse. After all, you only need to travel a few feet to visit the restroom. With this in mind, it’s important to ensure that you take extra care to look after your physical needs.
   
6. Reward yourself. Since you’re working from home, it would be easy to just sit in front of the television all day and not get any work done. But for obvious reasons this is not the best idea. You can bypass such temptations by using rewards to increase productivity.  For instance, you could work for two hours straight and then reward yourself with a short, 30-minute episode of your favorite show.
   
7. Go outside. Not leaving your house for days on end can negatively impact your mental health. Not only is sunlight good for your health but seeing and interacting with others is important too.  Your mood will be uplifted, and you’ll get more work done after a short break for getting out into nature and socializing with others.
   
8. Avoid social media. If you find yourself browsing Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram instead of working, you can take steps to avoid these distractions.  Try deleting these bookmarks from your browser or installing a plugin that will block you from visiting those sites.  Turning off notifications on your smartphone while you work also helps to stop distractions.

 
Working from home isn’t for everyone, but if you love the freedom of making your own schedule, then you may love it.
 
Follow these tips and you’ll be able to stay motivated, maintain discipline, and get all of your work done while working from home.

At Altitude Business Solutions we work with you to come up with solutions to your business problems and set a plan for implementation.  It all starts with our Discovery call where we will find out more about your business and discuss options for you moving forward.  For Queensland Small Business Owners we will also discuss the Government Funded Australian Small Business Advisory Services program and if your business can take advantage of discounted services.

Book your complementary 20 minute discovery call today.

More than two decades ago, the Internet shot onto the scene and changed the world as we know it. While the concept of the Internet has been around since the late 1960s, when the first electronic message was sent over the ARPANET, it wasn't until the mid-1990s that the Internet began its revolutionary impact on our culture, commerce, and technology. Since then, it has exploded with ways for people to make money online.
 
In the age of the Internet, online niche marketing has quickly become the king of the business and marketing world. Now, both business people and marketers can reach out to increasingly small groups of people to provide them with niche solutions to their problems. As the Internet, and its reach, continue to grow, the development of personalized and targeted marketing to a niche group of people is not showing signs of slowing down anytime soon. If you want to take advantage of this popular way to make money online, then you need to find your niche.
 
Finding your niche isn't without its challenges. You have to take the time to research whether or not your niche idea is viable and whether or not it will be profitable — the key to finding success with an online business if finding the perfect niche for your business. If you want to get started with an online business but don’t know how to go about finding your niche, this 5-minute guide to finding your niche can help.
 
Step One – Your Niche is What You Know
When it comes to starting an online business, there are literally hundreds, if not thousands of markets that you can choose. While you can spend a ton of time exploring the different markets and coming up with ideas for the perfect niche market, this won't guarantee that you'll be able to find success. However, if you can choose a niche topic that you are familiar with, your chances of success increase significantly.
 
Luckily, the idea for a niche market is already floating around in your mind somewhere, and the trick is finding out how to unlock the potential that you already possess inside of you. You can start your search for your niche by creating a list of everything that you are passionate about, interested in, and fascinated about. These shouldn’t be things that you’ve recently become curious about, but instead, they should be things that you've shown a strong interested in for a few years.
 
Starting an online business will be one of the most challenging things you will probably ever do in your life, so you need to choose something that you are passionate about. When you choose a niche that you have a passion for, you will have the motivation to continue working even when challenges arise. If you are finding it challenging to come up with ideas, you can ask yourself the following questions:

• How do you want to spend your time?
• What do you love to talk about all the time?
• What do you read about the most?

 
It is essential to keep in mind that at this point in the process, you're only brainstorming possible niche ideas before you move onto researching whether or not any of your ideas are viable.
 
Step Two – Identify Your Niche’s ProblemAfter you’ve compiled a list of ideas that you are passionate about, you need to work on identifying a problem that is related to the ideas. Most of the online niche businesses that you find have come from identifying the target audiences’ problems and coming up with a solution to solve their problems. Once you can identify the issues that your target audience are experiencing, you can start to think about the kind of solutions that you can provide that will address these issues. But how do you find what problems your target audience is experiencing? There are many tried and tested methods for identifying the issues within a niche market.
 
One of the easiest ways to find out what problems your target audience is experiencing is to ask them simply. Many times, the best niche ideas are identified by the target audience. You can harness these insights and knowledge of your niche market by arranging conversations and conducting focus groups to discuss the problems and present the possible solutions that are related to the niche. You can also send out surveys to gather this information.
 
Another way that you can determine the problems experienced by your niche’s target audience is by heading online. The Internet is the most useful tools that you can use to identify problems within your niche. You can start by browsing blogs and forums, like Quora, to determine the kinds of problems that people in your niche are experiencing. Social media platforms, like Twitter and Facebook, are also filled with people talking about the problems that they are experiencing, as well as raising concerns within your niche market. To inspire more ideas, check out what's trending on Twitter or look through the many Facebook groups.
 
 
 
Step Three – Know Your CompetitionWhile a part of niche marketing is trying to identifying a gap in the market that no one is currently occupying, the sad reality is that there will always be competition. In fact, competition is a good thing when it comes to being a successful Internet business because when there is competition, it means there is money to be made. 
 
For as long as people have been trying to make money online, there have always been business owners in niche marketing that believed that they were on to something huge, only to discover that the reason why there isn't any competition for their niche product is that there is no way to make a profit. That's why it is essential that you conduct some in-depth analysis of the competition in your niche.
 
You can use a simple Google search to browse the Internet for business sites within your niche market. Keep an organized spreadsheet of the different companies and details about the products, services, and market share for each of the competitors that appear in the Google search results.
 
Compete on QualityWhen you are analyzing the competition, you want to look at the quality of the product or service that they are providing. If the other players in the niche market are only producing poor-quality products, by offering a much better product to your target audience, you can beat the rest and come out on top.
 
 
 
Compete on ImageIf your competition is producing high-quality products or offering top-of-the-line services, there are other ways that you can stand out from the crowd that is a bit more subtle. For example, maybe you can strive to come across as transparent and more human-centric compared to the large corporations and faceless companies that are present in the market. Or, you might try to position yourself as a sustainable or green alternative to the competition.
 
Compete on PriceOne of the most necessary determinates of whether or not your products will sell over competitors is the price. It could be that the competition is charging too much and you can try to provide a lower price point for your product or service. Otherwise, you'll have to work to provide a higher-quality product and market your business to those in the market that are willing to pay more.
 
Understanding the competition will ensure that you stand out from the rest. By checking out your competitors, you can assess whether the niche is worth your focus and efforts.
 
Step Four – Determining if The Niche Will Make MoneyNow you've determined your niche, identified the problems of the target audience, and developed a solution, and you've done some research on the competition. Next, you need to determine whether or not the niche will be profitable. While the fact that there are other competitors in the space is an indication that there is some money to be made in the niche, you still need to conduct some further research to find out what kinds of products and services are available in your niche.
 
You can check out websites like Amazon, ClickBank, and Mix (formerly known as StumbleUpon), to find out if there are any products in your niche category. ClickBank is an affiliate marketing site, that can help you determine what digital goods, if any, are within your niche. Mix, is a site that can help you find other websites within your niche and curate those topics into sub-niches. This information can help you find out if there are other websites making money in the same niche as you.
 
If you discover another leading company in your niche, don’t let it discourage you and lead you to believe that there isn’t any hope of you succeeding in that niche. Even though Coca-Cola is a multi-billion dollar company, it hasn't stopped Pepsi from becoming just as successful in the market. While this doesn't necessarily give you too much certainty about whether or not you've chosen a profitable niche, it is more about looking for signs of profitability. The perfect outcome that you can hope for is that there are a few products available in your niche and that it isn't oversaturated with an abundance of products and services.
 
 
 
Step Five – Trial Your Niche IdeaNow you can start to trial your niche idea, to determine if your niche idea will be successful. The first four steps of the process were designed to find out if there is an audience for your niche idea, and this final step is to find out how many people there are who are willing to pay for the product or service that you are offering.
 
You can start to gather information on the interest in your niche by setting up a mailing list. This will give you an idea about whether or not you are going to find success in your niche before you take any risks and waste your time and money. You can use an online email service like MailChimp or Constant Contact to set up an email marketing campaign to test your idea.
 
Another way that you can test your niche idea is by taking pre-orders for your product or service. On your website, set up a pre-order landing page for the product or service that you are thinking about developing. This will provide you with some indication of the number of people that are interested in your niche idea. If you aren’t quite ready to take pre-orders, you can start fishing for interest in your niche by setting up a membership program to develop a direct relationship with your fans. If people show excitement for your idea and are willing to pay for it, they’ll support you.
 

While everyone might have the imagination to come up with a brilliant niche idea that addresses a target audiences’ problems, the trick and the challenge is finding a way to make a profit while doing it. The question of how you find a niche isn’t just about solving a problem, but it is ultimately about transforming it into a viable and profitable business.
 
There is really no one-size-fits-all blueprint when it comes to finding your niche. Every journey will be different. The key to finding a niche that will work for you and be profitable is about doing the research to determine if there is an audience that will be willing to pay for your knowledge, experience, products, and services. Take the time to conduct the necessary research, as outlined above, and you will be well on your way to finding the perfect niche for your internet business and finding success.

At Altitude Business Solutions we work with you to come up with solutions to your business problems and set a plan for implementation.  It all starts with our Discovery call where we will find out more about your business and discuss options for you moving forward.  For Queensland Small Business Owners we will also discuss the Government Funded Australian Small Business Advisory Services program and if your business can take advantage of discounted services.
Book your complementary 20 minute discovery call today!