Best Online Marketing Ideas in 2024

Advertising your business is quite literally a minefield these days that can really damage your business.

So how do you market your business going forward? There is no single answer but here is a summary of the best advise:

1: Make sure your website is looking modern, updated and working well on desktop and mobile. Seems obvious but its worth asking some people for their honest opinion about your current website and then take an average. Host on a high quality fast server (avoid bulk cheap services) and make sure your email is configured for DMARC, DKIM and SPF otherwise you may miss out on leads. If you are selling then make sure your website is using a decent ecommerce solution like WordPress (using a high quality theme) with Woocommerce (Customisable/Good), Zapier (Extensive), Shopify (Easy/Good), Hotel Center Platform (Lodging) and Odoo (All-in-One).

2: Use real pictures and/or videos on your website. Poor quality images will rune everything. Take them on a high quality phone or get a professional photographer. Good images will be your websites best marketing tool. Its not to say you can’t use some stock photos but aim to use as many photos showing your actual business, the things you do and the people that work with or for you. Also don’t send the photos to yourself on Whatsapp or other messaging service that degrades the quality of the images. Use the originals and make sure they are sized correctly for your site using good editing software.

3: Remove the contact form and show real contact details. Research is showing that people prefer direct contact via email or phone. Only use forms if necessary for a particular use case.

4: SEO is quite literally dead from a point of setting up a website, doing SEO and expecting people to come visit. But you do need essential SEO from the point that without it you will never get anywhere with advertising or long term ranking without it. Get yourself an ‘ahrefs.com‘ account and start tracking your success and find better avenues to increase your online presence.

• Do some research first and look for good target keywords or phrases. Use Google Trends (Its free), Google ‘Autocomplete’ when you partially type words into search, Google Ads – Keyword Planner Tool (Free to use choose Discover New Keywords), Check the Google Questions in Google search results, Ahrefs Keyword Explorer (Not free but excellent!), Ubersuggest Keyword Research Tool (Neil Patel), Check Google Map results, Switch to a incognito browser tab and test search some ideas taking note of auto suggest / auto complete as you type and take note of what Google results section ‘People also ask’ says.
• SEO check – Page Title, Meta Description and Meta Keywords should be correct for every page on your website. This helps the search engines a tiny bit but its certainly not as important as it used to be by a mile. The Meta Keywords entry is not even used anymore.
• Make a page for each topic your business covers. Don’t bundle everything into a single page unless you have a single service or item you aim to promote. Stick with a ‘key phrase’ for that page. Mention it in the Title, Meta, H1 Heading and maybe a few times in the page context along with an image alt-tag text.
• ‘Alt Tag’ the correct title for your website images to tell the search engines what they contain. Adding your own charts or original info-graphics is really good.
• Only use a single H1 headings on each web page never two or more. Then 1 to a few H2 sub headings. H3 and below are far less important.
• Make interesting text on each page. Google will read your page like a human and it needs to be interesting to read. Don’t keyword stuff. Have a summary in the first part and then a more detailed explanation below if someone is more interested. Don’t write anything really long. A myth is you need 500 to 1000 words. I would probably aim for 125 to 500 words. But if you have lots to say then carry on but ideally don’t go over a 1000. Also remember that search engines like questions answered (this is just a bonus). So do that in context or as an FAQ maybe.
• Keep your menu to 5 master menu titles. Put other links in the footer. This is the magic number.
• Check your website fits correctly on different size resolutions and ultra wide monitors. So many websites look fine on the developers side and have scrambled text over images on bigger monitors. Some mobile testing is also important.
• Using AI to generate pages is useful but remember you really need to spruce it up with a human touch as they are now able to detect AI generated text and that won’t help your website.
• Create an ‘Article/News’ feed that shows your business is alive and kicking. Most people fail to maintain this but if you think its possible – do it. Add interesting but related topics people would want to search with photos or videos. Keep the content rolling and eventually Google will send people your way. Best way to figure out how to do this is to look at one of the keyword finders/explorers/idea tools. Then filter by keyword volume (high) vs keyword difficulty (low) – then aim to target those. Also remember to go with keyword phrases 2/3/4/5/6 words. Think of a niche inside a niche.
• Make sure you have a sitemap. Make sure your page title is appropriate and within the maximum allowed characters. Don’t spam SEO words. Use natural language in your and make sure its interesting.
• Don’t do a staff page with long blurb about their life history. Just a photo, their job title and optionally contact details if required.
• Monitor results – Get a ‘Ahrefs‘ SEO account and just monitor as many keywords to see where you stand and also do a second check using ‘SEOptimer‘ or ‘Semrush‘ or ‘Moz‘ and check your SSL using Qualys SSL Labs Server Test. No need to pay for any of these but if you want to seriously track progress pay for the Ahrefs only.
• Finally check with Google Page Speed that your site is loading at a good speed otherwise it will loose points if its not optimised. This check will also show up other issues with the website you are not aware of. Increasing page performance can gain you a place or two in the results list. Use WebP or AVIF for images after they are sized correctly. Videos are typically still good with MP4 as WebM can be incompatible.

6: Make sure your business is setup and working on: Google My Business / Google Business Profile, Google Maps (even if online only for extra free links and search value), Google Merchant Centre (If selling products) and Google Search Console (Originally Webmaster Tools). Getting this all setup establishes your business and allows for valuable reviews.

7: Backlinks – Still the bread and butter of website value. This is when another website has a link back to your website. The more reputable and more populate the other website is – the higher the value a search engine will give to that link. Spend as much time as possible getting this done. It needs to be real. Going onto Fiver and buying links from a link farm is going to get your website degraded by search engines in the long run as they are considered spam links. If you can get a news article from a reputable website linking back to your website, you are going to get good points for that. Also jump onto forums, answer questions people ask and drop useful information with links back to your interesting articles/pages you made. Register with local interest groups, local directories or even do real life pin ups in shops. When asking for backlinks remember that other factors include where that backlink is on the other page – higher the better. Make sure the page is a related topi and avoid pages with tons of links as google won’t like this. Aim for at least 100 backlinks to start with of which at least 5-10 need to be from a highly valued referring site. A 1000+ is your final target. A good guide to ‘Submit a Guest Post’ is: https://neilpatel.com/blog/guide-to-guest-blogging/

8: The big player in 2024 is YouTube Videos. People watch YouTube like crazy these days. Video ‘shorts’ are getting the highest number of views but you will need a few 5 to 10 minute long videos on your account to really reel them in. The Shorts need to be really catchy then create interesting videos (easier said than done) and ideally look for a niche. Don’t try to sell anything in the videos. Let people get to know your business out of pure interest and they will use you in the long run. You can still promote these videos shorts using Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest and TikTok. Look into using vidyo.ai and visla.us for clipping and promoting on other platforms. And finally think about Live streams – An interactive session if you have enough subscribers or just a no subscriber live stream that you leave running. You will not believe what people like to stare at all day long. Maybe you have a good view out the window, a specialist machine or something interesting.
Finally try to use other peoples videos or video podcasts to get your business known via their channels – maybe a guest appearance?

9: Email marketing is a maybe. Once a big thing, then a it all went away but it now seems to be back due to the cost of online adverts. Create an authorised list via promotions, buy an authorised list or think of a unique way to create one ideally with opt-in. Comply with anti-spam/GDPR. Think carefully about the content. Keep it really short but interesting (would you read it?). Remember images won’t display most of the time unless they are a frequent subscriber. Never ever use your normal email for mass mailing – buy a new domain name just for mailing as it could get black listed by accident. Be careful what mass mailing service you use. Also use postmaster.google.com and dmarcian.com to check your mailbox status.
GDPR for data protection. B2B data will be classed as personal data if the email address identifies an individual, so GDPR will apply to how data is acquired, used, stored and shared.
PECR for email marketing. It is a common misconception that PECR allows B2B marketing without permission on an opt-out basis, rather than opt-in. While this is true for corporate subscribers sole traders and partnerships must be treated as individual subscribers and consent would therefore usually be needed.

10: Referrals. You could offer commission for referral and maybe try to get other businesses you work with to refer you.

11: Online Pay-Per-Click PPC marketing. As mentioned this is an expensive route that literally won’t work for most small businesses. However without paying a massively expensive marketing company – try a short term one month bash at it. Then just create a basic Google or Facebook advert campaign and see how it does. Think of it as a gamble and only use money you can afford to loose. You will need to spend at least 500 to 1000 to run this test in USD or GBP.

12: Social media – Short of sending annoying comments on X Twitter and hoping people will chase you up there is no specific secret sauce to promoting via SM. Its so diluted that the video content we discusses above is more valuable and works better. However there is a trick called ‘Direct Messaging’ cold marketing once you have an established social media account. If you DM say 100 people a day that may be interested in your business (most will reverse search you) and say something like ‘I read what you said on … thank you for posting’ or ‘So glad you said that, I thought exactly the same’ or ‘I noticed you had an issue and I am not sure if you are interested but we actually do/sell just that’ or just go for the kill with explaining what you are offering.

12: Remember that you need to attract customers first with no intention to sell – just to provide something of interest. Then you need to keep them interested and finally they will use or buy from you naturally. So do your research. Don’t fall for marketing tricksters on TikTok or YouTube that sell you on amazing marketing plans that cost a fortune in the long run. What you have read in this article is the majority of what is on offer anyway.

In summary:

• Have a modern, fast website engine or very compatible ecommerce system avoiding unknown solutions
• Ensure photos on the site are clear, high quality, unique to you/taken by you and load fast with webp compression
• Fast hosting on a premium server not bulk hosted is ideal for the least downtime or cross malware take downs
• Keep website updated, offline/cloud backed up and well maintained as this process will take time
• Configure email to be fully complaint to ensure good communications
• Ditch contact forms and supply real contact details, webchat or WhatsApp. Get a good CRM maybe Odoo
• Do keyword research and target both ideal and niche key phrases using them throughout your site not flooding pages but looking natural ***
• Do the old school SEO with META tags even though it doesn’t count for much now
• Make sure pages have H1 heading tags for best keywords and also make sure page titles are relevant **
• Add ALT tags to images everywhere with good descriptions
• Main menu should be 5 items for optimal user experience
• Have unique readable content on most pages. 125 to 500 words. Avoid AI unless you humanise it **
• Dimension check your pages on big screens, small screens and various mobile devices *
• Add a sitemap and link it to any service that uses it
• Check Google Page Speed
• Sign up to AHREFS (free with limited function for a single site but ideally might be worth paying for) **
• Add Google My Business / Business Profile **
• Add Google Maps with your business location even if online only for big increase in search value ***
• Add Google Search Console **
• Add Google Merchant Centre (If ecommerce)
• Create articles/blogs section using keyword research and have unique content ***
• Try to do YouTube shorts and a few good videos with cross links
• Maybe try some email marketing but be careful
• Offer referral commission to get people working for you
• Try some PPC marketing but it may not be viable depending on your business
• Another maybe is social media but a lot depends on your target market

*** Critical / ** Important / * Don’t miss

How to automate AI article/blog content for your website and then converting it to human! Don’t use pure AI content – always make it human.

Below is the secret sauce to using Claude AI to generate good quality AI content. We have no idea who the original creator is of this text but it certainly is good. If you are the creator, then let us know so that we can link to you.

**Finally releasing my AI Content Generator prompt. (Best used with Claude AI) **

**The AI Content Generator**

*Copy and paste the following prompt below. You can then enter a target keyword/topic, your tone choice (or upload a few paragraphs of your own writing), and it will run.*

System Prompt: The AI Content Machine

Role: You are an experienced content strategist and SEO expert.

Task: Your task is to create an SEO-optimized content outline for a given target keyword or topic. The outline should include the following elements:

A title (H1) that incorporates the target keyword

A meta description that summarizes the content and includes the target keyword

An introduction that engages the reader and sets the context for the article

Main headings (H2s) that cover key subtopics and use semantic keywords

Bullet points under each H2 to provide a brief overview of the content to be covered

A conclusion that summarizes the main points and provides a call to action or final thoughts

A list of semantic keywords thematically related to the main keyword, providing around 50 keywords, with one keyword per line.

Context: The content outline is designed to help writers create high-quality, SEO-friendly articles that comprehensively cover a given topic. The outline should be structured in a way that makes it easy for writers to understand the main points to be covered and ensure that the content is well-organized and engaging for readers.

Process:

Ask the client to provide their target keyword or topic.

Generate a title (H1) that incorporates the target keyword or topic and is attention-grabbing for readers. If there is a year in the title, it is 2024.

Create a meta description that summarizes the content and includes the target keyword, keeping it within the recommended character limit.

Write an introduction that engages the reader, sets the context for the article, and includes relevant semantic keywords. Use burstiness in the sentences, combining both short and long sentences to create a more human-like flow. Use human writing like exclamation points and first person perspectives. The intro should include either an interesting stat, quotation, or something to hook the reader.

Identify the main subtopics to be covered in the article and create H2 headings for each subtopic, incorporating semantic keywords. Write in an authoritative but friendly tone.

Under each H2, provide bullet points that briefly outline the content to be covered, ensuring that the points are relevant and comprehensive.

Write a conclusion that summarizes the main points of the article and provides a call to action or final thoughts, incorporating semantic keywords where appropriate. Use burstiness in the sentences to maintain a natural, human-like flow.

Provide a list of semantic keywords thematically related to the main keyword, with around 50-100 keywords, and one keyword per line. The semantic keywords should be relevant to the specific keyword provided by the user, covering various aspects and subtopics related to the main keyword.

Tips:

Use tools like SurferSEO and Neuron Writer to identify semantic keywords related to the main topic.

Ensure that the outline is well-structured and easy to follow, with a logical flow between subtopics.

Keep the introduction and conclusion engaging and informative, as these sections play a crucial role in hooking readers and leaving a lasting impression.

Use action verbs and descriptive language in the title and H2s to make the content more compelling and engaging.

Optimize the meta description to ensure that it accurately summarizes the content and encourages readers to click through from search engine results pages.

Adapt the writing style to the selected tone or provided copy to ensure consistency throughout the outline.

By following this system prompt, you’ll be able to create comprehensive, SEO-optimized content outlines that help your clients produce high-quality, engaging articles that rank well in search engines and resonate with their target audience, all while maintaining a consistent tone and style.

(Prompt stops above this line)

And finally just a useful bonus link: https://www.upwork.com/en-gb/resources/ai-prompts-seo

Additional tools:
https://claude.ai (AI Keywords and
https://machined.ai/ (Create clusters)
https://www.make.com/en (Blog post builder)
https://www.airtable.com/ (Use with Make.com)