A wide range of marketing strategies are implemented by companies to attract potential customers, build brand image and stay competitive in their respective industries.
Businesses often rely on traditional marketing mediums like broadcast advertising and print. With the latest technology, many owners are also investing on online marketing.
But why should you do too?
In today’s cut throat online competition, having a domain and an attractive website design is not enough to get more clients and higher visitor traffic and conversion rates.
It is also crucial to market your URL for search engine visibility.
Internet marketing is relatively younger than traditional marketing tools. It has been around for over 15 years. Given its short existence, it can be challenging to understand it. That doesn’t mean you can’t take advantage of its power – you just need to understand the basics and work your way up from there.
There are many on articles about internet marketing that can you access for free. Unfortunately, there is one little problem – information overload. Even infographics are too much to digest.
For a beginner’s guide to online marketing, you can use this article to learn the basics . It is an easy to follow content that discusses everything you need to know in internet marketing, written in the simplest way.
Understanding your customers
Any kind of business relies on customers to make a profit. Disregard them and you’ll be better off closed. This also applies in internet marketing. You need to evaluate your customers.
What do they like? Why do they choose you? How do they respond to your advertising efforts? Understanding your customers can give you an idea on how to develop a more effective marketing strategy.
You should always build a strategy, whether online or offline, around your clients’ wants and needs. Remember marketing is knowing your customers.
Interests can vary from one person to another. You can narrow it down by identifying your business’ target market. What is the age group? Where are they located? Other important details that you need to look into are their interests, necessities and what will make them choose you over your competitor.
Aside from understanding customers and prospects, you should also learn how to keep them. It is ideal to have some talk with your current list of customers. This can prevent you from making premature online marketing decisions.
Developing a tangible marketing framework
Once you understood your customers, the next step is to create the framework of your online marketing strategy . The development stage can be frustratingly challenging. You will learn which you should invest in and determine if it is profitable.
A successful marketing campaign is based on strategic marketing positioning that yields to great ROI. Take a look of your customers’ buying behaviors and other valuable information. Putting yourself in your customers’ shoes is one of the most effective and simplest tools to understand purchase behaviors.
Brand development
Aside from gaining profit, a successful online marketing plan should also build your company’s identity. This step can also be a big challenge. You need to solidify what your brands stands for and tell it to your customers.
One of the best ways to tell your brand’s story is through copywriting. An engaging content is not all about grammar and spelling; it is about authenticity.
Just think about it fake photos, false guarantees and questionable advertising can send the wrong message. This can badly hurt your brand and reputation. As much as possible, be real and tell your story like you are having friends for dinner.
You won’t bombard them with too much information, would you? Keep your tone conversational and friendly. But say what you mean to say. Beating around the bush will only give a wrong impression to your clients. Remember telling your brand should entice human connection and interaction.
Tell a real and good story through videos, blog posts and other types of content strategies. A good brand story should be effective even offline.
Start Building Website Traffic and Conversion Optimization
Having an amazing website design, the best products and most courteous customer service won’t get you no where if you are not generating traffic. Your business will most likely lose its way.
So how will you move your website outside of the digital dark corner where traffic doesn’t exist? Simple, you need to look for ways to get more visitors. From using SEO, content marketing to paid online advertisements, there are many ways to get more traffic.
Before you hire a SEO specialist or a PPC expert, you need to make sure that the generated traffic will yield to long-term conversion. This means don’t just target anyone in the internet. Go back to step 1 – you should know your customers.
You need to track potential customers. You can use Facebook, LinkedIn and other social platforms with large audience. You can even share your blog posts to websites with the same niche as your business. But don’t expect success overnight. It takes time to build more traffic.
When building traffic, make sure that you are also developing conversion optimization. Conversion optimization is concerned with converting visitors to customers.
Build better content
If you think content marketing is just blogging, think again. Content is very powerful in online marketing. It attracts customers, build traffic and even improve brand awareness.
Content can be anything from articles, videos, podcast and even infographic. No matter what you choose, your content should be able to establish better business and customer relationship. Make sure to also use metrics on content. Great content also generates ROI.
Paid advertising
Online marketing can be free or paid. Paid advertisements are Search Engine Marketing, pay-per-click (PPC) and online advertising. PPC is one of the most popular, if not, one of the most expensive paid channel marketing.
So how does it work? For every click on your online business ad, you will pay. The price is already determined by your desired keyword or expression. Large businesses usually use this type of paid advertising because it involves significant amount of money to optimize the keyword.
Although it its expensive to start and to main, PPC has its strengths such as measurable clicks, allows budget placement, real-time modifications, only pay for clicks or traffic and traffic builder.
So how do you get started? PPC is overwhelming. You need to have some basic experience with Adwords if you wish to transition your business to paid online marketing strategy.
Email marketing
Email marketing is one of the best online marketing channels that you should try. It is incredibly powerful when properly planned and executed. Although emails are automated, adding a personal touch will build stronger customer-client relationship.
To build better relationship through email marketing, don’t rely on spreadsheets. Use email marketing software such as MailChimp, Marketo and Infusion Soft.
To get started with email marketing, you need to build your subscribers. You can do this by including a pop-up subscription form upon opening the website. To make it engaging, include exclusivity to your business’ latest offers and sales. When you have a list, evaluate your strategy. Look into the email’s layout, subject line and content.
Social Media
Social media only for personal use? Not anymore. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube are used by many businesses for their online marketing efforts.
Social media is a powerful traffic driver. With so millions of online users, what could go wrong? Well, the fact that there is a large audience makes it hard to determine your target market. There are also so many social platforms that it can be hard to keep up with everything.
Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization or SEO is one of the most used online marketing channel today. So what does it do? Well, SEO is involved with improving website standing in search engines like Google and Bing.
Why do you need it? Well, you can get traffic from social media, but let’s admit that Internet users prefer search engines to look for a website. If your business is involved with offering services and products, providing content or anything else, you will most likely need SEO.
Although Google are updating their system or algorithms, search engines are still not that smart. SEO helps make your website’s content visible to search engines. It can also help with search rankings. SEO specialists use keywords. These keywords are link-build. It can be done through blog commenting, directory submission, guest posting and more.
Online marketing can be a whirlwind experience especially when you are a beginner. You can fall to the traps of misinformation and trying to do everything all in one go. If you are an online marketer beginner, starting from the basics and working your way up to complex strategies can bring more good to your business. Once in a while, take some risks – you will learn more through experience.
