Online marketing is the art and science of selling products and services over digital networks, such as the internet and cellular networks. The art of online marketing involves finding the right online marketing mix of strategies that appeal to your target market and will translate into sales.
There is a bit of science that goes into online marketing and that is the research and analysis in both choosing the best online marketing strategies to use and measuring the success of those strategies.
Online marketing can be an absolute game-changer if you use it correctly and you are consistent.
Here are a few of the top online marketing strategies
Search Engine Optimization/Marketing
SEO is the process of fine-tuning your business website so that it ranks higher in search engine results when your potential customers enter search terms that match your product offerings.
SEM or search engine marketing is paid. For instance, for a pay-per-click fee, search engines such as Google will display your ad when a user enters a search using one of your keywords. SEM statistics can provide excellent feedback on the effectiveness of your advertising. The stats can tell you how many people are clicking your ad, etc.
Online Advertising
There are many types of online advertising opportunities. One popular method is to use banner ads embedded into web pages on the internet. Also, different social media providers, such as Facebook and Instagram, offer their very own advertising platforms.
Once you have built a subscriber email list of potential customers who may be interested in your products or services, email marketing is a very effective way to get the message out. You can keep your customers up to date with company news and special offerings. You can send out newsletters and customized product or service offerings specific to the customer’s needs. A great thing about the email lists is that the customer has signed-up for it so they are expecting updates. The chances are very good your emails will get opened.
Social Media
Social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest are all opportunities for online marketing. Social media is a conversation platform meaning it requires active participation rather than just posting ads for your products or services.
Blogging
Having a blog is another way to communicate with your customers and keep them informed about your products or services. A blog can be used to provide advice and get useful feedback. They allow you to share informative and educational information to your customers. Blogging also helps you get more of your keywords indexed by the search engines to potentially reach more customers.
Why You Need an Online Presence
Online marketing is and always will be important to small businesses of all types. In the past, internet marketing was something that local brick-and-mortar businesses could justifiably ignore. It didn’t make sense to waste time and money on online marketing when all your business was local.
Now with increasing local searches, especially via the Google voice search, you simply can’t ignore having a solid online presence. Ideally, all businesses should include some online marketing in their marketing arsenal.
Online reputation is very important, even if you do not conduct business over the internet. It’s a fact that, before a new customer decides to patronize your business chances are they will check online reviews, so building a reputation for quality and customer service is very important. Remember, unhappy customers are more likely to leave online reviews than satisfied ones. Ask your customers to leave you positive reviews and maybe even offer them a future discount for doing so. Strive for an online and offline reputation of 5 stars!
In conclusion, this day and age your business simply has to have some sort of online presence. By using online marketing as a large part of your marketing budget you can get your brand in front of the masses more easily and more affordably than conventional print or radio advertising options.
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