There are too many reasons to list when it comes to why it is important for businesses to market themselves in the digital world. One of the biggest reasons your business needs to be marketing online is the fact that as of this year there are 3.17 billion internet users in the world. That’s a huge amount of potential customers, especially if you offer your products and services beyond your own country.
Aside from that, marketing online increases your brand awareness and builds trust. Certain types of online marketing can help more with converting visitors into sales, while others work better for creating trust. And, the more you promote your brand the more you will be seen as an expert in your field, and the more powerful your brand will become.
When it comes to marketing strategies there are some tried and true methods that work, and strategies are also continually changing. If you are looking for some marketing plans that work, keep reading:
SEO
Search engine optimization makes your website show up on search engines, and how well you use SEO will determine where you rank when people find you. The plan is to be above the fold, which would be right on the first page near the top. This is done by publishing great content, including links, using keywords, and promoting your website so that it becomes popular.
The key to SEO is literally a key, as in keyword. Using keywords isn’t just about picking a word and using it though, you need words with some competition that people are searching for. You can find them with the Google Keyword Tool. Search statistics on keywords and key phrases.
Social Media
As of January of 2015 it looks like there are 2.078 billion active social media accounts, which is probably why anyone you talk to will tell you that you need to have your business on social media. There are so many viable social media sites now though, it can be hard to keep track of all of them.
That’s where a social media agency can come in handy, helping to keep your social media accounts looking attractive and filled with interesting information. Just as how blogs should be updated a certain amount of times each week, you should be posting on social media a certain amount of times each day, with links to your blog, products along with any additional content your consumers may find interesting.
PPC
Pay-per-click uses keywords, but isn’t SEO, per say. PPC uses purchased keywords or key phrases on a pay-per-click basis, and it puts your link in an ad space in the paid results area of the search engine. Each time someone clicks the link you pay a certain amount to the search engine.
Newsletters
While an online newsletter can sometimes end up in a recipient’s junk mail, electronic newsletters are a great way to attract qualified traffic to your blog or website. It lets you reach people on a consistent basis, and direct them to your website, and allows you a chance to tell them more about your company, the services you offer, and what products you have.
The way to keep newsletters working is to make sure that you aren’t sending them too often and that you are filling them with info that people want to read. When it’s set up to be their choice to receive the email it makes sense that they’d want to read it.
Blogging
Blogging is a great way to boost your ranking, attract more natural visits, and gives you another place to utilize the benefits of SEO. It is also beneficial in online marketing to work on link acquisition via various ethical methods within your blog. Inbound and outbound links help give your blog more credibility, and allow you to make great connections with other bloggers.
Just make sure that your blog is filled with well researched articles, and isn’t just an advertisement for your company. You are an expert in your field, and your blog will add to that by showing people you know what you’re talking about.