Online Marketing Made Simple: A Step-By-Step Guide
If you want to attract the attention of your audience and promote your business, you should definitely rely on digital marketing. It is not only more affordable than conventional advertising but it also reaches broader audiences and yields better results.
With digital marketing, you can target very specific audiences, interact with them, and build long-term relationships. In addition, with the help of web analytics, you can determine your marketing campaigns’ success and take effective actions that will help you increase your profit and grow your business.
However, if you’ve just started a business and you’re a digital marketing newbie, it can all be quite overwhelming. To help you out, we’ve created a list of 6 simple steps that will help you build an effective digital marketing strategy.
1. Content Marketing
What better way to attract users than by offering them great content?
People love (and need) valuable, useful, and interesting content. The goal of content marketing is to build a reputation by offering unique and relevant information created by an industry expert (that’s you!). When people see you as an expert, they’ll find it natural to trust you. And once you’ve earned their trust, they’ll feel confident in making a purchase from you.
There are several types of content you can create:
- articles
- research results
- news
- interesting videos and images
- infographics
- videos from conferences and webinars
- interviews
- overviews
Which type of content works best for you will depend on the niche and your target audience’s preferences. The best way to figure this out is to perform a test to see how your audience responds. What matters is, the content you create needs to be captivating and interesting; it also needs to push people to buy your product.
2. Search Engine Optimization
SEO is a term that refers to a set of actions that help your website rank higher in search engines. Increased visibility on SERPs has a direct influence on traffic and, in turn, the sales you’ll make from your site.
Every good SEO strategy starts with researching the specific keywords that real users type into search engines when looking for your products or services. These words and phrases are then added to your website’s content. In addition to this, SEO also involves tactics like link building, optimizing images, optimizing URLs, meta tags, and meta descriptions, etc.
This process is quite slow and requires lots of patience and effort. The fact that search engine algorithms get constantly updated makes things even more complicated. That’s why SEO is best left to professionals. A good online marketing firm will design a detailed SEO strategy to help you get that coveted spot on Google’s first page much faster and with less fuss.
3. Social Media Marketing
Social media is one of the most effective online marketing tools.
Social platforms are the main sources of organic, profitable traffic because they allow you to reach huge audiences without having to break the bank.
You can use social media to build brand awareness, interact with your customers, build relationships, share promotions, build customer loyalty, and increase sales.
4. Email Marketing
Email marketing is a highly effective online marketing strategy that involves sending emails to customers and prospects. If done right, email marketing converts prospects into customers and turns one-time buyers into loyal customers.
Some of the advantages of e-mail-marketing include:
- It allows prolonged communication with customers
- It’s a low-cost marketing tool
- It can be easily automated
- It allows you to build a personal database of existing and potential customers
- It allows direct communication between customers and businesses.
5. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is the practice of promoting another person’s or company’s products or services in exchange for a commission on the resulting sale. Affiliate marketing is a great way to attract customers and boost sales with minimum efforts.
However, it’s only effective if your affiliate partners are genuinely interested in your products and are loyal to you. Of course, it helps if they’re motivated (i.e. well-paid). After all, they’re the ones bringing customers to you, so it’s only natural they get some profit for themselves.
6. PPC
PPC (pay per click) means payment for every person who clicks on your ad and is redirected to your site. PPC traffic is quite profitable because it is relevant – your ad is seen by people who are interested in your products or services (based on past searches).
However, these ads aren’t very effective for little-known products or unknown brands. This is because users will never search for things they’ve never heard of before. In that case, it’s better to start with other marketing tactics (like social media marketing or SEO) in order to raise brand awareness. Once your brand (as well as your goods) are better known, you can give PPC a try.
PPC is perfect for:
- remarketing
- search engine ads
- ads on general portals
- new ad campaigns
Final Thoughts
Online marketing is a very popular and effective way to attract customers through various channels. But with so many marketing options, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and confused. You just don’t know where to get started. For that reason, it makes sense to hire a digital marketing agency. Hiring marketing professionals allows you to get started with your campaigns almost immediately. You don’t need to set up an in-house marketing team or navigate the learning curve. It’s quite possible to see your marketing campaigns go live just a few weeks after creating a strategy.
Dave Schneider is the founder of LessChurn, churn reduction app. In 2012 he quit his job to travel the world, and has visited over 65 countries. In his spare time, he writes about SaaS and business at DaveSchneider.me