63 percent of businesses say that generating traffic and leads as their biggest marketing challenge. This goes to show that internet marketing is not always as easy as it looks.
No matter which industry your business operates in, there is a lot of competition from rival businesses.
Competing on price is difficult, as there is often little that businesses can do about margins. However, where you can beat your competition is on branding, trustworthiness, and reputation. Which is where internet marketing comes in.
Every internet user makes choices about which sites to visit and what to buy. As a business, you should be trying to influence those decisions at every step.
So, if you run a business or are starting a new venture, there has never been a better time to develop your internet marketing plan. The internet is always changing, but there are more exciting opportunities now than ever before.
Read on to find out more.
1. Internet Marketing Through Blogging
If you don't have a blog on your business website, you are missing a trick. Blogging is one of the best ways to showcase your business in detail, and is also great for SEO. Let's talk about why.
Blogging allows you to develop your brand by using your own voice. There can be so few things that distinguish rival businesses, as competing on price can be difficult. However, your branding should be unique and personal.
Writing a blog allows your readers and customers to get to know you. They can recognize your voice, and this will create a rapport, trust, and loyalty.
Blogging also allows you to talk about your business in much more detail than product descriptions. This not only helps customers make more informed buying decisions but also shows your expertise.
Finally, but most importantly, blogging is excellent for your website SEO. Creating new blog posts keeps your content fresh, which means the search engine bots can see that your site is active.
Blogging also allows you to keep adding relevant keywords to your site, and keywords are what SEO is all about.
2. Email Marketing
Email marketing might sound a bit old fashioned in this age of multimedia, but it does work.
Just because email has been around for a long time does not mean your emails need to be boring. Write your emails as if you are talking to your customers. No one wants to read formal, dry messages so make them conversational and don't forget to embed photo and video content.
Emailing allows you to get direct access to potential customers' inboxes. This is a great opportunity to offer discounts and deals to people who have subscribed to your website. Including direct links to promotions and merchant pages also make it even easier for customers to make purchases.
You can also use direct email marketing to interact with customers. You can include surveys and questionnaires in your mail outs. This will help you get to know who your customers are to help you target your marketing. You can also invite subscribers to leave positive feedback on social media or third-party sites.
Email marketing is also very time and cost efficient. With the click of a button, you can send targeted marketing content to thousands of people, and all it has cost you is the time to write the email.
3. The Future is Mobile
In 2020, the number of smartphone users worldwide should reach 2.8 billion. And of those smartphone users, 63 percent access the internet from their mobile, so it's safe to say that the future is mobile.
Optimizing your site for mobile users should be one of the main focuses of your digital marketing strategy. Because no matter how great your content is, if it does not perform well on mobile devices, many users won't bother to look at it. Always check every site update and blog post on different devices and make sure that they are properly formatted and not too slow to load.
You can also think about using specific mobile marketing strategies for your business. Mobile marketing is about trying to reach a specific audience on their smartphones and tablets. SMS marketing is a great example of targeting mobile users, as you are sending a link directly into their hand.
4. Video Marketing
By 2020, videos will make up 79 percent of all internet traffic. So, if your business is not using video content, then you could be missing out.
Many internet users expect to see video content now and they are more likely to sit through a 1-minute video than read 500 words of text. This means that video content is great for keeping readers on your site, which keeps your bounce rate low.
Video marketing, like blogging, allows you to go into more detail about your products and services. You can show viewers more aspects of your business than you can by using text. For example, you can showcase your company culture and employees, and show customers what it's like behind the scenes.
YouTube videos are also great for SEO, not least because Google owns the channel. But don't forget to make sure that you give your videos optimized titles and descriptions to boost your SEO even more.
5. Social Media
If you run a business, then social media is your friend.
Because it's something that we all use to keep in touch with family and friends (and gossip) it's easy to forget how useful it can be for internet marketing.
The whole point of social media is for people to share things that they like. As a business, this means you can get your customers to do your marketing for you by sharing your posts. But here's the thing: no one will share your posts if they are boring.
Creating cool, fun and informative social media posts should be the backbone of your online marketing strategy. And it is worth getting this right because the rewards can be huge. If only 20 people share your post to their friends, you can still reach up to 10,000 people — for free.
Always use multi-media in your social media posts. Graphics, pictures, and videos will always get more shares than text and will stand out in people's feeds.
You can also raise your social media game by using paid ads and sponsored content. This is a budget-friendly way of getting your posts to your target audience.
6. Content Marketing
Content marketing is not a one-off campaign, but an ongoing process. Your website is not just about selling products but communicating with consumers and developing your brand.
You should be thinking about content marketing in everything you do online. Always make sure that your content is of high quality and fully optimized. Keeping your content updated and fresh is also great for your brand, as no one trusts a neglected website.
Blog posts should be on a variety of things such as your company culture, your employees and your local area. Don't focus on sales and promotions and nothing else. Content is a great tool to inform your readers and declare what sort of ethos your business has.
If you get your content marketing right, your reward will be loyal, informed customers.
7. Influencer Marketing
There was a time when influencer marketing was only available to large companies and brands. Those who could afford to get endorsements by celebrities and sports stars. However, with the advent of Instagram and social media influencer marketing is now available even to small businesses.
The ‘micro-influencers' of Instagram have thousands of followers and charge to promote products. They are a lot cheaper than celebrities and will charge between $50 and $300 per post. That's pretty good value.
What's even better, is that micro-influencers actually out-perform celebrities. This is because they are easier to relate to and more believable.
Everyone knows that celebrities receive lots of free products to promote. But when someone who looks like they lead a similar life to you endorses something, it is a lot more credible.
In fact, a recent survey showed that only 3 percent of consumers are influenced by celebrity endorsements. But 30 percent said they were likely to buy a product endorsed by a non-celebrity influencer.
Become a Legendary Marketer
So there you have it. Seven types of internet marketing and how to use them.
Some of them will have been right under your nose all the time, like social media and email marketing. They may have been around for a long time, but that's because they work. Both email marketing and social media posts get your message straight into the hands of all of those people checking their phones.
However, the internet is changing. You also need to focus on new marketing trends such as videos and influencer content if you want to stay ahead of the game.
The great thing about all of these internet marketing ideas is that they all represent value for money and are suitable for businesses on a budget.
If you want to find out more about how internet marketing can benefit your business then sign up for our FREE COURSE today.
