Online marketing can be overwhelming if you don’t know where to start. Many different strategies and tactics promise to boost your sales and profits, but none tell you how they work or why they’re better than the next one. To help you navigate this confusing world, we’ve created this list of the best online marketing strategies around, complete with a few bonus tips thrown in at the end.
1) Take advantage of free social media platforms
One of the most effective and fastest ways to gain visibility for your brand is by leveraging free social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. Rather than driving traffic back to your site where it’s hard for people who land on your site to convert (buy or sign up), distribute links within status updates that point back to your content. If users take action and click through on a link back to your site, that’s great! But even if they don’t click through, with just one share of a piece of content, they could potentially reach thousands of additional followers/subscribers without any additional cost. To get the most out of your solo advertisements, you can try the udimi alternative.
2) Focus on the visual experience
It’s more important than ever for marketers to consider how potential customers engage with their content, which means ensuring it’s presented visually appealing. Studies show that audiences can make up their minds about a brand within 100 milliseconds of seeing it—and after that, your brand will start working on them subconsciously. How does it do that? Pictures are processed 60,000 times faster in our brains than text is, so if something looks pleasing (or not), consumers will be inclined to think highly (or negatively) of your company.
3) Have an easy way for potential customers to contact you
This step is slightly different from others as it doesn’t have anything directly to do with SEO. But let’s face it—customers will want to reach out and ask questions at some point in your business life. And if you don’t give them an easy way of doing so (such as a phone number or email address on your website), they will turn elsewhere. So keep in mind that communication is essential between business and customer! And make it easy for them!
4) Understand your target audience
It may seem obvious, but knowing who your customers are will help you tailor your message and make it more relevant to them. It’s not just about creating a few personas; it’s also about understanding how they interact with your company or brand, their motivations for doing so, and where they fit into your overall business strategy. You don’t need a considerable amount of data here—just enough to know who these people are and what matters most to them. Targeting an audience that doesn’t care about what you have to say isn’t going to lead anywhere good. At best, it won’t be successful; at worst, bad messaging can put people off using (or buying) from you altogether.
5) Design your site well
A good website can make all of your efforts more effective. On the other hand, bad design can be a huge turnoff for people who visit your site and keep them from converting into leads or customers. It’s often said that first impressions are everything when doing business online. So make sure your site is professional-looking, easy to navigate and clean (no fluff!), and gives off a positive vibe from start to finish. If designing it yourself isn’t an option, hire someone who specializes in web design—doing so will save you money in the future if/when you need a redesign because they’ll understand what you’re going for. You should also ensure that your pages load quickly and images are resized adequately for better page speed.
6) Marketing can be enjoyable (yes!)
Marketing can seem like a chore. For many people, it’s not even part of their daily job, and they don’t like it when they have to do it. That’s where I disagree: Marketing is absolutely something that should be enjoyed as much as possible. After all, if you don’t enjoy doing your marketing, how can you expect customers or clients to enjoy being marketed toward? So before anything else happens with your marketing efforts (beyond ensuring that they’re effective), focus on making them enjoyable for yourself.
7) Invest in quality content
Companies that rely on organic traffic for their primary business income get it from producing quality content. If there’s one thing in life that you need to invest in, let it be good content. People aren’t looking for fluff; they want accurate, down-to-earth information that solves their problems and answers their questions. And when they find great content, they share it with others on social media—which means more clicks back to your site or additional sales opportunities. According to HubSpot research (and common sense), spending resources on content creation is one of today’s most effective ways of increasing website traffic, leads, and sales.
8) Don’t forget mobile optimization
Mobile optimization is more than just making sure your website looks okay on a smartphone. If you’re not making mobile your priority, there’s a good chance that people who view your site on their smartphone will bounce rather than convert. More and more users are using smartphones for search, and they must find what they need quickly. More importantly, if you don’t have mobile optimization in place, your competitors might: Small companies with minimal budgets can often outdo larger companies because they are willing to spend money on these solutions. So no matter how big or small your company is, mobile must be an integral part of any new project (or remodel).
9) Paid advertising
Almost every digital marketer relied on search engine optimization and paid to advertise when making money. Search engine optimization (SEO) is a method of growing traffic by optimizing your website for search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo! Paid advertising includes: Pay-per-click (PPC) Advertising, Social Media Advertising, Affiliate Marketing, and Display Advertising. These are high-dollar investments, so consider what methods work best for your target audience before selecting a pay-per-click provider or affiliate network.
Conclusion
To be successful online, you need a plan. If you’re not using these techniques, implement one or more today! You will see an increase in your profits from day one. If your competitors are doing it and getting results, why aren’t you? Use these proven tools to get ahead of your competition online.