by Natalie Ryder THE average adult spends over 20 hours per week online, which means having a strong online presence is going to be ...
by Natalie Ryder
THE average adult spends over 20 hours per week online, which means having a strong online presence is going to be essential for marketing your business.
Online marketing enables business owners to reach a wide range of people in a very short amount of time, regardless of how big your brand is or which industry it is part of. Compared to other types of marketing strategies, such as direct mail advertisements and billboards, online marketing always wins out. This is why it’s important to maximize your efforts.
Keep reading for a must-follow list of 25 tips for online marketing:
1. Use Google effectively
Google advertisements, search engine optimization (SEO), and video content (such as YouTube) are all methods of digital marketing that can truly make a difference in the success of your business. It’s important to closely follow your site’s analytics, and Google analytics, to keep track of what is and is not working. Adjust accordingly, and always offer fresh content to boost both customer engagement and SEO.
2. Use PPC and other types of ads
When you make your ad, be sure to include target keywords in both the headline and the copy. These keywords should closely match (if not completely match) the keywords you bid on, since this will help increase the chances of your ad showing up for those terms.
Always include a strong-call-to-action in each ad, stating exactly what it is you want the viewers and consumers to do. For example: “Call for a free quote” or “Click here for a 50% discount.”
3. Optimize your website for mobile
With so many consumers glued to their phones, you’d be missing out on valuable sales opportunities if you didn’t make sure your website was mobile-friendly. The mobile audience is far too big to ignore.
If your prospective customers are too frustrated with the mobile version of your website, there’s a slim chance they’re going to want to go through the effort of switching to their PC just to find your website. This is especially true when they’re doing something based on location, because they can just use the GPS on their phone to pull up another local option.
4. Keep in mind how easy it is to screenshot
It happens all the time: Someone in charge of a company’s social media posts something they really shouldn’t have posted. Social media followers screenshot it, and then pass it around. The company may have since deleted the status, but the internet doesn’t forget.
Your employees represent your brand just as much as you do, which is why it’s important to have a social media policy in place. This can help prevent them from sharing internal information, causing strife, or simply posting things that don’t align with your brand.
5. Publish regular newsletters
Send out regular email newsletters and announcements, making sure to include a variety of different information. You want to be seen as industry authority, so include information prevalent to your niche. For example, if you’re a landscaping company, a section of your newsletter could be dedicated to a Gardening Tip of the Week. Your readers will know they can count on your brand to provide current, helpful information that is relevant to their information.
Don’t forget to cut down on time and expenses by investing in an Email Marketing Service, more specifically, one that is optimized for automation for your email newsletters. Marketing automation will help cut down on the time spent on menial tasks, providing you with more time to grow your business and focus on sales.
6. Make sure all marketing collateral promotes your website
Every single bit of your marketing materials should include a way to check out your brand’s online presence. This is the easiest way to drive traffic to your website.
All of your print collateral should have a link to your website. The voicemails you leave, your own outgoing phone message, the signature of your email, your social media profiles, and every other type of marketing material you have should mention your website or have a link to it.
7. Focus on the customer, not your brand
Okay, so this one needs a bit of explanation.
Obviously, you should be focused on your brand. After all, that’s the face of your company!
However, rather than filling it with words like “we” or “us”, the customer-focused word of “you” should be used in abundance. This demonstrates your brand’s value, rather than coming across as nothing more than a sales page.
8. Use social media trends
You may have promoted your business on Facebook and Twitter. You may have even created a Pinterest profile. But, what about the apps like Snapchat and Instagram, which continue to increase in popularity?
There are numerous ways to use these social media apps to boost your online marketing efforts, and they will get your brand in front of a huge and varied audience.
9. Use Facebook to spy on competition
Read through the comments that customers have left on your competitor’s Wall. These will give valuable insight into things those customers like and dislike about what that brand is doing.
You can also get a feel for how your competitor responds to any negative comments or complaints they receive. If you’re unsure of how to respond to criticisms your customers leave, this may provide some helpful guidance you can use on your own page.
If you have a Facebook Advertising strategy, you have yet another great option to capitalize on what the competition is doing. Grab Adsviser and spy on their ads. You can see their copy, what designs are working best and craft your own ads that will outshine theirs!
10. Use https everywhere on your site
By having https everywhere on your website, you know your website is secure. So do your prospective customers.
Having a secure site also means it will show up more often in search engine results. This will help you keep track of who is visiting your site, where they’re coming from, how they got to your site, and see what they are looking at once they’re there.
11. Start a Podcast
Rather than making a Podcast about your business, product, or service, focus on a topic that is relevant to the interests of your prospective customers. This way, your Podcast is helpful and interesting, rather than just a sales pitch. Podcasts rank well in search engines like Google, and they also give you a chance to reach a different type of audience.
12. Claim local listings
Claiming and optimizing local listings is an effective online marketing strategy that has the potential to bring in a new audience. Sites like Yelp, Google, and Manta offer a lot of information about local businesses. This is why it’s important that you claim as many listings as possible for your business, which gives you control of the basic information prospects would be looking for during a search.
13. Ask for testimonials
After someone has purchased one of your products, or utilized your services, it’s important to ask them for a testimonial you can share with your audience. Social proof (testimonials, word-of-mouth, reviews, etc.) is one of the most effective ways of increasing website traffic and conversions.
Use a resource like EmailTools to get started with customer testimonials. Send out simple surveys within your email messages to grab preliminary info:
With built-in linking, you can direct customers to the appropriate resources based on their answers.
- If they’re satisfied they may also be willing to give more feedback or a full testimonial.
- If they aren’t, you can reconnect and learn more. This also gives you the opportunity to change their opinion of you by troubleshooting what went wrong and remedying the situation.
14. Invest in SMS marketing
Texting isn’t just for sending memes to your friends when you’re supposed to be working. It’s also an effective online marketing strategy for businesses within all industries. With its high open and read rates, the need for customer opt-in, convenience factor, and attention-grabbing design, SMS marketing is a great way to increase website traffic.
15. Boost website credibility
Use industry keywords in your website, blog, and social media copy to drive traffic from consumers looking for topics relevant to your niche. Your site and brand will become more of an industry authority this way.
Generate high-quality backlinks to further build your authority and boost credibility. Having quality backlinks lets search engines know your business is a credible one, which means your site will be ranked higher than others in search engine results.
16. Have a business blog
In addition to helping your SEO, having a regularly updated blog on your website will provide your prospective customers with informative content that demonstrates your brand’s authority. This is a quick and efficient way to become recognized as an industry expert, which would lead to increased sales and conversions.
17. Host webinars
Webinars are a great way to build your email marketing lists, drive traffic to your site, and generate more leads. It’s also an effective way to interact with your target audience, and showcase your industry authority. You show your prospects you have the solutions, products, or services they are looking for, and they will think of you first when it comes time to go from prospect to customer.
18. Send out press releases
Press releases are a great way to get your brand in front of audiences from multiple local and global channels, which means you would get the same amount of exposure as larger brands within your industry. This is a great way to get content directly in front of your target audience, as well as connect with journalists, bloggers, and freelance writers who could potentially further your business.
19. Use Facebook ads
You probably already have a Facebook page for your business, but you may not be aware of the fact that roughly less than 1% of your followers, on average, will actually see any of your updates. That’s because Facebook has been reducing the visibility of business pages over the years, which has affected businesses all over the world.
If you want consumers to actually find your business, you need to use Facebook ads. Fortunately, they’re pretty affordable, and you can get really specific when targeting a certain audience.
As we discussed earlier, you can get started by spying on your competition with Adsviser. This will save time and frustration when it comes to creating ads that are super targeted for your audience.
When it comes to Facebook ads, if you want to build your email list, Lead Ads are a great way to do so. You can also save even more time and frustration by automating the lead transfer process with LeadsTunnel.
20. Minimize your product or services page
Try offering just one product or service on your homepage. Rather than trying to satisfy the needs of everyone who may visit your site by having a large range of products to choose from, offer just one product. Take the time to really focus on this product, and offer answers to all possible questions and concerns your website visitors may have. Have your other products or services on other pages, or link to them through newsletters and follow-up email offers.
21. Reposition your opt-in button
The location of your opt-in offer on your website has significantly affects the number of subscribers you reel in.
Place the opt-in button and offer in a prominent position on your homepage – the top left of a page is the best. This is the area where visitors’ eyes are drawn first (like reading a book) and having it in the ‘top fold’ area of your page means it will be visible to your visitor before they scroll down to read the rest of the webpage.
22. Add urgency to your website copy
Add a sense of urgency to your copy, and your readers will be better convinced to buy right away. This is one of the biggest factors in creating compelling copy.
Place the urgent copy toward the end of your sales letter/page, right by the call to action.
There are multiple ways you could do this, including:
- Offering a limited time discount that expires on a certain date.
- Offer free bonus products to those who buy by within a certain time frame.
- Make a batch of products or services only available for a limited time.
Better yet, optimize your copy AND use a graphic countdown timer to really up the urgency!
23. Add video content to your marketing strategy
Creating and uploading videos to YouTube is a great way to get your brand and its services or products in front of a huge audience of potential customers. It also makes your brand more accessible to those who have issues reading large amounts of text, or who simply prefer visual content.
Looking for a simple tool to get started with video? Try Doodly and share your own custom doodle video with your audience to increase conversions.
24. Track your stats
When it comes to measuring the successful of your online marketing efforts, it’s important to keep track of the analytics for your website, blog, social media, and email campaigns. Take a look at the page views, click-through rates, open rates, bounce rate, conversion rates, and forwarding rates.
The web analytics tool that comes with your website host, if you have one, is a great place to start. ClickPerfect is another great alternative to getting started with keeping track of how well your marketing efforts are paying off. This is especially helpful when conducting split testing.
25. Quality over quantity
It can be pretty tempting to want to produce as much as content as possible, and then promote it across your various social media channels. However, that only works if every single bit of content you offer is of the highest quality possible.
Unless you have a team of writers, it’s best to focus on publishing content just one to three times per week. Spend time ensuring the content is relevant to the needs and interests of your target audience and readers, and that it ends in a call to action that will boost customer engagement. This could be something as simple as simply inviting them to leave a question.
Over to you!
What tips do you have to offer?
Let us know in the comments and be sure to share with someone who could use a boost in their online marketing!
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