The Online Marketing Concept
The concept of online marketing involves the art and science of selling products and services over the internet. The art involves finding or creating marketing strategies that appeal to your target market that translates into sales. The science comes down to the research and analysis necessary to measure the success of those strategies.
Online marketing leverages different web-based channels to spread a message about a company’s brand, products, or services to its potential customers. The methods and techniques used for online marketing include email, display advertising, social media, search engine optimization, Google AdWords and more.
The objective is to reach potential customers through various different internet channels where they spend their time searching, reading, shopping, and socializing. The popularity of the internet for business and personal use has generated many new opportunities for advertising and marketing engagement.
There are also many benefits and challenges with online marketing. Which primarily uses digital media to attract, engage, and convert online visitors to customers. Today, anyone with a business should engage in online marketing by creating a website and building customer acquisition campaigns at little to no cost.
Why Your Business Needs Online Marketing
Online marketing is increasingly important to businesses of all types. In the past, internet marketing was something that traditional brick-and-mortar businesses could overlook in favor of traditional marketing methods. However, as consumer habits have changed, shoppers are much more likely to research their purchases online before buying.
In fact, shoppers are likely to research a product online even while they’re standing in the store. People search for prices, features, similar products, etc of items or services they are considering. Generally, all businesses should include some online marketing strategies in their marketing mix, Or they will risk missing out on potential new customer engagement and sales.
Online Marketing Benefits
One of the main benefits of using online marketing for a business or product is the ability to measure the impact of any given online marketing strategy. As well as how unique visitors acquired through different online channels interact with a website or landing page.
When visitors convert into paying customers, further analysis can also be done to determine which channels are most effective at attracting valuable new customers. Online marketing analytics for web or mobile experiences can help determine various valuable information for successful marketing campaigns.
Types Of Online Marketing Tools
There are many online marketing strategies and tools at your disposal to create successful marketing campaigns. Here is a list of tools to help develop a strategic online marketing plan and put it into action.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search Engine Optimization is the practice of creating content on a website or webpages using techniques to attract increasing quality web traffic from a search engine’s results pages (SERPS). Utilizing optimized keywords, keyword placement, meta tags, internal and external linking strategies, etc. Check out this great Guide To SEO by MOZ to learn more.
Email Marketing
You can use email to send out newsletters and customized product or service offers specific to your target customer’s needs. You can also use email to stay engaged with current customers and keep them up-to-date with company news and upcoming events.
Create an opt-in page on your website. Once you have built an email list of subscribers and potential customers. Email marketing is a very effective way to increase conversions and turn those subscribers into new customers.
Social Media Marketing (SMM)
Social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Tik Tok, etc. are all opportunities for marketing online. SMM works best as part of an overall content marketing strategy, which focuses on the quality and usefulness of the content you create for your brand.
As well as engaging with other social media members to provide helpful information to targeted potential customers. Social media marketing can greatly increase your internet marketing success rates.
Advertising & Promotions
There are many types of online advertising opportunities available. One method is to use affiliate links and banner ads embedded into your web pages. Other options include interstitials, which are ads that appear before or between pieces of content and video ads among others.
The best way to market to people who already know about your product or service is to use remarketing or retargeting ads. When people visit your site, a cookie is assigned to their browser. Then, as they travel around the web, your ads will appear to remind them about your product or service that they previously viewed.
This form of internet advertising is inexpensive and, if done right, can be more effective than Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising. It increases conversions because it reminds people of that product or service that they have previously shown an interest in. These internet marketing services can dynamically increase customer engagement.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Search engine marketing is the practice of marketing a business website or web pages using paid advertisements that appear on search engine results pages (SERPS). Advertisers bid on keywords that users of search engines such as Google and Bing might enter when looking for certain products or services.
This gives the advertiser the opportunity for their ads to appear alongside results for those relevant search queries. Search engine marketing is also alternately referred to as paid search or pay-per-click (PPC) advertising.
Create A Blog
If you’ve been around the internet long enough, then you’ve certainly seen the many blogs that are seemingly successful. Or are trying to sell you on an amazing product or service they’ve created. Quite a few people around the world are learning about content marketing and how to monetize a blog.
Many people blog full-time and live comfortably just on their blogging income. You can learn how to make money with your blog too. In addition, a blog can also be used to create quality content to educate and engage with potential customers.
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Virtual Events
A virtual event is an organized gathering that enables a group of people to network, communicate, share ideas, and enjoy an educational experience online. An online marketing business can benefit greatly from a well-planned virtual event.
Different types of virtual events include:
- Webinars- A presentation during which participating viewers can submit questions and comments.
- Meetups- Usually only by invite, meetups help people connect with others who share similar interests or ideas.
- Podcasts- Podcasts can be live or recorded and are streamed on apps like Apple and Google Podcasts.
- Workshops- An online workshop is the equivalent of training and learning together as a group through collaborative activities. Sometimes spread over a course of days or weeks.
- Conferences- An online conference can include discussion forums, video chats, networking opportunities, a resource center and other features.
Conclusion
Online marketing is the strategic use of digital networks and eCommerce marketing technology to promote your business. It can encompass many different methods of reaching customers, including blogs, social media marketing, email marketing, websites, and search engine traffic. Nearly every business can benefit from online marketing strategies.
